The Cowboy's Marriage Mistake

by Jessie Gussman

  Hopefully, he’d been convincing. He didn’t know how to say what was in his heart. But he knew he was right about the library and the job. They’d talked about it before, when that’s what she wanted to do and her parents hadn’t thought it was a worthwhile endeavor.

  She’d been shaking her head the whole time he was talking, and now she put her hand up, stopping him. “In theory, you’re right. It sounds really good to live a life of service to others. But in reality, all it took was one catastrophe, and everything I had, or thought I had, is gone. That’s not a successful life.” Her hand slowly dropped as her eyes swept across the charred mess.

  “You haven’t given it any time. Maybe the people of Sweet Water will come together. You might be surprised at what you have by the time this is over.” He could tell by the look on her face that she wasn’t convinced. “The people here, who use and love your library, would call you successful.”

  Her lips flattened. “I’d like to think you’re right, that a person can serve others and have their life be considered a success. We both know that’s not the way it works. People thought I was nuts when I wanted to do this anyway.” She turned away from him. “It turns out they were right. I can see that now. You can’t live a life based on dreams and goodwill.”

  He supposed the discouragement in her voice was a normal follow-up to losing her home and everything she’d worked for to the fire. But he hated it all the same. And he didn’t really know what to do about it. Not now anyway. What he had in mind would take time. At least a week. He was pretty sure one phone call would do it, though.

  He stepped over something that maybe had been a shelf at the end of the library. The kids’ desks would’ve sat not far from where they were standing, but they were old and had probably been made of inexpensive particleboard, and there was absolutely nothing left of them.

  The beating of his heart was painful, but he stepped that much closer and put his arm around her. She leaned into him immediately, and he felt like she needed the comfort. His other arm came up, and he hugged her to him.

  Part of what he loved about Rosie was her ideals and her willingness to sacrifice for them. She’d always claimed she didn’t need a bunch of money in order to be happy. And she’d proved it when she opened the library. There wasn’t a happier person in Sweet Water.

  “Rosie, you know you’re not alone, right?” The wind seemed to take his words away, and he wasn’t sure if she heard him.

  Her head turned up, and there was so much hurt and pain in her eyes he could hardly stand it. But her voice was steady.

  “Cord.” Around the edges of the pain, he could see wisdom. “You’re engaged to my sister.”

  That was all she needed to say. His jaw tightened, and maybe he should have dropped his hands, but he didn’t. She was right, yes. But he had every intention in the world of remedying that. But it wasn’t right to tell her before he told Rosalin.

  He pressed his lips together and looked away. “You know I’ll always be here for you.” He wanted to say it didn’t matter if he was engaged to Rosalin, but they both knew it should. Just because he hadn’t done it the right way. Just because of the inheritance he’d never told her about. He hadn’t done right by either of them. He could see that now.

  But Rosie didn’t need to know that. If he said anything, he’d end up having to tell her about the money, and for some reason, he didn’t want to do that. Maybe because it made him seem a little mercenary to be marrying someone just to inherit money, no matter how much it was.

  “Promise me you’ll wait,” he said. “At least for a month. Promise me a month.” He touched her chin with his finger. “Please.”

  She allowed him to tilt her head up. “I can’t stay here and face this for a month.”

  “You won’t be here; you’ll be on my farm.” He willed her to capitulate, to give him that time. Racking his brain, he grabbed onto the first thing he thought of. “What about Joseph? You were going to work with him at the library. He needs help.”

  Yeah, that got her thinking. He hated taking advantage of her good nature like that. But it was going to work, he could tell.

  She looked away and stared at the horizon, carefully keeping her gaze off the rubble at their feet.

  “A month probably isn’t long enough to really help him. But maybe I can do something until we can make other arrangements.” She shifted under his arm. “Do you have time right now? We could go to his house and see what he’s doing, maybe talk to his parents.”

  Cord nodded. He’d wanted to do that anyway. He spent a lot of time talking to Joseph, but he’d never really met Joseph’s parents. He knew them, of course; Sweet Water was a small town, and pretty much everyone knew everyone else.

