Alyssa would’ve needed Will’s permission to take control of his account, but he’d probably handed it over ages ago and gone back to his bloated cow or fence posts.
Krista felt a rush of annoyance with Will. He was tied to Alyssa deeper than probably even he realized. She was tempted to call him but she’d already done her bit. Time for Will to do his.
* * *
WILL DIDN’T SEE the photo of Alyssa and him until Dana showed it on her phone. She’d driven up in her truck with the posts they’d need to finish the fence. Hopefully before the day got too much hotter.
“I thought you weren’t interested in Alyssa,” Dana said accusingly.
“I’m not. Alyssa must’ve posted it herself.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
Will hauled the post through the tangle of open wire, ignoring the twinge in his shoulder. He’d begun to think that he’d have to ignore it for the rest of his life. “Not much I can do now that it’s up.”
“You could ask her to delete it.” Dana pocketed her phone and dragged a fence post from her pickup. “You can tell her that the picture gives the impression you two are dating, which you’re not. You can tell her to leave you alone. You can take back control of your Facebook page. Why did you give it to her in the first place?”
Will relieved Dana of the wood. “Branding. She wanted the same look for my personal page as the Claverley Rodeo, or for them not to clash, or something like that. Made sense at the time.”
Dana reached for a second post. “Will. This crosses the line. Krista’s right. Alyssa has got to go.”
Will shoveled loose dirt from the posthole. “Krista talked to you about Alyssa and me?”
“At the wedding. She’s worried for you.”
That was supposed to be a private conversation between Krista and him.
“Don’t pout,” Dana said. “I’m the one who brought up the subject. She figured out my stupid feelings for Keith, and I was trying to distract her. She has a way of getting you to say things you hadn’t intended.”
Or doing. It’d taken her less than a quarter hour to get him in pajamas and soaking his feet in a tub of salted water. “Tell me about it.”
Dana held the post while he tamped dirt around the base. Each drive sent shocks straight to his shoulder. He needed to refill his painkiller prescription.
“She saw us together and asked me about my relationship with Keith. I can’t lie to save my soul, so the next thing I know we’re best buddies.”
“Krista replaces you as my fake girlfriend and me as your best friend.”
“She keeps it up and she’ll replace Laura as your mom’s daughter.”
“That I gotta see,” Will said. On the wedding day, he’d caught his mother looking at him and Krista with a worried expression. Even after Silver was back safely in the barn.
“It might if you don’t watch yourself.” One hand steadying the post, Dana held up another photo. The glare from the sun blackened the screen so Will shaded it with his hat. And a good thing his face was hidden from Dana as he took in the sight of him lifting Krista from Silver. She was laughing, her head bent to him. And the emotion on his face...well, it was exactly what the photographer had tried to capture between Laura and Ryan. Way better than him and Alyssa.
He handed Dana’s phone back and picked up the ten-pound maul. “Good photo.”
“Hardly seems as if you’re faking it at all.”
Good thing Krista wasn’t on social media. He didn’t want her...misinterpreting. “We weren’t. I mean, we were just having fun.”
“Will. You were all over her, all day. You want to date her for real?”
No. His intention going into his next relationship was to make it a forever one, if possible. He and Krista were entirely incompatible. That was why they could be so free and easy with each other, because they didn’t take each other seriously as romantic partners.
“Being with Krista is like being with you, Dana.”
She waved her phone in his face. “You and I have never been like this.”
“That’s because you know how to get off a horse.”
Dana’s voice lowered. “Is that all it is?”
Will got a lump in his gut. Similar to when he’d told her she couldn’t break sixteen seconds on the barrel race and she’d let fly with a 15:87 posting. He was about to lose.
She tapped on her phone and shaded it with her own hat this time, probably so he couldn’t hide his reaction. The ten-pound maul nearly slipped from his grip. It was another picture of him and Krista. Dana had taken the shot. Krista was smiling at the camera. Will was turned to Krista and he looked as if he thought himself the luckiest guy in the world.
“You didn’t post that pic, did you?” he said. If Keith or his mom saw it, there’d be no living it down.
“What should it matter if you two are faking it?”
Because everybody who knew him would take one glance at that image and understand that he wasn’t faking a thing. One posted photo could be passed off as a fluke. He could tell a funny story about how the city girl had been about to fall off the horse. Krista would back him up. But a second one? Where he looked dead serious except for that little smile, the same one his dad wore in the photo of him and Will’s mom at their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.
“Thanks for keeping it between us,” he muttered. “No chance you’d delete it?”
“Not a one.” She slid her phone once again into her back pocket. “Never know when I need ammunition.”
“I thought we’re friends.”
Dana picked up a string of wire to reattach to the new post. “Not the way you and Krista are.”
No use arguing more. She was determined to think what she wanted. Even if it was absolutely dead wrong.
* * *
THE NEXT EVENING when Alyssa came into Penny’s to meet Will, he wished he were anywhere else. Alyssa wore a short dress and heels, her hair all curly around her face.
