The Rancher's Fake Fiancée. Amy Vastine
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now. The boss asked me to help him with a special project, so I’m here in Montana.”
“Montana! What in the world could you be doing there?”
“We’re doing some marketing for a guest ranch out here. It actually belongs to my boss’s family. It’s pretty important to him, so it’s a big deal that I was asked to come help him.”
“You’re on a ranch? Asher’s new movie is a Western. What a coincidence!”
Hadley smacked her forehead. The Amazing Jane Sullivan could turn any conversation into one about Asher in ten seconds flat.
“Well, it was good to catch up.” Talking to her mom was almost as torturous as not talking to Tyler. She needed a good excuse to get off the phone. “I guess we’ll have to do lunch the next time you visit Asher. I’m gonna have to let you go, Mom. Tell Dad I said hello.”
“Oh, okay, sweetheart. I’m going to call your brother and tell him you’re at a ranch. He’ll get a kick out of you following in his footsteps.”
Her mother’s mind was a very strange place. Something told Hadley that when she got the promotion at work, instead of being excited for her, they would somehow make it about Asher.
Maybe Tyler wasn’t the only one who was tired of trying to compete with family when winning was never an option.
* * *
HADLEY SEEMED DISTRACTED. She played with a lock of her hair as she stared out the window of the car. The dress she’d picked out was probably too fancy for dinner at Jon’s, but she had insisted that looking out of place would only help him in the end. A city-girl fiancée would never survive on a ranch. Ethan would have to leave him alone about moving back.
She was so good at this. Bringing her along was the best decision he made even though things had been awkward this afternoon. Tonight might be as bad. Tyler hadn’t been to Jon’s ranch in years and the last time he saw Jon’s twins, they were babies. He had no idea what to expect from his brothers. He could be walking Hadley into a lion’s den.
“You look beautiful, by the way. I should have said that before we left,” he said, breaking the silence.
She turned her head in his direction and suddenly that word didn’t do her justice. Her blond hair had a soft curl in it. It framed her face so perfectly. Her lips were painted pink and the highlighter on her cheeks shimmered in the early-evening sun. She took his breath away.
“Thanks.” She smiled and averted her eyes.
“Only a few more hours of major pretending. Tomorrow, we should be on our own and we can be our normal selves. I’d like to work on the website, get the new one up and running.”
Talking business was easier than thinking about how good she looked and how comfortable he had begun to feel around her. Maybe his feelings were getting muddied because of the lies they had to tell.
Hadley crossed her legs and smoothed out the wrinkles in the skirt of her dress. “We’ll survive dinner and your family. I figure anytime one of them asks me something about you that I don’t know, I’ll say, ‘Oh, you know Tyler.’ And if they really think about it, they’ll know the answer.”
He chuckled at her reasoning. “Too bad I can’t use that when they ask me something about you. Although, you did fill my head with quite a bit of Hadley history. If they need to know which fictional character you would marry instead of me, I know it’s Ron Weasley.”
“Don’t you dare. That was when I was thirteen. I don’t know why I even told you about that.” Her cheeks turned red.
Stunning. It was the new word that kept running through his mind. He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter and forced all the adjectives he could use to describe Hadley out of his mind as he pulled through the gates to the JB Ranch.
“Welcome!” A smiling brunette answered the door and ushered them inside. Jon’s black-and-white border collie was there to greet the new guests, as well.
“You must be Lydia,” Tyler guessed.
“And you must be Tyler and Hadley. It’s so good to meet you. Please come on in. The rest of the gang is in the living room.”
Hadley handed her the bottle of wine they had bought in town beforehand. “It’s nice to know there’s someone else here who hasn’t known the Blackwells forever.”
Lydia beamed, her blue eyes shining almost as bright as Hadley’s. “Oh, that’s exactly how I feel!”
The two of them hugged like they were longtime friends. Women had a way of bonding over the strangest things. Tyler didn’t get it, but he did appreciate the smell of some good home cooking.
“Is that chili I smell?” he asked, stepping farther in the house.
“It’s an old family recipe. We’re going to have chili with all the fixings and my famous jalapeño corn bread. I hope you’re hungry.”
“He didn’t sweat all day out in the fields like the rest of us, but maybe all his traveling helped him work up an appetite.” Jon, tall and lean like their father had been, folded his arms across his chest. “Welcome home, Ty.”
Home. That’s what everyone wanted to call Falcon Creek, but it hadn’t been Tyler’s home for a long time.
“It’s good to see you, old man,” Tyler said, knowing it would bug his eldest brother. Five years wasn’t that big of an age gap, yet Jon had always seemed so much older than the rest of them. Maybe it was because he had been fifteen when their parents died—right on the cusp of being grown. Without them around, Jon had to become a man earlier than most.
“Hadley and Tyler brought some wine,” Lydia announced. “Wasn’t that thoughtful?”
“Hadley Sullivan, meet my brother, Jonathan. Don’t let his serious face fool you. He’s actually very... Wait, his serious face is the real deal. Jon is always very serious. I don’t think he knows how to smile.”
One side of Jon’s mouth inched upward. A half of a smile was progress. “It’s nice to meet you, Hadley. I’m sorry you settled for this guy. I’m sure you could have done much better.”
“Oh, he’s not that bad. He has excellent taste in just about everything—food, wine, movies—”
“And women,” Tyler added. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. Hadley stiffened but kept a smile on her face. “We both love Portland and our jobs. We’re completely simpatico.”
“Simpatico?” Jon raised an eyebrow.
“That’s so great,” Lydia said. “There’s nothing better than marrying someone who can also be your friend. Someone who gets you.” She put her arms around Jon. “I know I feel very fortunate to have found that.”
Jon grinned bigger than Tyler had ever seen before and pressed his lips to hers. “I’m the lucky one.”
“I just realized we have another thing in common,” Lydia said to Hadley. “We both fell for our boss. I don’t know about you, but that made things real awkward at first.”
“Awkward is the perfect way to describe it,” Hadley replied.
“Well, Lydia doesn’t work for me anymore. We’re partners now.” Jon took her hand and kissed the back of it like he thought he was Prince Charming. “Why don’t we find a corkscrew and join the party. The girls are champing at the bit to see Uncle Ty and Aunt Hadley.”
Tyler could feel Hadley tense. She tucked some hair behind her ear and fidgeted with her earring. He prayed she’d be able to pull this off. They were in so deep. No going back now without humiliating himself. None of his brothers would ever let him live this down.
“Come on, Trout,” Jon said to the dog as he led the group back to the rest of the