The longer he thought about it, the more he doubted it could be done. His heart squirmed and kicked as he tried desperately to choose between his duty to his family and his ranches, and his love for Heather.
A sudden knock at his window snapped him back to reality. He realized he was taking deep heavy breaths, like he had just gone through an intense workout. He looked over to see a man dressed in casual clothing, waving at him through his window. He cautiously rolled it down.
“Hey, are you Nash Winthrow?” asked the man, with a tinge of barely withheld excitement in his voice.
Nash held back a growl. Not now, he thought. This was the last thing he needed. He was just about to roll his window back up when the guy started talking again.
“Hey, man, look, I don’t mean to bother you. It’s just that, like literally 10 minutes ago, I was reading about all the times you’ve anonymously donated to charity over the years. And, in the article I saw, they mentioned the hospital that my baby brother went to when he was sick a few years back. I remember looking at that place like, wow, these guys just came into some money—because the place had been a real dump when I was a kid—and now I know that it was because of you. I just want to say thank you. You’re a real hero, man. I don’t care what anybody says.”
Nash was shell shocked. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He hadn’t had a positive fan interaction like that outside of Houston in as long as he could remember. All he could do was take a deep gulp and nod at that man. “Thanks,” he finally managed to eke out.
“Thank you,” said the man, before giving Nash one final little bow and disappearing back into the night.
Nash wasn’t sure how to react. He just stared ahead with his hands on the wheel. The plan was working. He could save his family’s ranch in Eden Prairie as well as those all across the country. He just had to keep going. His heart twisted as he realized what that meant for Heather and him. He couldn’t risk derailing anything now, just because he had caught some feelings. Love could wait, business was all that could matter.
For the sake of consistency and control, their relationship had to remain a ruse.
“About time for that proposal, buddy,” Frenchie noted as he poured over numbers on his laptop screen. “Things are starting to pick up steam, but we need a real sharp curve upwards soon, or we’re still at risk of crumbling.”
It had been just over two weeks since that night in Denver at the Bennett Hill concert. Heather’s name had since been leaked to the press and it was looking like their plan was working. People loved the idea of Nash being with some middle-class country girl from his hometown. It didn’t hurt that news of his past charitable donations were going viral too.
Heather was handling it all with as much relative grace as anyone could ask for, but the two of them had grown more emotionally distant ever since the kiss, and Nash was trying his hardest to keep it that way. Sure, they were spending lots of time together, but it was all for show. They made sure they were occasionally seen in public and they made sure that they seemed affectionate, but the truth was that Nash was pushing Heather away with all his might.
Heather didn’t seem to entirely be getting the hint though. She kept asking him to talk about their feelings. Nash couldn’t risk it. He knew he’d be likely to give in to her if he gave himself even the slightest opportunity. He had to be as closed off as ever.
Still, he always looked forward to their ‘dates’. Heather was still working sporadically at The Horseshoe. Even with her stipend, her days would have been empty if she’d just been relying on him for company. He had been working his rear-end off to make sure everything was going as it should.
On one of their ‘dates’, Heather had mentioned to him that business had started to pick up at the restaurant ever since it had been reported that it was where she worked. Nash had suggested she quit then and there, but Heather had put her foot down quickly enough. She’d said she always needed something to do, and if their business together was going to be so irregular and short-lived, then she had to have something to fill up her days.
Frenchie was right though, Nash had to get the engagement part of their deal over with as soon as possible, or else people might start to question if he was taking advantage of an employee. For everything to go smoothly, Heather had to quit sooner than later, and if she wouldn’t quit by her own volition, she would have to after he proposed—it was in the contract.
Still, he anticipated a bit of resistance—Heather was too strong-willed not to put up a fight if she didn’t want to do something.
“Where’s the ring?” Nash asked, sorting through his desk drawers.
“I’ve got it in the safe downstairs. What? Are you going to go propose to her now?” Frenchie asked.
“Why waste any more time?” Nash shrugged. Truth was, he was becoming impatient. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep this charade up. When it was all over, maybe he’d actually be able to get somewhere with Heather. He chuckled to himself at the ridiculousness of that thought: he couldn’t get close enough to the girl he was falling in love with because the two of them were too busy dating, getting engaged, and eventually, being married. Usually marriage was the end of the courting process, not the beginning.
Everything was upside down, and the sooner he got it upright, the better.
“Do you think she’ll go for it so soon?” Frenchie asked. He knew the full extent of Heather’s personality—it was why he had agreed so readily to set up Nash’s emergency backup plan with Amanda.
Nash bit his tongue. He wasn’t so sure. “Do you think Amanda’s ready? Just in case Heather isn’t...”
Frenchie let his gaze wander up from his computer screen. He tented his hands and looked past Nash, to the window behind his desk. “She’s been ‘rehearsing’,” he said. “She’s clearly stressed about it all though—I swear I saw her sipping from a flask the other day, while she was going through her notes.”
Stressed? Nash was stressed, he didn’t need his backup plan adding to that. “I thought she used to be an actress?” he scoffed.
