“I see you made it,” he said to Cole, then checked his watch. “With a whole six hours to spare.”
Cole returned the man’s deadpan stare. “Murphy, this is my wife, Ginny. Ginny, Ben Murphy. My grandmother’s husband.”
Ginny stepped forward a little, wondering if maybe she should shake his hand or something. Then she got closer and saw just how frigid his expression was. He clearly wasn’t interested in social niceties, so she kept her hands to herself.
“So tell me,” Murphy said, directing his question at Cole. “Just how long have you and the missus been married?”
Cole folded his arms across his chest. “Seventeen hours.”
“I expected as much.”
“My grandmother’s will is very clear—”
“Your grandmother’s will,” Murphy said sharply, “is a product of wishful thinking. Nothing more.”
Cole had told Ginny they’d never seen eye to eye. That had apparently been the understatement of the century.
Murphy turned to Ginny, and she seriously wished she could crawl under the porch to avoid his penetrating gaze.
“I know you, don’t I?” he asked.
“No, I don’t think—”
“You’re a teller at the bank.”
Suddenly Ginny felt transparent as a newly washed window. “Yes.”
“You seem like a nice girl. Not exactly the kind I expected him to show up with.”
“We’re married,” Cole said. “That’s all that matters.”
“I assume you’ve got a license to back that up.”
“Yes, I do. Care to see it?”
“No need. I figured you’d have all the paperwork in order.”
“I assume you’re as good as your word,” Cole said. “If I fulfill the letter of the law where the will is concerned, I’ll get the deed.”
“Yeah. But if you think I’m going to make this easy for you, you’ve got another think coming.”
Cole just stared at him.
“And remember what I told you before. The provisions of the will are just between you and me.” He paused, eyeing Ginny. “And now, I suppose, your wife.”
He said the word with such flagrant distaste that even in the warmth of the early-June evening, Ginny shivered. Then he turned to Cole.
“I won’t have your manipulation of this situation make Edna look like a fool,” Murphy went on. “You’re going to tell people you’ve come back to the ranch to go into partnership with me. When the end of the six months comes—assuming you fulfill the requirements of Edna’s will—we’ll simply say I’m retiring and you’re taking it over permanently. It’s nobody’s business to know anything more than that.”
Cole’s only reaction was a slight tightening of his jaw, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t taking Murphy’s attitude kindly. Likewise, Ginny could tell Murphy probably had a pretty good idea about what Cole intended to do with the ranch once he had the title.
“We’ve got a busy day tomorrow,” Murphy said. “Be at the barn at eight in the morning.”
He got into his truck and started the engine, then put it into reverse, swung it around a hundred and eighty degrees and headed up the road toward the ranch house on the hill. Cole’s expression was stony and emotionless.
All at once Ginny felt ashamed for what they were doing. It was legal. But was it right? And why hadn’t she really stopped to ponder that before now?
“Maybe we shouldn’t have done this,” she murmured.
“Don’t pay any attention to him, Ginny. It’s me he’s mad at, not you.”
“No, actually it appears that he doesn’t think much of either of us.”
There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Cole stared straight ahead, watching as Murphy’s truck headed up the gravel road toward the main house.
“What happened between you two?” Ginny asked. “Why doesn’t he like you?”
“It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that my grandmother wanted me to have the ranch, and as long as I technically fulfill the provisions of her will, there’s nothing he can say about it.”
“But I don’t think she really intended—”
“Stop it, Ginny. We have a deal. We’re in this together for six months, so you’d better start getting used to it.”
She opened her mouth to object, only to realize he was right. Maybe she should have asked a lot more questions before agreeing to this deal, but the decision was made. Now she was going to have to live with it.
“Here’s our story,” Cole said. “We saw each other on Friday night at the Lone Wolf and remembered each other from high school. After spending the next twenty-four hours together, we decided to head to Vegas to get married.”
“Do you really think anyone will believe that?”
“People do impulsive things all the time. That’s why Las Vegas has a hundred wedding chapels. Besides…it’s the only story we’ve got.”
He was right. There was no other story to tell, and Murphy was pretty adamant that the provisions of Cole’s grandmother’s will not become public knowledge. But until this moment, she hadn’t really given any thought to how hard it was going to be to look people in the eye and tell them she was a married woman, and just whom it was she was married to.
“It’s just that it’s kind of unbelievable,” Ginny said. “Us getting married so quickly.”
“It doesn’t really matter whether they believe it or not. They have no way of knowing that we’re not man and wife in every sense of the word, and that’s all it’ll take to satisfy Murphy.”
Without another word, he went through the screen door into the house, letting it slap shut behind him.
Ginny wondered if things could get any more tense between her and Cole, and it turned out the answer was yes. He took her to her house, where she picked up her car and grabbed a few things to wear to work in the coming week. She decided she’d get the rest of her personal belongings later, then have an estate sale in the next few weeks to get rid of her mother’s stuff, which she wasn’t going to keep. The whole time they were loading things, Cole spoke to her only when it was necessary, and the rest of the time he simply acted as if she wasn’t even there.
