Beefcake & Retakes

by Fennell, Judi

  Tanner had considered himself lucky that the guy hadn’t pulled out a shotgun.

  He had, however, pulled out a pre-nup and the name of the attorney he was going to use to call in the mortgage on Tanner’s father’s property if Tanner didn’t do the right thing this time.

  So Tanner had had to agree. He’d signed the papers they wanted, had put his foot down about a big wedding, and tried to make the best of a situation that wasn’t exactly bad, but hadn’t been optimal.

  Until he overheard Juliet admit to Tricia that she’d set them all up to make it happen.

  Fool him twice.

  A third time was not happening.

  He reached for the door handle. He’d rather face the rotten weather than one of Juliet’s schemes. “I’m sorry about your grandmother, Juliet, but lying won’t make her better.”

  “Tanner, please.” She put her hand on his arm as he went to get out. “Please do this for her. Not me. Her. Please, Tanner. She loves you. Always has. Considered you the grandson she never had, and all this time that we’ve been separated, she still considers you family. She just needs something to hope for. That’s all. Just for a little while, I promise. It will help her, I know it will. Please, Tanner. For my grandmother? For Nana?”

  He wanted to say no so badly. Didn’t want to do this.

  But how could he refuse? It wasn’t as if he’d have to live this lie for the rest of his life and if it would help Nana…

  He opened his mouth to say yes when Juliet put a hand on his arm.

  “I’ll throw in your father’s mortgage if that will help your decision.”

  He froze. “The mortgage? You’ll wipe the slate clean?”

  She nodded. “Whatever it takes. You do something for my family; I’ll do something for yours.”

  He’d have his trust fund back. He could finish paying for school, which meant he could quit dancing, and he’d have money to offer Bryan and Gage to be a third partner. They’d been talking about wanting to expand BeefCake, Inc., but cash flow was tight, and with each of them having gotten married recently, they weren’t too keen on racking up a chunk of debt. With his money, that could happen for all of them.

  Nana, him, Gage, Bryan, even Juliet… It was a win for them all. There was only one decision he could make.

  “Fine. I’ll do it.” After all, it wouldn’t be for very long. He’d go there, play the part, Nana would get better, then he could leave with his father’s mortgage paid off and his trust fund intact. What could go wrong?

  Chapter Four

  Everything was going wrong.

  The story was out, and he was in Texas, two things he’d worked hard to not have to deal with over the past seven years. Yet, thanks to Juliet—once again—his life was no longer his to control.

  Shit.

  He’d had to tell Bryan and Gage so they could cover his shifts. They’d put two and two together and come up with a close enough approximation to the truth that Tanner hadn’t denied it. And when he’d told them he’d wanted to partner with them… They were just as in favor of him going to Texas as Juliet was.

  Then there was his landlord. She knew something was going on because she’d overhead (eavesdropped) him telling the mail carrier to forward his mail, so of course there was a horde of questions from her.

  There would be hordes more once he showed up in his hometown.

  He looked out the window as the plane taxied to the terminal, bringing him back to the scene of the crime, as it were. And, yeah, it was a crime—Juliet’s pregnancy had robbed him of the chance to play ball in college.

  When he’d found out the truth, the bitterness had almost killed him. If only she hadn’t done that their lives would never have taken the turn they did. And who knew? They could’ve been very happily married right now with a couple of kids.

  And to top it all off, everyone in town knew every miniscule detail of the worst part of his life. He and Juliet had been everyone’s idea of the perfect couple. Even his, so he hadn’t wanted to face the stares and the gossip, not to mention Juliet, by coming home during college—from his second choice school. Sure, he’d played ball, but not where he’d wanted, and it hadn’t gotten him anywhere close to the pros.

  One more sin to lay at the feet of the woman he’d been forced to marry.

  The one who was waiting for him as he exited the airport. Damn. He’d wanted more time to prepare. This past week, he’d been too busy with finals and working and making arrangements to be gone so long, that he hadn’t had that chance. Seeing her again was a double-edged sword—she was so beautiful he ached with wanting her when he looked at her, yet seeing her held such painful memories he never wanted to look at her again.

  “I would’ve met you at the ranch, you know.” He tossed his carryon into the back seat when she pulled a Mercedes sedan up to the curb. No limo this time. Surprise, surprise; she’d gotten her way so there was no need to bring out the big guns.

  He shook his head. Only in Juliet’s world would a Mercedes not be considered a big gun.

  She put her purse on the floor behind her seat as he sat in the passenger seat. “I remember you and airports. I’m not taking any chances.”

  He set his cowboy hat on the dash while he buckled in. “If you think you’re going to make me feel guilty for that, I’m not.”

  “Guilty? Why should you feel guilty? You sent your wife on a honeymoon by herself. Least you could’ve done was arranged for someone else to meet me there. It wasn’t exactly a ball of laughs all by myself.”

  “Yes, because we were going on a honeymoon to have a ball of laughs. After coercing me into marriage. You really think it would’ve been any better if I’d been there?” He pulled his hat onto his lap.

  “It would’ve been nice to find out.”

