by Cat Johnson
“Hell, yeah.” Aaron nodded. “But you sure as hell can’t get married without any explanation after only knowing each other a few days. That’ll really look suspicious.”
She narrowed her eyes at her brother. “People do it all the time in Vegas.”
“Because they’re drunk. We already discussed this last night.” Garret crossed his arms and winced. He was hurting, she could tell. It made her doubly determined to get him this operation.
“Then we’ll get drunk.” She crossed her arms too. She could be as stubborn as he could.
“No. The press would have a field day with that. Garret has fans and sponsors to worry about.” Aaron blew out a breath. “All right. How about this? We tell our inner circle the total truth. We’re going to have to since Skeeter and Chase know for a fact you two just met. But for anyone else we say that you guys met a few times in the past, maybe at a competition, or at my place when Garret was visiting. Then on this trip you two really hit it off. Enough to get married with no notice.” He shook his head. “It still sounds like a crap story.”
“Tell them I’m pregnant or something.” Silver shrugged.
“No!” Both Aaron and Garret were in sync with their answer as they stared at her.
She sighed. “All right. Fine. Not pregnant. Then back to my original idea. We get really drunk and get married. That better than pretending I’m knocked up?”
“At least it’s believable, and it would sure do less to hurt your reputation.” Aaron scowled.
She shook her head. He could be absolutely Victorian in his thinking about sex. Only when it came to her, of course. Apparently the same rules didn’t apply to him. Silver was dying to remind him that last night’s groupie could very well be someone’s sister too, but she decided to hold her tongue on that. She needed Aaron on her side right now.
Garret blew out a breath. “I knew this was going to be more complicated than you said.”
“Oh, be quiet. Everything will be fine. Aaron’s on board with it. I was right about that.”
“And it’s not going to be as easy as you’d thought. I was right about that.” Garret countered her point with his own, crossing his arms.
Across the room, Aaron laughed.
“What?” Silver turned to her brother.
“I think I’m going to enjoy you two being married.”
“Why?” She frowned.
“Because misery loves company. It’ll be nice that Garret has to share in my pain.”
“The pain being me?” Silver raised a brow.
“Yup.” Aaron grinned wide.
“Nice, big brother. Real nice.” She shook her head.
“Better tell him what your real name is too, since you’re getting married and all.” Aaron glanced at Garret, then back to Silver.
“Silver is my real name. Legally.” She shot Aaron a hate-filled look.
“Mmm hmm.” Even Aaron’s nod looked sarcastic to her.
“If you two will stop fighting, I hear Skeeter up and about in our room. We still need to tell something to him and Chase—”
“And Leesa.” Silver reminded Garret.
“And Leesa.” He nodded and then drew in a deep breath. Garret looked from Aaron to Silver. “We sure about this? It’s not too late to call it off.”
Aaron laughed. “I don’t blame you for being afraid, bud. I would be too, marrying her, even if it is temporary. It is temporary, right?” He narrowed his gaze at them both.
“Of course.” Silver frowned at his suggestion. “It’s just long enough to get him surgery and rehab and not look too suspicious.”
“That’s right,” Garret agreed.
“All right. I still think we be totally honest with the inner circle, and bend the truth for the rest.” Aaron glanced from Silver to Garret. “Agreed?”
“Agreed.” Silver nodded. Totally honest, except that she and Garret were lying their asses off about the sex part.
Garret let out a breath. “Agreed.”
“Good. Then I’ll text Chase and you go tell Skeeter to meet here in our room before breakfast. I don’t think this is something we should be discussing downstairs in public.”
“Okay.” Garret nodded.
Silver watched the two men spring into action. Aaron went to the nightstand to get his phone while Garret slipped through the door to the hall since Aaron had insisted they keep the adjoining door between their rooms locked. Yeah, like one locked door could keep her from getting to Garret if she wanted. She’d proven otherwise, multiple times now.
