The Rancher's Fake Fiancée. Amy Vastine
of capture the flag up in the hills. It was me and Ben versus Ethan and Chance. Ben and I had found the best spot to hide our flag, so we just needed to find theirs. Ben and I were like navy SEALs. Ethan and Chance didn’t have a prayer against us. Only when we found their flag, they had an extra teammate we weren’t expecting.”
“Who? Jon?” Hadley guessed.
“No,” he said with that cocky laugh. “Jon would have been easy to get past. There was this huge bull moose that had wandered into our game and decided to graze next to their flag. Ben and I had no idea how to get rid of it. Ben tried scaring it by throwing some rocks at its feet, but that only made it mad. Before I could try my idea, which totally would have worked, the hair on its back raised up.”
“I take it that’s a bad sign.” Hadley loved the way he got that sparkle in his eye when he told stories from his childhood.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve since learned that there are seven signs a moose is about to attack you, and that is number one. The second sign is it smacks it lips, but instead of smacking its lips, our moose urinated all over Chance and Ethan’s flag. It was disgusting and there was no way I was touching that thing after that.”
Hadley covered her mouth while she laughed. “Going to the bathroom is a sign a moose is going to attack?”
“It is! I swear. But I thought it was trying to make us mad. I yelled at it and the next thing I know, it came at me like it wanted to kill me, so I took off. Ben shouted at me to climb a tree, which I did, but the moose rammed the tree and almost knocked me out of it. I thought I was going to die that day. I was stuck up in the tree for a good hour before that animal decided it was bored of me. Ben and I made sure to learn everything there was to know about moose after that. We were never going to lose because of some dumb animal again.”
She had no doubts about that. Tyler was someone who didn’t get caught unprepared very often, and if he did, he made sure to be overprepared the next time.
Hadley giggled as she stared out her window at the green fields. There were a few horses grazing in the distance. She made a note to find out how many horses the ranch owned and to clarify if all the livestock would be part of the sale.
Tyler slammed on the brakes, causing Hadley to nearly knock her head on the dashboard. “What in the world?” she said, pressing a hand to her chest to make sure her heart had restarted.
“Katie,” Tyler said with a sigh.
Hadley glanced up and saw why Tyler had made such a quick stop. A redheaded woman stood in the middle of the dirt path with her hands on her hips and a tan-and-black shepherd dog by her side.
She walked over to Tyler’s side of the car. He rolled down the window as she bent down to get a look at them.
“Ty?”
“Hi, Katie.”
“I thought you might have been some guests who got lost. Welcome home.”
“Thanks. I’m driving Hadley around the property. We thought it would be nice to get a sense of what we have to work with before we talk to Ethan and Ben about the marketing plan.”
“The marketing plan...of course.” Katie dipped her head a bit lower to see farther in the car. “So, you’re Hadley. The woman who somehow managed to pin this guy down. Boy, do we have a lot of questions for you.”
Hadley’s full stomach ached. The questions would be nonstop now that they were here. She only hoped she could convince Tyler’s family they were a real couple. Her promotion depended on it.
She put a hand on Tyler’s leg. Thankfully, he didn’t flinch at the contact. “Well, I can’t wait to answer all of them. Tyler’s my favorite subject these days.”
Katie smiled and stood back up. “Well, you two have a nice drive. I’ll let your brothers know you’re here.”
“Great,” Tyler said even though Hadley knew he was less than thrilled about their arrival being discovered.
Katie waved at them as Tyler put the car back in Drive and rolled up the window. “We can’t spend too much time out here now. It won’t be long before the where-are-you phone calls begin,” he lamented.
“We could get the reunion over with and then hide.”
“I’m not hiding,” he snapped.
“Right.”
“I’m not. I’m...” His jaw tensed. “Fine. I’m hiding. It’s been a long time since I’ve been here, and there are a lot of things I left behind on purpose.”
That was about as vague as he could get. Hadley got the impression that there was always a lot of drama on the ranch, but at the same time, Tyler seemed to have good memories of his family. When he spoke about his brothers, there was always this small smile playing on his lips.
“There are clearly things you do not want to talk about, and I respect that. But we have to work with your brothers to get this place in tip-top shape so you guys can sell for what you want.”
“Why did I tell them I was engaged?” he asked himself aloud. It wasn’t like Hadley had the answer to that question. She wondered why he felt like that was the best plan, as well. “I didn’t want them to think I was the only one incapable of being normal. That’s why. I hate being the only one no one loves.”
His confession surprised Hadley. At work, he never seemed bothered by who he was or apologetic for what he wanted out of life. Tyler Blackwell usually had confidence to spare.
“Hey, I know a lot of people who aren’t in a relationship. That doesn’t make you abnormal. If that were true, then I’m abnormal. My best friend, Maggie, is abnormal. Half the people in my book club are abnormal.”
Tyler’s forehead wrinkled. “You’re in a book club?”
“That was the part that stood out to you?”
“I heard you. I get it. There are plenty of single people in the world. I wasn’t implying you were abnormal for being unattached. It’s more than being single for me. I can’t explain it.”
“It doesn’t matter. You told them we’re engaged and now we’re here and have to play our parts. Let’s go say hello and then get to work.”
“You’re good at this,” Tyler said, side-eyeing her.
“Good at what? Convincing you to man up?”
“That and playing the part of my fiancée. You’re a natural, so calm and cool. Your brother should be glad you didn’t go into acting. You might have outshined him.”
Hadley laughed. She had never outshined Asher at anything. He probably could out-woman her if he put his mind to it. “Asher has nothing to worry about. Trust me, I’m freaking out every time we talk to someone new.”
His phone chimed with a text. Hadley saw Ethan’s name. “Katie works fast. I guess we should head to the house. We’ll try hard not to freak out together,” he said, giving her knee a squeeze.
His hand felt nice until she realized how wrong that was. Tyler was her boss. His hands should not make her feel anything—good or bad. His hands needed to be the last thing on her mind. So why couldn’t she stop thinking about how warm and gentle his touch was? Or how that warmth seemed to spread throughout her body? Maybe Hadley didn’t have as much acting to do as Tyler thought.
“MY BABY BROTHER is finally home.” Ethan stood on the wraparound porch of the old, white two-story house. Standing there in his jeans and plaid button-down, he reminded Tyler a little too much of their father.
“I don’t know about you, but my home is about seven hundred miles that way,” Tyler said, pointing west.
Ethan