Cowboys Don't Have a Marriage of Convenience, page 2
part #5 of Sweet Water Ranch Billionaire Cowboys Series
The dog bounded over. A perfectly timed elbow kept him in line, and Rem patted the top of his slobbering head.
By this time, three small, white-haired children had lined the porch. The figure of their mother stood in the doorway, partially in shadow as she held the youngest.
Rem walked around, grabbing the last of the groceries—a box of bulk hamburger—that Ford had brought.
Ford had given him the lowdown on this woman, her story and a few facts about the kids and ranch.
None of it really mattered to Rem, though. She had a ranch, a good spread that could be profitable with the right oversight and management, and she had an inheritance of one billion dollars that would be theirs when they married.
If he married this woman, took her kids as his own, he’d have everything he’d lost in Texas. Except decent weather. He’d only been in North Dakota for two days, but he’d take Texas hot and dry over North Dakota cold and snow any day of the week.
The ramshackle house looked like a sapling in a windstorm. It leaned toward the south, so Rem walked up the north side of the steps, just to try to balance things out.
He wasn’t afraid of marriage. Nor of kids. Nor of hard work, which is what this place needed, and a lot of it. Actually there wasn’t much he was afraid of.
He had a healthy respect for the bulls he rode, and to say he’d never been scared would be a big, fat lie. He was scared every time he got on. It was part of the high, part of the draw—to face that fear and win.
Scared, yes. Afraid? No way.
So, the tingle in his stomach felt familiar. It made him smile. A cocky grin, maybe. Because, oh yeah—he looked at the kids and the dog, the listing of the porch—this would be a challenge.
The house shook as the dog bounded up the stairs.
More than a challenge.
But he wasn’t afraid, and he’d never backed down from a challenge. He could do this. Turning this ranch into a profitable grass-fed beef operation would take money, time, and a lot of hard work, but excitement shivered in his chest. He’d enjoy conquering these challenges.
He’d have to marry a stranger, but after his experience with Olivia, it couldn’t be any worse. Actually, the idea of being unconventional, flaunting what society expected, choosing his own path, and marching down it was very appealing.
People thought he was crazy because he rode bulls. Maybe he was. Maybe this proved it. Because seeing this place had only confirmed what he already knew—the challenge the whole situation presented excited him on an elemental level, and he couldn’t wait to get started.
He reached the top step behind Ford and Morgan, the box of groceries in his hands. He hadn’t even seen the woman who could become his wife. Morgan had insisted she was pretty. Ford had said maybe she would be if she weren’t so worn out. He didn’t even care.
A flash from last night—blond hair, Texas-sky eyes, and a voice like warm honey—shot through his memory, but he pushed it aside. He’d lived long enough to know that women were never what they seemed, and he was tired of playing the game.
“Hi, Elaine,” Morgan said. “I hope you all had a nice Christmas.”
The woman adjusted the baby and nodded. The kids all bounded around, laughing and talking. They seemed familiar and at ease with Ford and Morgan. They’d kept their distance from him, but he wasn’t great with kids, so it wasn’t surprising. He’d work on that in his spare time.
The porch shook as the dog thumped around. It needed to be replaced, no doubt. Maybe the whole house did. He’d have to do a closer inspection if the lady decided to go through with it.
The idea that she wouldn’t was a distinct possibility. Ford and Morgan had said that her children were her first priority and she wouldn’t do anything that might put them in danger. Which is why she hadn’t advertised for a husband. He could respect that. It actually put this woman, Elaine, in a different category than Olivia.
“I know we’re a little early, but if you don’t mind starting ten minutes before we planned, we’d like to come in and introduce you two and chat for a while.” Morgan had a smile in her voice.
“My bread isn’t quite ready, but come on in. We can talk until it is.”
The voice sent shivers down his spine. Rem’s eyes widened. Those honeyed tones sounded the same as the lady from last night. In front of him, Ford shifted at the same time the realization struck Rem, and he saw the woman in the doorway clearly for the first time.
