The Practical Pretender

by Danni Roan

  Dewis practically trotted toward Penny’s room, the slightly wilted flowers from earlier in the day in hand and a bright grin on his face.

  “Can I help you?” a night nurse asked Dewis as he walked into the hospital once more.

  “I’m going to stay with my wife,” Dewis said liking the way the words rolled off of his tongue.

  The nurse smiled at him shaking her head as she moved on down the hall. The man was obviously crazy in love.

  “Penny,” he called softly into the room a few minutes later as he stepped through the door.

  “I’m up,” Penny said smiling. She looked beautiful sitting in the hospital bed, in a silly blue gown with her leg propped on a pillow.

  “I brought you some clothes and these,” Dewis said lifting the flowers and seeing something he didn’t quite recognize in her eyes. “Is everything okay?” he finally asked as she took the bouquet from him. She had said she wanted to talk to him about something.

  Placing the flowers on the stand next to her bed Penny reached out and took Dewis’s hand. “Dewis I need to know something,” Penny said, her dark eyes drinking him in.

  Dewis hitched a hip on the edge of the bed running his thumb over her hand. “What is it honey?” he asked.

  “How long have you known that you had to be married a year to keep the ranch?” Penny asked biting her lip to keep from laughing at his shocked expression.

  “How d'you find out about that?” Dewis asked.

  “Jack might have let something slip before we went off the road,” Penny said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  Dewis dropped his gaze studying her warm hand in his. Her pretty manicure from when she first arrived had all but been destroyed and he cringed at the amount of work she had already done around the ranch.

  “I thought if I could buy enough time it wouldn’t matter,” Dewis admitted. “I hoped that if I showed up with a fiancée, it might make my brothers give up.”

  “And after I agreed to help out and even married you to help save the ranch you didn’t think you should tell me?” Penny’s voice showed that his hesitancy to tell her everything hurt.

  Dewis looked up meeting Penny’s eyes. “I was scared,” he admitted. “I thought that if I told you I had to stay married for a year you’d leave.”

  Penny pulled her fingers out of Dewis’s hand shaking her head and his breath caught in his chest. Had he messed this whole thing up with one moment of weakness?

  Penny placed her hands on either side of Dewis’s face still shaking her head. “Dewis almost from the moment I saw you I knew there was something special happening. I never knew it was possible to fall in love with someone in a handful of days but from the minute I met you I lost my heart. I love you and nothing is going to change that.” She smiled, her eyes shining. “I think I might even decide to stay married to you for a little longer than a year.”

  Dewis’s heart kicked into a normal rhythm again as Penny leaned in and kissed him. He loved this woman with his whole heart and was sure that he would only grow to love her more over the years ahead.

  “I have something else for you,” Dewis said reaching into the pocket of his jeans and pulling out a battered and stained cream box. “It was my great grandmother’s,” he said popping the top of the tiny box and exposing a simple white and rose gold ring.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Penny said tears pooling in her eyes. “Are you sure you want me to have it?”

  “A day or two ago I wouldn’t have been sure,” Dewis admitted, “but now I’m sure that you’re the one I’ve been waiting for.”

  Slipping the ring on to her finger he leaned in sealing their love with a kiss.

  Epilogue

  Penny hobbled to the kitchen sink looking out across the ranch yard to where Dewis was unloading a wagon full of hay.

  He had stripped out of his shirt and sweat glistened on his rippling muscles making her sigh with delight.

  It had been a fight once she got out of the hospital to convince Dewis to use her money to pay off the ranch and settle up with his two brothers. If Mr. Barney, who had brought the ranch papers to the hospital, hadn’t been on her side she was sure the fight would have gone on much longer.

  Letting her mind drift back to that moment she couldn’t help but smile.

  ***

  “Penny I didn’t marry you for your money,” Dewis had growled when she pulled her checkbook from the bag that Dr. Lachele had delivered. “I didn’t even know you had money when I married you.”

  “Dewis Faremore, stop being so pig headed,” Penny had shot back. “Anything that I have is yours now just like this ranch is mine. Besides I’ve grown to love this place and I’m ready for it to be settled.”

  “Penny, I know you want to help but this isn’t your responsibility. The will is settled now so Mack and Jack can’t take the ranch from me anymore.”