  “Sure. If you’re done here, we can go now.”

  “I’m done.”

  ROSIE KNEW IT WAS HER imagination, but the wind felt colder and harsher, the landscape looked more barren. Sweet Water seemed deserted.

  It was her mood, of course. She needed to snap out of it. Cord had been so good to her, but she couldn’t depend on him. He wasn’t hers. And that was all she needed to remember.

  He kept his arm around her shoulders as they walked to the pickup. He opened her door and helped her up.

  Grateful that he wasn’t giving her a hard time because she wasn’t smiling, she knew he was right about her not making any big decisions. She needed to wait. Something might work out. She just hated the thought of staying.

  It didn’t take long to drive across town to Joseph’s house. But when Cord and she knocked on the door, it wasn’t Joseph, or his parents, who answered.

  “They don’t live here,” the older lady in a bathrobe said. “They rent the bus out back.”

  At the word “bus,” Cord and she looked at each other, their surprised expressions mirror images of each other’s. They didn’t stand around talking to the woman, but thanked her and stepped off the porch, walking around the house.

  “I guess Joseph never actually did say they lived in the house,” Cord said. “He just always said over there and pointed in this general direction. The rest of the assumptions were mine.”

  “I’m just as bad,” Rosie said. “I did the exact same thing. Made assumptions when he pointed in this general direction. He was at the library plenty. But I never felt like I needed to walk him home. He’s young, but he’s not that young.”

  The yard was snow-covered, and the trail to the bus was not shoveled. There was no sign of life except the muted blare of a TV. The windows of the bus were painted, so they couldn’t see in. Several cans of food lay scattered around on the snow, empty bottles and cigarette butts lay by the door, and several trash bags sat next to the steps.

  Joseph had several siblings who were elementary school age, and Rosie thought it odd that there were no toys in the yard.

  She and Cord shared a look but no words. The bus didn’t look big enough to hold a family of five. Honestly, Rosie wasn’t sure if it was much longer than Cord’s pickup.

  Cord moved up one step and knocked on the door. They stood for a while, but there didn’t seem to be any movement in the bus. Rosie feared they couldn’t hear the knocking over the TV anyway.

  After a bit, Cord knocked again with the same result. Nothing.

  The steps were narrow, and she couldn’t fit beside him. He looked over his shoulder and down at her before he grabbed the knob and pulled.

  Her eyes grew big. Was he really going to just walk in? Seemed like it, since the door opened, and Cord stepped in.

  With a look over her shoulder, although what she was looking for, she wasn’t sure, she hurried up the steps after him.

  The seats had all been removed, and it seemed to be sectioned off.

  Rosie wasn’t sure what she thought they were going to find, but she supposed she wasn’t thinking there would be a man on the floor passed out. From the time or two that she’d seen Joseph’s father, she was pretty sure this was the guy. His longish hair was streaked with gray, and he
seemed tall and thin, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. He didn’t move as they walked up and shut the door.

  There was a lady on a small couch or love seat in the same condition.

  She might not have seen Joseph standing beside a short counter, except he moved, walking toward them.

  “Miss Rosie? Mr. Cord?” His voice held incredulity, like he couldn’t believe he was actually seeing them. Which made sense since they’d never been there before. “I wasn’t sure I would ever see you again since the library burned down.”

  Rosie’s heart did that little twisty, hurty thing that it did when she thought about her library and the fire. But Joseph didn’t mean anything by it, and she pushed the feeling away.

  He’d walked over to them, and Cord put his hand out, ruffling his hair. “We wanted to come check on you, bud. I need someone to keep my horses while I take a trip. I figured you and Rosie could do that for me.”

  Rosie could’ve done it herself just fine. And Joseph probably knew it. Definitely Cord knew that she didn’t need Joseph’s help. But how could they not offer to do something?