Hair so blond it was almost white. Lines of fatigue around her face and eyes. A slender body and delicate bone structure that flew in the face of the harsh North Dakota wind and the grinding poverty around them. And those eyes. Like the Texas sky at high noon. Yeah, they were looking at him and definitely saying shoot-out. Only he’d left his handgun in the pickup. It wasn’t a revolver, and he didn’t have a side holster, but from the look on her face, he wasn’t sure it mattered.
She recognized him, all right. Her arms tightened around her baby. She stepped back, but her eyes were narrowed, and they stuck on him like stink on a hog.
He tipped his hat at her. “Ma’am,” he said as he walked by. Three little bodies raced by before the door thumped closed like the gate in a starting pen. It was going to take a little more time to get this figured out, and he’d have to hold on a lot longer than an eight-second ride.
He eyed the kids. He couldn’t all the sudden pretend he was great with kids and they loved him. That would be the best option right now, but he wouldn’t be fooling anyone, least of all the woman who’d just made a wide berth around him and indicated the table where they could all sit.
He followed Ford and Morgan as they set their boxes on the counter.
“Gabriel,” Elaine said, “you and Heaven can start that movie like I told you we’d do when our guests came.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the tallest of the kids said before he and the little girl with long pigtails took the other little ones into the next room.
The woman’s eyes landed on his shoulder before she smiled at Ford and Morgan. “Please sit.”
The kitchen smelled like baking bread and apples with cinnamon. He could walk into a kitchen that smelled like this every day.
He pulled out a chair. The thing wobbled and didn’t look any sturdier than the metal and Formica table. He lowered himself carefully on one side of the table, noting that Ford did the same, sitting beside Morgan on the other side.
Both ends and the chair beside him were available as Elaine opened the oven door and looked inside.
“The bread will be ready in ten minutes.” She shut the oven door and cleared her throat. “I can get everyone some water.”
“Yes, please,” Morgan said.
“I’ll take a glass, too,” Ford said.
Rem stood. He wasn’t used to being waited on and didn’t intend to get soft even if he did get married.
The woman had her back to him. She wore a t-shirt and jeans and looked just as thin as she had in the gas station. When Ford had said she’d had four kids, Rem had kind of pictured a matronly woman, maybe a little older than himself, with lots of curves and some padding to go with them. Not the skeletal child in front of him. He’d been thinking they’d be working side by side, but she didn’t look like she could carry a gallon of tea to the table, let alone do any kind of ranch work.
He opened the freezer door. As he suspected, there was a tray of ice right in front, and he pulled it out.
“Grab one for me, too,” he said as the woman pulled three glasses out of the cupboard. One hinge held the crooked door on.
“You can say ‘please,’” the honeyed voice chided him as her hand brought down a fourth glass.
“Thank you,” he said. No point in letting her think he was some pansy-waisted pudding dumpling that would do whatever she said.
He shut the freezer and twisted the tray. As he was debating about washing his hands, she set a pair of tongs on the counter without looking at him. He picked them up and set two cubes in each glass, noticing that her eyes lingered on his hands. They were big and brown next to her delicate white ones.
He couldn’t do anything about his size nor the color of his skin. Nor how the sun had darkened it even more, and nothing about what lay under his clothes. If she had a problem with any of it, when they sat down at the table, she’d better speak up.
Pretty sure it wasn’t going to matter. Ford or Morgan would have known if it was an issue. But why else would she be staring at his hands?
Stepping around her, he filled up the empty spots in the tray with water from the tap and walked it back to the freezer. By that time, she had two glasses filled with water, and he grabbed them, setting them in front of Ford and Morgan.
Elaine came behind him with the other two. She met his eyes, briefly, before she set one down in front of the chair where his hat hung. In a deliberate decision, she set the other one down in front of the chair beside it.
