Her Billionaire Cowboy's Fake Marriage

by Hope Moore

  And all because of Wade McCoy, her husband. The past two days were crazy and unbelievable. But as she lay there thinking about tomorrow, excitement filled her. She was going to look at this with a positive outlook. And she was trying really hard to enjoy herself for the short time she was here…and she was going to believe with all her heart that her mother was going to pull out of this coma.

  The next morning, Wade rose early and went out to the barn to check on his animals.

  Clay, his friend and top hand, sauntered into the barn. “Morning, boss,” he drawled and grinned. “I see you made it back. Did you find any new stock out there at that stock show for us?”

  “I did. There were some really good bulls. They’ll be delivered here next week, so you’ll need to get ready.”

  “Oh, we’re ready. We’ve got it all figured out. We’ve got the breeding schedules lined up.”

  “Good. Clay, I got married. I brought my bride back with me.”

  At his blunt words, Clay squinted at him. “Say what?”

  “You heard me. I got married. So, I just want to pre-warn you, and maybe you can spread the word while y’all are out working cows, that my wife is now living at the big house. Her name is Allie. She’s great.”

  “I didn’t even know you were dating anybody.”

  “I wasn’t, but well, you know the stipulations to the will, and you know that my time was about out.” Not everybody on the ranch knew the details of the will, but Clay was his closest friend aside from his brothers, so he knew. And Clay knew that things were desperate.

  “Wow, you did it. I don’t know how you convinced her to get married, but I should have believed in you all along.”

  “I thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it, but Allie had her own reasons and agreed to help me out.”

  Clay’s eyes narrowed with wariness. “What kind of a person is she to agree to this?”

  “She’s a good person. She’s a real good person. She was just in a predicament. We were brought together by fate. I’m giving her what she needed, and she’s giving me what I needed.”

  “I’m stunned. Happy for you and all of us wranglers to keep our jobs. How did Todd and Morgan take the news?”

  “Haven’t told them yet. Only people who know are you, Nelda, and the lawyer. I’ll call them later today and tell them. But they’re going to be glad.”

  At least he figured they would be, despite their aggravation at their granddad forcing this on him.

  Allie woke and ignored the trepidation curling in her stomach. She dressed quickly, still trying to get used to the beauty of the room she was in and the weirdness that in some ways, she was camping out in this room. Wade had explained to her that there was no stipulation that they had to consummate the marriage but they were supposed to be sharing a room. He truly had no idea whether there was some kind of stipulation in his granddaddy’s will that there would be someone dropping in to check on the room status. At this point, he didn’t know what to expect from his granddaddy, he’d said, so therefore, he wanted to be safe and make it appear that they were following every detail of the contract.

  Allie thought that Wade’s grandfather sounded desperate. She agreed with Wade that he was trying to help Wade fall in love and that three months probably would be enough for two people to find out whether they were or not. She thought it was all very weird, but she also admired Mr. McCoy for trying to help his grandson find a wife, or better yet, someone to share his life with. They’d both speculated that maybe he thought if you were incompatible within three months, that it probably wasn’t happening. She just hoped that she and Wade were compatible enough to live in the same house together for three months. She envisioned Ginny in this situation, and she didn’t think whoever the guy was would be able to last. Not unless there was a strong connection because Ginny was her own person and either you loved her, or you didn’t. That would have made something like this really awkward and hard. She laughed thinking about it. But of course, this would never happen to Ginny. That girl would never agree to something so crazy. And besides, her parents had the winery and she was indispensable to them.

  Gathering her things, Allie looked around the room and made sure it looked like it did before she slept there. Then she peeked out the door and then snuck into the hallway to Wade’s room. He had told her to just go inside, that he would be up early and down at the stables or in his office and that if she needed him, those would be the places to find him. That breakfast would be downstairs, and she would probably be able to find Nelda in the kitchen. Now, she opened his bedroom door, feeling weird going inside his room. He had shown her the closet last night briefly, and said he would clean out some space for her in the dresser and that there was plenty of space in the walk-in closet for her things. He hadn’t been wrong. It was massive.

  Glancing around his room, feeling intrusive but curious, she was struck again by how beautiful it was. It was large, masculine, and the tan and red theme that was going on was subtle but nice. It clearly said that Wade had no female in his life. There was a lot of leather in the seating area next to a fireplace in the room. There were double doors leading out onto a private patio. It was a truly wonderful room, and she envisioned it with warmer tones and a more romantic touch to it. Stop. She shouldn’t be thinking things like that because she was not here to stay.

  Unable to help herself, she walked over to the double doors and opened them. Stepping out onto the patio, she took in the view. The house sat on a sloped piece of land, so that there were steps leading from the patio to the gradual sloping hillside. She could see ranchland and the river in the distance. It was beautiful and it was dotted with both dove-gray cattle and black cattle. Maybe Brahman or Brangus, Texas breeds she’d often heard talked about…though she couldn’t really tell you what they were—the kind that had some kind of hump on their backs? What she saw in Wade’s pasture had a hump at their shoulders.