Decked out for a date. He’d come in clean skin and a clean shirt. Maybe he shouldn’t have chosen Penny’s. Open in the evening on a limited menu, mostly drinks and desserts, he’d chosen the place because it was more conducive for close conversation than the commercial buzz of the chain restaurants. But now he realized Penny’s was far too quiet and...intimate. Besides which, their server was Jack, Krista’s brother-in-law. Will didn’t want Krista to get wind of how this went down. He wasn’t even sure if Jack knew about the fake arrangement.
They could’ve gone out riding, but that’s what his parents did together, what you did with someone you were dead serious about.
At least he’d selected the same table he’d had with Dana instead of a cozy booth. Alyssa took the chair opposite. Her lips were a glaring barn red. “I see you’ve ordered already.”
“A coffee,” he said. “What can I get you?”
“A glass of red, please.”
Like a discreet five-star waiter, Jack presented the wine and took their dessert orders. Apple crisp with double vanilla ice cream for him and the lemon cheesecake for Alyssa. He bet Krista would’ve gone for the mint chocolate crème brûlée. Fresh and cool and sweet.
He and Alyssa made small talk. At least, Alyssa made talk, while he kept to the small as he found himself in the exact position he’d been in with Dana a month ago—trying to figure out how to bring up what he really wanted to say. Alyssa wondered if he wouldn’t mind posing with Jacob for pictures to post on social media. Will liked her nephew and agreed. Then she asked if he had any pictures of himself from his days when he was Jacob’s age to give it a human touch, to appeal to the older crowd. He couldn’t quite see the connection, but he gave Alyssa the benefit of the doubt and said he’d ask his mom what was in their albums.
But it was when she suggested a photo shoot of him and Jacob on horseback with Alyssa joi
ning in as the aunt that he put the brakes on.
“Jacob up to riding yet?”
“Are you kidding? My sister can’t keep him down.” Alyssa wrapped her overdone lips around a forkful of cheesecake.
“Maybe after the rodeo.”
Alyssa frowned. “No point doing it after. Trust me, I’m the professional.”
Will pushed around his melting ice cream. “I don’t doubt your professionalism. Except I saw the picture of us you posted on my Facebook page. I think it gives the wrong impression about us.”
Alyssa cut off a thin delicate sliver of her cheesecake. “And what impression would that be?”
She was not going to make this easy for him. “That we’re dating.”
She gazed pointedly at their table, their surroundings. “Isn’t that what this is?”
“I didn’t intend it that way,” he said carefully. “Though I can see how you might have assumed that. I’m sorry,” he added for good measure.
She twirled her fork. “You don’t want everybody to believe we’re dating when we’re not, and you especially don’t want me posting pictures of us together when we’re not.”
Relief rolled in like breeze through a hot truck cab. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. Thank you for understanding.”
“No problem,” she said. She cut off another fine slice of cheesecake. He shoveled crisp into his mouth.
“Good crisp,” he said. “How’s the cheesecake?” Look at him making small talk.
“A little dry but okay,” Alyssa said. “Dana tells me that she’s not your fake girlfriend this year.”
Will slowed his fork. Had Dana also mentioned that Krista was filling in? “Yeah, she has something else going on.”
“Well, then,” Alyssa said, “given that everybody already thinks I’m your girlfriend, how about we just continue on?”
Will’s crisp stuck in his throat. “You want to be my fake girlfriend?”
“Yes.” Her foot brushed against his leg, glided away. Maybe accidently, but he was beginning to realize that not much about Alyssa was accidental.
“Did you purposely post that picture to set us up as a fake couple?”
“Will,” Alyssa said, “we danced together at the wedding. That’s all the picture says. A picture doesn’t lie.”
Images rose in his mind—of him reaching up for Krista like a man with his bride. Him staring at Krista like a shmuck in love.
“We are good friends, aren’t we?” Alyssa persisted.
“I guess.”
“Then what’s the harm?”
Will fixed his gaze on the shared wall between Penny’s and Krista’s Place. Was Krista there right now serving up another pedicure to some other unsuspecting guy? Melting another rancher’s wife with her massage? He swore he could smell her fresh hay and grassy lotions from where he sat.
Riding on the calming memory of Krista’s scents, he said, “The harm is that I’ve already got a fake girlfriend.”
Alyssa’s gold-brown eyes drilled into his. “Who?”
Better she heard it from him. “Krista. Krista Montgomery,” he added unnecessarily. But saying her full name made it sound more like a formal arrangement between two partners. Not the fun-filled, close experience it was.
Alyssa mashed a slice of cheesecake under her fork. He hadn’t fooled her. “When did you plan this?”
“Can’t say the exact day. Couple of weeks at least before Laura’s wedding. Maybe three.”
“Maybe three? Was I still Laura’s maid of honor when you two decided?”
“I think so. Listen, Alyssa, the two aren’t connected.”
Her fork clattered to her plate. A couple glanced over. So did Jack. “Are you really that stupid, Will?” she hissed. Hissing was good. She was keeping her voice under control. “Krista set you up.”
Exactly what he’d wanted to avoid—dragging Krista into this.
“How do you figure that?” Will said. “I’m the one who brought the idea to her.”