That was it then. She was about to become a married woman. That part would be easy. Telling her parents—not so much. She glanced at Aaron as he texted. “What version do we tell Mom and Dad? The truth or the lie?”
Aaron laughed. “We don’t tell them shit.”
“Really?” Silver’s eyes opened wide. Aaron, Mr. Honesty, wanted to lie to their parents. Or at least withhold the truth.
“Yes, really. If they know the truth about the insurance, they’ll freak. And if they think you went off and married some guy without telling them—”
“They’ll freak.” Silver finished the thought.
“Yeah, especially when you announce your eventual divorce six months or a year from now.”
“Yeah, you’re right. But what if the press gets a hold of it. They watch you on television. If the station announces Garret James has gone off and married Aaron Jordan’s sister, they’re going to figure it out.”
“Crap. You’re right.”
“Right about what?” Garret came back into the room through the hallway door he’d left propped open.
“My parents are going to find out about this if we go public with the marriage.” Silver watched him to evaluate how he felt about that. She could tell by his expression he hated all this lying and deception. Oh, well. It would pass. Eventually. He’d get over it. Especially when she had him in her bed totally naked once they were married, no matter what Aaron assumed about the physical arrangements.
“We’re in the public eye.” Aaron ran a hand over his face. “Crap. You’re right, this can’t get out.”
Garret shook his head. “This is too risky. I think we need to call it off.”
“No.” Silver frowned. “You need this surgery and you deserve to have insurance.”
“I’ll just figure out a way to pay for it. I’ll empty out my savings. That will cover some of it. Maybe I can sell the truck, but it’s got a pretty big loan on it. I have good credit. I should be able to get a line of credit or something, I guess. Though I have no collateral.” Garret let out a bitter-sounding laugh. “I guess I really need to reevaluate my financial plan when all this is over, huh?”
Silver moved closer and rested her hands on his chest. She could feel his heart pounding through the soft material of his T-shirt beneath her fingers. “We can pull this off. Let’s just try.”
Garret squeezed Silver’s hands and smiled. “Thanks. But I’m not so sure.”
“Aaron, tell him.” She turned her head toward Aaron and saw him frowning, as if he was lost in thought. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Aaron came out of his daze. “I think you can pull it off. And I think we have a new plan.”
“What’s that?” Silver let her hands drop from Garret’s chest and turned fully toward Aaron.
“We don’t tell anyone the truth. Only the three of us will know the reason you’re getting married is for insurance. It’s safer that way. I don’t think Chase or Skeeter would ever betray you on purpose, but hell, things come out. They could be drinking. A sneaky reporter could ask them a question and they let the truth slip.”
Garret drew in a breath, looking concerned. “All right. So what do we tell them then?”
Silver would do anything to remove that worried expression from his face, that weight from his shoulders. Actually, she was doing something—she was marrying him so he could get the surgery he needed. If they could just figure out how to make it work.
“Well I know
it’s nuts, but you two really look like,” Aaron shook his head, “you look like you’re actually into each other.”
Garret swallowed hard and took a step back, looking a little guilty.
“And that’s why it’s going to work.” Silver grinned at her brother. “See, that acting class I had to take as an elective in college is paying off.”
That they’d shared a few orgasms—or more than a few—didn’t hurt either.
Garret glanced at Silver. “So what the hell do we tell them then? That we fell in love over a weekend and ran away to get married?”
It was almost as if a light bulb went off above Aaron’s head. “Yeah, that’s exactly what you tell them, but you don’t tell them anything until after Luke and Annie’s wedding.” He nodded hard. “That’s it. That’s the perfect story. You guys sneak off and get married now. Tomorrow. Monday. Whenever we can get the license and get it done. No one will know except me. Then you don’t announce it until after Luke’s married because, and this is the key, you didn’t want to steal his and Annie’s thunder. By then, no one will realize how short a time you two knew each other.”
