I was hoping that since I had been married at one time before, perhaps I could get past the loophole, although I wasn’t too hopeful. Aunt Adele died after my divorce, so she knew I’d been married, and she’d been so happy when Shelley left me that she threw a party.
“She didn’t deserve you, Maurice,” Aunt Adele had said. “Good riddance. Now go find a good woman who’ll love you right.”
“The terms of the trust are straightforward. You get half when you get married, and the second half when you’ve been married a year or have a child, whichever of those two comes first.” Jeanette looked up from the folder on her desk. “Are you getting married?”
I shook my head. “I was married once. It didn’t go so well. Any chance there is verbiage in there that would count my marriage.”
She sat back and smiled. “Your aunt was too smart for that. This note here actually adds an additional term that you can’t marry Shelley again. I don’t think your aunt liked her.”
“I know she didn’t.” I sat back, wondering how I could get my hands on my trust or other money to help Frank.
“She was concerned you’d end up like her. Alone without a family.”
I frowned. “She wasn’t alone. She and my dad butted heads, but we were family.”
“I think she meant her own family, you know, husband and children.”
“Do you think that’s the only way a person can be happy?” When I asked the question, I knew Jeannette’s answer already. She was married with kids, so of course, she’d think that was important in a happy life.
“People are social beings. I think we need people in our lives. We need to love and be loved. Does that have to be from marriage and children? Not necessarily, but clearly, your aunt thought so.” She cocked her head. “You don’t ever want to marry again and have children?”
I ran my hand through my hair. The truth was, I’d wanted all that. I thought I’d have it with Shelley. When she left, I filled my life with the ranch and getting involved in city politics. I might lose an election, but that would pale to having my wife tell me I was a disappointment as a husband.
“I’m not ruling it out, but I don’t have any prospects at the moment.”
“But you need the money?”
“I don’t need it for me.” I stopped there. She didn’t need to know Frank’s business, although chances were she already did. She was his lawyer, too.
She studied the paperwork again. “I’d already gone through this before you came thinking you might need it.” She looked up again. “Unless you’re getting married, there’s no way you can get at it.”
I nodded and stood. “Thank you for your time, Jeannette.”
“My pleasure, Mo. I’m sorry it’s not better news.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is.”
I headed out of the law office and back to my car. I drove the short way to City Hall, hoping to clear my mind enough to focus on city business. I’d have to figure out something else for Frank later. But pushing the idea of Stark buying his ranch out of mind was easier said than done.
I was distracted and edgy as I read through reports Trina set on my desk.
“Mo…ah, Mr. Mayor?” Brooke peeked in through my door.
Great. Another reminder of my inability to help Frank. I had no doubt that she’d come out okay. She was smart and doing a great job in her position. She’d land on her feet and be able to take care of herself. I wasn’t sure Frank would fare as well. Ranching was all he knew. At forty-five, he was too young to retire, and knowing Stark, the offer wouldn’t give Frank much to walk away with. What job would he get? He didn’t even have a high school diploma. That meant Brooke would be supporting them, and I wasn’t sure she made enough to do that. She was a category one employee on probation for her first six months. If we had to cut staff in the next year, she’d be the first to go.
“Yes,” I said, waving her in. “What do you need?”
“I have the data on the public works you asked for.” She moved toward me.
I watched her, feeling guilty that I wouldn’t be able to help her father. The more I watched her, the more my thoughts turned to where they shouldn’t go. Like how lovely her blue eyes were. How her skirt hugged curves that, to this day, I regretted not taking advantage of even as I loathed myself for what I had done to her. I was a fucking pervert to still want her.
“Great. Thanks,” I said a little more curtly than I intended as I put my attention back on my work.
“Is everything all right?” she asked as she set the report on my desk.
“Fine.”
“You don’t sound fine. Or look fine.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. I suspected she was waiting for me to tell her I was ready to swoop in and save her family’s ranch. I was being a coward for putting it off. I sat back and looked at her again, trying to ignore how much I wished I could wrap her up and protect her. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to fulfill my promise to you and your dad about helping you.”
“Oh?” Her breath hitched, but I could see her working to keep her emotions in control.
“I have a trust from my Aunt Adele, but I can’t get to it. There are terms that I don’t meet.”
She frowned. “Your aunt left you money, but you can’t have it?”
I nodded. “Not until I meet the terms.”
“What terms?”
It was going to sound so stupid. I knew my aunt wanted me to be happy, but I had no doubt that she got this nutty idea from some romance novel she read.
“I have to be married.”
Her eyes widened. “But you were married.”
“Yes, well, Adele didn’t like Shelley.”
Brooke had an expression that suggested she hadn’t liked Shelley either. “It doesn’t change the fact that you were married. And you’d still be if she hadn’t left, right?”
Talking about my failed marriage with Brooke was agony. “I don’t know.” I suspected that if Shelley hadn’t changed, we’d probably be divorced by now, anyway. Surely, I had my limits, too. She just hit hers sooner than me.
