“Or we could go track down Harley and plan our fake wedding.” He flashed her that smile again.
She noticed the way his eyes crinkled at the corners when he did that. Those blue, blue eyes. All four Briscoe brothers had them, and pretty much every girl had agreed, growing up, that those eyes could probably make an ice cube melt with just a glance.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Mina said. “I’m ready to get going on this before the mayor finds out and tries to derail the whole thing.”
She wasn’t lying about that. She had a sudden sense of urgency, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was about. All she knew was that the mayor loved to put her on blast, and if he heard she had a marriage license on hand, he’d be ready to try to make sure she stayed single until the election was over. He was the mayor, so there were definitely ways he could sabotage things.
But if she were really honest with herself, she’d admit that Colton was the one she was worried about. He didn’t know about the crush she’d once had on him, but he’d been the guy everyone in her class talked about back then, making her certain she’d never stand a chance with him. The fact that he was still single told her he had no interest in settling down. Otherwise, he would have married one of the many classmates who’d gone on dates with him during their junior and senior years.
“Her car isn’t here.”
Colton’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. They were passing the bank and he was scouring the parking lot for Harley’s vehicle, Mina assumed. He sped on past, swung through the parking lot where her apartment was, then headed straight for the ranch.
“Harley is taking over the event coordination side of things once the ranch takes off,” Colton explained as he drove. “She really wants to take charge of the event barn. She’d planned to work in hospitality, but the whole ‘land investing’ job she had when she met my brother derailed her a little.”
Mina thought about that. “She sounds like she’s into the creative side of things. If she’s ready to get started, we could hook her up with an event or two in your barn. It might need to be a little fancier than it will be for our pretend wedding. Just a little, though.”
“I’m sure she can handle that,” he said. “You mean some events for your election?”
Mina nodded absently, her mind already spinning. If she won the election, there was no limit to the events she could swing in the ranch’s direction. But by then, she and Colton would supposedly be divorced, so would it make sense for her to have events on his property?
She shook her head to dismiss the thought. There was plenty of time left before the campaign was decided. Mainly, there would be a couple of weekends at Pumpkinfest, and she could be here helping out when she didn’t have campaign events. She would be spending time on her new husband’s property, in front of the whole town, so Mayor Cobb couldn’t insinuate she had no roots here. He’d have to come up with a new way to badmouth her.
Yes, fake-marrying Colton was a good, good idea. She owed Robby a raise for coming up with it.
They pulled into the main house, and Colton noted Harley’s car was the red sports car parked near the porch. They’d found her.
“I’m late for our meeting,” Colton said. “We were getting together to discuss the weekend, go over the numbers, plan next weekend… You know the drill.”
Mina tried to calm her racing heart, reminding herself this was all an act. “I’ll vouch for you. Once we explain we’re getting married, she’ll get it.”
“Wait.” He’d pulled the keys from the ignition and was holding them absently in his hand, staring out the window, deep in thought. “Are we going to tell Harley the truth?”
“The truth that we’re lying?” Mina smiled to herself at the irony.
“The truth that we’re getting fake married,” he clarified. “I don’t know if I want to lie to my family.”
Mina got that. She didn’t want to lie to her family, either. She hadn’t really thought about it until now, but as soon as she did, she knew neither one of them was going to like the answer.
She decided she had to break it to him as gently as possible. “We kind of have to. If your family knows the truth, it puts them in a tough position. It forces them to lie to the press, the public, Mayor Cobb and his people…”
He looked over at her, and she hoped he could tell how bad she felt about this. She didn’t want to lie to anyone, but she didn’t have relatives here. Her parents had divorced while she was in college, and her mom had moved to South Dakota, while her father now lived an hour away. That made it easier to keep from her family that she was getting married. There was no reason they’d ever know. It wasn’t so easy for Colton.
“But lying to my family…” He shook his head. “I don’t know if I can do that.”
Mina considered how much they could trust his family. They seemed like a good bunch, but she just went back to something her mom had said years ago. If you tell one person a secret, it’s no longer a secret. It was bad enough that Robby knew, even though she trusted him implicitly. It had been Robby’s idea, so keeping it from him wasn’t an option.
“But you’re right.” Colton nodded as though he’d finally reconciled the whole thing. “Even telling one person would be risky. That means we have to make it believable, though.”
Right.
Wait…what? Believable?
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We can’t just walk in there and start telling people we’re getting married,” he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “They won’t buy that. Clay will pull me aside immediately and ask me what’s really going on. We have to make them believe we’re in this whirlwind romance and we just can’t spend another second without each other.”
This was the part Mina hadn’t considered. They couldn’t just say I do, tell the community they were married, and show up at a few events standing side by side. They’d have to put on a show, especially for the people closest to them, which meant acting like they were actually in love.
