Fake Marriage Box Set

“What are you doing this weekend?” I asked.

She pulled her long ponytail over her shoulder and tugged at the auburn end of it, which I was learning was her way when thinking. “Nothing, I don’t think. Why?” She grinned up at me, her green eyes glimmering with a playful light that made me want to kiss her again. Hell, just about everything made me want to kiss her.

“The rodeo’s this weekend in Austin. We go every year. Lacey competes and usually wins something or other. It’s a good way to get our horses seen and sold.” I pressed my lips together as I watched her and stuffed my hands in my pockets to keep them to myself. “Would you like to come with me?”

“Sure,” she said. “I’d love to see our horses in action. Lacey spends so much time training them. I want to see what they can do.”

A smile broke over my face, much wider than before. “We’re leaving early on Saturday morning and staying in a hotel overnight. We could go out after the rodeo and have a little fun.”

“I haven’t been out much since college.” She swallowed a bit of her smile, leaving her lips curled up at the ends in a secretive way. “I really didn’t go out much then, either, but Kasey works at a popular bar on Sixth Street. We can stop by there. I’d love for you to meet her. And, boy, is she itching to meet you.”

“That sounds like a plan,” I said.

She nodded once. “Yes, it does. Now, scoot so I can get my work done.”

“I could stand here all day just talking your ear off and staring at you.”

“That’s just what I’m afraid of!” she said, laughing as she pushed me back a little, trying to shoo me.

We were supposed to be hands off during the day, but she’d started it. So, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her in for a quick smack on the lips.

“Pete!” she whispered, green eyes wide.

“It’s just us and the horses,” I said with a shrug.

She gave me a stern look, but her lips were twitching at the corners and trying hard to smile. I took that as my cue to leave, holding back my giggles until I was well clear of the barn.

Chapter Twenty

Emma

Saturday

We’d brought two of the quarter horses with us — Max and Tucker — one to race and the other to sell. Lacey and I were in the corral saddling up Max after giving him a thorough grooming. I’d bathed both him and Tucker the day before, trimmed their body hair, and clipped their manes and tails. Each horse was stunningly gorgeous, strong and proud, their hair shiny in the sun from nose to tail.

A few people had already asked after them, offering much more than Pete had hoped to make. I knew before the day was over that both horses would be sold. I hated to see them go — I’d always had a soft heart for the horses on our family farm, which, fortunately, we’d never had to part with for anything besides old age — but I was happy for Pete and Lacey. This was how the ranch stayed afloat.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked Lacey once we had Max saddled up and ready to go.

“I live for this shit,” she said, and we laughed, but she seemed a little nervous, too. She was dressed in a dark blue pair of jeans, a long sleeved red shirt with black accents and gleaming buttons, a shiny new pair of boots, and a black cowboy hat. Her light hair was pulled into a tight braid at the base of her neck, the way she wore it most days on the ranch.

“I’m nervy, too,” she admitted. “I just need to keep my mind off of it until it’s my turn. Then all those nerves just go away.”

I knew from Pete that Lacey’d been barrel racing since well before middle school. She could do just about anything on a horse: jump, rope, race, trail ride… I loved watching her work on the ranch. She loved the horses, and she knew exactly how to get each one to reach their maximum potential.

“How’re things between you and Pete?” She wasn’t looking at me. She was going over Max’s coat with a body brush. There was no need of that — he was shiny and clean — but she needed something to keep her busy.

I cleared my throat, not quite sure how to answer that question. Things were good, but telling Lacey about my relationship with Pete felt wrong somehow. I hadn’t quite figured out the relationship between the two of them. They said they were like kin, and I believed them. But, sometimes, the way they looked at each other wasn’t quite the way a brother would look at a sister.

I chided myself for thinking that way. Lacey’d been nothing but nice to me in all the time I’d been on the ranch. And, she really seemed to care about Pete being happy.

“Things are good,” I said.

Lacey kept on brushing Max, who was loving the extra attention. Between all the primping yesterday and the extra attention today, both horses were hovering someplace close to heaven.

“He really likes you,” she said, glancing at me for a second before going back to her work with Max. “I’ve never seen him like this.”

My cheeks tingled, a blush creeping over them at her words. “I like him, too.”