A shot of victory surged through him, like it might when the gate opened and the bull surged out. There were times he just knew, right at that moment, that he’d be riding through the horn.
When she set the glass down at the seat beside him, that’s the moment he knew that the frail woman with four kids, a ten thousand-acre ranch, and a billion-dollar inheritance would be standing with him in front of a preacher.
Chapter 3
Elaine pulled her chair out with hands that trembled. She did not give voice to the sigh that pressed against her lips. The man’s presence seemed to fill up her kitchen, but she had to say he’d impressed her when he’d gotten up and helped with the drinks. He wasn’t a man to sit around and wait for things to come to him. She liked that. He wasn’t afraid, wasn’t bashful, and wasn’t going to tiptoe around, worried about stepping on toes or making a mistake.
She appreciated his confident carriage. The sure way he moved, almost graceful. She liked the lack of guile in his eyes, as well. He was here for the ranch and the money. He knew the kids and she came with it, and he wasn’t making bones about the fact that he wouldn’t be interested in her or her children if it weren’t for the ranch and money. Maybe that should bother her, but it actually gave her a good feeling. He wasn’t pretending to be something he was not just to get what he wanted.
Ford looked at them across the table. “Morgan and I aren’t going to stay. But I just wanted to make sure that you knew, Elaine, that I had my lawyer look into Rem, with his permission. The lawyer had a full and comprehensive background check done plus did interviews with Rem’s friends and family. He documented everything he found, including the time he threw a tissue out of his truck window when he was nineteen.”
Rem snorted.
If Elaine hadn’t been so nervous, she might have smiled.
Morgan pulled a binder out of the shoulder bag she’d set on the floor. Ford pushed it across the table.
“Rem did not go through it. He said he’s not hiding anything. With his permission, this is the full report from my lawyer.”
Elaine desperately wanted a drink to get rid of the lump in her dry throat, but she reached for the folder instead.
“My lawyer went through his background as carefully as possible. Morgan and I both read every word. Rem has no criminal record other than the two times he was arrested back in his early twenties.”
Elaine’s head popped up. He’d been arrested?
“I was drunk both times,” Rem said in that slow southern drawl that made tingles prance up her spine. “I quit drinking after the second time. I wanted a championship worse than I wanted liquor.” He jerked his head at the binder. “Maybe that’s in there, too.”
“It is,” Ford confirmed.
Elaine wondered if he wasn’t going after a “championship” anymore, would he still not drink. She’d not read the report yet, of course, but it sounded like he’d had a drinking problem at some point.
“You two are going to work this out among yourselves. I just wanted to ease your mind, Elaine. We’ve checked and vetted him the best we can. I’ve done business with him for years. He has my highest recommendation, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.” Ford’s blue eye was sincere as he looked across the table at her. “We did answer some of his questions, too, but of course we didn’t do a background check on you. Morgan saw your letter, and we know it’s legit, so the money that he’s looking for is actually available. Also, we went to the courthouse and did a title search on your deed. He knows how much you owe.”
Elaine had not really believed they would find someone who was willing to take on a wife and four small children when she’d given Morgan permission to look her up.
Morgan glanced at the men then spoke. “We don’t want to get between you two. Whatever you work out is up to you. But we wanted to make sure you’re comfortable before we leave.”
Under the table, Elaine’s knees shook so bad they almost knocked together, but she curled her lips up, hoping she didn’t look as scared as she felt.
“I really appreciate all that you two have done for me. I know Mr. Martinez must be a little crazy to agree to this in the first place.”
The man beside her snorted and drained his glass of water.
“But I also know that you two care about me and my children and would never let anything happen if it were in your power to prevent it. Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome.” Morgan got up and walked around the table, waiting for Elaine to stand before giving her a big hug.
Ford stood, shaking Rem’s hand.
Elaine walked to the oven. “The bread is ready. You two can stay and have some.”