“Adele died after Shelley left. She wanted me to find love and happiness still. Her heart was in the right place.” My only other option was to liquidate some of my other investments or mortgage my house, but I was reluctant to do that. Adele’s money was extra. I didn’t mind using it because it didn’t add to my bottom line or livelihood. My personal investments and the ranch, they were my financial stability.
Brooke stared down on me, her white teeth biting into her plump bottom lip, making me forget that she was Frank’s daughter and only twenty-two-years-old. I wanted to bite her lip myself. I wanted to taste her sweet mouth and go down on her wet pussy again. Jesus fucking Christ, Mo, I chastised myself as I shifted in my seat because my dick agreed with my thoughts.
“You know…we could get married.”
I was so lost in trying to deal with my sudden lustful thought and erection that it took me a minute to process what she said.
“What?”
She shrugged nonchalantly. “You could marry me.”
8
Brooke
I was trying not to be offended by the shocked look on Mo’s face. Then it occurred to me just how crazy the idea was. Well, not crazy, but selfish. I was suggesting he toss aside his bachelorhood so he could give up his money to my family. Thinking of it that way, I felt like a self-centered fool.
“I’m sorry. That’s selfish of me,” I said. But, oh, how I wanted to do it. All of a sudden, a rush of emotion and excitement had come over me at the idea of being his wife. It was a reminder that I was still acting like a silly schoolgirl.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d been talking to Sinclair with all this fake marriage stuff.”
Fake? Not for me. “I was just acting on impulse. You said you needed a wife to get your money. But it was wrong for me to offer. It would be too much to ask of you. Not just your money but getting married.” I sh
ook my head, feeling sillier and sillier as the seconds passed.
“It’s a valid response. It’s the truth really but—”
I waved my hand. “Forget I said anything. It’s too much to ask. I mean, there’s nothing in it for you.”
His gaze grazed over my body, and for a second, I wondered if maybe I was wrong about his indifference to me.
“I just got the feeling you didn’t want Stark to buy the land, but then Sinclair said you’d supported him—”
“I don’t support him.” His eyes darkened slightly. “I hoped he’d bring new jobs to the area, but the people of Salvation indicated they didn’t want what he was offering. He showed his true colors, and I don’t trust him. I especially don’t want him as a neighbor.”
Oh, well. That was something.
“He doesn’t seem the ranching type,” I said, wanting to explore his animosity toward Mr. Stark.
“He won’t ranch. He’ll tear your home down and build something else.”
“Something that could hurt your ranch?”
He looked up at me again. “Yes. Probably.” He swore under his breath.
“So…this marriage idea could help you, too.” God, I was a glutton for punishment setting myself up for him to reject my idea again.
“Fake marriage or not, your father would kill me.”
There he was with the fake again. “He might not since you’re helping him save the farm.”
He bit his lower lip. “If you could stay living with him, I might have considered it.”
I swallowed, not sure if I should be happy that he seemed to be considering it or annoyed that he thought he’d do it if I wouldn’t live with him.
“It would have to look like a real marriage.” He looked up at me. “Good luck pulling that off.”
I frowned. “Why?”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m old enough to be your father.”
I rolled my eyes back. “Hardly. And by looking real, you mean it just has to make a lawyer happy, right?”
He sat back, steepling his fingers as he thought. My stomach had a flock of butterflies—or whatever a group of butterflies is called—because he seemed to be rethinking this idea.
“No one else would need to know,” he said.
“Right.”
Immediately, he shook his head. “No. It’s crazy.”
I wanted to argue, but the more I pushed, the more he’d probably retreat. I decided to try another tactic. “You’re right. When are you going to tell my father? He’ll need to make plans.”
Mo ran his hands over his face. He let out a breath and stood. “I guess I’ll do it now.”
“Can I come with you? I want to be there for him, and we’ll need to start thinking about our next step.”
He looked at me with sorrowful hazel eyes. “I’m sorry, Brooke. I really am.”
I managed a smile. “I know. I appreciate how much you were willing to do.”
He studied me a minute longer but then grabbed his coat, and we headed out. I followed him in my car to my house and wondered how my father would take the news. I had the feeling he felt the sale of the ranch to Stark was a done deal, so the news wouldn’t be a shock, but still, he’d be disappointed, I was sure.
“Why does this feel like bad news?” my father asked as we all sat at the kitchen table.
“I’m sorry, Frank, I really am. I have this trust, but I can’t get it.”
He wasn’t going to tell my father about the conditions.
“Listen, I appreciate you even inquiring.” My father flipped through papers on the table. “Stark’s offer seems fair enough.”
Mo grimaced. “Is that it?”
“Yes.”
“Can I look at it?”
My father shrugged and pushed the papers to Mo.
He looked them over with a shake of his head. “Your place is worth more than this.”
“Beggars can’t be choosers.”
“Dad,” I said, putting my hand over his. “We’re not beggars. Maybe we can sell it to someone else.”
Both he and Mo had expressions that suggested that it was unlikely.
