The Maverick's Accidental Bride (Montana Mavericks: What Happened At The Wedding Book 1) (Contemporary Cowboy Romance)

by Christine Rimmer

  A minute ago she’d been laughing. She wasn’t laughing now. She held his gaze across the table and silently admitted to herself that she really had been dreading facing everyone alone, being a joke, a laughingstock. “Some people will still gossip,” she warned.

  “So what? Let ’em talk. They’ll get bored with it pretty quick when they see that we’re just a nice, happily married couple. They’ll have to find something else to talk about.”

  “I just...”

  The waitress appeared. She refilled their coffee mugs. “Can I get you two anything else?”

  “A check.” Will waited as the woman pulled the bill from her apron and set it on the table. She scooped up his empty plate and moved on. He regarded Jordyn silently for a second or two before prompting, “You just, what?”

  She forked her fingers through her hair. “Are you sure you really want to do this?”

  “It’s my plan. You bet I’m sure.”

  Jordyn marveled at him. She thought back to all those years growing up, when he used to thoroughly annoy her with his overbearing know-it-all big-brother act. She probably should have appreciated him more. If she had to be accidentally married to someone, it helped that she’d chosen a guy who’d always looked out for her, a guy who wanted the best for her, one who intended to stand up for her, stand up with her, until she left Rust Creek Falls behind. “You’re one of the good guys, Will, a real hero. And I mean that sincerely this time.”

  “Just say that you’ll do it.” His quiet voice was gruff.

  And even though she still had her doubts, the possibility that there might be a baby had tipped the scales for her. “All right, yes. Let’s do it. Let’s go ahead with your plan.”

  There was a silence. They stared into each other’s eyes. Finally, he said, “Give me your hand.”

  She reached across the table to him.

  “Uh-uh. Your left hand.” He dipped into the breast pocket of his Western-style shirt—and came out with the wedding band she’d abandoned on the nightstand in his room the day before.

  Tears burned behind her eyes at the sight of it. Suddenly, the moment seemed filled with meaning. Her heart ached—but in a good way, really. “Leave it to you to think of everything.”

  His fine mouth quirked. “Your hand, Jordyn Leigh.”

  So she held out her hand, and he slipped that ring back on her finger. And then she found she was reaching with her other hand, too. He met her halfway. They held hands across the table.

  “Thank you,” she whispered in a voice that only wobbled a little bit.

  Chapter Four

  On the way back to Rust Creek Falls, he kept shooting her glances out of the corner of his eye.

  She knew he was working up to something. “Okay, Will. Whatever it is, you might as well just say it.”

  He shot her another glance then stared at the road again.

  She gave it a mental count of ten before she prodded, “Still waiting. Better just tell me.”

  “Ahem. About tonight...”

  She folded her arms across her middle. “What about it?”

  A swift, measuring glance, then, “This is my last night at the Manor. Tomorrow I take possession of my ranch.”

  “Right. You told me that Saturday—before we did a whole lot of crazy stuff and then forgot about half of it.”

  “I think you need to stay with me.”

  “We already agreed on that.”

  “No, Jordyn. I mean tonight. In my room. We’re married, remember? We need to play to that.”

  She thought about arguing—that she’d slept at the boardinghouse last night, that one more night wouldn’t matter that much. That they’d agreed on separate rooms and they wouldn’t have that at the Manor, not and keep up the fiction that they were blissful newlyweds.

  But then again, well, she’d already spent one night in his bed. At least this time she would remember whatever happened there. “All right. I’ll stay with you at Maverick Manor.”

  * * *

  She got him to drop her off at the boardinghouse and promised to meet him at the Manor in an hour and a half.

  Upstairs in her room, Jordyn got right to work packing an overnight bag. Once that was done, she started gathering the rest of her things together for tomorrow. After work she would pile everything into her old Subaru and follow Will out to the ranch.

  The door to her room stood ajar as she packed. She’d left it that way on purpose for Melba, who appeared just as Jordyn was tucking a stack of T-shirts into one of the suitcases spread open on the bed.

  “So it looks like you’re leaving us earlier than you planned,” Melba said, huffing a little from the climb up the stairs.

  Jordyn went to her. The old woman wrapped her in a hug. Jordyn breathed in her comforting scent. Melba always seemed to smell of lemon polish and cinnamon cookies.

  Melba stroked her hair. “I heard the news that you married Cecelia’s brother. Congratulations, honey. I know you’ll be very happy.”

  Jordyn felt a sharp stab of guilt at deceiving Melba, who had always been kind and generous to her. “Thank you. I’ve known Will forever. He’s a wonderful man.” She stepped back from the old woman’s embrace. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you yesterday. It was all kind of sudden.”

  “Sometimes love is like that.”

  “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is—and listen, I’ll come back tomorrow, after work, to pick up everything and turn in my key, if that’s okay.” Melba took her hand and pressed a small piece of paper into it. It was a check, the amount Jordyn had paid ahead for her July rent, plus her original deposit. “Oh, no. Melba, I didn’t even give you notice.”

  “Shh, now.” Melba patted her cheek. “Consider it a wedding present from Old Gene and me—and don’t you dare be a stranger, you hear? You come back and see me now and then. I want to know all about how married life is treating you.”

