“Hunger games?” Laura whispered.
Cynthia answered Laura but looked right at Colton. “Not quite that bad. But just as cutthroat. Who are you hoping to get paired with this year?”
“That’s up to Roxie. I’m sure she will surprise all of us,” Colton said.
Cynthia turned to Roger. “Maybe you’ll get paired with me. I’m very good at the games and we could probably win.”
“And what all do these games involve?” he asked.
Colton chuckled. “Lots of hard work and crazy rules.”
Laura made up her mind right then and there that she wasn’t going to be a part of any games. She might not even be present at the party. She’d take the day off and read a really thick good book in her apartment. With her luck, she’d get paired up with the preacher and Cynthia would have more reason to want her out of Ambrose.
“We’re having dominoes and checkers after we eat today. Y’all interested?” Roger asked.
“Count me in,” Cynthia said.
“Not us. We’ve got some prior engagements we have to take care of this afternoon, don’t we, Laura?” Colton turned his head slightly so that he was looking right into her eyes.
The depth of his dark green eyes said there was a lot more to him than dollar bills. She could have gone exploring in his soul for days, but he blinked and looked away.
“Oh, yes, we do. Business that cannot be put off,” she agreed.
The rain had stopped when they left the church, but dark clouds still hung low in the sky and a few drops splattered against the ground every few minutes. The dinner was over and Laura’s hair didn’t have to be perfect for her to show Andy just how mad he had made her. She was there to do a job and it had nothing to do with putting on a false front with Colton.
Colton was a gentleman and opened doors for her, but his angular jaw worked like he was chewing gum and every few seconds he gritted his teeth so hard that his dimples deepened. He fired up the truck and backed out of the parking space.
“Are you mad at me?” she said.
“Why would I be mad at you? Were you in on this conspiracy?”
“Hell, no! But believe me, the rumors are already breaking the speed of sound. And they think you are crazy for even looking at a nerdy woman like me. Don’t worry about it. They’ll figure out real quick that it’s all just rumors,” she said.
“What about you, Laura? Do they think I’m too nerdy for you?” he asked.
“Why in the devil would you ask a crazy question like that? They think I’m after your money which is downright stupid.”
“There’s been a lot of women after my money so why is it stupid for them to think you are?” he asked.
“Don’t pick a fight with me. I didn’t start this but I’m damn sure going to end it when we get home. I owe Andy a lot but not this and he didn’t even ask me about it. Did he talk to you before he and the rest of the crew did it?” she asked.
“No, ma’am. Not a peep. I thought he was being nice by letting you sit on the end by me so you wouldn’t have to go all the way around or else make all of us scoot down.”
“And last night?” she asked.
“I wondered if they’d put you up to that or if you were on a scam of your own, but you didn’t answer my question,” he said.
“It’s stupid because love can’t be bought with money. Trust can’t be paid for with dollars. And besides, you aren’t my type,” she said.
He parked the car in front of the house and she bailed out before he could say another word. She didn’t knock on the front door but plowed right inside ahead of him and was on her way to the office when Maudie poked her head out the living room door into the hallway.
“I expect you’ll both be looking for us. We are in here,” she said.
Laura turned around and had to put her hands out to keep from running right smack into Colton. They landed on a chest full of hard muscles and his arms went to her waist to steady her.
“Whoa! You got to signal before you turn a rig around that fast,” he said.
“Don’t sneak up behind me like that,” she said.
“Y’all going to stand out there and jaw all day or come on in here and scream at us?” Andy hollered.
She moved her hands and glanced at them. They felt as if she’d held them up to a raging fire for several minutes, but they weren’t a bit red.
Colton stood to one side and made a sweeping motion with his hat. “Ladies first. Go on and begin the fight. I’ve got your back.”
Maudie looked at Andy Joe. “You want to talk first or should I?”
“I will.” Andy pointed at a chair. “Sit down, Laura.”
She glared at him. “I’ll stand. I’m so pissed, I can’t even think straight. I had to stay at that church and listen to rumors and eat with those gossiping women and be nice and you ran off and left me.”
“Ina Dean, Patsy, and Cynthia, right?” Maudie giggled.
“Has Cynthia dragged out her black mourning britches yet?” Roxie asked.
Laura jerked her head around. She couldn’t believe that Roxie had spoken up or that she’d said such a thing. Maybe she wasn’t as shy as she appeared and that tough interior was surfacing.
“Why would you say that?”
