All Loved Up

by Skylar Hill

  “You didn’t need to do that,” he murmured. She could smell him this close, that mix of hay and pine that made her stomach flip each damn time.

  Concentrate, she ordered herself.

  “I wanted to help,” she said. “I love—” her breath hitched, her tongue almost tripping into the word you instead of this place.

  Oh my god. You are a disaster, Nat. “I love this place,” she said firmly, her cheeks reddening at how close she’d almost slipped up. “Etta’s digging deeper into Durbin’s financials right now, but it looks like he bought the O’Reilly place with cash. Which, let’s face it, is never not suspicious.”

  “He had brand new cowboy boots on, too,” Rhett said.

  She raised an eyebrow. “No scuffs? They weren’t even broken in?”

  “They looked fresh off the shelf,” Rhett said.

  “Hmm,” Nat pursed her lips, thinking as she forwarded him the file Etta had sent her. “So he may be a total fraud. Playing at being a farmer with ulterior motives.”

  “He’s got plans for the water, that’s for sure. I just don’t know what yet,” Rhett said grimly.

  “We need time to figure it out,” Nat said.

  “You’re right, a marriage would buy time,” he said, reaching over and clicking on the link to Durbin’s Linked In account. “Oh, shit,” he said.

  “What?” Nat said, looking at the screen, at the list of Durbin’s previous jobs, trying to see what Rhett saw.

  “There,” Rhett said, pointing at the third line of Durbin’s resume. Manager, Peterson Gold Exchange. “Fuck,” he swore.

  Nat frowned. “There isn’t any more gold in this area, is there?”

  Rhett pressed his lips together tight, turning around and kicking his file cabinet hard. Nat jumped a little, surprised at the reaction.

  “Rhett?” she asked. “There isn’t gold… right? It got all mined up during the Oregon Trail and all that.”

  “Not all of it,” Rhett said.

  Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding me,” she said. “You’ve found gold on the mountain? Like, real gold?”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t,” he said. “But Gramps did.”

  Ten

  Rhett

  Nat gaped at him.

  “Are you telling me that your grandfather discovered there was gold in the mountain sometime back in the thirties, but never told anyone and never mined it himself?”

  Rhett winced, because when she put it like that, it sounded like out of a bad TV show. “To my credit, I didn’t know about it either. He didn’t tell me. Not even in the damn will when I inherited the place.”

  “How did you find out, then?” she asked.

  “When I started figuring out what I needed to do to get the mineral water from the hot springs to the bathhouse, I used his journals and maps of the place. And there was one journal stuffed in a box with this leather pouch that was different than the others, one that was focused on that part of the property. It had all these notes and sketches about this particular rock formation that leads down to a natural cave deep into the earth and that leather pouch was full of nuggets. I’m talking pieces of gold the size of my thumb. Without Gramps’ map, you can’t find the cave. Even with the map, it’s still hard to find. But I found it.”

  “And there’s gold there,” Nat said.

  “There’s a few large, obvious veins, yeah,” Rhett said. “If I brought out equipment to do testing, I’m sure they’d find more.”

  “But the cave is on your property, not Durbin’s” Nat said.

  “Right,” Rhett said. “But if there’s gold in that part of the mountain, there very may well be gold on his property somewhere, too.”

  “But what does that have to do with taking your water rights away?” Nat mused out loud. She kept tapping her pen against her pillowy lips, and it was damn distracting… almost as distracting as the fact that she’d proposed to him just fifteen minutes earlier.

  Don’t think about that, he told himself. You can’t marry her to get Durbin off your back. That’s insane.

  But… what if it is the gold that Durbin’s after? Mining the mountain for gold would destroy the entire local ecosystem, destroying the aquifer and artesian springs throughout the area. It’d ruin the forest and kill off or displace the wildlife too.

  His heart wrenched at the idea of Durbin laying waste to the pristine, old-growth forests that made up River Run. They had a thriving wildlife population across the mountain and mining… mining would be that the end of it.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  “If he’s after the gold, he could be using the water as a gotcha move,” Rhett said. “He might come back with a counter-offer: he’ll give me the water rights if I sign over future mineral rights.”

  “If he thinks you don’t know anything about the gold in the mountain, that would be a good con,” Nat said. “You’d be trading what you thought were useless rights for ones that you needed. God,” she shook her head. “I’m suddenly glad that I rent. This property-ownership thing is no joke.”

  “Tell me about it,” Rhett said, slumping back in his chair. His head was killing him. He looked over at her helplessly. “I don’t know what to do, Nat. I don’t know what he wants. I can’t let him destroy my home and everything I’ve built.”

  “I understand,” she said, her dark eyes sincere. “I know it sounds crazy, getting married so he’ll back off, but doesn’t it seem like the easiest solution here? He could serve you with the order to stop water usage tomorrow. The employees… I know what it’s like, having people and their families dependent on you. And I know you, Rhett. You’re gonna bankrupt yourself to pay people’s salaries even if you have to shut down.”