  “I thought you had two little sisters?” Rosie asked. They were younger than Joseph, and if anyone needed to be taken care of, it would be them. Joseph had grown into a pretty self-sufficient kid. But she didn’t see the sisters much, just knew they were younger.

  “I do.” Joseph shifted and cast a glance at the adults lying in the room. “Gram came and got them last week. She wanted them to live with her.”

  “But you wanted to stay here?” Cord asked.

  One skinny shoulder raised. “Yeah, I guess. Something like that.”

  Which, of course, made Rosie think that maybe the gram didn’t want him. A preteen would be a lot harder to deal with than two elementary-age children.

  “I’d rather help you.” Joseph looked at Cord hopefully.

  “I’m glad. Because I need ya.” Cord’s eyes narrowed. “How about you go pack some clothes, while I see if I can roust your dad and make sure he knows I’m taking ya. I’ll get permission if I can.”

  “Oh, he’s not gonna care. My mom might notice sometime. Not today.” Joseph was already on the other side of the room and pulling clothes off the floor from beside the couch. They looked kinda dirty to Rosie. But it wouldn’t be hard to wash them once they got to Cord’s.

  It took about twenty seconds for Joseph to pick the clothes up. In that amount of time, Cord had knelt beside his father, shaken his shoulder, and said, “Greg. Wake up, Greg, it’s Cord Stryker.”

  The man groaned. If he opened his eyes, Rosie couldn’t see it.

  “Greg,” Cord said a little louder. “Going to take your boy for a couple of days, Greg.”

  “Huh?” The man lifted his head slightly off the floor and looked around, his eyes blinking like he wasn’t sure where he was.

  “Joseph’s going with me.”

  “Who are you?” Greg mumbled, dropping his head back on the floor and closing his eyes again.

  “Cord Stryker.”

  Joseph had come over and stood beside Rosie, watching Cord and his dad.

  “Oh,” the man said, barely audible. “One of the Stryker boys.”

  “Yeah.” Cord rose from his knees.

  “Bring him back when he becomes a bother.” The man didn’t even open his eyes.

  Beside her, Rosie could almost feel Joseph shrink into himself. Her heart twisted for him. There was no question it hurt that his dad didn’t care.

  “He’s not gonna be a bother. In fact, he’s a great help. I wish I could keep him.” Cord walked away while he was speaking and didn’t look around.

  “Show me the money. I’ll sell him.” The man’s words were slurred, but it wasn’t hard to make them out.

  Rosie clenched her fists, and her teeth ground together. She wasn’t normally prone to violence but would really like to grab that man by his hair and smack his forehead into the floor.

  From the look on Cord’s face, he wanted the same thing. He put his hand on Joseph’s shoulder.

  “Come on, bud. Where’s your coat? Let’s get out of here.”

  Joseph reached beside the coffee table and grabbed a jacket that didn’t look like it was nearly heavy enough for North Dakota’s winters. He held out the bunch of clothes that he gripped in his hands to Rosie. She took them and didn’t even ask for a bag. She just wanted to leave.

  Joseph shrugged into his jacket, walking over to his mother and putting his hand on her shoulder while he leaned down.

  Rosie’s heart cracked. It seemed like a child was programmed to love and need his mother, no matter how much she might not deserve it.

  He straightened. Neither of his parents looked up when he walked out.

  Chapter 13

  THAT NIGHT AFTER ROSIE was settled in the spare room, and Joseph was sleeping in his bed, Cord put his bag that he’d packed for his trip down by the couch where he was going to sleep and walked over to the desk.

  He reached in the drawer and pulled out the letter he’d gotten last fall, reading it through. It wasn’t very long. It simply stated that the former owner of Sweet Water Ranch, Mr. Edwards, had designated Cord Stryker as a recipient of one billion dollars, contingent on Cord getting married within six months of the date of the letter and settling down with his new wife in North Dakota. That’s all he had to do. Get married and live in North Dakota, and he’d be a billionaire.

  The paper was heavy, typical for a lawyer’s office, and embossed in gold lettering.