It wouldn’t be enough to just walk in there holding hands and saying they were getting married. They had to take it up a notch. Otherwise, nobody would buy that they’d fallen in love in a matter of a weekend and were so urgent about it that they had to get married. Now.
“All right.” Mina took a deep breath. “Let’s get our story straight. We’ll just tell people we always had feelings for each other, but we didn’t communicate it or do anything about it. Once we saw each other again, it reignited.”
That was the safest course of action, she figured, since it was partly true. She’d had feelings for him she’d never communicated, but they weren’t reciprocated. It was dangerous to come up with a lie that might fool her into believing he’d ever thought of her as more than just some girl in his class. But she’d just have to keep reminding herself this was for her career.
Colton nodded. “Sounds good. Let’s go.”
He hopped out of the truck, leaving her sitting there with her mouth open. She wasn’t ready to go in there yet. They needed to get their story straight, right? Discuss how they’d realized they were in love and wanted to get married?
No, apparently not.
Again, Mina was drawn to the adventure of it all. She was intrigued to see what he might do once they were inside that house. Just the thought of holding his hand, standing by his side, acting like a couple had her all tingly.
She followed him into the house, noting that he didn’t even knock, and nearly walked into him when he came to a sudden stop in the living room. He reached back, took her hand, and smiled down at her.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” she said, not feeling ready at all.
9
Years ago, someone had advised Colton that if he was nervous or apprehensive about something, he should act confident anyway. He was pretty sure that advice had come from Clay, actually, which was interesting because he was about to use it on Clay’s girlfriend.
Harley
was seated at the table when they walked into the kitchen, Mina’s hand clasped in his. If they were a couple, they wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable with extreme public displays of affection, he reminded himself. Mina would want to keep things professional. But small details like holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes, putting his arm around her—all those things would be normal for a couple who had fallen deeply in love.
“Hi,” Harley said without looking up from her laptop screen. “Bad news from the bank. We don’t qualify for a small business loan…yet. But that could ch—”
Her sentence cut off mid-word as her gaze landed on the two of them. That gaze immediately dropped to their linked hands, and her jaw dropped.
Colton spoke first. “We need your help. But you have to be able to keep things on the down-low.”
Harley looked at Mina. “Wait…you’re the mayoral candidate.”
“Yes, and I graduated with Colton,” Mina said.
That was a bit stiff and professional. Not the way a woman falling in love would put it. In fact, it sounded a little defensive, but maybe he was pinning too much hope on the fact that she might accidentally fall for him during this whole exercise.
“So you guys knew each other before…” Harley said.
“Small town,” Colton reminded her. “It’s hard not to know someone.”
Mina laughed. “I think our graduating class was a hundred people at least? My mom’s graduating class had twelve, so maybe we’re midsized.”
“And growing. But what’s up with this?” Harley did a back and forth motion with her hand, moving from Mina to Colton and back again, looking genuinely confused.
“Long story short, I always had a crush on him,” Mina said. “I thought he didn’t know I existed.”
“And I had a huge crush on her but thought she didn’t know I existed,” Colton said.
The difference between Mina and Colton was that Colton was telling the absolute truth. He felt like he was coming across far more convincingly than she was. To soften things up a little, he looked over at her, letting the full force of his attraction show through. He’d been trying to disguise it since she’d walked back into his life, so it took little effort to put it out there.
Once she seemed to realize he was staring at her, she returned that stare, and he suddenly couldn’t catch his breath. She was looking at him the way he’d imagined she’d look at him when he used to fantasize about her as a hormonal teenager.
It was all part of the act. If he reminded himself of that every second of every day, it might help him come through this with his heart intact.
“You’re a couple.” Harley’s words were a statement, not a question, as though she were trying to reconcile this new reality in her mind.
Colton nodded. “We’re a couple.” He liked the way saying that made him feel.
“And that’s why we need your help.” Mina flashed Colton a look he couldn’t quite decipher. Did she want him to make the request? He supposed that made sense, seeing as Harley was his brother’s girlfriend.
“We want you to arrange a wedding in the event barn,” Colton said. “Our wedding.”
Harley’s eyes widened. “You’re getting married? You two?”
“I know it’s sudden,” Colton said.
“But when you know, you know.” Mina shrugged as if it were obvious, apparently getting in the spirit of things now. She smiled up at Colton, giving him the type of loving look one would expect from a bride-to-be.
He returned it with the type of look one would expect from a groom-to-be. “I knew when I was fifteen.”
“I knew the second I saw you,” Mina said back.
This was getting uncomfortably realistic. He knew no matter how many times he reeled himself in, he was in danger of forgetting this was all for show.
“In Ms. Caldwell’s history class,” Colton said.
Yes, he remembered it like it was yesterday. She was standing next to Ms. Caldwell’s desk when he walked in, and he’d nearly tripped over the kid in front of him, whoever it was. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
Neither could anyone else in class. The girls had instantly disliked her for no reason whatsoever, and the boys had talked about her like she was a magazine cover model. She was the new girl—and within a few days, she’d shown she was approachable and kind, which had won the girls in the class over.