  She was right, of course. He was already mentally running down the path of approaching his father about accessing his trust fund—something he wasn’t allowed to touch until he was forty—in order to keep his employees paid. He couldn’t just leave them high and dry if Durbin forced a shut-down.

  If you marry Nat, there’s no way he can shut us down.

  He tried to push the thought down, but it was there and she was there and it was hard to deny how easy it would be.

  How good it would be.

  “Talk to Jace again,” she said. “Maybe there’s another way out of this or he can get it in front of a judge tomorrow. But if he can’t… my offer is on the table. I mean it, Rhett. I’d be happy to do it. It’s not like it’d disrupt anything I have going on in my own love life. Men aren’t exactly breaking down my door, if you know what I mean.”

  “Men are fucking idiots,” he said, and her eyes widened a little, her cheeks pinkening.

  “You’re sweet,” she said, standing up. “I promise. This will be okay. You have great people working on this problem. And with your permission, Etta will keep digging.”

  “I’d appreciate it if she did,” Rhett said. “Jace’s investigators are good, but I have a feeling you employ the biggest shark in the Portland pond.”

  She smiled. “You’d be right,” she said. “Etta is the best.”

  “Have her send the bill to me, of course,” he said.

  “”I will,” Nat said. “Well,” she swung her arms back and forth. “My luggage is in my car outside. I really need to get back to the city. Liberty and Renee are flying back from London tomorrow.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” he said, and followed her out of the office and through the clinic to the gravel driveway . Her sleek black Lexus was parked neatly in front, waiting to carry her away from him once again.

  She smiled up at him, like she was a little nervous. “Big week, huh?”

  He managed a rueful chuckle. “You could say that,” he admitted. “Look, Nat…” he started, but then he stopped, because he didn’t know what to say.

  She had offered him something enormous—to save him—so unreservedly, so guilelessly, as if it was the most natural inclination in the world. But a marriage of convenience? That would be a torment to him… and may
be to her, too.

  He valued her heart, that giant heart of hers that was hidden under the crisp tailored shirts and the artful feminine armor she employed each day. It was her heart that made her offer—but it was his heart that would screw it all up.

  And he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t.

  She was looking at him, her dark brows raised expectantly.

  “Have a safe drive,” he said.

  “I will.”

  She put her hand on his shoulder to balance herself, tipping up on her toes to brush a kiss across his bearded cheek. His eyes closed, the brush of her lips setting off a whole new kind of ache inside him, especially because she didn’t pull away.

  “It’s gonna be okay,” she whispered against his skin. “I promise.”

  Eleven

  Nat

  By the time she got back to Portland, it was nearly five. She’d checked in at the office several times from the car, but decided there was no use in going in and facing the stack of paperwork that had likely piled up during her four-day stint in the woods. Instead, she went home and immediately drew the hottest bath she could, throwing one of her favorite bath bombs into the steaming tub. She inhaled the scent of sweet jasmine as the bomb fizzed in the water, turning it a rainbow of pink and purple as she slid into the bath.

  She closed her eyes, leaning back against the porcelain, trying to clear her mind. Driving home, she’d spent most of her time on her phone with work, because if she hadn’t, she would’ve been forced to think about this week and Rhett’s predicament… and the absolute ridiculousness of her offering to marry him.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked herself out loud, as if somehow the spoken words hanging in the air would give her the answer.

  Well, first, probably because it wasn’t a terrible idea, in terms of getting Durbin to back off. She was still a little blown away by Rhett’s revelation that there was actual gold in the mountain. It excited the pre-teen-girl part of her who had loved The Goonies and other stories about kids finding treasure and going on adventures in the woods.

  She had come such a long way from that little girl, but at the same time, she felt as if she was always in reach, always inside her, at the core of her heart and self. She may not have taken over the ranch like her Daddy would’ve preferred, but she’d always kept true to her Momma and Big Stan’s values.

  Who would she be if she didn’t at least offer to help Rhett? Especially when the solution to his problem was a simple courthouse ceremony and her signature on a piece of paper? No big deal, right?

  Marriage is always a big deal... his words from earlier echoed in her head like a bell. She pressed her lips together, sinking beneath the perfumed water, her curls floating all around her like some sort of sea witch. But the water blocked out only so much, and eventually, she had to breathe. Just like eventually she had to face her unshakeable feelings about Rhett.

  She stood up when her toes were pruny, then ran the shower and washed her hair—bath-bomb glitter in her curls wasn’t a good look for the office. She’d cleaned out her fridge before she’d left for River Run, so she called her favorite Thai place and got take-out delivered.

  “Mrow.”

  “Hey, Peaches,” Nat said, petting the cat’s head. Peaches was Maddy’s, but Nat, with the help of the pet sitter, was watching him at her place until Maddy and Carter got back from their honeymoon. Peaches purred, jumping into her lap, and tried to stick his nose into the container of pad Thai.

  “Be good and you’ll get some shrimp later,” Nat promised, pulling up her schedule for the week on her tablet. She had back-to-back meetings on Friday, and Wednesday and Thursday weren’t looking any better. But at least Liberty and Renee were going to return tomorrow. They were coming in early, so she had dinner with them scheduled. Renee had been gone for months, so she was eager to see her friend again. And she’d missed Liberty, too, even though her trip to London had been much shorter.

