The Rancher's Fake Fiancée

by Amy Vastine

  “I thought Ethan got the guest ranch booked through the summer.”

  “Yeah, with Sarah Ashley’s friends. Not real, honest-to-goodness customers. We need your help with marketing. Ethan tried to revamp the website and it’s a disaster.”

  “I wouldn’t call it a disaster,” Ethan could be heard saying in the background.

  “The sooner you get out here, Ty, the sooner we can get this place for a fair price.”

  “Or maybe you’ll realize that this place is worth keeping in the family!” Ethan shouted.

  Tyler could picture the glare Ben was most likely giving his twin. “Stop dragging your feet, Ty. Ethan is in over his head. Don’t say anything,” he obviously said in warning to Ethan. “You know it’s true.”

  Ethan knew everything there was to know about animals, but marketing and brand management had very little to do with animal biology. If Ethan’s only plan for getting customers in the door was to beg friends for a favor, the ranch was done for.

  “You gave up your job in New York, Ben. Use your free time to help Ethan make things work.”

  “I have my own ranch to take care of.” Ben had come home to solve the water rights dispute with their neighbors, the Thompsons, and somehow ended up giving them everything they wanted. He even married into their family. The Double T Ranch was Ben and Rachel’s responsibility now. “Get on a plane and come do your part.”

  Tyler loosened his tie. His breathing became unsteady. He cleared his throat. “I can’t come back, Ben.”

  “You mean you won’t. You could if you really wanted to.”

  “I can’t. It’s not only work. I have other things going on, too.”

  “Well, Jon and Ethan also have things going on. Both of them are planning weddings. On top of that, Jon has the girls and Ethan has a baby on the way. You, on the other hand, have no one to worry about but yourself.”

  Something inside Tyler snapped. If there was one thing he couldn’t stand, it was being the last Blackwell to accomplish something. In the last three months, his three older brothers had fallen in love and gotten either engaged or married. Tyler’s twin, Chance, had been the first to get married years ago when they were only twenty. Jon had married next and divorced a few years later. Of course, Jonathan the overachiever had managed to find someone else before Tyler even met one woman he cared enough about to marry.

  “Well, I’m busy...planning a wedding, too.”

  Hadley giggled, quickly covering her mouth. He shot her a look that took all the humor out of the situation. The best way to get through to his brothers was to speak their language, and apparently love was the only language they spoke recently.

  “Really? Whose wedding are you planning exactly?” Ben’s tone clearly suggested he wasn’t buying it.

  Tyler locked eyes with Hadley and put a finger to his lips, hoping she’d stay silent. She tipped her head and her eyes narrowed in curiosity.

  “Mine and Hadley’s.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  THERE WAS NO way this was happening. Hadley felt her heart stop for a second. What in the world would make Tyler say such an outrageous lie?

  “You guys aren’t the only ones who can fall in love and get married. I’m in the same boat and probably headed down the aisle before Ethan and Jon. I can’t leave now when Hadley and I have so much going on professionally and personally.”

  Hadley must have been hallucinating. Why in the world would Tyler be telling his brother they were getting married? How was that the best idea he could come up with to get out of going to Montana to help them out?

  Tyler’s face turned red. “Subpoena me for what? I have nothing to do with anything that’s going on out there.”

  Hadley underlined the word vacation on the piece of paper she had shown him a minute ago before he had announced to his family that she was his betrothed. The man needed to go. It was the only way she was going to prove her worth around here.

  “Hold on, my fiancée needs me for a second.” Tyler put the call on Hold. “Listen, I know this isn’t making any sense.”

  “You mean you didn’t just reveal your love for me and propose?”

  Tyler sighed and his shoulders slumped. “It’s a long story and I just need them to understand that I can’t come to Montana right now.”

  “Why not? Kellen just told you to take a break. I’ve been begging you to get your brothers to stop calling. You taking a vacation to Montana and helping your brothers sell your family’s ranch seems like it solves all of our problems.”

