“This is looking so good!” Brenda squealed, slapping her husband-to-be on the shoulder repeatedly. She looked like she meant every word, but Larry, Brenda’s husband-to-be, was another story. He was looking at the multiple cans of paint littering the front and sides of the barn and the heaps of wood beside them in a way that could only be described as dubious. Virginia cleared her throat purposefully, shot Jonah a sideways glance that he appeared not to catch at all, and stepped forward with one hand extended.
“I’m so glad you found us! Brenda, you’re looking completely amazing. You have to tell me your secret. Interval training?”
“Lord, no! There’s not a chance on God’s green earth that you would catch me doing a thing like that. I’m not looking to be America’s next warrior. Right, Larry?”
“Sure,” Larry answered, squinting as he surveyed the inside of the barn. It looked to Virginia like he was trying to create a mental list of everything he wanted to complain about, and she was suddenly very grateful indeed to have Jonah there standing beside her. Something told her that Larry would cotton to Jonah’s explanation a whole lot better than he would to her approach, which was fuzzy on the details but strong on the dreams.
“No, girl, yoga! It does amazing things, let me tell you. I totally swear by it.”
"Ladies, do you think we could talk about the wedding?" Larry broke in before Virginia had a chance to answer. Brenda gave him a look that could kill, and Virginia's heart gave a little lurch. This was clearly going to be a case of good cop versus bad cop, only Virginia was afraid that the two weren’t working towards the same end goal here. Not only that, she was afraid the bad cop was going to win.
“Sure thing,” Jonah cut in, offering a steady hand to Larry, who shook it gratefully, “that’s why we’re here, after all. And who is this lovely lady? Brenda, is this your sister? Because the two of you look like you could be sisters.”
He was speaking to the older woman who had climbed out of the SUV after Brenda and Larry. Virginia understood what he was trying to do, the whole “mother could be the sister” thing, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, she knew it was a major mistake. For starters, Brenda just wasn't the type of girl to take a comment like that—one that implied she looked decades older than her actual age—as nothing more than fun. That was why Virginia had made a point of telling her how terrific she looked. For another, the older woman wasn't Brenda's mother. She was her grandmother, and she didn't look all that impressed by Jonah blunder, either.
"And this is why we don't leave the social graces to the men, am I right, ladies?" Virginia said, careful to keep her voice light, airy, and full of good cheer. There was a tense moment where Brenda and her grandmother looked at each other, a silent conversation going on between them using only their eyes. Larry stood there with his hands shoved down in his pockets looking decidedly uncomfortable, and Virginia held her breath.
Then Brenda smiled, her grandmother followed suit, and Virginia let the air out of her lungs. For the moment, the crisis was averted. She might even feel all right about things if she didn't have to hand the meeting straight back over to Jonah. She would have given anything to take him aside and give him another pep talk, but there was no time for that. The clients were watching every move they made, and they needed to display a united front.
"It's quite alright," Brenda said generously, "besides, Gammy looks pretty amazing, doesn't she? If I look even half as good as her at her age, I'll totally count myself lucky."
“My apologies, ladies,” Jonah stuttered, his face turning bright red, “as my wife pointed out, I’ve got a habit of putting my foot places where it doesn’t belong. There’s a reason they call our wives our better halves. If there’s one piece of advice I can give you, Larry, it’s to learn that lesson well. I plan on that one thing alone carrying me through our first year.”
"Amen, brother," Larry said with a grin, grabbing for Brenda's hand while she looked at him adoringly. Even Gammy looked taken in by Jonah's charm, and Virginia was, frankly, a little astonished. Of course, she had already known that Jonah had his rustic charm, but she'd had no clue he could be so good in a situation like this one. Fake marriage or not, she felt her insides swell with pride for her husband. She could see that he was embarrassed and completely out of his depth, and yet he had managed to shine.
"So," Jonah continued, his voice faltering a little even as he forged stubbornly ahead, "why don't we go ahead and get to talking about the thing I'm sure Larry here is most interested in. I mean, no offense meant, ladies. I don’t mean it to sound…I don’t know,” he finished lamely, his eyes shooting towards Virginia in a pleading gesture.
“None taken,” Virginia answered smoothly, smiling at Brenda and rolling her eyes in a “boys will be boys” gesture. If Brenda had been unsure of Jonah’s less than polished approach, she looked reassured now.
“Okay, good,” Jonah answered, his voice still on edge but beginning to even out ever so slightly. “So, I’m guessing you want to hear what we're going to do to get this place in tip-top shape by the time your wedding is here."
“Exactly,” Larry said gratefully, the doubts already leaving his face.
As Virginia watched, hesitantly hopeful, Jonah walked their three visitors through the vision of what the barn would look like once the renovations were complete. He did a good job giving Larry the no-nonsense information he wanted to hear, while Virginia made sure to supply the information Brenda and her Gammy were longing for. Virginia, watching Jonah closely, could see that this kind of talking was an effort for him, totally new territory. Still, she couldn’t help but be proud. For Larry, there was information on fixing the foundation and making the structure sturdy and able to accommodate the number of guests they were hoping to invite. For Brenda, Virginia was able to provide plenty of description for the perfectly vintage white-washed effect of the barn and the industrial edge that would make the place modern. By the time the two of them got to mentioning the Edison bulbs strung from the ceiling, Larry was grinning, and Brenda looked like she would actually swoon.