Roxie ducked her head and blushed. “Plain as day to me that she’s got her sights set on Colton. She flirts with him every Sunday.”
“Ahhh, hell! Not her too!” Colton slumped into a rocking chair. “I’m about ready to give every dime I’ve got to charity and go back to being a ranch hand.”
“You’re not pissed at us?” Rusty asked.
“Yes, I am! Why would you do that? Start rumors like that?”
“We didn’t start anything and last night wasn’t any of our doing,” Maudie said.
Colton shot a look across the room. “Yes you did, Granny. Y’all knew exactly what you were doing.”
“Well, if we did, it’s for your good. Another night like you had Friday and we’ll be attending your damn funeral, Colton,” Andy said. “So now the people in Ambrose think you have a girlfriend. Is that so bad?”
“Yes, it is, when it’s a lie,” Laura said.
“And when the two adults are not consenting,” Colton added.
“Play along with it for a while. The news will get out and the women will leave you alone. It’ll give the whole area something to gossip about and it’ll keep the women out of your hair,” Andy said.
“If I wanted a fake girlfriend, I could pick out my own. I don’t need y’all’s help,” Colton said. “And besides, Laura doesn’t deserve that kind of gossip. You know what they’ll say about her living at the ranch now that Ina Dean and Patsy have something to gossip about.”
Laura could have kissed him right between his sexy green eyes.
“And I’m quite capable of finding my own boyfriends,” she said.
“Okay, okay, slow down,” Rusty said. “We had a talk last night among the four of us. We knew neither of you would agree so we created a little scenario that would start the gossip on purpose. It seemed like the perfect answer. Laura is already here at the ranch so that worked out real well. No one knows her so it’s all intriguing like the good stuff that they make gossip out of. Think about it, Colton. It’s an answer to a prayer. You can go to the feed store without worrying about some woman saying that you slept with her in a motel on that day and suing you for child support.”
“And what can I do? Go to the feed store and not worry about some man suing me? Or maybe I better stay away from all cafés for fear that some woman who had her eye on Colton will poison me to get another chance at him?” Laura asked.
“Here’s the deal we’ve worked out,” Andy said. “Colton gets some breathing room that doesn’t involve drugged beer and almost death. And you get…”
Laura butted in before he could finish. “What? What could you possibly give me for my part in this farce?”
“I’ll talk to Janet tonight and invite her to the ranch party. I’ll even pay for a plane ticket and a rental car so that she can come visit you,” Andy said.
Laura’s heart skipped a beat and then raced. That changed the whole scene in a second. Who gave a rat’s ass what her reputation was in Ambrose, Texas, anyway? It would require so little and she’d get to see her sister.
“Can I talk to her on the phone?” she asked.
Andy shook his head. “No. She needs to stand on her own two feet. This won’t change much at all, Laura. You still come to work every morning at eight and leave when we are done at the end of the day. You still make the same amount of money and get overtime for anything over forty hours a week. It’s just pretending that you are Colton’s girlfriend. It won’t require much of anything. Make-believe when you are out of the house because the hired hands on the ranch carry tales home.”
She looked over at Colton. “You good with this?”
He raised one shoulder. “I can live with it for a few months. Can you?”
She shifted her gaze back to Andy Joe. “I’m still pissed.”
“I can deal with pissed. I’m tired of dealing with problems. You’ll have to pretend to like each other. That going to be an issue?”
“I don’t know her well enough to like or dislike her,” Colton said.
“I don’t know you either, but I can sure enough put on a good show if I can see my sister in a few weeks,” she said.
It was the only way she’d get to see Janet for a long, long time. Colton could suck it up. What all did it involve anyway? Holding hands when they walked around the yard a few times. Maybe a couple of kisses. Hell, she’d hold hands with a porcupine and kiss a toad frog to get to spend a whole weekend with her sister.
“And in the meantime if I meet a woman that I really fall hard in love with, what then?” Colton asked.
“Then you break up with Laura. Until then our jobs are to make people believe that we are all really happy with you dating her and with her work here on the ranch,” Maudie said.
“And if I find a man that I really love?” Laura asked.
“While you are dating Colton? I don’t think so,” Maudie said.
“Then the deal is off,” Laura said. “I get the same consideration as he does or I won’t do it.”
“Not even to see Janet?” Andy begged.
“I’ll see her when my debt is paid. I’m going to my apartment.”
“Deal!” Maudie said. “But no shenanigans from either of you. For six months you are dating when you are outside of this house. Understood?”