  “Dewis, I thought we were partners,” Penny had said crossing her arms and glaring at the handsome man. “For richer or poorer, remember.”

  “We didn’t actually say those words at our wedding,” Dewis shot back stubbornly.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Mr. Barney said waving his hands between them. “You kids need to simmer down,” the old lawyer said. “Dewis, your little lady is right. Maybe you didn’t speak them words the day you tied the knot but that don’t make them any less true. The two of you are married and you have to share and share alike. You let your sweet little Penny pay off the debt on the ranch today, then work to make sure it never ends up there again.”

  Penny jerked her chin with a huff punctuating Mr. Barney’s words with a haughty grin.

  “You really were good at that marketing job of yours weren’t you?” Dewis growled.

  “Yes, I was.” Penny agreed her countenance softening. Turning to Dewis she looked up at him her brown eyes full of emotion. “But I didn’t love that life,” she continued. “I had no joy in my life, but here,” she gestured around her at the ranch and buildings. “I love you and I want to be completely invested in the life, this ranch, our marriage; in every way.”

  Dewis sighed, he knew he was beat and there was no reason to keep fighting. “I love you honey and I guess if you’re sure that you want to do this I shouldn’t fight you.”

  Penny leaned into her cowboy then kissing him soundly as Mr. Barney laughed.

  “All right, you two love birds,” the old man had said. “Sign off on these here papers and I’ll run them to town.” He looked down at his watch impatiently. “I’ve got a date with Miss. Beatrice tonight and don’t want to be late.

  ***

  In the end signing off on the ranch documents together had reminded Dewis that he wasn’t alone anymore and that he and Penny were partners in this life. With the ranch clear of debt he had hired an old friend to wrangle for him and together they had started erasing the signs of neglect from the entire ranch.

  Penny reached down, itching under her cast with a wooden spoon. She couldn’t wait to get the annoying thing off. Only two more days and she would be free of the cumbersome cast.

  Dewis tossed the last bale through the upper door of the barn where Bill stacked it neatly with the others, then wiped an arm across his brow.

  Penny stirred the pitcher of lemonade she had been preparing, filled three glasses placing them on a tray and headed for the front porch.

  “Lemonade!” she shouted as the screen door slammed shut behind her.

  Dewis jumped down from the flat bed wagon, making his way to the front porch. Leaning in as he approached he kissed her lips taking the icy glass from her hand.

  “Where are your crutches?” he asked looking down at her foot.

  “By the door. Where’s your shirt?” she quipped.

  Dewis chuckled leaning in and wiping a sweaty shoulder against her t-shirt.

  “Yuk,” she growled, wiping her arm where his bicep had smeared it. “You’re terrible,” she said holding up the glass for Bill, their ranch hand, who joined them.

&n
bsp; The quiet young man took the glass with a mumbled thanks drained it and returned to the barn. He liked the quiet of the ranch and came in from town every day to work with Dewis.

  Dewis grabbed an old towel from his back pocket and wiped himself down then pulled Penny back to the gliding bench with him taking a seat.

  “You ready to get that thing off?” he said nodding toward her cast as he put the bench in motion.

  “More than you can believe,” Penny admitted lifting her heavily bound leg and placing it on his lap with a thump.

  “Me too,” Dewis teased. “I swear I have bruises everywhere from you kicking me in bed.”

  Penny elbowed him in the ribs laughing. “Watch it or I’ll kick you right out of bed.”

  Dewis chuckled wrapping an arm around her as a warm breeze toyed with the dust in the yard. When he’d returned to the hospital the night of the accident and found Penny riffling through a bag, he wondered what he’d missed but when she explained that the purple haired matchmaker had dropped by he was astounded at her next news.

  Penny had been working in the big city for years putting money away for a rainy day. Her major indulgence had always been books and though her kindle bill was pretty substantial her savings account was more than he could have imagined.

  It had only been stubborn pride that made him bulk at her offer to pay off the ranch debt but when she had signed her name on the ranch deeds proving that she planned on being with him for the long haul he’d softened to her offer. Of course Mr. Barney’s reasoned words might have helped a bit as well.

  The next step had been even harder though. Together he and Penny had the ranch assessed at current value and Dewis had insisted on paying off both of his brothers with the requirement that they signed a statement declaring that they held no rights to the ranch in any way.

  “What are you thinking about?” Penny asked noting the faraway look in her cowboy’s eyes.

