Fake Marriage Box Set

Chapter Twenty-Six

Emma

Friday

I finished my work in the barn just as the sun was setting. I gave the horses each a good scratch before I left, sliding the door shut behind me. Pete wasn’t up on the porch. I squinted in the direction of the rear of the property, but it was a long ways off.

I hadn’t seen him since breakfast. Things between us had been good, natural, on the way to the Texan. But then Big Tom had to go and say that stuff about us reminding him of the relationship he’d had his wife. I’d thought it sweet at the time, but Pete got strange immediately after that, staying distant all the way back to the farm before he scurried the hell off and stayed scarce all day.

I wanted to talk to him about all this, hating to leave things as uneasy as they were, but maybe this was his way of telling me he needed his space. We were seeing each other tomorrow night. I’d see how things were then. Maybe he had something else going on that he needed to work through.

I drove home to shower and change into something that didn’t smell like sweat, hay, and horses, and then went over to Daddy’s house. He was cooking tonight, which meant he’d have something going on the grill.

I walked into the house without knocking, finding Daddy and Kasey in the dining room. The meat was already on the table — three steaming slabs of steak that got my stomach growing to see — and Kasey was adding the sides: green beans and her special lumpy mashed potatoes glistening with butter.

“Hi, Daddy. Kasey,” I said, sliding into my place at the table. I took a deep swallow of the iced tea Kasey’d been nice enough to pour for me. She might not be able to cook worth a damn, but the girl could brew a pitcher of sun tea that would give you a run for your money.

“Just in time!” she said and started serving herself first.

Daddy reached for the steaks, putting one on my plate first, then Kasey’s, then his own while my sister chattered on about something that’d happened at the bar the night before.

“I’m working tomorrow and Sunday,” she finished, rolling her eyes dramatically. Her eyes were pale green tonight with all the dark eye shadow she had on.

“All the more reason to get back to school,” Daddy said, and left it at that. He didn’t often tell us his opinions on things, especially now that we were adults, but he still found a way to make his thoughts known. He wanted Kasey in school. So did I. She was a smart girl and didn’t need to spend her life working in some bar.

She rolled her eyes, ignoring that briar patch by turning to me. “How’s things on the farm, Em?”

“Things are good,” I said. Today had been a little off, but I hoped they’d be back to normal tomorrow for dinner. “I really enjoy the farm. I’ve been learning a lot more about how to train the horses for competition. You should see Lacey ride.”

Daddy’s pale blue eyes were trained on me, but he didn’t say a word. His dark hair was shorter. He’d gotten a haircut since the last time I’d seen him. I needed to make it over here a little more. I’d been spending so much time on the farm with Pete. A smile crept onto my face just thinking about him.

“Pete goes out to the Texan nearly every morning for breakfast before the sun rises.”

Kasey made a face. She’d never been a morning person. Daddy’d had to damn near drag her ass out of bed in the mornings when we were growing up. It was another reason why she loved working at Murdock’s so much — they didn’t even open before noon.

“I started going with him. There’s a group of retired old cowboys that Pete’s friends with, and we sit with them every time we go in. They are funny as hell. You should meet them, Daddy. I think you’d like them.” I shared a long look with him. He nodded once, and we went back to eating our food.

“Just when I think you can’t get any more boring,” Kasey said, staring across the table at me, her light eyes round. “You start telling me about hanging out with retirees. Damn. Pete’s rubbing off on you. Before you know it, you’ll be acting like an eighty-year-old, just like he does!”

I smiled at that. I had told her how old I thought he had to be because he’d put that want ad in the Round Rock Register instead of online. But I liked that about him. It reminded me of Daddy, who was the only reason I even heard about the job to begin with.

“Ain’t nothing wrong with being old,” Daddy said, and Kasey giggled at him.

“Pete really is an old soul, though,” I admitted, unable to wipe the grin from my face as I thought of him. “You should see how well he gets along with these men at the Texan. They were friends with his daddy, and he still keeps up with them a few days a week. I think he feels more comfortable with them than he does people our age.”

“Things are going good between the two of you, too?” Kasey asked, light eyes shining.

She was smiling wider than I was at the promise of some juicy gossip. But there wasn’t any. Pete and I just fit. I felt comfortable around him. He was silly and chatty, but that was a good thing because I could be my quiet self around him.

Daddy’d said once that the reason things had worked so well between him and Mama was because they were opposites. Two of the same kinds of people would kill each other. You needed someone to complement you and balance out the parts that were too far to one side.

“They are. I worried some in the beginning because we work together.” I paused a second, thinking hard to remember some of those objections that had almost kept me from taking a chance with him. I couldn’t think of a single one. I wasn’t a risk taker, but I was happy I’d made the leap this time.

“But nothing has changed on the farm. Pete and I really don’t see much of each other during the day. He doesn’t train the horses or keep after them. He used to, before I came, but now he just does damned near everything else on the farm while Lacey and I handle the animals.”

“The working on a ranch part sounds terrible,” Kasey said, grinning her troublemaking grin. “But I’m glad you’re happy. And, you found someone!”

Daddy cleared his throat, which was his way of gathering our attention at the table. Even Kasey would stop chattering at the sound. His kind eyes met mine.