by Kadie Scott
“Ten years of history is going to require a lot of showing.”
“Then show him a lot. Starting by not helping me today.”
Ashley chuckled as she held up her hands in surrender. “Okay. You’ve sold me.” She’d already come to that conclusion, only she’d been too darn stubborn to admit it to herself in time.
*
Jennings glanced at his watch again, and tried to keep the irritation off his face as he waited in Mr. Reisen’s office. Ashley was only five minutes late. No way would she do this to him again—skip out on something important—not when the finances of the ranch were at stake, and not just his grade in a math class.
He tapped his boot, the sound hushed by the thick carpet in the office, as he silently fumed. He still couldn’t believe she’d gone ahead and helped Eric today after Jennings had been crystal clear how much it would bother him.
He wasn’t ready to acknowledge that the telling her not to help had been a bonehead move almost guaranteed to push the stubborn woman into doing it anyway.
He was done. Done with letting the promise of what they could be override the truth of what they really were. Which was nothing. Less than nothing, based on her attitude.
Every part of him rejected that idea. Rejected giving up on her, but ten years was too long to hang on to fruitless hope. Wasn’t the definition of insanity to repeat the same mistakes while expecting a different outcome?
He was done.
“Sorry I’m late!” Ashley’s harried voice preceded her into the room.
Jennings stood and turned. And clenched his hands at his sides at the sight of her, fighting his own reaction, a need to yank her into his arms, lay a claim, and never let go.
She’d worn purple, but that couldn’t have been on purpose or because of him. Still, she looked incredible, soft jeans hugging her curves and a deep purple V-neck sweater both showing her assets and lighting her eyes up like a swirling mist.
Ashley didn’t give him time to react as she walked straight up to him. “Hi,” she murmured, her voice soft and sweet. Then she went up on tiptoe and kissed him. A quick brush of her lips across his, but he stood there, like a stunned moron as his brain took a second to catch up.
“Hi, Mr. Reisen.” She turned to the lawyer and shook his hand.
“Nice to see you, Ashley.” The lawyer didn’t even blink. “Please sit.”
She took one of the two chairs in front of the desk, then glanced up at Jennings, who had yet to move. “Jay?”
His gut clenched at the old nickname. What game was she playing now? Jennings dropped down into the chair beside her, biting back the questions.
David Reisen glanced between the two of them, obviously picking up on the funky vibes. But he said nothing, clearing his throat and jumping right into what he’d called them both there for.
Ashley didn’t touch him again. Heck, she hardly looked at him over the next two hours of questions and a detailed walkthrough with the lawyer of her methods and findings. By the time David was satisfied—and confident of a favorable outcome, something which should’ve had Jennings overcome with relief—all he wanted to do was get home.
Away from Ashley and his own traitorous heart that ached for the woman.
What had Will said? She’d always been his kryptonite.
They shook hands with David, and Jennings walked her out in silence. At the sidewalk, without a word, he turned to go to his truck.
“I didn’t help Eric today.”
Her soft words stopped him mid-prowl. Slowly, Jennings turned to face her. She watched him with wide, wary eyes.
“You were on your way over there.” She expected him to believe her?
“Yes.”
“What changed your mind?”
She scrunched up her nose. “Eric.”
That green serpent of jealousy rose up in him again. Of course, Eric would be the one to talk her around when anything Jennings said only hit a brick wall of resistance. Yet another example of why he needed to be done.
Jennings jerked back around, but she hurried over and stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“I told him why you were mad at me. But even as I said it, I knew that I owed you…more than I’ve been giving. He agreed and pointed out a few other…home truths. Then he took me back home. We had a good talk about it, actually.”
Jennings didn’t look at her. “Good for you.”
“You have every right to be angry.”
“I’m glad you figured that out, finally.” He wasn’t facing her, but he felt her flinch through the hand still on his arm. A small amount of guilt tugged at him, but Jennings ignored it. He was finished being twisted up.
“Anyway. I thought you should know.” She dropped her hand.
“Now I know.”
He took a few steps away, then turned back. The woman he’d loved all his life looked tiny and alone, her shoulders hunched over and her long dark hair whipping around in the wind. He wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay.
Only he couldn’t do that. He didn’t know that. “You didn’t do this so I’d step back into the fake boyfriend role, did you?”
She shook her head. No anger or accusation or even irritation in the movement, in her expression.
Again, the spike of guilt had him clenching his teeth. When was he going to stop being a sucker over Ashley Hughes? “I can’t come to the rehearsal dinner tomorrow. I have to go with Mr. Riesin to Austin for this fraud thing. They think they’ve located the guy, and I need to identify him to bring charges.”
She blinked. “I know.”
Right. She’d been in the same meeting he had. Jennings ran a hand through his hair. Still undecided. Damn.
“I’ll think about the wedding. If I come, what time should I pick you up?”
Her expression didn’t change, but she straightened her shoulders. “Around four.”
“Okay.” He couldn’t stay around her another minute longer or he’d give into that urge to hold her that he’d been battling since she’d walked into the lawyer’s office. With a nod, he turned and strode away, still debating if he should continue to play her games at all.