“That’s what you think. But did you decide on your own that you wanted Krista to be your fake girlfriend, or were you talking with her and suddenly it came up?”
He couldn’t remember. He knew that at some point he wanted to have a reason to see Krista again. “I guess,” he admitted, “it came up.”
“And then she plays up her problems with the horse at Laura’s wedding and you are happy to help. Isn’t it obvious that she’s using you?”
“I have my own brain.”
“I really wonder.” Her expression became eerily calm. “Tell me, Will, what made you decide to have this little talk with me?”
“As I said, it was the picture on Facebook. And to be honest, others noticed it, too.”
“Others? Krista, by chance?”
He was tired of her innuendoes. “As a matter of fact, yes. She wanted me to be honest with you because she believed the longer I put off telling you, the more I was going to end up hurting you.”
Alyssa’s eyes brightened with tears. “You’re a little late for that.”
Will felt horrible. He was humiliating her in a public place. “Do you want to go?” he whispered. “We can leave together. Go for a walk. Finish talking.”
She shook her head. “Why drag this out?” She hooked her purse over her shoulder. “But I feel sorry for you. Krista will promise to work with you, be there for you. She’ll build you up and make you believe you two can take on the world. And then she’ll move on. Leave you wondering what went wrong. That’s our sweet little Krista Montgomery.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
DANA HAD TO admit she’d never looked more beautiful than she did for the wedding of her sister, Caris. Not without a good deal of backup in the form of a sensational maid of honor dress, and hair and makeup by Krista.
“I don’t recognize myself,” she whispered to her own reflection in the spa mirror. She touched one of her many curls cultivated into full plumpness from her usual bed of natural waves.
“Don’t you dare put a baseball cap on it,” Krista warned.
Dana leaned closer. “Is it my imagination or do I see a bit of blonde?”
Krista squinted. “Definitely a light brown.”
Oh well. Nothing was perfect. Dana pulled at her strapless dress front. Krista tutted. “And none of that, either. You’ve got enough to hold it up, trust me.” Krista tilted her head. “You’re not used to so many eyes on you.”
Dana breathed out, shot a look at her bodice to make sure nothing became dislodged. “Hate being under a microscope. Should I ever get married, it’s elopement or whoever can fit into the living room on a Tuesday afternoon.”
“You know,” Krista whispered so the rest of the bridal party couldn’t hear, “today might be the perfect time to clue that future husband in about your plans.”
Dana fiddled with the carnation on her wrist corsage. “I couldn’t.”
“Why not? Love is in the air.”
“He’ll think—he’s not ready.”
“Isn’t that for him to decide?”
“I suppose—but I don’t want to lose what I already have.”
“But what if you gain something more?”
There was that. And lately, maybe because of all the weddings, or seeing the way Will and Krista were together, something important was building inside her, something close to an overwhelming obligation to take a risk. “I will try.”
But as the events of the day unrolled, there was precious little time to think, much less talk to Keith. During a pause in photos, he searched her out to coordinate the next item in the itinerary, and she liked how he lingered by her side longer than necessary. They’d stood together at the edge of the lawn in an unusually awkward silence. At least on her part. Speak from the heart, she reminded herself. But how to say, “Keith, I love you. Will you marry me
and be the father of my kids?” She didn’t have Krista’s moxie.
Keith himself broke the silence. “Will tells me you—”
Right then, Caris called for them to rejoin the others for group shots. Keith slipped his suit jacket on again. “The show continues.”
Walking back together, Dana forced herself to say, “When I get married, it’ll be fast and small.”
Keith gave her a sidelong look. “When? You got someone in mind already?”
Now was her chance, closing fast as they were steps away from the rest of the wedding party. “Yes, actually. I do.”
He looked at the wedding party, tightened his tie. “Good, good. Anyway, duty calls.”
She could believe that he didn’t care about her love life, period. She could also believe that he just didn’t care about her love life with someone other than him. When she spotted him alone at a reception table scrolling on his phone—her hair, makeup and dress still good to go—she chose the latter possibility. She armed herself with a vodka cooler from the bar and ordered her feet to cross the dance floor to him, brushing past Will and Krista, neither of them noticing her or for that matter, anyone else.
Maybe she could have a little of what they had.
* * *
KRISTA HAD NOT intended to dance with Will. They weren’t expected to. And after the traditional initial dances, he disappeared. She had hoped to touch base with him about the Claverley Rodeo, but that was almost two weeks away. Plenty of time yet.
She ducked into the hall foyer for a quiet place to send pics to Sofia. Her niece shared Krista’s passion for fashion and she’d promised to forward a few pictures before the girl’s nine o’clock bedtime. Except she wanted to bling the pics with effects. She was tapping a spray of stars above Will’s hair when the DJ let go with the same song she and Will had performed with the others at Laura’s wedding. Her feet instinctively shuffled in time.
“You remember the steps.” Janet had stepped into the foyer. She wore a pale gray dress inlaid with a giant pink peony that spread from a side seam around to the front. Striking, as was everything about Will’s mother.
Harlequin Heartwarming June 2021 Box Set Page 80