Laura walked over to the rocking chair and kissed Colton on the forehead. “Isn’t it nice that the cat is out of the bag, darlin’? Now the whole world can know that we are in a committed relationship.”
Colton grabbed her hand and pulled her down on his lap. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her hard right on the mouth.
“Practicing for the stage,” he said hoarsely when he ended the kiss.
She pushed herself up and away from him. Every nerve in her body hummed like that damned old sewing machine that Aunt Dotty used for quilting. Blasted fickle hormones anyway—just because she hadn’t had sex in over a year didn’t mean they had to fire up right then.
“You want to see the gym?” Colton asked.
“I’d love to,” she said. “How are we doing?” She turned toward the judge, jury, and hangmen, all speechless for the first time since she’d walked into the room.
Roxie shook her head slowly from side to side.
“What?” Laura asked.
“You better do some practicing. That looked phony,” she said.
“I thought it was pretty damn good,” Colton said.
“Overdone?” Laura looked at Andy.
“Little bit,” Andy said. “Be natural. Make people believe it could really be happening so that Colton can have some peace of mind.”
Colton chuckled. “I never was much of an actor.”
“But you’ve always been a ladies’ man,” Rusty said from the corner.
“Just not with a nerdy girl, right?” Laura asked.
Colton grabbed her hand. “I did not say you were nerdy so don’t go blaming me for it. I promised to show you the gym. Are you ready?”
Colton dropped her hand until they were out in the yard and then laced his fingers in hers again. Hot to cold and then hot again. The shifting back and forth created a strange sensation deep down in her insides that pitched like a ship on angry seas.
Laura had never cared if people liked her or not. She was who she was and they could take it or leave it. She didn’t have the ability or the desire to change and there wasn’t a person in the world worth changing for. Her former therapist would write all kinds of code down on his little yellow notepad if she told him what she had just agreed to do just to get to see her sister. He’d told her repeatedly that she and Janet had a love/hate relationship and that neither emotion could survive without the other.
They argued constantly when they were together. Janet was always griping at Laura because she wanted things kept orderly and Janet was a complete slob when it came to housework. Laura wanted Janet to accept responsibility for her actions and grow up. But underneath all the bickering they really did love each other.
Colton led the way around the house and out across the backyard. The original owner had a good landscaping idea. Flower beds had been defined with landscaping timbers or natural rock to make a garden maze that folks could walk through. But the whole thing was overgrown with weeds and looked pitiful. She absolutely loved flowers and yard work. Working in a greenhouse had been her very first job right out of high school and she’d always kept a few plants in the apartment. They’d probably die with no one but Janet around to water them.
With a little work, she could transform this yard into something of beauty and grace. There were flowers and shrubs that flourished in Texas heat, like lantana, marigolds, and dianthus. She’d have to ask Andy if it was all right to play in the dirt in the evenings and on her days off work.
Colton slapped a palm down on the rail fence and agilely hopped right over it. She put a boot on the bottom rung and climbed over leaving thoughts of the yard behind her as she looked ahead to cows, calves, and barns.
“You aren’t afraid of cows?” he asked.
“No, I’m not. And not snakes or spiders, but I hate mice. My sister and I were six and eight when our mother died. We lived up in northwest Arkansas in a little bitty town called West Fork at the time. Aunt Dotty took us in and brought us out to her place south of Amarillo. She was a cousin to Andy Joe’s grandmother. She lived on a ranch and we learned as much as she could teach us whether we liked it or not,” she answered.
She looked out across the rolling hills and pastures. There wasn’t a gym in sight. She saw two barns close by—one with the big doors wide open showing stacks of small square hay bales, the other with a bunch of Angus cattle standing to the south side taking advantage of the cool shadows. So where was he taking her?
He bypassed the first barn and kept walking. “So how long have you been away from it?”
“Since I was eighteen. Aunt Dotty said that once we were eighteen we were on our own. I graduated from high school one day and moved in with Janet the next, went to work the day after that, and have been working ever since. Are you sure there is a gym out here?”
Gym, her ass! Probably his idea of a good workout involved restacking small bales of hay and doing chin-ups on the barn rafters. Running sounded a whole bunch better than that.
“So why is Andy using your sister as a bargaining chip? Why can’t you see her anytime you want?” he asked.
“We had a three-way deal. He gave me a job and paid off her gambling debt to a loan shark. I work for him until I get him paid back. He gives me a free place to live above the old carriage house.”
“That didn’t answer my questions. Why can’t you see her?” Colton asked.