  He’d actually talked to his brother Clay about the letter, who hadn’t seemed surprised, and he assured Cord that the letter was legit. Clay didn’t say how he knew, but Clay didn’t say things lightly. So if he said the letter was legit, Cord could take that to the bank.

  But he wasn’t going to. He tried the whole let’s get married for convenience thing with Rosalin, and it didn’t feel right. He was going to go tomorrow and break it off. And he was gonna forget about the $1 billion.

  He folded the letter up carefully, put it back in the envelope, and tucked it in the very far reaches of the desk drawer.

  He didn’t need the money. Sure, he’d like to have it. Who wouldn’t?

  But it wasn’t worth the sacrifice. It almost ruined Rosie’s and his friendship. They’d almost seemed back to normal today. But she’d deceived him, he’d hurt her, and he’d gotten angrier at her than he ever had before in his life. All over the money.

  He wished he could give her a library, and maybe he could. It would involve sacrifice but not the $1 billion.

  Thinking of that, he pulled out his phone, dialed a familiar number, and walked outside to his porch. He wasn’t going to get $1 billion. Not if he had to get married. But he might be able to get Rosie her library.

  CORD MERGED INTO THE left lane, fighting Chicago traffic, maneuvering to take the next exit. Rosalin hadn’t answered his calls nor his texts.

  He wasn’t exactly worried. She had never been the most prompt at returning messages. In the back of his head, a small voice had sometimes said maybe your fiancée should make you a priority. But their relationship really wasn’t like that. People might not understand, but they were doing each other a favor. Or they had been.

  He wasn’t going to let her get away with forcing her twin to be her. Now that these new feelings for Rosie had surfaced, Rosalin and he needed to end their farce.

  It was another 40 minutes before he pulled up in front of Rosalin’s apartment. He’d been here a couple times before with Rosie. Once when they helped Rosalin move five years ago and several times since then.

  Chicago wasn’t his favorite place. And he had thought Rosalin felt the same, that she was just working here because this was where she could find a job and her job paid well.

  He wondered now if he had been wrong.

  Rosalin claimed she was having trouble extracting herself from the company she worked for. But how was she going to work from home when she couldn’t even come home for Christmas?

  Cor
d considered the part of town in which Rosalin’s apartment was located to be on the better side. It wasn’t big or fancy, and didn’t have a doorman or anything like that, but it seemed safe enough. There were no spots along the street to park, but it was after seven in the evening, and the small grocery down the street was closed. He parked his truck and trailer in their lot, locked his truck, which he didn’t usually do in North Dakota, pocketed his keys, and walked to Rosalin’s apartment.

  He got to the outside door at the same time as a gentleman wearing a rather nice tux. It seemed a little out of place. He wasn’t an expert on menswear, but this didn’t look like one that a guy would wear to the office.

  Cord opened the door and allowed the man in the tux to walk in ahead of him. Rosalin’s apartment was on the second floor. The man took the elevator. Cord always felt more comfortable on the stairs. He took them two at a time, dreading the conversation that he needed to have with Rosalin, because confrontation was never easy, but looking forward to it as well. His relationship with Rosalin had been a sham. It was easy to see that now. And once he had things worked out with Rosalin, he would be free to talk to Rosie. He kinda thought that Rosie might want what he wanted, but he couldn’t hardly talk about it until he had taken care of things with her twin sister.

  He stood in front of her door, gathering his thoughts and making sure he knew exactly what he wanted to say, when the elevator dinged and the door opened. Normally, Cord wouldn’t pay attention to other people’s business, but being that this was an unfamiliar place, he looked over.

  The man in the tux stepped out. Cord nodded at him again and looked back at the door, raising his hand and pushing the bell before it registered in his mind that the man had looked surprised to see him in front of Rosalin’s door. He turned his head back. The man was walking his way.

  A friendly smile that seemed a little insincere around the edges curved the man’s lips up. “That’s odd. I thought I scheduled a night with Rosalin. She’s never double-booked me.”