“An ‘aspiring’ actress,” Frenchie clarified. He shrugged his shoulders and looked back down at his computer screen. “Maybe she just never got over her stage fright. Plus, it must be nerve-wracking, not knowing if you’re going to be used or not. Don’t you remember back in your first year of college, when you were a backup? You never knew if you were going to be sent in or not, and it made the weeks leading up to gamedays all that much more stressful.”
Nash pursed his lips. Frenchie was right. It was wrong to expect so much from his secretary. He felt like a mean head coach, but there was so much pressure on him that all he could do was ask for the best from everyone involved. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that,” he sighed.
Frenchie stayed upstairs in his office while Nash went down to fetch the ring.
Date? he texted Heather, putting the plush black box in the front pocket of his jeans. Even though it wouldn’t be a real proposal, he still felt nervous. Heather was clearly starting to get agitated with him over his refusal to open up to her again, but Nash wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice. He’d bared all on that rooftop patio in Denver and it had ended up in a slow dance and a passionate kiss. A hurricane had ripped through his insides as a result, and if it hadn’t been for that stranger, who had thanked him for all of his past charity work, Nash might have abandoned everything, right then and there, just to be with Heather for real.
Nash’s phone buzzed as he stepped outside. Sure, after work, we’re swamped today, Heather had texted him back.
Nash wasn’t sure he could wait. Things were going almost too well on the publicity side of this whole plan right now, and he was just waiting for the other foot to drop. How long before some guy living in his mom’s basement wrote an article claiming that his relationship with Heather was an abuse of power? It was uncouth to date one of your employees, even if they didn’t work directly for you—but Heather wouldn’t qu
it until he proposed—so, Nash was going to propose.
He began his march over to The Horseshoe, determined and focused—if he had to propose to her in front of a restaurant full of people, he’d do it—but it didn’t take long for him to get distracted by how much the ranch had already improved since Heather and him had started ‘seeing’ each other. The once empty winding gravel and dirt paths along the ranch’s interior were now filled up with more people than they had been in years. It was uplifting to see, but it also made traveling on foot harder than he’d expected.
“Mr. Winthrow! Can I get your autograph?” A teenage boy asked as Nash turned a corner to avoid a big crowd ahead. He obliged, quickly scribbling on the young man’s Texas Roughriders t-shirt. It was a rare sight, to see a kid in Colorado representing a Texas team, but it was where Nash had played the bulk of his professional career, and it was as good a sign as any that the tides were finally starting to change.
After he left the young fan, Nash made a split-second decision not to head over to The Horseshoe after all. He was feeling too good about everything to want to start a confrontation with Heather. He knew she’d put up a fight after he ‘proposed’—she really didn’t want to quit working, and for now, he wouldn’t make her. The next step in their big plan could wait until tonight.
After so many years in the dark, Nash was finally getting to feel like a hero again, and he didn’t want to ruin it all by having to go and be Heather’s villain—not yet, at least.
Chapter 20
Heather
With her shift at The Horseshoe now over, Heather headed home to get all dolled up for her second job: dating Nash Winthrow.
She was physically exhausted. Both Melany and Ava had been off for the past few days—away at their annual vacation in Las Vegas—and their little holiday couldn’t have come at a worse time. Heather was now living three lives simultaneously. One as The Horseshoe’s manager, one as a waitress at the restaurant, and one as Nash Winthrow’s plucky, hometown girlfriend.
People around the ranch were beginning to recognize her more and more. It almost seemed like a sizable portion of the restaurant’s customers only came to get a glimpse of her. Luckily for Heather, Stacey and Lola were good at picking those ones out, and they’d take their tables in order to protect Heather from any more ogling eyes and prying questions.
Her friends were amazing and Heather never wanted to stop working with them. Still, the whole restaurant business was taking its toll on her body, while her ‘fake girlfriend’ position with Nash was becoming increasingly emotionally draining.
Heather couldn’t help but hope that Nash’s proposal was right around the corner. She knew she’d never to ever be able to pry herself away from work on her own accord, but once she got the ring, she would be contractually obligated to quit. It was the only way her stubborn mind would let her rest, and so, for the first time during the whole process, she was actually kind of glad that she was always being left in the dark, because it meant that for all she knew, Nash would be dropping the sledgehammer tonight.
She imagined spending an entire day in bed as she opened the front door to her mother’s house. Sunday was still half a week off—could she wait that long?
“Heather!?” called Constance from inside the kitchen.
“Hey, Mom,” Heather winced, ready for another little battle with her disappointed mother.
Constance had not been happy to learn the truth of who her daughter was seeing. She had been especially incensed to find it out, not through Heather, but through a friend at the grocery store who had read about it online.
Her mother’s grief had been just another source of stress to add onto Heather’s ever-growing pile.
“How could you?” she’d asked, as soon as Heather had walked in the door after a long day at work, just over a week ago.
“How could I what?” Heather had replied, ignorantly.