  She was, she decided, going to get an education about ranching while she was here. Something she’d never really had any reason to wonder about before. She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and focused on the buildings. A barn and then what she believed was the stable. Wade was talking to a couple of cowboys. He looked no different than the other two men from this distance but despite not being able to see his face, she was surprised that she could recognize him from this distance simply by the way he stood and the way he carried himself when he walked. He had his hat pulled low. He had on worn jeans, creased down the front—even from this distance, she could tell that they were pressed. They looked as if they were velvety to the touch, which they weren’t; it was just that they were well-worn and that they were probably starched and creased their entire life and the starch was probably burned into them, giving them that appearance. It was a common look of cowboys who could afford to have someone do their laundry every day. Not everyone could afford that, and not every cowboy had that, so she should have guessed that there was something to him the first time she saw him enter the truck stop. She’d been too busy to notice small details like that, though.

  Still, nothing about his appearance then or now gave her a clue that Wade McCoy was a billionaire cowboy. The man had stopped to get coffee at the highway truck stop, for heaven’s sake.

  Something drew his attention and he glanced about as if searching. Then it seemed as if he looked directly at her. She could feel his eyes on her and her heart raced instantly. He verified that he saw her when he lifted his hand in acknowledgment then tipped his hat at her. Feeling crazily breathless, she lifted her hand and gave a small wave, feeling very awkward and uncertain. He now knew that she had been in his room and that she had been on his patio. There was a wall beside the patio that gave this section some semblance of privacy from the rest of the house. If she had just stayed back closer to the doors a little bit, he would never have known she had been out there. But no, she had left the house and walked to the edge of the patio so that she was in full view of anyone who was out there. Sh
e told herself not to be self-conscious as she turned and headed back into the room and carefully closed the doors. He had given her permission to be where she was, and that was all that this was. She was just exploring.

  But it was his own private area and that was why it felt so intrusive to her. She was married to him but not a part of this…not as if they were a real happily married couple.

  She left the bedroom and headed back the way they had come the night before until she found herself back in the large kitchen. A woman of about fifty was in the kitchen. She had short blonde hair and a trim figure in jeans and boots and a colorful T-shirt. She spun the moment she heard Allie enter the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Allie.” A warm smile lifted the edges of her eyes and the suntanned skin crinkled from her cheeks to the edges of her eyes. “I’m Nelda, Wade’s housekeeper. And I am so happy to say congratulations to you. Wade told me you two got married yesterday. I’m very excited. I just want you to know that if you ever need anything, you just let me know. I’m married to the foreman—I’m sure he’s told you that. Roland has been the foreman on this ranch for a long time. I can tell you he’s going to be thrilled, too. He and Wade’s granddad were great friends and he’s always said that J.D.—that’s Mr. McCoy’s first name, in case you didn’t know—always wanted his boys married. This ranch is a wonderful place to live and bring up a family.”

  Nelda was about her own mother’s age and Allie liked her on the spot but wondered whether she knew about the will. “Thank you. I’m excited to look around. I’m going to go exploring here in just a little while, but I thought I’d grab a cup of coffee.”

  Nelda immediately turned toward the coffeemaker, grabbed a red mug off a mug rack, and filled it with coffee. “Coffee will be here any time you want it, and cream and sugar too. I set it out for you since Wade told me that you liked them both in your coffee. Anything you need, just look in the pantry or the fridge and if you don’t find what you want, just tell me and I’ll pick it up at the grocery store. Also, there’s bacon and eggs on the stove. Or I can make you an omelet or pancakes if you prefer. If you’d like homemade biscuits, they’re in the oven. I can fix you up a plate.”

  This was overwhelming, to say the least. Allie was the one who waited on people, not the other way around. “Um, that’s very nice of you. I’ll just take a piece of bacon, but I’m really not hungry at the moment. I think I’m going to head down to the barn, but I’ll take my bacon and my coffee. And I’ll have one of those biscuits when I get back.” She didn’t want to hurt Nelda’s feelings considering she’d gone to all this trouble.

  “That’s great. Everything will be in the oven on warm. Do you need any help unpacking or anything like that?”

  Again, Allie wasn’t sure how much Nelda knew about her and Wade’s marriage. Did she know it was just so that he would keep the inheritance in the family? She decided that Nelda didn’t need to know if at all possible. “No, thank you, I can do it, but it’s really nice meeting you. I’m sure that I’ll settle in nicely.”

  Nelda smiled warmly. “I hope so. I am just thrilled as peach pie to have you here.”

  Allie realized, as awkward as everything felt, that she was glad to be here too. But for the first time since marrying Wade, she felt the tug of guilt at not being completely truthful about their situation. What would Nelda think about her when she found out that Allie married Wade strictly for his money?

  Chapter Six

  Wade watched his horse prance with the knowledge that they were about to go for a ride. He laughed and led the big bay out into the sunshine.

  “Hold on, Bay Boy. You’re going to get your chance in just a second, after I make a stop at the kitchen.”