“They won’t be able to piece together the exact timing.” Silver nodded her approval of his plan. “Wow, big brother, I think you may have deceptive brilliance inside you that I never gave you credit for.”
Aaron laughed. “I guess I can’t be a blood relation of yours and not have a little bit of it in me.”
She strode the few steps it took to cross the small space and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, I’m certainly glad you do. It’s a great plan.”
“There’s one problem.” Garret’s voice broke into her joy.
Silver glanced at him over her shoulder, beginning to realize that her future temporary husband was a glass-half-empty kind of guy. The opposite of her. Though they did say opposites attract. “What’s the problem?”
“Chase, Leesa and Skeeter are going to be here any minute for this big meeting we called them for. What do we tell them now?”
“We tell them we want to discuss what to get Luke and Annie as a group engagement gift, but we couldn’t do it downstairs in the breakfast room because they might overhear.” Silver smiled, happy with herself.
Aaron laughed. “And that’s the deceptive Susan we all know and love.”
Silver’s eyes flew open wide. She even stomped her foot. “Aaron!”
“Your real name is Susan?” Garret grinned wide. “Wow. That’s unexpected.”
“And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll forget you ever heard it.” She raised an eyebrow and tried to look ominous.
He leaned closer. “I like Silver better anyway. It suits you.”
“Thank you.” She nodded and sent a dramatic I-told-you-so glance at her brother.
Garret was on her side. She had never been a Susan and he understood that. And that was why they were going to be fine for however long they were married. In fact, this pseudo marriage might be more fun than she ever imagined.
Chapter Twelve
“You’re going to try to finish out the season?” Chase glanced up in the midst of fastening the straps of his chaps around one thigh as Garret did the same.
They were both scheduled for the next section. The bulls were being driven into the chutes right now while the broadcast network broke for a commercial.
“Yeah.” Garret shrugged and felt exactly how tightly Tandy had wrapped his shoulder. “Why not? It’s torn. Can’t get any worse than that. The doc gave me a shot to numb the pain. I can get through eight seconds with it.”
It was championship Sunday. Garret had covered two bulls already this weekend. If he could cover this one, he probably would qualify to ride in the final round and might finish in some money, getting him ranked higher for the season. He’d take the time for the surgery, he’d promised Tandy, but after the finals.
Of course he hadn’t told Tandy he’d head to surgery after a detour to the wedding chapel first. Garret swallowed hard and put that thought out of his head. Silver was right above him in the VIP seats again. He refused to let himself even glance up there until after he’d ridden. He needed one hundred percent of his concentration focused on the ride. Especially today with his arm the way it was.
“You hope you get the chance to prove you can get through eight.” Chase laughed and shook his head. “A numb riding arm? I don’t know about that.”
“It’s just my shoulder. I can still feel my hand.” Garret opened and clenched his fist, as much to prove it to Chase as to himself that he could. “It’s not like when Mustang was out when the ulna in his riding arm snapped in half.”
It helped Garret to remember he wasn’t the only one who’d been in a similar situation—out for months with an injury.
A slap on his back had Garret turning around to see Mustang himself. “And if it hadn’t been snapped in half and Tandy hadn’t put the kibosh on my riding with my other arm, I would have stayed in competition too. How you feeling?”
“Good.” Good enough anyway.
“Good to hear.” Mustang nodded. “You drew a bull that bucks fairly flat. If you make sure you don’t slip into the well, you should be in good shape. Stay centered and you just might cover.”
“All right. Thanks.” Garret listened closely and tried to absorb it all, planning the ride to come in his head. Mustang may be a joker most times, but he was like a guru when it came to bulls and riding, analyzing what went wrong in a ride and how to fix it with an innate skill most of them only wished they had.
“No problem.” Mustang delivered another slap on Garret’s bad shoulder, making him wonder if Mustang was testing him to see exactly how numb he was, and then he was off in a beeline to where Slade and Luke were talking behind the chutes.