Her mother had pouted and turned her back to her daughter. “After what he did to your uncle...”
Constance had ignored her for days after that, even opting to stay in her bedroom when Nash had finally picked Heather up himself for one of their dates. That had been a big blow to Heather’s heartstrings. It meant that her mother had been too dis-spirited from the news to even give Nash a proper piece of her mind.
It had hurt to keep her in the dark, but Heather hadn’t dared tell Constance the truth, for fear that her mother might accidentally leak it to one of her grocery-store friends and ruin everything.
Constance had long since come alive with fury since then, and the two had verbally duked it out more than once over the past week or so.
Heather didn’t want to be involved in another fight—she’d tried her best to convince her mom that Nash wasn’t so bad, but Constance hadn’t been hearing any of it—so, Heather kicked off her work shoes and quickly headed upstairs to get ready for her date.
“Heather!?” her mom called after her again, after she was already halfway up the stairs.
“I just have to get changed, Mom,” Heather shouted back. She heard Constance shuffling through the hall. She loved her mom too much to run away. Heather sighed and waited for the older lady to make her way to the bottom of the stairwell.
“You’ll never guess who I just got off the phone with,” Constance announced.
Heather eyed her mom suspiciously. Her tone had changed and there was a levity to her features that hadn’t been present over the past week. “Who?” she asked, both curious and worried.
“Uncle Ernie!”
Heather drew in a deep breath. She wasn’t sure if this was good news or bad news. Uncle Ernie hated Nash even more than her mother did. Had he heard the news that his niece was dating his arch nemesis? Had he called his sister to demand an explanation?
But why then did Constance seem so upbeat...?
“How is he doing?” Heather asked cautiously.
“He got a new job!” Constance threw her hands up into the air.
Heather’s heart jumped. “That’s amazing!” She slid down the stairs and gave her mother a big hug. “Where’s the new job?” she asked, when they finally pulled away from each other again.
“Tampa Bay,” Constance said. “Which means we’ll have a warm place to vacation if all goes well!”
Heather laughed. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Does Tampa have a good quarterback?”
“That’s what Ernie says. He told me the prospect they just drafted is the best he’s seen since Jax Shepherd, and now that there’s no Nash Winthrow roaming the league anymore...” Constance trailed off.
Heather could see the wheels turning in her mother’s head. “Do you think...?” Constance asked, barely wanting to reconsider her position on the man. “Do you know if Nash had anything to do with this?”
Heather truly had no idea. The timing was suspicious, to be sure, but...
Suddenly, she remembered what Nash had told her in the car in Denver.
She’d mentioned to him how her mom had thought that the reason Uncle Ernie hadn’t been in touch with them for so long was because he was ashamed of being out of work, but that the second he got a new job, she was sure that they’d be his first call.
Nash had said, “You might be getting a call from him pretty soon, then.”
Heather hadn’t entirely understood what he’d meant back then, but now she did. He’d been pulling strings and using his influence to get her uncle another shot. She was sure of it.
Still, she didn’t want to put words in his mouth. “It’s possible,” she told her mother, before turning back up the stairs. “I have to get ready. I’m seeing him tonight. I’ll ask, if you want?”
Constance chewed her tongue and Heather could see the gears churning behind her mother’s eyes. “Okay, dear. You go get ready,” she finally said, without an ounce of anger or resentment in her voice. Were the tides finally turning in her mother’s mind as well?
She reminded herself to ask Nash if he’d done anything to help
get her Uncle Ernie another job as she got ready for their date.
Preparing for their evenings out were getting more complicated as well, because, in the past week, along with everything else that had been going on, Nash had gotten Heather three new dresses. Now, she had five to choose from, more than she’d ever had before. It was almost enough to be overwhelming. Was tonight the night that Nash would propose? He hadn’t clarified on where they’d be going. Would it be best for their optics if she was dressed more casually or more elegantly?
In the end, she went with her heart, and her heart had desperately been wanting to try on the greenish-blue floral pattern maxi dress that Nash had gifted to her on their last date. Maybe it had been a hint as to what was to come. It any matter, it was what she wanted to wear. So, she put it on, along with a light layer of makeup and a brand-new pair of white, double strapped, Scrunch Mules. She let her hair hang down over her shoulders and when she finally came back downstairs again, even Constance had to gasp at how beautiful her daughter looked.
“My dear,” her mother marveled, before adding in a bit of levity. “You sure do clean up nice.”
“I learned from the best,” Heather smiled, kissing her mother on the cheek.
“Make sure to ask Nash about uncle Ernie,” she said, as Heather watched Nash pull up in his truck on the street outside their house. “I’d like to know if I have to change my opinion on the young man.”
“Will do, mama.” Heather opened the door and a warm wind met her.
“Have a good night, sweetheart. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Heather could feel Constance’s eyes on her as she made her way to Nash’s truck. In a flash, the burly former football player was out of the driver’s seat and around the hood of his truck. He held the passenger door open for Heather as they shared a quick peck on the lips.
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