  “It won’t work,” Tyler argued. “Even if I went to Falcon Creek for my two-week ‘vacation,’ there’s no way that I could turn things around enough to make a difference.” He paused and stared at her for a second. “Not by myself.”

  Hadley felt her face warm. She didn’t like how he was looking at her. Feeding his ego was her only hope. “You’re Tyler Blackwell. You can rebrand companies in your sleep. You can do anything.”

  Tyler put the phone back to his ear and resumed his call. “Hadley and I will be there in a week.”

  “No,” she interrupted. “I can’t go with you.”

  Tyler ignored her. “We’ll do what we can for two weeks.”

  Two weeks? In Montana? With Tyler Blackwell, pretending to be his fiancée? No. No. And no.

  “I’ll do some research, find some potential buyers and paint a pretty picture for them. With any luck, someone will take it off our hands before the summer is over.”

  Hadley shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. This was not the plan. The plan was Tyler goes to Montana by himself. Hadley stays in Portland and manages Tyler’s accounts while he’s gone. Tyler comes back and gives her the job she deserved in the first place.

  As soon as Tyler hung up the phone, she pounced. “Ty, I can’t go with you. Who’s going to handle everything you’ve got going on here if we both go? You wanted my help getting things done while you were on vacation. I can’t do that if I go on vacation with you.”

  “I need you to come with me. If both of us work on this, we’ll have the place sold in no time. Plus, my brothers can’t wait to meet the woman who convinced me to settle down.”

  The knot in the pit of her stomach got tighter. And then it hit her. He needed her. He needed her to do something for him. “If I go, what do I get in return?”

  Tyler blinked. “What do you get in return? What do you want?”

  Hadley leaned forward as a sly smile spread across her face. “You know what I want. I want the same thing I wanted a couple months ago, but you let Kellen give it to Eric.”

  * * *

  SHE WAS SO darn smart. He’d have to give her that much.

  “Looking back, I probably should have gotten a little more information about Eric’s qualifications,” he said. “Or maybe I should say lack thereof.”

  “He’s Kellen’s nephew. That’s it. He does not know how to do the job. You know that. I know that. Kellen would know it if he was here day in and day out. You need to tell him. Convince him to give the job to me. If you do that, I’ll go to Montana with you and help you sell your ranch.”

  She wasn’t wrong. Hadley was the better choice for brand strategist. Given Eric’s difficulty finding his bearings, Kellen might not be so reluctant to reassign him to a more suitable position.

  “And you’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”

  “I was thinking a better plan would be telling your brothers you were just kidding about that part.”

  His spur-of-the-moment lie about getting married was supposed to keep him from going to Montana. He never imagined having to pretend, but if she wanted him to go, Hadley had to come with and there was no way he was letting his brothers know he wasn’t as blissfully in love as they were.

  “Nope,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “Fake engagement is a go. Either you’re in or you’re out.
And if you’re out, Eric keeps his job.”

  Hadley sank back in her chair, contemplating her options. There were no options. If she wanted the job, she had to go along with this plan.

  “If I do this, there will be very strict rules. I don’t know what you expect out of a fake fiancée, but there is no way I will compromise myself or my morals.”

  “Come on, Hadley. I’m not going to ask you to make out with me in front of my brothers.” Clearly, there was no way the thought of kissing him could be unappealing, but he wouldn’t ask her to do anything that would make either of them uncomfortable. He didn’t need a harassment charge brought against him. This was still a business arrangement.

  “As soon as we’re done and back in Portland, you will let your family know the wedding is off.”

  “No problem.” Hadley wasn’t his type anyways. He’d be lucky if they didn’t notice how incompatible they were as soon as they got there. Tyler would have to put on a real show if he wanted to keep them in the dark.

  Hadley stood up and smoothed her skirt. She reached a hand across his desk. “Then, we have a deal.”

