Cowboys Don't Have a Marriage of Convenience, page 18
part #5 of Sweet Water Ranch Billionaire Cowboys Series
He needed to get up in thirty minutes anyway to feed.
He had to remind himself why he was leaving, that it was only for a short time, because there wasn’t anything in the world he’d rather do than what he was doing right now.
A phone buzzed.
Not his. It was out in the living room with his clothes.
He hadn’t been real careful when he’d thrown her jeans aside, and he thought the buzzing was coming from the bottom of the bed. No call in the middle of the night was ever good news, but it usually constituted an emergency.
Moving carefully, he reached down toward their feet, feeling around until his hand brushed her jeans and found her phone.
He turned it around. Just a number he didn’t recognize. Probably a telemarketer. But what could they be selling that was so important they could call someone in the middle of the night and expect a sale?
It didn’t make sense.
Elaine moved, but she probably wasn’t going to be awake enough to answer.
He swiped. “Hello?”
The person seemed surprised to hear a man’s voice because he stumbled around for a second before he said, “I’m looking for Elaine Anderson?”
“I’m her husband. What do you want?”
“Her husband?” Surprise laced the man’s tone.
“Yeah.” The word was clipped.
“This is Mr. Peregrine, Esquire. My secretary made a mistake a few months ago. Elaine Anderson was told that she was sent a letter by mistake. Well, the mistake was that there was no mistake.”
Maybe because it was two thirty in the morning, but nothing the man on the phone had said had made any sense to him at all.
“I’ve been sick, and I’m just now going through my records, trying to get everything straightened up. I know this is not a normal time for a telephone call, but I felt this was important.”
“Okay.”
“Sir, may I speak to Elaine, please? I need to know what account she would like the money deposited into.”
“What money?”
“The one billion dollars that she inherited when she married you.”
“I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T going to be here this morning?” a sleepy Gabe said when Rem walked in the door while he was eating breakfast.
Elaine had turned from the stove at the sound of the door, and Rem looked over the table at her, holding her eyes as he closed it slowly. Everything that had passed between them last night seemed to hover in the air around them. The phone call seemed surreal, and maybe to some people it would be the most important and unbelievable thing that had happened, but not to her. It faded next to all that had transpired between Rem and her. Her body ached, a good, sweet ache, and she knew she hadn’t imagined any of it.
If she doubted, the look in Rem’s eyes as he stood by the door would have confirmed it all.
“If you don’t want my boots walking across your floor, you’d better get over here and kiss me.” His voice, not quite as low as it had been last night, sent curls of warmth tangling up her spine.
She didn’t even set the spatula down. Heat filled her cheeks – she wasn’t used to having everything she’d done the night before flash before her eyes prior to breakfast – but she couldn’t think of anything else with Rem’s dark eyes following her around the table.
The hotter her cheeks got, the more his eyes crinkled, but his arms opened and she walked into them and nothing had ever felt more right.
“I’m not finished outside,” he murmured in her ear, “but I wanted to say something to you now, because it’s true no matter what the bank account looks like today.”
She held onto his waist, but pulled back to look into his eyes, her heart full.
His hands cupped her face, the roughness of his calluses skimming across her soft skin. His black eyes were dark and sincere. “I love you, Chica.” His thumb skimmed across the ridge of her cheekbone. “Nothing that happens today, or any other day, is going to change that.”
“I love you, too, Rem.” Her voice came out with that extra husky note in it.
His eyes flashed. Then, the familiar, cocky grin lifted his lips. “I know.” His grin widened as her blush deepened.
“Mom and Dad are being mushy.” Gabe’s voice sounded disgusted as Heaven came down the stairs.
“Well, Gabe. I’m not an expert on this stuff.” Rem pulled her close again and she lay her head on his chest, while his hands rubbed over her back. “But your mother needs the mushy stuff. She’d probably like to know that you love her too.” His hands stilled, and his arms tightened. “Actually, I kind of like the mushy stuff, myself. Hearing your mother tell me she loves me is better than bacon and eggs and all the sweet rolls in the world.”
Elaine laughed against his chest. “I’m better than food?”
“Better than food, than bulls, than steers ready to butcher.” He took her chin in his fingers and tilted her head, making sure her eyes met his like he wanted to make sure she could see everything on his face and in his heart, as the humor in his eyes dissipated and they became as serious as she’d ever seen him. “Better than money, even a billion dollars. Better than a ranch in North Dakota or Texas.” His fingers left her chin and traced her jawline back until his hand curved around the softness of her neck. His voice lowered. “I just wanted to make sure you know that. I know this started with a ranch and money, but that’s not what I care about or what I want now. Not...what I love.” He swallowed. “Not like I love you. And our children.”