  “I will definitely be back to visit.” Until August, anyway, when she would be leaving for good.

  Melba gave a pleased little laugh. “And didn’t I tell you to have faith, that the perfect man for you would come along?”

  More than once in the past two years, Jordyn had cried on Melba’s kindly shoulder because everybody else was coupling up and getting married, but she’d yet to meet the guy for her. “Yes, you did.”

  “And just look at you now.”

  Jordyn put on a big, fat smile. “You’re right. It all worked out in the end.” And it had. Just not in the way that Melba assumed. Jordyn was married, as she’d dreamed of being. But by the third week in August, barring the slim chance that she might be pregnant, she would be divorced.

  Also, when she’d dreamed of marriage, what she’d really been longing for was that special, special man and true love to last a lifetime.

  Will was special, all right. And he loved her—as an honorary baby sister he felt he had to take care of.

  It was a long, long way from what she’d been dreaming of.

  * * *

  When she knocked on Will’s door at the Manor, he answered with his cell phone at his ear.

  He ushered her in and went on with his conversation—with his mother, Carol. “Yeah, Mom. I know. I should have called. Sorry. It is a big, big deal, and I know you hate being left out of the loop...Yeah. Absolutely. You had a right to be here. It’s just that, well, when I swept Jordyn Leigh off her feet, I needed to make her mine before she came down to earth and had second thoughts.” He glanced Jordyn’s way, arching a dark eyebrow and grinning, as if to say, Boy, do I know how to make this crap up. And he did. He went on, “I wanted that ring on her finger before she had a chance to think twice. Couldn’t have her changing her mind on me, now, could I?” His mother said something and he replied, “Tomorrow, that’s right. We’ll be moving in then...Thanks. I will...” And then, “Y
eah, she’s here...”

  Jordyn dropped her overnighter on the floor, scowled at Will for putting her on the spot—and then gave in and took the phone. “Hi, Carol.”

  “Jordyn Leigh, I am so happy.” Will’s mom had been crying. She sniffled. “I have to say, I always wondered about you two, always suspected there was more going on between you than any of us realized.”

  Seriously? “And you were so right,” she lied. “Just look at us now.” She sent Will another scowl. He put on a big smile and gave her a thumbs-up.

  “I have to tell you,” Will’s mom said in her just-between-us-girls voice. “I was beginning to think Will would never find the right woman and settle down. But now I get it. He was waiting to get to Rust Creek Falls—and you. I just... Words fail me. They do. Your mother and I have always dreamed that someday our families would be joined together. And now it’s happened. It’s really happened. You’re my own daughter now. I only wish we could get up there to see you this summer.”

  “Well, that would be wonderful...” And awkward. And strange.

  “But even if we don’t make it to visit before the end of summer, we’ll see you here at home for Thanksgiving.” They would? “Will says you’re off to Missoula at the end of August, but he promised to bring you home to us over your Thanksgiving break. And then you’ll both be coming down for Christmas, of course.”

  “Erm, of course...”

  “Oh, sweetie, I can’t wait.”

  Jordyn played her part. She said she couldn’t wait, either. And Carol Clifton babbled happily on for another ten minutes.

  Finally, she asked for Will again. “I have a few more things I need to tell him, and then his father will want to congratulate him.”

  Jordyn tossed Will the phone as if it was a scalding hot potato, scooped up her overnighter and made a beeline for the bathroom, which gave her a door to shut on Will as he told more brilliantly detailed lies to his own mother.

  Determined not to go back out there until Will had finished his call, Jordyn set her toiletry case on the shelf, ran a comb through her hair and put on some lip gloss. She was just peeking around the door to make sure the coast was clear when her own phone rang. It was her mother, who was crying happy tears just like Will’s mother had been.

  Jordyn emerged into the main room and dropped to the sofa as Evelyn Cates said how thrilled she was about the marriage. She was also hurt that she hadn’t been there to see her youngest daughter say I do to the man of her dreams. Jordyn talked to her for fifteen minutes, in the course of which her mom got past her hurt and confessed that she was over the moon at the news.

  “I’ve always favored Will over his brothers,” her mother confided in an excited whisper. “Though make no mistake, I do love his brothers, too.”

  “I know you do, Mom.”

  “And your father and I are going to see what we can do, see if we can make it up there to the Rust Creek Valley for a visit this summer...”

  “It would be so great to see you.” Except for how I’ll have to lie straight to your face the whole time that you’re here.

  “Well, I can’t promise anything. Things are always crazy here at home—and you’ll be here in Thunder Canyon for Thanksgiving, anyway, won’t you?”

  She cast a reproachful glance in Will’s direction. “That’s the plan.”

  “Wonderful.” Her mother sighed. “Just wonderful. I’m so happy for you—and Will is a lucky, lucky man.”

  Her father came on the phone next. He told her he loved her and he was proud of her and he thought she’d made a damn fine choice in Will for a husband. “And is he there with you? I would like a word with him.”

  Jordyn passed Will her phone. He got congratulated by her father and then her mother. Twenty minutes later, they finally said goodbye to the Cates parents.

