“No?”
“Uh, the whole being engaged to Colt Patton thing?” She grins. “Oh, watch where you go in town. There’s going to be more than a few single ladies and desperate housewives looking to take you out now.”
I groan. “Okay, slow it down. It’s not what you think.”
“Uh, then please fill me in. Because what it looks like is you moved to Cherry Falls, moved into the guest house of the most eligible and hottest bachelor in town, and convinced him to put a ring on it in like forty-eight hours. Which has got to be some kind of world record.”
She takes a breath and then gasps. “Ooo! And speaking of ring, let’s see—”
“Cass, it’s fake.”
She frowns. “Are you sure? That’d be odd. He’s definitely loaded, and he’s not really cheap-out kind of—”
“No, Cassidy, not the ring,” I groan. “I mean the entire situation…”
“Huh?”
I close the door to the cottage and sink against it, facing her. “Can you keep a secret?”
She nods.
“It’s all pretend. I mean the whole situation. The whole engagement is made up.”
Cassidy stares at me for a second before she groans. “Damn! Really?”
I nod.
“You sure?”
I laugh. “Fairly certain, yeah.”
“What would possess either of you to make that up?”
I frown. “Ever met Deirdre?”
Cassidy groans. “Unfortunately. What is this, some scheme to piss Satan off?”
I smile wryly. “You might want to sit down.”
By the time I’m done telling her everything, her mouth is wide open. I tell her about the contract Colt and his ex have, and about Deirdre and her new guy trying to take the ranch and turn it into a golf course. I leave out the part being basically naked and making out with Colt. Or about fantasizing and lusting after him pretty much constantly.
“Shit,” she breathes. She frowns as she looks up at me. “That’s insane.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“So, what happens after?”
I frown. “After what?”
“I mean the next step.”
“What do you mean the next step?”
Cassidy looks at me curiously. “I mean this bullshit soap opera heir clause thing.”
I frown. “Yeah, but if Colt’s engaged—”
“He gets two more years, from what you told me.”
I nod.
“And then? What happens in two years?”
“Uh…” I freeze. Cassidy raises her brows.
“Yeah, exactly. An heir clause means he has to have a kid. Getting engaged, fake or not, jut gives him two more years to make that happen.” She gives me a curious look. “It’s going to get a little hard to be ‘fake pregnant’ after a certain point, Tansy.”
I pale as I sink into the chair across from her.
“Shit,” I breathe.
She nods, but then frowns curiously. “I mean, unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Unless you and Colt actually have a kid together,” she grins.
I swallow thickly. “Uh, yeah. Right…”
“Do you like him?”
My head snaps up. “What?”
“Colt. I mean do you really like him, or is this one-hundred-percent an arrangement?”
“Oh, the second, absolutely,” I blurt quickly. Maybe a little too quickly.
Cassidy’s lips twist. “Well, then you’re fine. You’re giving him two more years to get his shit together and find a real relationship with someone he wants to have kids with.” She smirks. “Hey, like I said, Cherry Falls is home to a mob of single ladies and ladies who would get single real quick to be you right now.”
I scowl. Jealousy rages inside of me before I get it back under lock and key. Where it needs to be.
“Right, totally,” I murmur absently.
Cassidy laughs as she stands. “Okay, speaking of our grump of a boss, I gotta check in now that I’m back.”
I nod, still sort of in a daze. “Yeah, for sure.” I look up at her. “How was your trip, by the way?”
“Oh,” she waves her hand. “Fine.” She smirks. “Boring compared to your week, it sounds like.”
I roll my eyes.
“Hey, drinks sometime this next week? I’m dying to catch up with you and talk some serious shit about my cunt of a cousin.”
I giggle and roll my eyes. It occurs to me that I haven’t thought of Kira, Cassidy’s cousin and my ex-best friend, or of Jeff, since…well, since I laid eyes on Colt Patton.
“Sounds like a plan,” I smile.
She gives me a hug, and then she’s out the door. And the pile of crap I have to think about just got a whole lot bigger.
7 Colt
I’m closing Lulu’s stall door when I realize I have company in the stable. I glance over my shoulder and grin. Sure enough, there’s Tansy, leaning against the arched stable doorway and looking goddamn amazing.
She’s in boots and a sundress that comes up to mid-thigh. But with the setting sun dipping behind her, that soft white sundress is looking pretty damn see-through. My eyes slip over her, drinking in the silhouette of her under that cotton.
My cock stirs and thickens in my jeans.
I’ve practically seen her naked before—a memory seared so deep in my brain, I’m pretty certain I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. Hell, it’s all I’ve been thinking about, if I’m being honest.
But still. There’s something sexy as hell as seeing her clothed, but with a hint of nakedness. It’s like that short little sundress is daring me to rip it off and feast my eyes on what’s underneath. My eyes, my hands, my mouth, and my throbbing hard cock.
I clear my throat though as I frown. I shake away the fantasy and turn back to finish locking the mare’s stall door. I turn back to Tansy and walk over. But my smile fades from my face when I see the frown on hers.
“Everything okay?”
She nods. “Yeah, I just…” Her brow wrinkles. “This ‘heir clause’…”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Relax. I’m not busting out the turkey baster for you anytime soon.”
She blushes deeply and rolls her eyes. “Wow, thanks for that visual.”
I grin. But inside, that ain’t the visual I’ve got going on. Fuck the turkey baster. If she and I went down that route? You can be damn sure we’d be doing it the old-fashioned way. I groan to myself as I imagine her