  He had to tell Allie where he was going and make sure she was okay. He’d spotted her standing on the patio when he’d looked toward the house earlier. Even in the distance, her blonde hair glistened in the sun and he could see her almost too slim figure. Grief. Stress. Worry. All emotions she’d been overwhelmed with could make a person lose their appetite and he wondered whether this was why she was so thin. She was so worried about her mom and still hurting at the sudden death of her father, and then the financial strain on her all could have made her look so fragile. The strength of his need to protect her startled him. And then there was the lightning strike.

  A few years ago, he’d been very near the spot that lightning had struck a tree. The electrical force that radiated from the strike caused a sizzle to race through him and the hair on the back of his neck to stand up. This was the feeling he’d experienced earlier when he’d felt eyes on him and had looked toward the house and saw Allie standing in the morning sunlight.

  He hadn’t been able to move at first. He’d just stared as the hum of electrical energy sizzled through him. And then he’d lifted his hand and tipped his hat.

  He was too far away to clearly see her eyes but they were locked on him; he could feel it. And he’d seen them in his memory: large, half trusting, half wary. And when she’d lifted her own hand to wave, he’d felt the sparks all the way to his toes.

  He was fighting to ignore the attraction. Knew all too well that all women were not as they seemed. He wanted to believe Allie was exactly what she appeared but he’d been burned so many times that this was hard to shake.

  And then there was the fact that he loved his granddaddy but Wade had no plans to let anyone dictate how he lived his life. Not even Granddaddy.

  “You’re in control when it comes to your lady friends, Bay Boy,” he said softly as the horse nudged him and gave him a dark-eyed stare. “I’m taking pointers from you. Never letting a woman have control over my happiness.” He was talking to his horse about his new wife. And as if he had conjured her up, she suddenly appeared around the corner of the barn, looking fresh and pretty and causing his heart to stumble when those eyes of hers connected with his.

  He cinched up his runaway libido, yanked it hard to get his focus back on not letting her get to him. She was beautiful and those eyes just seemed to dig in to his heart. No, not his heart—his…mind. There were twelve inches between his brain and his heart and it was his brain that she was affecting.

  He had never, ever had the kind of reaction to a woman that he had with Allie and he was just getting his boots back under him. That was all. But it wasn’t her fault she was having this strange effect on him, so he smiled and willed himself to act normal. She was here and they had an agreement and he needed to treat her kindly, despite the need to get tough with himself.

  “Good morning, sunshine. I see you were up and about early. I guess you got everything figured out and back into my room? It’s a good view from up there, isn’t it?”

  “The view is beautiful. It’s amazing. You have the Guadalupe right in your backyard. That’s just cool.”

  “No, it’s actually the Pedernales River.”

  “Oh, you can tell I haven’t been around here that much.”

  “There are a lot of rivers in the region but the Guadalupe is the best known.”

  “Well, the important thing is that your grandfather picked well. It’s just beautiful here. Breathtaking. I can see why you love it so much.”

  He stared at her with her twinkling eyes and excitement. He loved this land and liked that she saw it for what it was and liked it. And not for the fact that it was sitting on a lot of black oil, or as his granddaddy called it black gold.

  “Texas is a smorgasbord of terrain spread across all five regions. This area is like a slice of them all. Did you sleep well?”Her gaze shifted to him. “As well as I could, with the different aspects of what I’ve committed to with you hammering at me. My brain didn’t want to shut down but at some point during the night I drifted off. I met Nelda and she’s lovely. I’m so not used to being waited on.”

  “She won’t push you. I don’t want it either but I do like not having to cook. That’s why she puts everything in the fridge or leaves it on the stove for me to get for myself.”

  “What ar
e you doing?” She looked from him to his horse.

  She was nervous. He understood the feeling. She was also shifting the conversation away from her lack of sleep. He could see the faint purple under her eyes and knew she wasn’t sleeping, whether she told him about it or didn’t.

  “You look like you are going riding,” she said, when he didn’t answer her question.

  “Right. I’ve been gone for almost a week, so I need to ride out and check on some of the cowboys while they’re working cattle today. I normally would do it on a four-wheeler, or just go in the truck but I’ve been out of the saddle for several days and both me and Bay Boy need the exercise. I’m riding to a little fence over in the north pasture that was repaired by a company that we hired and I want to take a look at it and see if I’ll hire them to do any more work. I don’t want them to do it if it’s not going to be a good job. What are you going to do? Would you want to come?” The question came out before he realized he was going to ask it.

  “Well, um, I hate to say it but I’ve lived in Texas my whole life and I don’t know a lot about cows and ranch life. Now, Ginny does. She knows the difference between a cow and bull.” She laughed, looking embarrassed.

  She was cute. “Surely you know that?”

  She turned pink. “Well, that’s the big joke. I think I’ve got it straightened out now.”

  He wasn’t sure whether she was joking or not and he was afraid to laugh—but when she made a cute scrunched face and laughed, his own laughter won out.

  They stared at each other, a feeling of comradery settling between them for that moment. It felt nice.