“If you’re okay, we’re going to head home. I have some business to take care of.” Ford’s eye patch made him look like a benevolent pirate. Morgan stopped at his side, slipping her arm around his waist. Her height matched him perfectly, but it was the way she looked at him—a look he returned—that told better than anything that they were perfect together.
Ford and Rem seemed to communicate without words for a brief moment before Ford opened the door and he and Morgan walked out.
Elaine didn’t look at Rem but turned to the stove and pulled the bread out. Her children were being good, thankfully. They weren’t usually allowed to watch TV in the middle of the day, so typically, it kept them entertained as long as it was on. Hopefully Rem and she would be done with everything they needed to discuss before the movie was over.
She set plates, butter, jelly, and knives on the table before slicing the bread and setting it down as well.
Rem had sat back down, and he watched her. She could feel his eyes on her back. Those black eyes in his dark face with the straight black hair that was just slightly longer than she’d choose to allow it to be.
She willed her hands not to tremble as she turned and pulled her chair back out. “I guess this is where I ask you what was going on Christmas night when we met in the gas station.”
His half-grin was lazy and almost arrogant. “I think you already figured out that I didn’t do what that woman was accusing me of.”
She’d known that before she’d left the restroom with Elijah. Rem was big and strong, and if he’d wanted to leave the store with her kid, that woman wasn’t going to stop him, especially since she was already holding two children. The clerk didn’t seem overly concerned, either.
“Maybe.” She nodded at the bread. “You can eat while you talk.”
His eyes crinkled, but he didn’t say anything as he picked up a slice of bread and a knife. As they had a little bit ago, his hands fascinated her. Long and strong, his fingers were brown and rough with more than an average amount of white scars on them. It wasn’t hard to picture those hands fixing fences or forking hay. Driving a tractor or moving cattle. It was a little harder to picture them holding her children. Or touching her.
She shivered and looked away.
“The kid was going to walk outside. She was busy in the restroom with the other two. I thought it was too cold for a little guy like that to be out by himself, so when he opened the door, I picked him up, tucked him under my arm, and planned to deposit him back in front of the bathroom door.”
Ah, it all made sense now. “I saw you pick him up and walk toward the bathroom. If you’d been trying to take him, it would have been easy for you to walk out the door.”
“Yeah, well, I hadn’t counted on him being quite so loud.”
She tapped her chin. “Kids are loud.”
His eyes slanted toward the room where her kids were watching TV. “Yours are being quiet.”
Busted. “I don’t typically allow them to watch TV, but I thought it was important that we talk uninterrupted, and I knew that was the one sure way.”
“I see.” He finished spreading the jelly on his bread and took a bite, the bread still steaming.
His jaw worked up and down about three times before his brows raised and his eyes flashed to her.
He swallowed before saying, “Good stuff.”
Her lips twitched, and her chest felt a hundred times lighter. She wasn’t the best cook in the world; there were a lot of things she didn’t do well. But she made great bread, rolls, sweet rolls, and anything that took yeast. James hadn’t cared for her baking abilities.
She had a tendency to bake when she was nervous—hence the bread today. It relaxed her and also reminded her that there were things in life she could control. Things she was good at.
“Thanks,” she said.
He took another bite and chewed, seemingly completely comfortable with the silence that stretched between them and in no hurry to get to any kind of important discussion. A stark contrast to James’s tightly wound nervousness and constant motion.
She should quit comparing the two. The situations were completely different. She had thought she was in love with James. She didn’t have any such illusions about Rem. James and she had hopes and dreams and the naivety of youth. Rem wasn’t a young kid any longer, and neither was she. She felt a lot older than her twenty-seven years, and she had a hunch that bull riding probably aged a man pretty fast, too.
Using her thumbnail, she picked at the edge of the plate. There were a million unformed questions and issues in her head that she knew they needed to discuss. But whether it was his nearness, or his commanding nature, or maybe just the reality of the situation had settled in, she couldn’t think of a thing.