Elaine bit her lip. He’d seen her cry once, but that was a completely different situation.
Before she could gather her voice to say anything, Gabe’s voice came from the table. “Is that why you’re not leaving? Because you love us?”
Rem’s head lifted. “No, Bud. Sometimes a man’s got to do things he doesn’t want to do, to provide for and protect the people he loves. That’s why I was leaving.”
“But you’re not anymore?” Gabe’s voice held hope, but also confusion.
Rem fingered the hair at the base of her neck. “We got a phone call last night that might change our financial situation. Since that was the only reason I was leaving, I figured I’d stick around this morning and keep an eye on our bank account. If we get the money we’re supposed to, you can bet the farm I’m not leaving your mother and you guys.”
“When will you know?”
Rem’s shoulders moved. “Sometime after nine, probably.”
Two sets of eyes looked from their parents to the clock on the wall. They both slumped in their seats.
“Then we won’t know until we get home from school.”
Rem breathed out a little heavier, but didn’t say anything. Elaine appreciated that he allowed her to make the decision, not that she would have fought him about it either way.
“I think today might be a good day to stay home.”
She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth when Gabe and Heaven yelled and shot up from the table. They ran over to where Rem and Elaine stood by the door, their arms going around them both. Rem’s hands loosened from around her and moved to encompass their kids, too.
Later than night, as she lay in her husband’s arms, Elaine snuggled deeper into his embrace before kissing his bare shoulder and speaking softly. “I wanted to tell you this morning before the money came, but I think you know it didn’t matter to me anymore.”
“What?” Rem’s chest vibrated under her hand and his leg shifted between hers.
“I married you to save the ranch and get the money, but somewhere along the way, I lost that pushing desire to save the ranch no matter what, and all I really care about now is being a family with you and the kids.”
“You’d move to Texas?” he asked, a small note of disbelief in his voice.
She didn’t need to think about it. “Wherever you are. That’s where I want to be.”
“Guess we could sell the ranch and buy an island in the Caribbean.”
Now he was teasing her. She moved her hand lightly over his chest. “You’d be bored.”
“No way. I’d make a spear and become one of those native deep-sea fishermen.”
“The ones that hold their breath for fifteen minutes at a time?”
“Yup.”
“I can see you doing that, too. I think it’d be easier on my heart if we just stay here.”
“More work.”
“I’m not afraid of work.”
“That’s one of the first things I loved about you.” His fingers trailed over her arm and she shuddered. He shifted. “I forgot to tell you, but Max called tonight while I was out at the barn. Dad’s been in a coma all day.”
Elaine moved her head, but couldn’t see his expression in the dark. “You don’t want to go down immediately?”
“We’ll have to, soon. But I’m at peace with our relationship. I think Max is going to step up, too.”
“That probably eases your mind.”
“It does. There will be some things to deal with, and we’ll need to spend a little time there, but now that the money – that neither of us cared about anymore – is in our accounts, I want to get moving forward on the renovations to the house and barn, building a herd and forging ahead with the cabins and a ton of other things to make this ranch prosperous again.”
“I’m with you.”
“That’s what makes it all worthwhile.”
Epilogue
Nell Eastler had never been in a fancy dress shop. All the pretty confections looked soft and inviting and her fingers twitched at her sides as she followed Elaine down the aisle.
“I think these will be your size,” Elaine stopped in front of a group of dresses. Nell could see the big, black “3” above them.
“That’s what size my jeans are.”
“We’ll try a few of these first.”
Nell put one finger out and touched a sparkly pink sequin before she forced her dry mouth to open. “I can’t.” She’d never owned anything even half this nice. She’d feel like an imposter at a ball dressed in something this fine.
“Will you at least try it on?” Elaine asked.
Nell nodded and they picked out three dresses to take to the dressing room. Nell had been watching Elaine and Rem’s children while they shopped. Now Rem had taken the kids down the street to get ice cream because Elaine insisted she wanted to buy Nell a dress for the ball in payment for all the times Nell had watched her children and not been paid.
Nell didn’t tell her that she’d put an application in to be hired help during the big night at Sweet Water Ranch. A part of her really wanted to go to the ball. Not just because she’d never been to anything that fancy, but because a bigger part of her wanted to see the mysterious man who’d changed her tire again.
She stepped out of the dressing room and stepped in front of the mirror. She snorted. Her farmer’s tan made the pink dress look hideous.
“Guess I shouldn’t have been out planting peas and weeding the onions.” And feeding the cattle, fixing fence and mowing hay. Disappointment speared through her, because the dress was full and sparkly and made her feel like a princess for the first time in her life. There weren’t any dresses in the entire shop that would hide her arms which were three-quarters brown, one quarter white, thanks to her t-shirt sleeves. Then there was her brown neck.