Chase watched Mustang go. “Better listen to him and do what he says. He’ll never let you hear the end of it if you don’t.”
Garret laughed. “Yeah, I know.”
He only hoped his shoulder had gotten the message as well as his brain.
“Looks like we’re up.” Chase reached into his vest pocket and pulled out his mouth guard.
Garret grabbed his helmet and followed Chase toward the chutes. This was it. No more guessing if he could ride with a numb shoulder or not. In a few minutes, he’d know. The proof would be in the ride. If he could ride in the finals in Vegas, and if he rode really well, that could make his year financially. It would sure help his state of mind during his recuperation knowing he’d padded his bank account for the long months out of competition.
Of course, that would depend on Tandy agreeing he could compete, since the head of sports medicine had the final say on who was well enough and who wasn’t. Today’s ride would go a long way in influencing the doctor’s decision either way. Talk about pressure.
Garret let out a sigh and lowered himself onto the bull’s back. Mustang’s words repeated through his head as he took the bull rope Skeeter helped him pull tight. Stay centered. That was easier said than done.
“Your arm feel okay?” Aaron asked from over Skeeter’s shoulder.
“Good enough.” Garret couldn’t feel his shoulder at all, but he figured that had to be better than feeling the torn cartilage.
Aaron nodded. “All right, then. See ya after.”
“Good luck.” Skeeter leaned back and gave Garret space.
Garret settled his seat, making sure he was as centered as he could get before the chute opened, then he nodded to the gateman. “Buck him!”
The wide metal gate swung open and smashed with a clang. The bull took off into the arena, turning into Garret’s riding hand before they’d barely even cleared the gate. He settled into a flat spin, just like Mustang had predicted, but even so, Garret was very aware of the strange numb feeling in his shoulder. He was holding on to a ton of bucking animal with what amounted to a dead limb. His hand was wrapped good and tight in the bull rope. He still had strength in his grip, but he feared the rest of his arm wouldn’t support him if he needed it to.<
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As the animal kept spinning into his hand, the centrifugal force was a physical push, making him slip off the side of the bull toward the outside of the spin. Garret corrected his position, pulling himself hard toward his riding hand. Harder than he should have. Because of the fear of his arm failing him, he overcompensated. He found himself slipping into the well.
Falling off the bull on the inside of the spin, into the well, was the worst place to be. He would have rather fallen off on the outside and hoped the bull fighters could drag him clear before the bull came around again.
The ground rushed toward him as he tipped head first off the side of the animal. Things seemed to move in slow motion. Garret knew he needed to get his hand free or risk being dragged and trampled, or worse. With the panic rising inside him, he tugged at the tail of the bull rope. He felt it release, his hand free. He hit the ground smack on his bad shoulder.
Garret curled into a ball, making himself as small a target as possible. Deadly hooves hit the ground on either side of him while he heard the bull fighters shouting at the bull to draw him away. Then he was clear, the bull gone, heading for the out gate.
Some bulls liked to play with the rider. Some just want to get the hell out of the arena and get to their feed. Luckily for Garret, this bull was the second kind. Hands picked him up out of the dirt, and Garret let them, still catching his breath.
“Fuck.” The curse left his lips as he pushed through the gate and stalked behind the chutes. He was more mad at himself for making the rookie mistake.
“What happened?” Mustang blocked his path.
Garret sighed, in no mood for a lesson now. “I was off center and over corrected.”
“Yeah, you did. And you didn’t hang on to the rope and try to make the eight anyway because you’re afraid with that injury.” Mustang indicated Garret’s hand clutching his shoulder.
Garret forced himself to let the hand drop. It was still numb. He held on to it more for fear he’d done more damage landing on it than because he could feel pain. “I don’t like feeling like I have no control. No strength when I need it.”
This was a dangerous sport anyway, but even more so when he couldn’t depend on his body to be strong enough to keep him out of harm’s way.