Two Nights with His Bride (4 page)

Sometimes Jared didn’t see that distinction. That was why he’d told her he didn’t want her spending time alone with other men. She’d argued that he should trust her, and he argued back that he did; he just didn’t trust other men.

That wasn’t how it felt, though.

Still, his many wonderful qualities outweighed these fights they had. He could be so sweet, so devoted. He
called or texted her between takes to see what she was up to—ten or fifteen times a day, telling her he was thinking of her and he loved her, worrying about her if she didn’t text right back. She’d never had a man so passionate about her, so willing and able to take care of any little problem she had. It was a heady feeling for a woman who’d taken care of herself and her family for as long as she
could remember.

But that jealousy of his… The prospect of a weekend break from it seemed like the best gift her bridesmaids could give her.

*

The river rambled
gently for a few miles, offering the newbies a safe way to practice their paddling before the rapids started. Contrary to Wyatt’s first impression, Polly and Ruby didn’t jump him as soon as
he got in the raft. Nor did Faye leap out of the boat and make a break for freedom. In fact, they all seemed to relax and enjoy themselves as the current pulled them through some of the most beautiful scenery on earth.

Throughout his twenties, Wyatt had backpacked around the world in search of adventures. He’d rafted down the Amazon, hiked in Patagonia and done manual labor in Antarctica. As
breathtaking as all those places were, he’d never found a place he loved as much as home.

“Look!” Polly pointed near the shore. “Is that a seal?”

“River otter,” Wyatt said. “And if you look on shore, through the trees, you’ll see a few animals that look like antelope. They’re pronghorns.”

Nancy let out a deep sigh, tipped her head back and closed her eyes against the sun. “This is amazing.
I really needed this.”

“This must’ve been so cool when you were a kid,” Ruby said. “I mean, it’s stunning now, but imagine growing up with all this in your back yard. I can picture you being a female Huck Finn.”

Wyatt didn’t think anyone else noticed the way the corners of Nancy’s eyes tightened.
He
had been lucky to grow up in countryside this wild, but his family had had the resources for
him to enjoy it. Nancy’s childhood had been significantly less idyllic. Living in a leaky trailer with little insulation, her family had constantly struggled to keep the wilderness out, rather than reveling in all it offered.

“Yeah, it was great.”

“So, did you guys, like, live next door to each other?”

Wyatt stayed silent, not wanting to contradict anything Nancy had told her friends. He got
the feeling they didn’t know everything about her childhood, and he wouldn’t be the one to spell it out for them.

“In a way,” Nancy said. “Wyatt’s grandparents owned the ranch. He and his brother Austin and their dad lived in the big house with his grandparents. My dad was one of their ranch hands, so we lived on the property, but not right next door. We couldn’t see each other’s homes from our
windows or anything.”

No, his grandparents hadn’t wanted a view of the trailer from their window. They’d basically let the Pruitts squat on some unused land and had even talked occasionally about building a small cabin for them but had decided it wouldn’t be fair to give so much to one of their employees when they couldn’t offer the same to others.

Wyatt had never understood what
fairness
had
to do with it. It hadn’t been fair that Nancy’s mom kept getting sick. It hadn’t been fair that they’d had to pay extortionate medical bills to keep her alive.

No, fairness had little to do with capitalism—a lesson his family had learned the hard way after his grandparents passed on and his dad refinanced the ranch at the worst possible time in financial history. The stock market crash had wiped
him out, and the bank had called in his loans. Wyatt had just opened his own business and had loans of his own, but he’d been in the process of negotiating with the bank to keep the ranch in the family when Nancy came along with her Hollywood money and offered the bank every penny they’d asked for.

The legacy Wyatt had always considered his own had disappeared.

Nancy’s parents had been kind
enough to keep Wyatt’s dad on as the ranch’s general manager, but it had been a tough blow, one his dad still struggled with. From what he heard, her parents weren’t doing any better at turning a profit than his dad had. Nancy’s money kept them afloat. He’d half hoped she would get bored or decide it wasn’t a good investment, and then he could buy it back. But now that she was marrying a billionaire,
she probably considered the money she paid for the ranch a pittance.

The current started picking up, the raft rocking from front to back as it rolled over submerged rocks, and Wyatt was grateful for the break in the conversation. Thinking about losing the ranch made his chest hurt—and that wasn’t even the memory that upset him most. “All right, ladies. Get ready to paddle hard.”

Water sprayed
over the sides of the raft as they picked up speed. They laughed and worked hard to avoid rocks, and Wyatt grinned to see how much fun they were having.
This
was why he’d started his company in the first place, introducing people to the landscape he loved and the sports he thrived on.

A few hours and several rapids later, he spotted a familiar landmark. “Lunch Island, dead ahead. Who’s ready
to eat?”

“Me!” they shouted in unison.

“Good.” He pointed at the small island splitting the river. “Aim for that and paddle.”

They all clambered out when the water was shallow enough to stand in, and they shocked him by grabbing the rope around the edge of the raft and applying a little elbow grease to drag the thing onto the sandy shore. He would’ve expected soap stars to worry about breaking
a nail or complain about not having a nubile pool boy fanning them with a palm frond. He must not have hidden his surprise too well because he caught Nancylynn smirking.

“We work sixteen-hour days, He-Man. In high heels and microminis. We can carry an inflatable raft.”

“I never doubted you’re as hard as nails, She-Ra.”

She glanced away and let go of the raft.

He took sandwiches, fruit and
bags of chips out of the waterproof pack he’d strapped inside the raft. “I’m afraid it’s not gourmet, but there’s lots of it. I’ve got goat’s cheese with red grapes, plain old cheddar, or hummus with sundried tomato. Who wants what?”

The women stared at him. “No bagels with cream cheese?” Nancy asked.