  “Oh no, Juliet. You don’t get to pull that with me. The only reason we were married was because of your little ‘surprise.’”

  “The only reason?” Juliet tilted her head to the side so her hair hung over the one shoulder, leaving the other bare. For him to nibble on in the old days. But these were the new-and-improved days and he wasn’t going back.

  He didn’t answer her—the question didn’t require an answer. Instead, he picked up his cell phone and opened his email. His banker, his lawyer, the guy he had looking into a few venues for him to help Gage and Bry expand the business… He had enough work to keep him busy the entire ride home so he wouldn’t have to deal with her.

  When they got there, however, was a whole other story.

  He was ignoring her. Juliet would never get used to it. Tanner had never ignored her. Hell, he’d always been Mr. Attentive until—

  She hated thinking about it. Yes, she’d made mistakes. Huge ones. But not out of malice. She’d just been so scared that he’d find some other girl at college and he’d forget all about her. She hadn’t really thought through the decision to get pregnant on purpose; she’d certainly never expected he’d have to give up his scholarship. She’d just thought she’d go along with him to school and stay in a tiny apartment while he went to class and played ball. She hadn’t known about a morals clause in his contract, and she certainly hadn’t expected her father to be as insistent on a wedding before the baby’s birth as he’d been. Heck, everyone knew that Juliet Chambers and Tanner Wentworth would be together forever. It was as inevitable as breathing. They’d get married later. When he was finished with school and they could have a proper wedding and a proper house and a proper family.

  But then she’d lost Keegan and had a few complications herself. Which was why she, in her weakened state with crazy hormonal emotions, had dropped that little bomb about getting pregnant on purpose.

  Tanner had seen it as the ultimate betrayal. She’d thought it was the ultimate sign of her love for him.

  Granted, looking back over a decade later, she understood that it’d been an incredibly selfish and thoughtless thing to do for all of them, the baby included. But when she’d tried to apologize, Tanner wouldn’t he
ar her. And he definitely wouldn’t forgive her, though she wasn’t so sure that was for the pregnancy and not the miscarriage.

  Tanner had wanted that baby.

  She pulled into traffic. “We have to go over our story.”

  “Jesus, Juliet, do you lie to everyone or am I just the lucky one?”

  She counted to ten before she answered. She’d given Tanner incentive to do this for her, but he could walk away from it in a heartbeat because of his trust fund. She was the one who needed him, not the other way around.

  History was repeating itself.

  “Look, Tanner, Nana isn’t stupid. We have to make this work. Our stories have to be perfectly in sync or we’re just going to cause her more heartache.”

  “Correction: you’re going to cause her more heartache. I’m not the one who came up with this idea, and frankly, I’m not so sure I should stay with it. What might seem like a kindness to you could be so much worse if the truth comes out.”

  “That’s why we have to make sure it doesn’t. We have to know exactly what we’re going to say and be believable.”

  “Oh trust me, Juliet, your acting chops are the best. Just be careful not to get into a crying jag and your secret should be safe. Me? Well, I’m not an actor, but for Nana, I’ll do my best. I don’t want to hurt her anymore than you do.”

  Juliet’s stomach dropped. She’d really wanted him to have some semblance of feeling left for her. She’d hoped he had. That maybe, in doing this for her grandmother, it could be good for them. It could show him that he did still love her, and she’d get the chance to show him she’d changed.

  And she had. Watching him get off that plane, leaving her to go to one of the most romantic places on earth by herself, had made her face the truth.

  As had the pity from the concierge, housekeeper, and the wait staff. She’d spent the first two days in the hammock overlooking the ocean in a drunken mai-tai haze. The next two had been full of self-recrimination, and the final three had been a time of reflection. Of figuring out what she wanted to do with her life—a life that wasn’t going to include Tanner.

  Oh, she was planning to get him back, but as a woman he’d want to be with, not the insecure girl who’d tricked him not once but twice. If she was going to end up with Tanner, she had to be worthy of him.

  So she’d gone to college. Nana had been supportive, but her father had been skeptical; Juliet had never been one for academia. But she’d buckled down and gotten not only her bachelor’s degree, but also an MBA in the past seven years.

  It couldn’t have come at a better time. She’d been learning the ropes when Nana had had her stroke, and now Dad wanted to—and could—be there for his mother. So she was now running the family businesses. Oil, cattle, transportation… She’d immersed herself in every aspect so much that her friends were surprised to learn she was still in town because she’d become a recluse—even more than she’d been when Tanner walked out—pouring over contracts and spreadsheets and balance sheets.

  She’d found Tanner’s father’s mortgage that her father had bought from the bank—a few days before he’d caught the two of them in bed together. She’d cringed; it’d given him the perfect bargaining chip. And sure enough, it’d worked; Tanner had married her.

  And then left her.

  She didn’t blame him. No, this was all on her. And therefore, it was up to her to make it all right.

  But right didn’t mean losing Tanner from her life. They belonged together and if she’d only had faith in what he’d felt for her back then, they would be.