“We’re out of time, baby. I’m sorry,” my dad said. “Mo, you’ve done everything you could, and I appreciate it.”
“Not everything,” he said with a look at me.
My heart rate sped up.
“Oh?” My father asked, looking at me as Mo had, and then back to Mo.
Mo tapped his fingers on the paperwork. “The condition of getting the trust is that I need to be married.”
My father frowned. “You were married.”
Mo nodded. “This was done after that. My aunt apparently wanted me to find a good woman.”
“You deserve that, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at.” My father looked at me again like he wanted me to clarify.
“I offered to marry him,” I said.
My father’s brows drew together. Mo watched him carefully like he was ready to run out if my father got his shotgun.
“That sounds a little crazy,” my father finally responded.
Mo nodded. “That’s what I said.”
Again, I tried to act like it was no big deal. “It was an impulse. Just trying to do my part to help here.”
I wondered if either of them could see through me.
“It would be too much to ask of both of you,” my father said. “Especially you, Mo. There’s nothing in it for you.”
Funny how my father wasn’t saying anything about our age difference, or that I was his daughter and Mo was his friend.
“Except, Mo doesn’t want Stark as a neighbor,” I said.
“He said he’d put in a landfill or waste management system.” Mo shook his head.
My father’s face scrunched up. “Jesus. That would reduce your land value.”
“And possibly hurt my cattle.”
“So, there would be some benefit for him,” I said, feeling like I had an opening to convince them of this crazy deal.
“I told her no, Frank,” Mo jumped in.
“It could work, though,” my father said.
Both Mo’s and my eyebrows shot up.
“What?” Mo asked with a quick shake of his head like he hadn’t heard right.
My father shrugged.
“Jesus, Frank. We’re friends. I’m old enough to be her father.”
“It wouldn’t be a real marriage, though, right? I mean, it would just be on paper.”
Mo sat back and looked at my father like he’d grown a third eye. Frankly, I was a bit surprised myself.
“I’d have to live with him,” I said.
“You have extra bedrooms, right? We’re all friends here. I trust you with my baby.”
Oh God. I closed my eyes as my father treated me like a child. When I opened them, Mo was looking at me, and I knew he was thinking back to four years ago when I tried to seduce him.
“I don’t know, Frank,” he said, returning his attention to my father. “I can’t believe you’re okay with this.”
My father scrapped his hands over his face. “It’s crazy. And you’d have to be okay with it, too, Brooke.”
“It was my idea,” I said.
“I’d like to keep my farm. It’s been in my family for over a century. It’s all I know. I’m embarrassed that it’s come to this. But if not this idea, then I have to sell to Stark. I’ll learn to live with that, but if you’re motivated enough to stop him by marrying Brooke, I’d be okay with that. I trust you with her, Mo.”
Mo’s jaw tightened. He didn’t say it, but I could see in his eyes that he was telling my father that he couldn’t be trusted. Interesting.
“We could still do this on the down-low,” I said. “You just have to satisfy the lawyer, right? We don’t have to have a ceremony or all that.”
“We’d need a license,” Mo said. “We’d need a judge. This town is small.”
“You could go over to Watley county,” my father said. “It’s close enough in distance, b
ut they don’t care about Salvation gossip.”
Mo shook his head. “You’re really okay with this?”
My father laughed. “This is the most batshit crazy thing I’ve ever heard of, but, uh, we’re friends. You’re helping me, and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. And, you, too, Brooke, I know it’s a big ask of you. I feel like we’re the three musketeers against Stark.”
I looked at Mo, who was still shaking his head. “This feels so…wrong.”
My father held up his hands. “Then we don’t do it. I don’t want to do anything that puts you out, Mo. You’ve done enough for us already.”
No, I thought. We’d been so close.
“And if you’re worried about the legal issues of being married, I know Brooke would sign a prenup, wouldn’t you, honey?”
I wasn’t planning on getting unmarried, but I nodded. “Yes, of course.”
“Jesus, I hadn’t even thought about that.” Mo dug his fingers into his eye sockets.
“And I’d pay you back. We’ll have a loan agreement,” my father finished.
“Loans are what got us in this trouble,” I said.
“I can’t expect Mo to hand over money for nothing. I’ll put up the parcel by the river as collateral,” my father said.
Mo looked at me. “You’re okay with this?”
I nodded. “I wouldn’t have brought it up if I wasn’t.”
“I can’t believe I’m considering this.”
“Brooke is a good girl—”
“Woman, Dad. I’m a woman.”
“Right. She won’t cramp your style. She’s a great cook. Just don’t play poker with her. She’ll beat your pants off.”
Mo blanched at the pants off comment. “I don’t need a maid or entertainment.”
“I’m just saying, she won’t be a bother.”
Mo shook his head, and I couldn’t decide if I was offended that he did think I’d be a bother or if I was intrigued by the idea of it. Would he be hot and bothered or just annoyed?
Fake Marriage (Contemporary Romance Box Set) Page 46