“This all sounds so, so amazing,” Brenda gushed, clapping her hands together happily, “it sounds better than I ever could have imagined. Don’t you think, babe?”
“I think it’s great, sweetheart. The only thing I’m not sure about is the photo booth thing. Didn’t you want to do that? Or is it not one of the big deal items?”
“Oh, I almost forgot about that! No, that’s a big deal. We definitely have to have something set up for that. I just don’t know where it would be, though. It doesn’t look like there would be any room for it inside once we get the layout all taken care of. Shoot! Just when everything was starting to look like it would just go together seamlessly!”
Virginia smiled her most reassuring smile and stepped forward, fully prepared to take the reins again. She was surprised, then, when Jonah gave her an "I've got this" look and led the group outside to the side of the barn. Virginia felt that same influx of nerves from right before Brenda and Larry had arrived, and she actually had to bite her tongue to keep from stopping him from saying whatever he'd cooked up. It wouldn't do for her to be seen warring with her husband at a time like this, but she couldn't help fearing that he was about to put his foot in his mouth with an idea nobody would want for a wedding. He was doing a good job, but he was still completely out of his element.
"Now, I've got an idea for a sort of photo booth. It may not be your cup of tea, and that's fine, but bear with me a minute."
“We can do that,” Larry said matter-of-factly while Brenda nodded along, “we’ve liked everything you’ve had to say so far.”
“See, what I was thinking, is we make a backdrop right here on the side of the barn. We could do all kinds of stuff with a palate like this. Hell, if you want, you could even do a zombie thing. Place is isolated enough for it.”
Virginia’s mouth dropped open in total mortification. Of all the things to suggest for a wedding, zombies? Zombies? This was
where they were going to lose them. Once zombies got brought up in wedding planning, it was all downhill. She went so far as to shut her eyes, preparing herself for the fallout. When she opened them again she was so sure of what she was going to see that for a moment, she couldn't believe the reality.
“Oh. My. God. It’s like he’s reading our minds, isn’t it, babe?” Brenda squealed, jumping up and down like a little girl.
“Honest to God, man, it really is,” Larry said, laughing and shaking his head, “we’re huge Walking Dead fans. Like, huge. That’s how the two of us met. I used to come over to her place on Sunday nights to watch. You know, mostly just to see if I could get in her pants—”
“Babe!” Brenda shouted, slapping Larry while grinning and blushing furiously.
“But also because it’s a hell of a good show.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page,” Jonah said with a smile.
“We’re more than on a good page,” Larry asserted, “we’re sold. There’s no other place I’d want to get married. I don’t have one more concern.”
Everything from that point on was shaking hands and exclaiming over how amazing everyone and everything was. It was exactly what Virginia would have hoped for in her perfect, best case scenario. She just hadn’t imagined that they would get here like this.
“Well?” Jonah asked once the SUV was back on the road and well on its way, “How did I do?”
“Oh, please. You know exactly how you did. I had no idea you had that in you!”
“What can I say?” he said with a nervous smile on his face, “I’ve got hidden depths.”
“You were terrified, weren’t you?” she asked with a steadily spreading grin.
“You have no idea,” he groaned, “but I did it, didn’t I? And I don’t think I did half-bad.”
"Okay, fine, I'll give you that," she smiled, breathless without being able to put her finger on exactly why "but don't go and get too big for your britches. We are far from done."
“I know, don’t worry. I’ll get everything put together just the way I told them.”
“That’s great, but it’s actually not what I’m talking about.”
“Why don’t you enlighten me, then?”
Virginia took a deep breath, suddenly almost too shy to say it. In theory, this whole thing worked so easily, the two of them and their unconventional marriage. A pairing of convenience understood from the start to be without any expectations of more from any party. Once they got to real life, though, instead of the theoretical, things became a whole lot less clear. Because whether she wanted to or not, she liked him, and she was finding that the feeling was growing more and more. It didn't help that she was insanely attracted to him, either. Especially not with what she needed to say now.
“Virginia, I’ve got to tell ya, you’ve got to do something about this trailing off habit of yours. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about me, but I’m not much for suspense.”
"Haha, very funny. If you must know, I was thinking that it's time for the two of us to go on a date."
"A date, huh? Is that right?" Jonah asked, his face giving away nothing. He took a slow step closer to her, and it was all she could do not to squirm. Every nerve in her body seemed to be alive and singing. The marriage might be just for show, but her body didn't seem to know it.
"Yes, Jonah, that's right. We have to keep up appearances, remember? We're supposed to be newlyweds. Newlyweds spend a lot of time together, and that involves things like dates. We have to put on a good show."
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not much of a showman. The more I have to fake, the more likely I am to screw it up.”
She frowned. He had a point. But so did she. “So then what would you suggest? I told you we’d need to have a public life. You knew that was part of the deal.”