His heart couldn’t take another ten years of this.
Chapter Fifteen
Ashley’s parents, dressed and ready for the wedding, paused at the garage door. “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? Jennings can meet you at the church.”
She waved her mother’s offer away. “I’m sure he got held up with ranch stuff. He’ll be here any minute.” And if he didn’t show, the tin man would have nothing on her in the “needing a new heart” department, because hers would be smashed to smithereens.
Her mother glanced out the window at the long empty drive leading to their home. No telltale plume of dust rose up, indicating an approaching vehicle. “Okay. Don’t wait too much longer. You’re the maid of honor.”
As if she was about to forget that fact. She’d already spent the day helping Taylor get ready, as well as getting herself ready. Taylor was in the truck waiting for her parents, but insisted Ashley wait for her date. “I’ll be there in plenty of time.”
Finally, they left, as evidenced by the muted sound of the garage door lowering, followed by the crunch of tires on the gravel drive. Silence settled over the house along with an odd sense of loneliness. Ashley checked her phone for the hundredth time, but no message waited for her.
Please show.
Ashley looked forward to seeing Jennings with an almost desperate need that shocked the hell out of her. Almost two full days without contact and she missed him. She missed his goofy, sexy texts and constant teasing. She missed the way he both stood up for her and stood up to her. She missed his face. She’d even missed him yesterday at the rehearsal dinner. Her heart was in for a world of hurt when she went back to Dallas.
Her telling him about not helping Eric had been the first step. She hoped what she had already planned for tonight for Taylor and Eric would smooth things o
ver more. But she was saving approaching him for later, after the wedding and Christmas were both over, when the question of the fake boyfriend was no longer necessary.
She wiped her palms over the silky folds of her dress. Lights flashed across the window, and her heart took off at a gallop as she inched back the curtain to peer outside, relief whooshing through her at the sight of Jennings’s truck.
He’d come.
She wrapped her thick, knee-length jacket around her and was waiting in the foyer before he even got out. The doorbell chimed, followed by a flutter of anticipation.
She opened the door to find him standing there, tall and handsome, dressed in his best formal suit—dark charcoal gray paired with a silver tie which peeked out from under a nice black wool coat, and black dress boots, of course. A totally expected bolt of desire lanced straight through her. He looked amazing all dressed up.
And, boy, was she in trouble. How was she going to make it through the night without being reduced to begging?
Although, maybe begging was what needed to happen.
“Hi,” she said. Inwardly she groaned, but she couldn’t think past the shock of her discovery.
His dark-eyed gaze traveled the length of her body like a caress and back up to meet her eyes. “I’d say you look lovely, but you’re all hidden under a coat.”
Her heart dropped. His semi-compliment had been rote, and he still held himself back.
When she didn’t answer, he continued. “I’m sorry I’m late. I got held up at the ranch talking with Mr. Riesin. Then my cell died, or I would’ve called on the way over.” He gave her a chagrined grimace.
“I figured it had to be something like that.” Because he wasn’t the type of man to let a girl down. She knew that now. “How’d things go yesterday in Austin?”
“Good news on that front. They’ve made an arrest. The police seem to think our case is pretty cut and dried. Thanks to you, of course.”
Despite his rather cool delivery of good news, warmth radiated around the region of her heart. She could at least do that for him. “I’m glad I could help.”
“Me, too. We’d better get going.”
He eyed the backpack she hefted over her shoulder. “What’s that?”
She grinned. “I have a surprise for Taylor and Eric.”
A familiar spark of amusement lit his eyes for a millisecond. “And it involves a backpack?”
“What’s in the backpack. Yes.”
“Right.”
She shivered as he blanked his expression, cutting off their connection as he sobered.
Ever the gentleman, Jennings escorted her to his truck. They didn’t talk much on the way to the church. As soon as they arrived, Ashley got swept up in the wedding activities and Jennings took his seat at the front of the church behind her parents, the rest of his family sitting with him. Not a single smile had come her way.
Where’d the fun guy she’d bumped into at the bar go? Or the guy who’d sent her those flirty texts? The guy who’d climbed in her window in the early hours of the morning? She wanted that guy back. Again, the crushing worry that she’d ruined her last chance with him, if she ever had a chance, snuck back in.
*
Jennings had been so tempted to sneak in a kiss before they parted, all for show of course, but had managed to hold himself back. He’d only survive this if it involved less kissing.
As soft strains of music played, and the grandparents and mothers were seated, the music changed, and, one at a time, the bridesmaids started their processions down the aisle. He waited, with irritating impatience, until Ashley appeared at the back of the church, then he had to suck in a breath.
Like the picture she had texted him a few days ago, she was dressed in a sparkling white gown in a sheer material over a more opaque one in the same shade. Jennings didn’t know what material the dress was made of. Didn’t care. He just liked how it lovingly hugged her body.
Ashley, her long dark hair swept away from her face and curling down her back, made him think of angels. This was how she would look as a bride, walking down the aisle. Only, her face would glow with happiness and pride as she moved to her groom’s side.