On the way from her house to the ranch, she stopped and picked up a few groceries to hold them over for a couple of days until they got settled. At the ranch, Cole helped her carry everything into the house, and she spent some time unpacking her things. She asked him which drawers he wanted and which part of the closet, but all he did was mumble something unintelligible that she took to mean, Who cares?
She glared at him behind his back, then took the top drawers and the part of the closet nearest the door since it was easier to get to. If he refused to make even the most basic decisions about the space they were going to occupy together for the next six months, then he would get stuck with second best. He didn’t have much with him right now, anyway. He told her he’d moved all his belongings to storage in Dallas before he came to Coldwater, and all he had with him was what was in the suitcase he’d taken to Vegas, which he didn’t even bother to unpack.
By the time they ate a couple of frozen spaghetti dinners, it was nearly eight o’clock. Ginny had a choice. She could spend more time with Cole at his most unfriendly or she could go to bed early. Under those circumstances, going to bed sounded wonderful.
Since he’d offered to sleep on the sofa, she brought him an extra pillow, sheets and a blanket she’d found in the closet. He mumbled something that might have been thanks, then flipped on the television and proceeded to ignore her.
She went into the bedroom. When she finally lay down to sleep, she found herself thinking about the mixed feelings she’d had when they got to the city limits of Coldwater this afternoon. Somehow it didn’t feel like home anymore. The events of the past few days had muddled her mind so much that she wasn’t quite sure where she belonged, and the disorientation she felt in this unfamiliar house only added to that feeling. She was in that flux state between throwing away her old life
and starting a new one, only it was going to be six months’ worth of flux, living with a man she barely knew in a house so small she swore she could hear him breathe. In essence, she was trading six months of her life for twenty-five thousand dollars.
Was it worth it?
Yes. It was. She’d do anything to get out of this town. Anything to go to college, start a new life and forget this place ever existed.
Anything.
THE NEXT MORNING Ginny awoke when her alarm went off at eight o’clock. She got out of bed and shuffled into the hall, then peeked into the living room. The sheets and the blanket were folded up on the end of the sofa with the pillow on top of them. Cole was gone. Evidently he’d gone down to the barn early, as Murphy had ordered.
Later, as she drove to work, her nerves were on edge. She wished she had another day to absorb everything that had happened this weekend. She’d thought about calling in sick, but she’d never been a very good liar. Sooner or later she’d have to face the world as a married woman.
When she got to the bank, Rhonda Davenport was already there, working at the window next to Ginny as she always did. At thirty years old, Rhonda carried around about twenty extra pounds she was always trying to get rid of, but that didn’t stop her from wearing too-tight pants and shirts that were a bit provocative for a woman her age. Still, Rhonda had a big heart and a ready smile for everybody. She always asked Ginny why somebody nice like her didn’t have a boyfriend, which meant she was one of those people who had the ability to ignore the obvious even when it was staring her right in her face, particularly when it made somebody else feel good. Ginny thought that was a pretty nice quality to have.
On the other hand, most of the employees talked to her only within the context of her job and otherwise acted as if she didn’t exist. In a way, she didn’t blame them. During the six years she’d worked there, she hadn’t been the most outgoing person in the world, so when it came to chatting at lunch or swapping stories or talking about what was on TV the night before, people naturally gravitated in other directions.
“Hey, Virginia!” Rhonda said, bustling around, preparing her window for the day. “I had a crummy weekend. Wanna hear about it?”
Before Ginny could say yes, no or maybe, Rhonda launched into a tirade about how her hardheaded husband, Earl, had spent four hours trying to fix the bathroom plumbing before finally flooding half the house and having to call a plumber, anyway. She talked about Earl sometimes as if he were the devil himself, but Ginny knew better. There were no two people on earth more perfect for each other than Earl and Rhonda Davenport.
“So,” Rhonda said, when she finally caught a breath. “Did you have a nice weekend?”
Ginny knew it was merely a passing inquiry, like “How’s it going?” or “What’s new?” But sooner or later she was going to have to tell the people she worked with what had happened in the past two days, and she figured now was as good a time as any.
“Yes,” she told Rhonda, who was poised to smack a roll of quarters open on her cash drawer. “My weekend was very nice. I got married.”
Rhonda froze, the roll of quarters hovering in midair. She slowly set it on the counter and faced Ginny. “Come again?”
“I—I said I got married over the weekend.”
Rhonda blinked dumbly, her brow furrowed with confusion. “You said married, right? As in…married?”
“Yes.”
A grin made its way across Rhonda’s mouth, and before long her whole face exploded with delight. “Well, here I was telling you all this time you oughta get yourself a boyfriend. Didn’t know you’d go whole hog and head down the aisle!”
She gave Ginny a bear hug, then patted her on the cheek. “So tell me. Who’s the lucky—”
“Head down the aisle?”
Ginny turned to see Susan Barker, the branch manager’s assistant, and a warning bell went off in her head. Susan spent most of her time with her nose in the air, thinking she was just a little bit better than everyone else in the vicinity and most certainly better than Ginny. As usual, her blond Barbie-doll bouffant was glued in place with half a can of hairspray. Her skirt was about a foot too short to be conservative, even if she traded the hot-pink color for gray or navy.