By the time they’d been old enough to start seriously thinking about dating, Colton had written her off as being way too pretty for him. The fact that he’d never even once caught her looking at him pretty much solidified that for him. He’d never mentioned his secret crush on her, but there wasn’t a time he saw her from sixth grade through graduation that he didn’t quietly watch her out of the corner of his eye and wish…
“Really? You seemed too busy making jokes to notice me.” She turned to look at Harley. “Every girl I met had a crush on Colton Briscoe.”
Harley smiled. “All the Briscoe brothers had that effect, or so I’m told. They seem to be the town heroes.”
“Mostly Clay and Reilly,” Colton said. “I was always the boring brainiac.”
“Right.” Mina rolled her eyes. “Because smart can’t possibly be sexy.”
Harley laughed. As much as he liked this fake conversation, though, Colton knew they needed to stick to the business at hand.
“We’re thinking something small,” he said. “It’ll be a great introduction to the event barn, though, because the pictures will get plenty of attention. Just immediate family. Also, we need to do it tomorrow.”
Harley gasped. “Tomorrow? Are you kidding?”
“We have to get ahead of the rumor mill,” Mina said.
Colton gestured toward the laptop on the table. “Besides, what were you going to do today? Drum up business for the weekend? I would argue this wedding will do that for you. Just throw some decorations up in the barn and wait for the press to show up.”
Harley gave a dry laugh. “Throw up some decorations? Have you seen the barn? It’s so not ready for the public.”
“It doesn’t have to be ready for the public,” Mina said. “Just the part of it that will be photographed. Family will understand.”
Brow furrowed, Harley snapped the laptop shut and stood. “It’s your wedding. Don’t you think rushing things will make it less…special?”
Mina looked out the window with a bored expression. “I’m not really one of those people who spent my life dreaming of my wedding day. It’s the marriage that’s important.”
Harley was staring at Mina like she was a strange creature she couldn’t understand. Colton wondered if the statement had offended Harley, as someone who would probably be planning her own wedding soon. But Harley surprised him with her next words.
“That’s a great way to look at it,” she said. “You seem very…practical. Okay. Let’s do this.”
Mina looked over at Colton. He returned her look with similar surprise. This had been a little too easy.
Harley started toward them. “I’m always up for a challenge. But I’m going to have to steal Mina from you for a few hours. We’re going shopping.”
“But—” Mina began.
“We need to break the news to everyone,” Colton blurted.
Grabbing her purse from the center of the table, Harley stepped toward them. “You take care of that. In fact, Clay will be stopping by for lunch in a little while. Just drop the news on him then. Oh, and if you don’t already have a nice suit, you’re going to need to go shopping yourself. Maybe one of your brothers has something you can borrow.”
“We thought we’d keep this casual,” Mina said. “Jeans and sweaters. Whatever we have on.”
Harley shook her head. “It may be small, but it’s still a wedding.” She pointed to Colton. “Dress shirt, jacket, and dark pants for you. Mina and I are buying a dress. Pick a time and let your brothers know to be in the barn a half an hour before. I’ll have Mina there to walk in at ten.”
&nb
sp; “Ten a.m.,” Colton said.
“Nine-thirty for you and your brothers,” Harley said. “You have to make sure you arrive before the bride. Meanwhile, you and Mina will have no contact until then. It’s bad luck.”
Without waiting for an answer, Harley grabbed Mina’s arm and led her out of the house, gathering her coat along the way.
Colton looked around, stunned by everything that had just happened. If he couldn’t communicate with Mina, how could he arrange the officiant and make sure they had a photographer to snap photos for the paper?
Clay. Clay was the answer. Colton shoved his laptop into its bag and headed for his truck. He knew Clay would be busy, but surely he could squeeze some time in for his brother’s wedding. After all, this would make Colton the first Briscoe brother to get married. That honor was supposed to go to Clay, and it technically would. Colton just couldn’t know this particular marriage was fake until the election was over.
Colton was on his way to the cow pasture after checking the horse stables when he noticed two trucks parked next to the barn. The empty barn. He had a feeling this had something to do with the events of the morning.
Sure enough, he found Clay and Hank sweeping. They each had big brooms, and dust was flying. They’d hosed the whole place down a while back but keeping dust out was impossible.
“What’s up?” Colton called out.
Both guys stopped sweeping to turn to look at him.
Clay propped the broom against the wall and started toward Colton. “Boss’s orders. Got to get this barn in shape for…something.”
Hank went back to sweeping, preferring to stay to himself and work quietly.
Without even discussing it, the two brothers headed outside. Clay and Colton had always been the closest of the four Briscoe kids, and that meant they tended to be on the same wavelength far too often.
Once they were outside, Colton spoke. “Harley’s the boss in this case, I assume.”
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