“I did. And I do. I’m just thinking maybe…”
“Maybe what?”
“Maybe it shouldn’t all be for show.”
Before she could even process what was happening, Jonah was right in front of her, his hands planted on the wall behind her, boxing her in. She sucked in her breath, and before she could let it out again, he kissed her. It was one of those kisses that started so light she had to wonder if his lips were really touching hers at all. It kept building, though, as his hands dropped to her sides and pulled her in close. When his tongue slipped inside of her mouth, she gasped, every cell tingling with want. It was the scope of her desire that finally made her pull away, still gasping and trembling all over with the thought of all they could do if they kept going.
“Whoa,” she said shakily, “okay. That wasn’t what I had in mind.”
“Should I not have done it?” he asked, still so close she could practically taste him.
“No, I mean yes. I mean...it was a good kiss,” she finished lamely.
“It was better than good. It was fucking fantastic.”
“Language,” she said meekly, arching her back helplessly so that she could be closer to him.
“It wasn’t fake, either,” he continued, his fingers running up and down her back and sending shiver after shiver up her spine.
“It isn’t exactly public, either,” she reminded him.
"All I'm saying is we might as well have fun with this while we're putting up a front."
“Yeah? Well, there’s something you should know about me, Jonah, and that’s that I definitely don’t sleep with a guy who’s never taken me on a date.”
“Good to know,” he said with a grin. Then he turned on his heel and started for the open barn door. It took her such a long time to get herself back together that he was almost gone before she could say anything in reply.
“Wait a minute! Where are you going?”
“You said you wanted to go on a date, right?”
“I did, but—”
“So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to plan something. I’m going to come up with a date.”
And before she could say anything else, he was gone.
8
"Seriously, Jonah, where the eff are we going?"
"Nope, not going to work. If you want me to talk to you like a grown-up, you're going to have to use grown-up swear words. None of this ‘eff' business."
“Not going to happen,” she answered, knowing she sounded unbearably prim and not able to do a thing to stop it, “ladies don’t swear.”
“Then this lady doesn’t get any hints,” he said with a sly smile. She was caught somewhere in between wanting to punch him and wanting him to pull over so she could kiss him again right then and there. She settled on doing nothing at all, just staring resolutely through the windshield, holding onto her composure by the thinnest of threads.
She didn’t know what was wrong with her. She had plenty of experience flirting, and yet somehow she felt like she was going on her first date ever. She kept wanting to sneak sideways glances at him, his perfectly chiseled jaw and the fine definition of the muscles in his arms. There was no way around it; he was truly the most amazing looking guy she had ever seen in her life. It was enough that she was starting to wonder how she was ever going to concentrate well enough to get things done when they worked on the barn together.
“See, there you go, sugar, I didn’t make you wait all that long. We’re here.”
Virginia made her eyes focus on what was in front of her instead of what was sitting beside her in the driver’s seat. When she realized where she was, she gasped, then laughed with utter surprise.
“The racetrack? You brought me to the racetrack?”
“I did,” he affirmed, climbing out of his truck and coming around to open the passenger’s side door, “is that okay? You seem surprised.”
“I am,” she laughed, “I’m very surprised.”
“In a good way or a bad way?” he asked, sounding nervous.
“Oh, it’s definitely a good way. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to be here! I don’t remember the last time I came. Th
is definitely makes my list of top five first dates.”
“Oh yeah? Want to tell me which ranking I took?”
“Nope,” she smiled as they walked through the gates and headed towards the tracks, “not at all.”
“I’ll get it out of you, I can promise you that. I’m pretty damn good at getting what I want.”
“Wanna bet?” she challenged, hands on hips.
“Yeah, actually, I do. Betting sounds like a fantastic idea. What’re the terms?”
Virginia looked around her and breathed in deeply, taking in a scent that she would know anywhere. The smell of the track was an integral part of her childhood, and it brought back the sweetest memories that only that particular lens could provide.
Virginia's love of horses had begun almost as early as she could remember. She had always loved the beauty and grace of the animals, and the older she had grown, the more her obsession developed. Now, she loved not only the horses themselves but appreciated their history; their special breeding and lineage. It was one of the reasons it had been so easy for her to come up with the idea of teaming up with Jonah. If there was one thing she could get behind, it was supporting a business like his. The fact that he would bring her to a place like this for their first date, whether or not he knew how much she loved it, made her feel giddy all over.
* * *
“So, what’s our bet?” she asked, clinking the neck of her bottle of beer with the one he held in his hands.
“We’re at a horse track,” he laughed, “seems like the betting is pretty obvious.”
“Sure, if you want to be obvious about it.”
“So then you’ve got a better idea?” he challenged, leaning against the hightop table and looking at her appraisingly.
“As a matter of fact, I think I do.”
“Lay it on me, then.”
“Fine,” she said, hoping she looked more confident than she felt, “I will. How many races are there this afternoon?”
"Five, I think. How come?"
The Cowboy’s Contract Marriage: Grant Brothers Series Book Two Page 5