  And five minutes after that, Jordyn’s sister Jasmine called. Jazzy had come to Rust Creek Falls with Jordyn, but had found love in no time with the local veterinarian, Brooks Smith.

  “I’ve called twice before this and sent more than one text, too, since I heard the news Sunday morning,” Jazzy chided in a wounded tone. “I was getting worried.”

  Jordyn apologized and settled her down and told all the right lies. Already they were starting to come way too smoothly, those lies. And that seemed somehow a whole new kind of wrong. Bad enough that she kept lying, even worse that the untruths were starting to rise so easily to her tongue.

  After she got rid of Jazzy, she looked up to find her new husband watching her. “I would really love it if I didn’t have to tell another lie today.” She tossed her phone on the low table and sank to the sofa in the room’s small living area.

  “Hey.” He came to her in long strides, dropping down beside her and throwing an arm across the back of the couch. Faintly, she could smell his aftershave, like saddle soap and spice. He had a scruff of black beard on his fine, square jaw, and his eyes really were beautiful, surrounded by long, black lashes that any girl would envy, his irises light as blue frost in the center, the outer circle rimmed in cobalt. “Don’t think of it as lying,” he advised in that know-it-all tone he’d been using on her practically since she was in diapers.

  “Of course I think of it as lying. It is lying.”

  “Because you’re approaching it the wrong way. Strictly speaking, nothing we’ve told them is untrue.”

  “Strictly speaking,” she shot back, “now you’re lying to me, too.”

  “That’s not so.”

  “Think back, Will. You told your parents that you’re bringing me home to Thunder Canyon for Thanksgiving—and at Christmas, too.”

  A muscle in that square jaw twitched. “It could happen.”

  “If I’m pregnant, which I’m not.”

  “It’s going to be fine. I promise. We just need to stick with the plan.”

  “Yeah. Our Divorce Plan,” she said sourly, already thinking of it as requiring capital letters, something huge and looming, dishonest and wrong that she’d somehow let Will convince her was right. “And not only are there all the lies we’re telling now. Think about how fun it’s going to be having to also explain to everyone we love that it ‘didn’t work out.’”

  He studied her for a long, uncomfortable moment and then asked too quietly, “Do you want to call it off now? If you do, just say so.”

  She should say yes and she knew it. Yes, Will. Let’s put an end to this craziness now. But she didn’t want to call it off. She wanted...

  She didn’t know for sure what she wanted. But calling it off wasn’t it.

  His eyes had a hard light in them. “Are you going to answer my question, Jordyn Leigh?”

  “I, um...”

  “Answer my question.”

  “Fine. No, then. I don’t want to call it off.”

  His expression gentled. “What do you say we not borrow trouble?” He caught a lock of her hair and rubbed it slowly between his fingers.

  She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “Don’t.”

  They stared at each other. She was pinching up her mouth at him, and she knew it. His skin was so warm against her palm. She found herself remembering the other night—before it all got so crazy and misty and they did things she could no longer recall.

  It had been wonderful, that night. She’d loved being with him. And his kisses had thrilled her, just set her on fire...

  She didn’t know quite how it had happened, but she was staring at his mouth. So soft, that mouth, especially in contrast to the general hardness of him.

  Her stomach chose that moment to rumble. That made him grin.

  It also broke the strange spell she’d somehow fallen under. “Don’t make me smile.” She let go of his wrist and pretended to sulk. “I’m too annoyed with you.”

  “What you are is hungry. We need to get a
decent meal into you.”

  He was right. She really should eat. “They have room service here, I hope.”

  He shook his head. “I think we need to get out.”

  “Maybe you do. Find me a menu. I’ll hang around here.”

  “Jordyn, we can’t just hide in the room.”

  “You’re the one who’s calling it hiding.” At that, he simply stared at her disapprovingly until she began to feel like a bit of a brat. Grudgingly, she confessed, “And I’ve told enough lies for one day.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. I can understand that. How about this? I know of a really good Italian place in Kalispell.”

  “We’re going back to Kalispell?” She whined the words and almost winced at the grating sound of her own voice.

  “Look at it this way. No one there will ask you any questions, and that means you’ll be telling no lies.”

  * * *

  Will thought that the afternoon went pretty well, overall.

  At the Italian place, they shared an antipasto. He ordered three-meat lasagna and she had veal piccata. Jordyn asked for a second basket of bread and cleaned her plate.

  When they left the restaurant, she seemed in a much better mood. She asked about the ranch.

  He told her about the great views of the mountains and the good water access. “It’s just what I always wanted, mostly prime grassland and quality bottom land where I can grow alfalfa. But I’ve also got a few pretty cottonwood groves and pines higher up. The house, bunkhouse, foreman’s cottage and the barn—well, just about all of the buildings—need work. I’ll be getting to that, but it’s livable in the meantime. I’ve bought cattle, and they’ll be showing up within the week, to get me going on my herd. And I’ve hired a married couple to help out. They’ll be coming up from Thunder Canyon, bringing my horses and all the furniture I own, on Thursday or Friday.”

  “Do I know them?”

  “I doubt it. Pia and Myron Stevalik?”