  “Mack and Jack,” Dewis admitted. “I wanted nothing more than to give Mack the thrashing he deserved when we met to pay off his part of the ranch. He almost cost me the most important thing in the world,” Dewis finished wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her tight.

  “He probably deserved it,” Penny admitted, “but he isn’t your problem anymore,” she said. “I really think Mack is a deeply unhappy man and I don’t think his money can find him happiness.”

  Dewis leaned over kissing Penny on the head. How she could be so sensible and yet so compassionate was beyond him.

  “Jack said he might swing by again next week,” Penny spoke feeling Dewis shake his head. “I think he really wants to make up for what he did,” she continued. “He even offered to help paint the house.”

  “Jack volunteered to work?” Dewis asked in disbelief.

  “Yep, I told him I’m going to start painting as soon as I get my cast off. I’m not sure he’d be much help though since his shoulder is still a mess.”

  “I can’t believe you’ve found it in your heart to forgive him,” Dewis said. “He tried to kidnap you.”

  “Jack was only doing what Mack told him. I think now that he isn’t doing what his older brother tells him to he’ll be better off.”

  “He did get a job,” Dewis mused still shocked that Jack was working for a living. “I guess that’s hopeful.”

  “Who knows maybe one day you two will be friends,” Penny teased.

  Squeezing his wife’s shoulders as he gazed out across the land, Dewis took in the freshly painted barns and out buildings as he sighed with contentment. Things were really coming together and he believed that the ranch was on the right track.

  For years he had been waiting for something special to happen as deep down he had longed for a partner in life who would go the distance with hm. Someone who would work next to him, ride out with him and be there through thick or thin.

  He could almost see their future children riding ponies and learning how to tend cows. He wondered if Penny would like to name a daughter Lachele, it had a rather nice ring to it, but it didn’t really matter to him what they named their children as long as they were together. One day when he was old Dewis hoped to sit on this very porch as his children carried on a rich legacy working the ranch and raising their own families on this little patch of heaven.

  Leaning over Dewis kissed Penny on the top of the head. “Have I told you lately that I love you?” he asked, still dreaming about the future.

  “Yes, but you can tell me again,” Penny giggled.

  “I love you,” Dewis said.

  “I love you too,” Penny said snuggling close and looking out over their home. It was a new start for the old ranch and a new start for both of them. One day, hopefully in the near future they would raise a family right here on this spot.

  She didn’t know what came next in her crazy mixed up life, but she knew that she was exactly where she belonged.

  The End

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  The Book Club Series Book List

  Other Books by this Author:

  From the Cattleman’s Daughters

  Katie Isabella

  FionaAlexis

  Meg Mae

  Tales from Biders Clump

  Christmas Kringle

  Quil’s Careful Cowboy

  Bruno’s Belligerent Beauty

  Tywyn’sTroubles

  A Teaching Touch

  Prissy’s Predicament

  Lucinda’s Luck

  Ferd’s Fair Favor

  The Travels of Titus

  Winter’s Worth

  Strong Hearts: Open Spirits

  Maggie’s ValleySadina’s Stocking

  Celestre’s Song Beloved Beulah

  Whispers in Wyoming

  Love Letters & Home

  Counting Kadence

  Mercy’s Light

  Falling Forward

  Racing Destiny

  The Ornamental Match Maker

  Carousel Horse Christmas

  Loose Goose Christmas

  Pineapple Persuasion

  July’s Jubilant Christmas Jumble

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  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for choosing to read my book. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. If you enjoyed the story please feel free to leave a review wherever you purchased the book. Leaving a review will help me and prospective readers to know what you liked about this book. It is an opportunity for your voice to be heard and for you to tell others why the story is worth a read.

  About the Author

  Danni Roan, a native of western Pennsylvania, spent her childhood roaming the lush green mountains on horseback. She has always loved westerns and specifically western romance and is thrilled to be part of this exciting genre. She has lived and worked overseas with her husband and tries to incorporate the unique quality of the people she has met throughout the years into her books. Although Danni is a relatively new author on the scene she has been a story teller for her entire life, even causing her mother to remark that as a child “If she told a story, she had to tell the whole story.” Danni is truly excited about this new adventure in writing and hopes that you will enjoy reading her stories as much as she enjoys writing them.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12


  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue