Accidental Love (Fake Marriage Romance 1)

“Mrs. Simms, it’s so good to see you,” Wyatt said as my mother hugged him.

“My, Wyatt, you’re a fierce-looking man now. And handsome too,” my mother said with a glance to me.

Wyatt looked at me with his eyebrows up as if to say, your mom likes me.

Inside the house, Wyatt’s manners and charm continued as he shook my father’s hand.

“What brings you out here this evening?” my father asked.

“I had some business with the deputy mayor.”

At least he was keeping up the charade.

“Alyssa, this Wyatt Jones. He was a friend of uncle Ryder’s when we were growing up.”

“You’re the one that ran off to join the soldiers.”

Wyatt looked at me and then her. “Yes, I did. But now I’m running a cattle ranch.”

“Do you have horses?” she asked as we all sat at the table.

“I do. I have several. They help us do our work with the cattle.” He took an ear of corn from the platter my mother held for him. “Do you ride?”

“No.” She gave me a pursed-lip glare. “I want to but my mom says no.”

“Why? Your mom rode all the time growing up.”

I closed my eyes and waited for Alyssa’s wrath.

“What! You got to ride but I can’t? That’s not fair.”

I glared at Wyatt. “I got to ride a few times when Ryder and Wyatt would let me tag along. You don’t have a friend to ride with like that. And we can’t have a horse here.”

“Jasper said his daughter Julie had been offering lessons.?

?

I was about to throw my water on him if he kept making this hard.

“But she’s moved away,” I said tightly.

“I’ll tell you what,” Wyatt said leaning conspiratorially toward Alyssa. “You can come ride at my place. I’ll teach you.”

“Really?” Alyssa looked up at me with such hope in her eyes. “Can I, Mama? Please?”

I gave Wyatt my I’ll-get-you-for-this glare and then smiled as I turned to Alyssa. “We’ll see what we can arrange.”

15

Wyatt

Personally, I wanted to keep the fake part of this marriage plan a secret from everyone. For this to work, everyone needed to believe that Sinclair and I were in love and getting married, even if it was unbelievable. After all, our romance had been a secret ten years ago.

Sinclair felt she needed to let her parents and Ryder know the truth about the marriage and why we were doing it.

“I kept us a secret the first time I was with you, and I didn’t like it, Wyatt,” she said to me as I got ready to leave that night after she accepted my fake proposal and I had dinner with her family. “I can trust my family. Only Alyssa won’t know. She needs to think it’s real. I can’t expect her to lie to people.”

Knowing I couldn’t talk her out of it, I went along, noting it was probably best to explain to my mother as well. The issue of the farm weighed on her, and I didn’t want her to think I was off in la-la land with Sinclair and not doing what needed to be done to keep Stark away.