The image sucker-punched him in the stomach, as he clearly pictured her making that walk. To him. Except she was still hung up on another man. The one at the end of the aisle she walked down now.
Ashley kept her eyes forward for the most part, though she darted glances at those gathered in the quaint old church pews. Then her gaze landed on him, seated just behind her parents, and she smiled. A real smile, just for him, which lit her gray eyes with happiness.
An act of course, for their intended audience. But, in the space of less than two minutes, he’d gotten sucker-punched again. Down for the count. Head over heels in love with Ashley Hughes, and nothing he could damn well do about it.
Irritation sliced through him, and he had to relax his clenched fists. Irritation with her for dragging him back. Especially irritation with himself for entertaining emotions that had zero hope of ending in any kind of happily ever after, for loving a woman for ten years who loved another man, even when that man was marrying her sister.
As Ashley glided to a stop at the front of the chapel, Jennings firmed his original plans for tonight in his head. Play along with her, help her by acting smitten, and then cut all ties. Time for him to move on.
The music changed, announcing the entrance of the bride. Jennings stood, along with everyone else, as the double doors were thrown back, and there stood Taylor. An Ashley look-a-like, but they had never once fooled him. Neither his body nor his heart ever reacted to Taylor the way they did to Ashley.
Taylor wore a gown of claret red with white fur around her shoulders, the cuffs of her long sleeves, and the train. A true Christmas present for her bridegroom. That was why the bridesmaids were in white. Taylor had flipped the tradition.
Jennings glanced over the heads of those around him to see Eric—shoulders back, tall and proud—who never appeared happier as his bride walked toward him. Finally, his gaze moved to Ashley, who didn’t even spare a glance for the bridegroom. Her radiant smile was for her sister alone.
Despite his resolution, he couldn’t drag his gaze from Ashley for the rest of the ceremony, even if he wanted to. Luckily, he had the excuse of dating her, as far as the entire town was concerned, to justify his focus. Might as well put on a full show.
Several times, when she angled toward the congregation, her gaze flickered his way. The fourth time that happened, he mouthed, “I want you.” Her cheeks turned a delightful pink. He also caught the hitch to those lovely lips, which he guessed held back a laugh. Even through his frustration with himself for doing that, when it hadn’t remotely been part of his plan and entirely spontaneous, a small spark of warmth still lit inside him at her reaction.
He managed to convince himself that was about the charade, and not real. But it felt real.
The ceremony ended soon enough, and after the bridal party walked back down the aisle, the congregation dutifully filed out after them, a pew at a time.
At Linda’s request, he followed Ashley’s parents to where the bridal party and family gathered—a generic side room, which appeared to be where the choir dressed if the hanging robes were any clue.
Ashley’s dark curls immediately caught his eye. She had her back turned to him as she chatted happily with several other bridesmaids. Time to put on a show.
He approached her from behind, giving the blonde from the bar last weekend a friendly, though distant, smile of recognition. He slipped an arm around Ashley’s waist and whispered in her ear. “You look gorgeous.”
She spun in his arms with a laugh that shot straight to his heart. His groin too, for that matter. “And you’re impossible. I can’t believe you said that in church.”
He put on his best innocent expression. “I didn’t say anything.”
She raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I mouthed it.”
She shook h
er head at him but laughed again, her eyes alight with an emotion he might have labeled as relief if he hadn’t known better, and he tightened his arms around her in reaction to the gut-clenching sensation.
Tonight was going to suck—fighting himself and her the entire evening.
“All right, everyone,” Linda Hughes called, interrupting them. “Time for pictures. Let’s go back to the sanctuary.”
Ashley pulled a comical face. “I’m in the limo with the bridal party after pictures. Why don’t you head to the reception, and I’ll meet you there?”
“Sounds good.” Again, the devil and angel perched on his shoulders had a grand time debating as part of him couldn’t wait to have some space to regain the distance he’d started the evening with, and part of him didn’t want to leave her.
The reception was being held in what had once been a private club for the town’s wealthy elite—lovely with an antebellum design, all columns and white paint. His family were already inside, but he didn’t need their watchful gazes right this minute, no matter how supportive, so he waited for Ashley in the foyer. Pictures took a while, but a waiter spied him and brought a beer.
“What next?” he asked when Ashley finally showed. He ordered his heart to quit getting so keyed up when she was near. Not that his heart listened.
“I’m going to help Taylor bustle her train.” She waved toward her sister, who was gathering up the long red train as they spoke. “The dinner seating is assigned, and you’ll be next to me. Meet me at the table?”
“Sure.” He leaned down and kissed her. He’d meant for it to be quick and sweet, for everyone but them, but she leaned into him, and he had to sip at her luscious lips a moment longer, awareness zinging through him.
With a jerk, he pulled back. Will had been right. Ashley Hughes was his kryptonite. To cover his odd actions, because now she frowned up at him, he resumed his role and grinned down into her dazed eyes. “Guess we jumped the gun and got dessert first.”
Her lips twitched even as she rolled her eyes. She gave him a playful shove toward the door. “Cheeseball. Get going.”