  The two of them shook on it and Hadley hustled out of his office. Tyler opened a new window on his computer and began his search for flights to Billings. Like it or not, he was headed back to Falcon Creek.

  * * *

  HADLEY’S HEAD WAS SPINNING. Had she just made a deal with the devil? Or had she made the deal of a lifetime? Two weeks marketing some ranch in Montana to potential buyers and she would have the job she deserved. That had to be a win for her.

  She tried not to think about the fact that she had to pretend to be engaged. To Tyler Blackwell.

  “Can I ask you a question about the Kingman account?” Eric stood next to her desk with a file folder in his hand. She couldn’t imagine what was in the manila folder given that they did everything electronically.

  “Sure.”

  “So, I’m supposed to be doing some market research and put together a report analyzing the market data and trends, right?”

  “That’s what a brand strategist does.” She had answered this question more than once. He seemed to need constant confirmation of his role. She couldn’t tell if he kept forgetting or was asking in hopes he’d get a different answer one of these days.

  Eric scratched the back of his head. “Do we have any of that from maybe a similar account? I mean, no reason to reinvent the wheel if it already exists, right?”

  If he ended one more sentence with the word right, Hadley was going to lose her mind. She tried hard not to sound too condescending even though she wanted to let him know his incompetence was the reason she’d be taking his job in a few weeks.

  “Kingman is a unique brand that sells men’s shaving supplies and gift sets. We don’t work with any other companies that sell in that niche market. You’ll have to start fresh.”

  “It sounds like you know a lot about them. That’s great!” It was clear the file folder in his hand was empty, a shameless prop to make him look like he was doing something. “Maybe you could help me out with this one. Put together a few things for me and I’ll do the analyzing part afterward.”

  “I wish I could,” she said with a frown. “But Tyler just roped me into another project. I’m going to be out of the office for a couple weeks.”

  “A new project?” Veronica sounded panicked.

  “Don’t worry,” Hadley reassured her. “Tyler and I will be handling this one by ourselves. We won’t be asking you to do anything. Stay focused on the Paint-A-Lot redesign.”

  Eric wouldn’t leave. “You sure you can’t get me started on this Kingman thing before you move on to whatever Tyler has you doing? I’ll run out and get you some coffee from that place you like on the corner.”

  Hadley couldn’t hold back a sigh. What did it matter? The truth was she would be handling the Kingman account as soon as she got back from Montana and took over Eric’s job. Her job. “Let me see what I can do.”

  “Thank you! You are the best. She’s the best, right?” Eric scanned the room for someone to agree.

  “She’d be better if she’d let us use her Hollywood connections,” Lee said from his desk. He’d been giving her a hard time ever since Veronica let it out of the bag that Hadley’s older brother was Asher Sullivan, star of TV’s popular family drama When We Were Young.

  “I heard there are already rumors your brother is a shoo-in for an Emmy this year,” Eric said before his eyes went wide. “Hey, I bet your brother shaves, right? Maybe he’d want to be the spokesman for Kingman.”

  He was unbelievable. Did he know anything about the client? “I’m going to assume you’ve at least glanced at Kingman’s financials, so you know Asher is definitely not in their budget.”

  “But he’s your brother, right? You could talk him into doing it for a steal.”

  Wrong. Hadley did not mix business with her personal life. Asher was her brother, not a potential spokesman for a client. “I have a ton of work to do, especially if you want me to gather some market data for you.”

  “That’s her way of saying no, Eric,” Lee said, clueing him in.

  An email popped up from Tyler. Hadley opened it to find a confirmation notice for their flight to Billings, Montana, one week from today.

  She bit down on her bottom lip. Hadley didn’t get personal when it came to business. Apart from pretending to be her boss’s fiancée in order to get the job she deserved.

  What could possibly go wrong?

  CHAPTER THREE

  “DID YOU SERIOUSLY buy one first-class ticket?” Hadley watched as he handed his suitcase over to be weighed.

  “I always fly first class,” he said, ignoring her obvious reason for asking.