“Virginia got married over the weekend!” Rhonda said, gushing. “Isn’t that just the most exciting thing in the world?”
“Married?” Susan’s mascara-laden eyes fluttered with disbelief. “I didn’t even know she was engaged.”
Then her gaze dropped to Ginny’s left hand. Ginny immediately swept her other hand over it. “I—I haven’t got a ring yet. We, uh, we only met on Friday night.” She tried to laugh offhandedly, but it came out sounding weak and nervous. “It was just one of those whirlwind romances. We flew to Las Vegas, and—”
“Las Vegas? You? You flew to Las Vegas?”
“Yes. It was very exciting.”
That was the truth. The flying part had been exciting. The getting married part—that had been excruciating.
“And romantic,” Ginny added.
Okay, so that was a stretch. But wouldn’t it seem a little fishy if her wedding hadn’t been?
“Hey, Ruby!” Susan called. “Get out here! You’re not going to believe this!”
Ruby Wallace stuck her head out of her office. She was the branch manager, a no-nonsense woman who, unlike Susan, wore colors that ranged from brown to taupe to beige to tan, with an occasional sepia thrown in. And she hadn’t cracked a smile since…well, ever.
“What?” Ruby asked.
“Virginia got married over the weekend.”
Ruby edged out of her office, a single dark eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Married, huh? Well. Be sure to think about whether you want to change your withholding or your insurance beneficiaries. And I’d highly recommend you take a look at your current 401-K contribution. How long have you known this man?”
“Uh, not long.”
“Then steer away from joint checking. And keep whatever savings accounts you have to yourself.”
“Gosh, Ruby,” Rhonda said. “You’re such a romantic.”
“Can’t be too careful,” Ruby said. Ruby had been through two divorces and was working on her third. Ginny figured she probably knew what she was talking about.
In the next few seconds, the small group by Ginny’s window grew larger. Bob, the security guard, and even Martha, the cleaning lady, had stopped to listen. Excitement was hard to come by around here, and everybody wanted a piece of the action. Ginny didn’t like being the action they wanted a piece of.
“Well,” she said, turning her gaze to her cash drawer. “Time to get to work. It’s almost nine o’clock.”
“Wait a minute,” Susan said. “You didn’t tell us his name.”
“His name?”
“Yes, Virginia. You know. The man you married?”
Ginny’s heart was beating ninety to nothing. She scanned the expectant faces in front of her, every one of them gawking at her as if she were their favorite soap opera star and a thrilling turning point was only seconds away. She smiled, going for that lighthearted newlywed look, knowing all the while she was failing miserably.
“His name,” she said, “is Cole McCallum.”
7
FOR THE COUNT of three, it was as if every molecule in the bank lobby ceased to move. Mouths hung open all over the place, and nobody seemed inclined to shut them anytime soon.
“Cole McCallum?” Susan repeated very slowly, as if she hadn’t quite caught the meaning of the words. “I heard he was back in town, but…Cole McCallum?”
“Yes,” Ginny said, trying to sound laid-back. “That’s right. We met on Friday night at…at the Lone Wolf Saloon—”
“You went to the Lone Wolf?”
“Yes. I’d never been there before, but you know, it’s a very fun place, and I had a few beers, and then—”
“Beers?” Susan said. “You?”
“Of course,” she said quickly. “Right out of the bottle.”
“You see,” Ginny explained, “Cole remembered me from high school, and we danced, and then…”
“And then you flew to Vegas,” Susan said. “You and Cole.”
“No. I mean, yes, we flew to Vegas, but not until the next afternoon. We got there Saturday evening and were married that night. It was a very nice little wedding chapel, and—”
Wait. No sense lying when she’d told the truth up to now. Cupid’s Little Chapel of Love had been a nuptial nightmare.
“Well, it wasn’t that nice, really,” she amended. “But it was short notice.”
Dead silence. She desperately wanted somebody to say something.
Or did she?
“That’s, uh, wonderful, Virginia,” Susan said finally, giving the rest of the people in the vicinity a funny little smile. “Isn’t it, everybody?”
Everybody nodded in conjunction with a soft chorus of assent. Then more silence. And more staring. And more of Ginny wishing she were anywhere else.
“Well, good for you!” Rhonda said finally, her cheerful voice booming through the silence. “Like I’ve been telling you for years now—it’s time you found yourself a man.”
“And a man like Cole McCallum, no less,” Susan said, with a sweet little smile that didn’t seem to match the expression on the rest of her face.
“Yeah,” Ruby said, her gaze flicking furtively toward Susan. “Imagine that.”
The silence hung on a little longer, and Ginny thought she just might be sick. Then Ruby checked her watch.
“Okay, troops,” she said with a clap of her hands. “It’s nearly nine o’clock. Time to get to work.”
Everybody scattered, as they always did when Ruby issued an order. Ginny usually found her management style to be a bit abrupt. Now she welcomed it.
Ruby opened the doors of the bank, and a few customers straggled in, allowing Ginny the luxury of working to keep her mind off what had just happened. Maybe with luck everybody would let her pronouncement fade away.
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