  Well she had that faith now; faith that what he’d once felt was still there and all it’d take was for him to see that she’d changed.

  “So what’s our story? How are you going to explain the past seven years of silence between us?”

  Juliet merged onto the highway and kicked up the Mercedes’ speed. “Your name wasn’t spoken all that much at home.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure abandoning you at the airport endeared me to your father and grandmother.”

  “They don’t know about that.”

  He turned in his seat and arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell them?”

  “It wasn’t exactly my greatest moment in a career of shining moments when it comes to our relationship, you know?”

  “Oh I don’t know, Jules. It was good for a while.”

  Before she screwed it up. He didn’t say it. Then again, he didn’t have to; it hung between them like a third passenger.

  But the fact that he remembered there’d been good times was promising. It gave her hope—when hope was pretty much all she had to go on.

  “So what’d you tell them when I didn’t come home with you?” He fiddled with the brim of his black hat.

  He looked so damn good in cowboy hats. He’d had a favorite one back in high school—worn so often it’d practically been bleached by the sun to match his hair. He’d been ready to toss it then, said it’d looked too feminine, but she’d told him it looked like gold—a crown for her prince. He’d given it to her.

  She still had it.

  “I told them that we needed some space. That the pain of what we’d gone through and the years you were at college were hard for us to work through. That we needed time.”

  “Seven years? What’d they say when I didn’t show up for the holidays? When I never called?”

  Juliet cringed. “Um… you actually did call. And I visited you for the holidays. In whatever country you were working in.”

  He turned in his seat. “You lied. Again.”

  “I was protecting them.”

  He pointed the cowboy hat at her. “You were protecting yourself.”

  Yeah, that too. But not her reputation; that’d been tossed into the mud when she’d gotten pregnant. No, she’d been protecting her heart because if she had everyone thinking that she and Tanner were working things out, maybe they could.

  “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  “Yes, I have.”

  He exhaled and strummed his fingers on the top of the hat as he looked out the window. “No, you haven’t. Still manipulating people and situations to best suit yourself. Case in point.” He drilled her with those gorgeous blue eyes she’d dreamed about forever. “If this weren’t for your grandmother…”

  “I know. I understand. And I appreciate it, Tanner. I really do. But I have changed.”

  He looked back out the window, a muttered, “Yeah, well I’ll believe that when I see it” beneath his breath.

  He would see it; she’d show him.

  “So what’s the plan? We kept our reunion secret from everyone why?”

  She’d given this story a lot of thought and one thing when creating a lie; it was best to stick as close to the truth as possible. “We needed to work things out. To find ourselves outside of what happened between us. That’s why you went away; too many people know about us here.”

  “And you didn’t come with me because…?”

  “Because I went to school.”

  “What?” His head swiveled around to face her. “You went to school? How are you going to pull that one off, Jules? There are, you know, tuition bills that don’t just go away. Degrees that can’t be faked if someone looks closely.”

  “I went to school, Tanner. Actually got a degree. Two.”

  “Two. You.” He arched his eyebrows. “You went to college.”

  “Hey, just because I made some stupid decisions doesn’t mean I am stupid. I’m actually pretty good academically when I put my mind to it. I’m not an airhead.” It’d given her no small amount of satisfaction to prove that. And not just to herself.

  “Never said you were.” He stared at her. “You really got a degree?”

  She nodded, glad that this wasn’t a lie. “Bachelors in Economics and an MBA in Finance.”

  “You have an MBA.”

  “Yes, me. And it’s a good thing because now I can run the business while my father takes care of Nana. He’s semi-retired.”

 
; Tanner stared at her a few more seconds before he shook his head. “I’d never have put you down for running the empire.”

  She smiled at the nickname they’d called her father’s business. Jointly, their families had had a cattle-breeding partnership for generations, but her father had wanted more so he’d branched out. She and Tanner had joked about it every time Dad had come home with a new business venture.

  They’d also enjoyed a few of the business-venture perks—namely the cabs of more than a few of the trucks when there’d been no place else to be alone together.

  The memories stirred that same heat that thoughts of Tanner had always ignited. Even when he’d left her, all it took was one memory of his smile and she’d want him again. That had never gone away.

  He hadn’t changed a bit. Still as gorgeous, still as big, still as strong and charismatic as he’d been when she’d fallen in love with him so many years ago.

  “Dad wasn’t exactly excited to put me in charge, but his CFO had a family emergency so there was no one else he trusted enough.” He’d been planning for Tanner to be that person, but, thanks to her, that hadn’t happened. She’d had to step in and help out. “And this way, he can look over my shoulder in a way he wouldn’t be able to with another employee while allowing that person to actually run the business.”

  “I thought you didn’t like the business.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life beyond being your wife. I’ve had to decide.”

  Though she still wanted to be his wife. In every sense of the word.

  Juliet glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. God, she could remember as if it was yesterday what it felt like to be enveloped in his arms. To have him rest his chin atop her head and hug her to him. How he smelled, how he felt. How he tasted…

  Yeah, not going there. It’d been seven years since that’d happened between them—and four years before that. Good thing she had a very good memory.