“Yeah, can’t change it now.” Elaine sighed through her smile. “The pink looks amazing with your hair and eyes, though.” She snapped her fingers. “Gloves! We need really long gloves.”
The clerk helped them find a nice, long, white pair. Nell had to admit they took care of her arms problem, but her brown neck still clashed with the pink dress and the white of her upper arms.
Elaine crossed her arms and tapped her finger on her lips. “You know, I think if you had long hair, you could arrange it so that it hid the different colors of you neck.”
At least Elaine was honest and wasn’t trying to convince her that her farmer’s tan looked good in the dress. If her whole body were that color, it wouldn’t be bad, but because some of her skin was so white her veins showed blue and some of it was brown as a table top, she looked like a two-toned car from the nineties. The kind one only found in junk yards.
“What about a scarf or head-covering? This is for the ball at Sweet Water, right?” The store clerk stood beside Elaine, her bracelets clacking as she crossed her arms over her chest and peered up and down at Nell’s dress. “It’s a masked ball, so your scarf could be your mask, plus it could hide your red neck.”
Elaine liked the idea, and before Nell could protest, they had her head and shoulders wrapped up in a foamy, pinkish white thing that felt soft as a day-old chick.
Elaine and she had already had the argument about the cost of everything, with Elaine insisting that since Nell had been willing to help out when Elaine didn’t have any money, now that she did, Nell should be willing to take what Elaine wanted to give.
The cost of the gown and scarf was more than her grocery budget for the entire year.
“Now for shoes.”
Nell took a quick breath. Elaine tilted her head. “What?”
“I have shoes.”
“Something that will go with this?” Elaine asked skeptically.
Nell nodded. Completely serious, but not wanting, for some reason, to explain where the shoes had come from. She didn’t understand it herself. The handsome man who had changed her tire hadn’t seemed to even want to give them to her. And they didn’t look like they’d fit her. But when she’d tried them on, they fit perfectly. Comfortably. Like they’d been custom made for her feet. She couldn’t describe their color, but they would go perfectly with this dress.
The air around them stirred, like the shop door had opened and Elaine’s head popped up. Her face melted into a lovestruck smile.
Nell didn’t have to turn around to know that Rem had just walked in.
Another second later the kids called their mother’s name and soon they were surrounded by little blond-haired bodies. Elaine gave them all side hugs, but she met Rem half-way across the store and hugged him full-on.
They smiled and whispered to each other for a few minutes with the kids stirring around them.
Nell stood in her finery and watched. She’d give up the dress and ball in a heartbeat to have a man who looked at her like Rem looked at Elaine. He didn’t need to be a cowboy. His hands could be soft as velvet and he could drive a low-slung car rather than a work truck. As long as she could stay in North Dakota and putter around in a backyard garden with maybe a few animals on the side, she’d be way more than happy.
But anything like that was highly unlikely with the way things were going with her step-dad. He didn’t pay her for the work she did on the ranch, and it was hard to leave when she didn’t have a vehicle. Still, she would have found a way, except for her twin step-sisters, Beth and Brit. Beth would be fine. She was outgoing and angling to get out of North Dakota, and she would, soon. But Brit was a little...odd. Nell felt like Brit needed her.
So she’d stayed. She loved North Dakota, and she loved ranch life. She could stand her step-father, too. But she really wanted a husband and family of her own.
A man who looked at her like Rem looked at Elaine, and hopefully, one who would allow her to bring her step-sister along with her.
The image of the man who changed her tire flashed through her mind again. Somehow she didn’t think he’d be staying in North Dakota.
“You guys ready to head out? We need to get home and feed the stock.” Rem’s deep drawl cut through the noise of the children.
“We also have our first guests coming to stay at the cabins tomorrow,” Elaine reminded him with a pleased grin, which he returned.
He pulled her into his side.
“I think we’ve decided.” Elaine gave Nell a questioning look.
Nell nodded. She might not even be able to go to the ball as an attendee anyway. Her step father was unpredictable. He favored the twins, as well. If there was any reason one of them couldn’t go, it would be Nell staying home.
Normally she was fine with that. Social gatherings weren’t her thing. She’d rather be out in her garden anyway. But for some reason, the image of that man tugged at her, and going to this ball, even as a server, was something she really, really wanted to do.
“Yes. If you’re sure you want to pay this much, this dress is perfect.” Nell nodded decisively. She might end up giving the dress to Beth to wear. But she was going to at least serve at the ball, just to see the man she’d dubbed Prince Charming, one more time.
THANKS SO MUCH FOR reading! To purchase the next book in the series, Cowboys Don’t Believe in Fairy Tales, click HERE.
Jessie Gussman, Cowboys Don't Have a Marriage of Convenience