“Well, damn. I tried to think of what you L.A. ladies might like. I guess I should’ve guessed
bagels.”

They nearly took his arms off, grabbing sandwiches and shoving them into their mouths with greedy bites. He chuckled. “So I chose well?”

“Oh my God,” Polly said, her eyes rolling back in her head and her mouth full of hummus. “This is
so
much better than craft services.”

Whatever that was.

Nancy covered her mouth as she chewed and swallowed. “On set, they barely feed us. Bagels and
cream cheese in the morning, and then they put out a plate of cookies in the afternoon. Those disappear in about three seconds.”

“We’re the second-class citizens of TV.” Ruby wiped her mouth. “I did a guest appearance on a prime-time drama, and their food was
amazing
.”

“Well,” Wyatt said, “I brought plenty, so eat all you want.”

Nancy finished her sandwich in record time, yanked the life jacket
off and threw it onto the ground before tugging at the zipper of her wetsuit. The one-piece bathing suit he’d given her clung in all the right places, and he silently cursed himself. As a girl, she’d had a haunting beauty, as if she were never completely present. She’d probably been so damn hungry that she’d struggled to focus, but she’d come off as being distant and otherworldly. People always
commented on it, calling her
ethereal
instead of starving.

She’d filled out a little during her years in Hollywood, but she would probably always carry the lean, malnourished-in-childhood look. Fortunately for her, that look seemed to be in for TV actresses. It wasn’t a look he usually went for—he’d always had a thing for curves and dimples, women who looked like they baked the world’s best apple
pie and enjoyed eating it smothered with vanilla ice cream.

She’s getting married, you idiot.

Not that he wanted something with her. He was simply fighting the temptation of the forbidden. She was engaged to someone else—and Wyatt never,
ever
flirted with women in relationships—and the history between them was too complex for anything casual. He knew things about her he doubted she’d told anyone.
Plus, she essentially paid his dad’s salary.

None of that mattered, anyway, he thought as the massive rock on her finger caught a ray of sun and blinded him.

Taken.

She laid her wetsuit on a flat rock and lowered herself onto it, letting out a deep sigh. Seeing her in the bunny costume had made him half hard. Seeing her spread out in the sun finished that job.

He pretended to be busy checking
the raft as the others ate, but the pull of her was too hard to ignore. He should probably see how she was doing. After all, she was the bride, and his company had been hired to make her happy. As the others chatted and ate, he sat down next to her on the rock.

“You’re blocking my sun.”

“I thought you bride types avoided the sun so you didn’t get weird tan lines.”

She gave him a squinty smile
under the shade of her hand. “Shows what you know. I have a skin colorist who can help me even out the tone. Plus I’m wearing SPF eight million.”

“A skin what?”

“You probably don’t want to know.”

“Definitely not.” Nearly fifteen years of awkward silence piled up between them. He cleared his throat. “So the big day’s in just a couple of weeks, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“I hear wedding planning can be
stressful.”

She snorted. “If I survive this, it’ll be a miracle.” Crunching up, she glanced at Polly and Ruby as if to make sure they were out of earshot. “Those two have been like the twin spawns of Satan. Seriously, planning this rafting trip is the only good thing they’ve done.”

“I thought bridesmaids are supposed to help the bride.”

“Yeah, me too. But they can’t agree on anything. If we
don’t find a bridesmaid dress they agree on, I swear I’m going to make them wear these Farmer Jane things. Actually, no, Polly would probably love that. And I can’t make them go naked because Ruby would love that.”

“Burlap sacks?”

“Not a bad idea. I’ll see if my parents have any extras.” She sat up and crossed her legs. “Okay, you helped me solve that problem. Now what about when the bride and
groom have completely different taste in music?”

“Easy. Whoever likes country western wins.”

She grinned. “Good. That’s me.”

“I heard Jake Kohl’s singing at your wedding.”

“Yep. Want his autograph?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I’m not really an autograph collector. I just think it’s pretty amazing how you’ve managed to make this life for yourself.”

She blinked. “Was that a compliment?”

“Yeah, it shocked me, too.” His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Weirdly, I don’t want to take it back. I guess I must mean it.”

“Well, obviously. I’ve never known you to say things you don’t mean. I’m just confused because I’ve also never known you to say anything complimentary to me.”

His neck warmed. “That can’t be true.” Surely it couldn’t. He thought nice things about her. He just…shit. He
just wasn’t good at getting them from his brain to his mouth.

“Anyway, I don’t know that I made my life this way. It just sort of happened.”

“Please don’t feed me that false modesty bullshit. I’m not some women’s magazine that wants to see a humble version of you. I know where you came from, sweetheart. You didn’t grow up in Hollywood, hobnobbing with agents and producers. You worked hard, and
it’s paying off. It’s…admirable.”

She clutched her chest. “
Two
compliments? You’ve changed, Mr. Wilder.”

He wasn’t the only one, a fact his traitorous body reminded him of as she loosened her mocking grip on her chest. He wanted to rub away any pain she’d inflicted on her smooth skin, maybe move from rubbing to kissing to licking—

“What about you?” she asked, interrupting his fantasy. “I saw
that store of yours—and what you charge for this bathing suit. You must be doing okay.”

“Not everything in my store is that expensive. I gave you my top-of-the-line stuff.”

She cocked one of her brows. “Wyatt, I’ve walked down the red carpet in dresses that cost less than this suit.”

“I forgot what a bullshitter you are.”

She grinned and lay back on her towel. Her body stayed tense, though,
as if she couldn’t fully relax. They sat in a silence that grew more awkward the longer it stretched. He tried to keep his gaze on her face, but it strayed—subtly, he thought, so subtly she wouldn’t notice.

“Never gonna happen, Wyatt. Not in a million years.”