  “Are you really the type of man who would let your fiancée sit in the back of the plane while you’re pampered in first class?”

  The woman from the airline tagging his bag gave Tyler a well-deserved dirty look. Hadley had no issue with shaming him.

  Tyler, however, appeared completely unfazed. “You’re not my fiancée until we step foot on Blackwell land.”

  “So there’s still time to change my mind?” Hadley lifted her suitcase onto the scale.

  Tyler slid his driver’s license back into his wallet. “Don’t start with me before we even leave Portland.”

  “You can’t marry him,” the woman behind the counter whispered. “You deserve better than that.”

  “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t marry him even if he had bought me a first-class ticket.” Tyler Blackwell was the last man on earth she’d want to end up spending her life with.

  He was already headed toward the security checkpoint. Hadley weaved through the crowd of anxious travelers to catch up.

  “You’re a real charmer, Ty,” she said just as her carry-on with its one bad wheel veered left when she wanted it to go right. It crossed paths with an older gentleman walking past her, ramming him in the leg.

  Hadley apologized profusely as Tyler took the bag from her and carried it to the security line. “How was that for charming?” he asked as he handed it back.

  “If that’s all you got for charm, our engagement is doomed.”

  “I’m fine with that. It only needs to survive the next two weeks. After that, we go back to boss and employee.”

  “Boss and brand strategist.”

  “Boss and whatever you want to be called.” He got out of the line. “I have precheck. I’ll meet you at the gate. Try not to take out any other unsuspecting passengers with that thing,” he said, pointing at her bag.

  “I’ll try.” Hadley had to keep her eye on the prize. Two weeks and she would be promoted. It didn’t matter if Tyler was so standoffish. She wasn’t his real fiancée. They didn’t have to sit by each other or walk through the airport side by side. She was fine with the fact that the act began and ended at the ranch.<
br />
  Once through security, she stopped and bought a coffee. There was no reason to buy one for Tyler since he’d be sipping whatever his heart desired once he boarded the plane. They weren’t together until they were on Blackwell land—his words, not hers.

  She lugged her defective bag to the gate and took a seat without even bothering to look for Tyler. She stared down at the ring on her finger. A fake diamond ring for a fake wedding. Tyler had bought it a couple of days ago. It was so cheap Hadley wouldn’t get it wet for fear it would turn her finger green or something.

  How was she going to pull this off? Her phone chimed with a text from her best friend, Maggie, asking for an update on this nightmare adventure. Maggie already thought Hadley was taking a risk by going on this trip without having the promotion secured. She feared that Tyler might not hold up his end of the deal. What if Kellen wouldn’t agree with the change?

  He’s sitting in first class without me, she texted.

  Are you kidding me? Maggie wrote back.

  Doesn’t matter. I’m going to enjoy my alone time while I can, Hadley messaged.

  I swear if he doesn’t give you a promotion for this, you better quit. You’ve gone above and beyond! He’s a schmuck. Hot but a schmuck.

  Hadley smiled. Maggie had developed this weird crush on Tyler after she stopped by one day to take Hadley to lunch. One look at him and she thought she was in lust. Hadley had popped her bubble real fast. Tyler wasn’t anyone’s Prince Charming.

  “Thanks for getting me a coffee.” Tyler stood in front of her with his eyebrows raised. “And after you made me feel guilty for only thinking about myself.” He held out a new boarding pass. “Here, you’ll need this.”

  He had upgraded her to first class and she suddenly felt like the schmuck. “You didn’t have to do that. I was only giving you a hard time earlier.”

  He sat down in the empty seat next to her and took a deep breath. “I want you to know that I appreciate what you’re doing for me. I might not know how to show it all the time, but I want you to know I feel it.”

  “Thanks,” she replied, staring down at her new boarding pass in her lap. Hadley had never flown first class. Her brother had once bragged about how he’d never fly with “the averages” again. Asher always had a way of making her feel small without even trying.