  “Let’s see how Auntie Liberty is doing with that British guy who owns our building-to-be,” she said to Peaches, who was thoroughly disinterested once he realized she was not giving him any more shrimp. She checked her email, but interestingly, there were none from Liberty. She counted in her head. It would be four a.m. over there.

  Weird, she thought. Liberty was really good about emailing her updates each night. She was always on top of stuff.

  “Maybe Mr. Stuffy British Guy turned into Mr. Sexy British Guy,” she joked to Peaches, who did not find her funny in the least. His tail twitched back and forth, and she sighed, succumbing and giving him head scritches between his ears. His eyes closed in ecstasy as he began to purr.

  “God, if I become a old cat lady, I better be a cool, cute one,” Nat muttered, even as Peaches purr soothed her and she closed her eyes, telling herself she was just going to relax on the couch for awhile.

  She blinked awake, vaguely away of a dinging sound coming from her phone. Peaches had long abandoned her on the couch. As she straightened up, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes with one hand and reached for her phone with the other. A text message. From Rhett.

  Does your offer still stand?

  Her heart leapt in her chest. Her fingers hovered over the buttons. Part of her wanted to say no. Part of her didn’t want to go down this path because of all the aforementioned doom she knew was waiting at the end of this.

  But that reckless girl inside her, the one who used to get on the wildest broncs without a lick of fear, sparked back up. She tapped out a response and pressed Send before she could stop herself.

  Yes.

  Twelve

  Rhett

  He had told himself he wasn’t going to do it. That never in a million years would he take her up on her offer.

  He told himself that it was a bad idea. That it was a crazy one. That it would just lead to a special kind of heartbreak and likely ruin their friendship, because who could fake-marry that woman and not lose himself in her? He’d been losing himself in their friendship since the day they met.

  But then… oh, but then.

  He had been closing up the clinic, feeling so much dread that this might be one of the last times he did it. He’d had another lengthy talk with Jace after he’d met with his DA friend, and it had just confirmed that he was screwed until a judge finally paid attention to the case.

  Durbin had the power and he knew it. Every second of the day, Rhett was expecting someone to come driving up with a summons or an edict or whatever the hell it was that told him he couldn’t use the water on his land.

  That’s what riled him the most. This was his. River Run was his. And it was the most important thing in his life—the only thing he’d ever owned. But really, this mountain owned him. He had given himself to this place, and made it a haven for the unwanted, abused, and endangered. He’d made it into an educational facility, a resort, and a refuge, a source of sustenance and pride for the community, and a model for animal sanctuaries around the country. He was its protector, never its master.

  To have all this threatened…God, he wanted to go right over to Durbin’s and just pummel him.

  He was fantasizing about smashing his fist into Durbin’s face when a car—a battered Ford Taurus that had seen better days—came skidding up the gravel drive. He didn’t recognize the car or the older woman who got out of it, but his stomach fell when he saw what she was holding wrapped in the blanket clutched to her chest.

  “Are you the vet?” she asked, her eyes wild. She was wearing a vest that said Dollar Heaven on it, with Betty on her name tag. “My friend said that you sometimes do late-night emergencies? I thought about taking him to the animal hospital in Beaverton but I was afraid he wouldn’t make it.”

  He pulled back the towel to reveal an emaciated pit bull covered in scabs. He cringed and whimpered when he saw Rhett. It was hard to tell how old he was, he was so skinny and stunted. His eyes were scared, but they cleared when Rhett reached out and stroked his head.

  “He’s got a really big wound
on his side. It looks infected,” the woman said.

  “Come on inside. We’ll do an exam,” Rhett said.

  “I’m Betty,” she said, following him into the clinic.

  “Rhett,” he said. “Dr. Oakes. Come on in.” He flipped the lights on and brought her back to their first exam room, gesturing for her to set the dog on the table. He whined at the movement, and when the blanket fell away completely, Rhett realized it was streaked with pus and other nasty stuff from the large gash on the his side.

  “Brave little guy,” Rhett said, snapping on gloves and beginning to exam the wound. It definitely needed to be surgically debrided, and the dog would have to be on some major antibiotics for the next few weeks as he fought the infection. But it looked as if it hadn’t gone septic yet.

  “There’s a lot across the street from the dollar store where I work,” Betty explained. “And for the last week, I’ve been seeing him there. I’ve been trying every day, to get him to come, but he’d run and hide under a dumpster. Finally, I lured him out with a ham sandwich, and that’s when I saw the wound on his side. I have a friend you helped relocate a bunch of possums awhile back that her dogs were attacking… she told me to bring him to you.”

  “Oh, you’re friends with Mabel?” Rhett asked. “The possums are doing great. They’re a huge draw for our field-trip kids.”

  Betty smiled. “She was all broken up about the one her dogs bit. I’m so glad you were able to fix the momma up and get her and the babies somewhere safer. So… how does it look with this little guy?”