Kissing the Cowboy (Circle B Ranch 5)

Attention everyone who’s attending next month’s meeting! We have a very special guest coming, and we’ll be hosting a dinner Saturday evening. We need a head count for reservations, so comment below if you’re coming and/or bringing a plus-one. We promise this will be super beneficial to your business, and you won’t want to miss out!

Then I read the comments, and of course, Shayla’s the first one.

I’ll be there and bringing my fiancé, Leon!

I roll my eyes at the ring emoji she added at the end. Like we needed a reminder after how obnoxious she was at the last meeting and online.

More comments pour in about people bringing their spouses or business partners. Then I come across one where Charlene’s tagged members who haven’t RSVP’d yet, and I see my name.

Harper, do you plan to come? And if so, are you bringing a plus-one?

Before I could reply, Shayla responded.

Probably her mom again.

With a smirking-face emoji.

And if that wasn’t snarky enough, fifty people “ha-ha’ed” her comment.

She knows damn well I’ll be there since I’m presenting, but she had to dig her knife deeper as if me bringing my mother would be the worst thing.

There are a couple of nice comments below hers.

I hope so, her mom is so lovely!

* * *

Mrs. Hart is so sweet!

Though, they’re all from middle-aged women who couldn't care less if I’m single or not. At least they didn’t have the nerve to laugh at Shayla’s stupid comment.

Before I can think twice, I type out my response.

Of course I’ll be there! Excited to bring my fiancé with me. It’ll be his first meeting!

As soon as I hit enter, I immediately regret it.

Fuck. Damn wine is giving me more courage than I need.

What am I doing?

Before I can delete it, a flood of notifications comes in.

Oh my God! Congrats!

* * *

What? I didn’t know you were engaged!

* * *

Can’t wait to meet him!

* * *

Congrats, Harper!

* * *

Who’s the lucky man? Congratulations!

Noooo. No. No. No.

What the fuck did I just do? I definitely can’t delete it now.

Luckily, none of them are locals, so they don’t know anything about my personal life or family, but this can still backfire and bite me in the ass. And knowing my luck, it will.

I have no idea how I’m going to get out of this. It’s not like I’m gonna find a boyfriend anytime soon. Even if I found someone through a dating app, asking him to pretend to be my fiancé would probably ensure I never hear from him again.

Five minutes later, Shayla sends me a private message.

Hey girl! OMG, I can’t believe I didn’t know you were engaged! I didn’t see a ring on your finger last time. So what’s his name? My mom needs to put it on the reservations list.

Shit.

Of course she’d point out that I wasn’t wearing a ring.

My heart races as I panic about how I’m going to reply. There’s no getting out of this now.

Hey! We just announced it. His name is Ethan.

Sucking in a deep breath, I shake my head at how fast I typed my best friend’s name. He’s the only person I could think of, and since she already stalks my social media, she’ll see pictures of us on my personal Instagram so it won’t be completely far-fetched. Though they’re photos of us hanging out as friends, it’s better than nothing.

Still, I don’t doubt she’ll go to extreme lengths to find out more details.

That’s great! Look forward to meeting him.

She signs it with a wink-face emoji.

Now, I just have to figure out what the hell I’m going to do with only a month before the meeting.

I could say he got sick at the last minute. Or he had a work emergency. Maybe I could say we broke up?

Except lying to get out of a lie never works. Pretty soon, they’ll all blur together, and I’ll forget what’s real or not.

Shayla finding out I made this all up would be the worst kind of humiliation, and I have no doubt she’d find a way to use it against my business. Maybe if I come clean now, it’ll blow over by the time of the event.

I put my phone on do not disturb last night and have ignored it all morning. I woke up with a major headache and vowed never to drink a whole bottle of wine alone again. Now that I’ve decided to admit that I’m not engaged and hopefully avoid a significant scandal, I grab my phone and get ready for the daunting task.

Checking my notifications first, I see Shayla’s tagged me in the group. Oh fuck, this can’t be good.

Let’s all congratulate Harper on her engagement! We can’t wait to meet Ethan at the next conference!

It’s followed by over a hundred comments.

My eyes widen in horror as I read them and realize there’s no way out of this.