The Rancher's Fake Fiancée
The knot in the pit of her stomach got tighter. And then it hit her. He needed her. He needed her to do something for him. “If I go, what do I get in return?”
Tyler blinked. “What do you get in return? What do you want?”
Hadley leaned forward as a sly smile spread across her face. “You know what I want. I want the same thing I wanted a couple months ago, but you let Kellen give it to Eric.”
* * *
SHE WAS SO darn smart. He’d have to give her that much.
“Looking back, I probably should have gotten a little more information about Eric’s qualifications,” he said. “Or maybe I should say lack thereof.”
“He’s Kellen’s nephew. That’s it. He does not know how to do the job. You know that. I know that. Kellen would know it if he was here day in and day out. You need to tell him. Convince him to give the job to me. If you do that, I’ll go to Montana with you and help you sell your ranch.”
She wasn’t wrong. Hadley was the better choice for brand strategist. Given Eric’s difficulty finding his bearings, Kellen might not be so reluctant to reassign him to a more suitable position.
“And you’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”
“I was thinking a better plan would be telling your brothers you were just kidding about that part.”
His spur-of-the-moment lie about getting married was supposed to keep him from going to Montana. He never imagined having to pretend, but if she wanted him to go, Hadley had to come with and there was no way he was letting his brothers know he wasn’t as blissfully in love as they were.
“Nope,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “Fake engagement is a go. Either you’re in or you’re out. And if you’re out, Eric keeps his job.”
Hadley sank back in her chair, contemplating her options. There were no options. If she wanted the job, she had to go along with this plan.
“If I do this, there will be very strict rules. I don’t know what you expect out of a fake fiancée, but there is no way I will compromise myself or my morals.”
“Come on, Hadley. I’m not going to ask you to make out with me in front of my brothers.” Clearly, there was no way the thought of kissing him could be unappealing, but he wouldn’t ask her to do anything that would make either of them uncomfortable. He didn’t need a harassment charge brought against him. This was still a business arrangement.
“As soon as we’re done and back in Portland, you will let your family know the wedding is off.”
“No problem.” Hadley wasn’t his type anyways. He’d be lucky if they didn’t notice how incompatible they were as soon as they got there. Tyler would have to put on a real show if he wanted to keep them in the dark.
Hadley stood up and smoothed her skirt. She reached a hand across his desk. “Then, we have a deal.”
The two of them shook on it and Hadley hustled out of his office. Tyler opened a new window on his computer and began his search for flights to Billings. Like it or not, he was headed back to Falcon Creek.
* * *
HADLEY’S HEAD WAS SPINNING. Had she just made a deal with the devil? Or had she made the deal of a lifetime? Two weeks marketing some ranch in Montana to potential buyers and she would have the job she deserved. That had to be a win for her.
She tried not to think about the fact that she had to pretend to be engaged. To Tyler Blackwell.
“Can I ask you a question about the Kingman account?” Eric stood next to her desk with a file folder in his hand. She couldn’t imagine what was in the manila folder given that they did everything electronically.
“Sure.”
“So, I’m supposed to be doing some market research and put together a report analyzing the market data and trends, right?”
“That’s what a brand strategist does.” She had answered this question more than once. He seemed to need constant confirmation of his role. She couldn’t tell if he kept forgetting or was asking in hopes he’d get a different answer one of these days.
Eric scratched the back of his head. “Do we have any of that from maybe a similar account? I mean, no reason to reinvent the wheel if it already exists, right?”
If he ended one more sentence with the word right, Hadley was going to lose her mind. She tried hard not to sound too condescending even though she wanted to let him know his incompetence was the reason she’d be taking his job in a few weeks.
“Kingman is a unique brand that sells men’s shaving supplies and gift sets. We don’t work with any other companies that sell in that niche market. You’ll have to start fresh.”
“It sounds like you know a lot about them. That’s great!” It was clear the file folder in his hand was empty, a shameless prop to make him look like he was doing something. “Maybe you could help me out with this one. Put together a few things for me and I’ll do the analyzing part afterward.”
“I wish I could,” she said with a frown. “But Tyler just roped me into another project. I’m going to be out of the office for a couple weeks.”
“A new project?” Veronica sounded panicked.
“Don’t worry,” Hadley reassured her. “Tyler and I will be handling this one by ourselves. We won’t be asking you to do anything. Stay focused on the Paint-A-Lot redesign.”
Eric wouldn’t leave. “You sure you can’t get me started on this Kingman thing before you move on to whatever Tyler has you doing? I’ll run out and get you some coffee from that place you like on the corner.”
Hadley couldn’t hold back a sigh. What did it matter? The truth was she would be handling the Kingman account as soon as she got back from Montana and took over Eric’s job. Her job. “Let me see what I can do.”
“Thank you! You are the best. She’s the best, right?” Eric scanned the room for someone to agree.
“She’d be better if she’d let us use her Hollywood connections,” Lee said from his desk. He’d been giving her a hard time ever since Veronica let it out of the bag that Hadley’s older brother was Asher Sullivan, star of TV’s popular family drama When We Were Young.
“I heard there are already rumors your brother is a shoo-in for an Emmy this year,” Eric said before his eyes went wide. “Hey, I bet your brother shaves, right? Maybe he’d want to be the spokesman for Kingman.”
He was unbelievable. Did he know anything about the client? “I’m going to assume you’ve at least glanced at Kingman’s financials, so you know Asher is definitely not in their budget.”
“But he’s your brother, right? You could talk him into doing it for a steal.”
Wrong. Hadley did not mix business with her personal life. Asher was her brother, not a potential spokesman for a client. “I have a ton of work to do, especially if you want me to gather some market data for you.”
“That’s her way of saying no, Eric,” Lee said, clueing him in.
An email popped up from Tyler. Hadley opened it to find a confirmation notice for their flight to Billings, Montana, one week from today.
She bit down on her bottom lip. Hadley didn’t get personal when it came to business. Apart from pretending to be her boss’s fiancée in order to get the job she deserved.
What could possibly go wrong?
CHAPTER THREE
“DID YOU SERIOUSLY buy one first-class ticket?” Hadley watched as he handed his suitcase over to be weighed.
“I always fly first class,” he said, ignoring her obvious reason for asking.
“Are you really the type of man who would let your fiancée sit in the back of the plane while you’re pampered in first class?”
The woman from the airline tagging his bag gave Tyler a well-deserved dirty look. Hadley had no issue with shaming him.
Tyler, however, appeared completely unfazed. “You’re not my fiancée until we step foot on Blackwell land.”
“So there’s still time to change my mind?” Hadley lifted her suitcase onto the scale.
Tyler slid his driver’s license back into his wallet. “Don’t start with me before we even leave Portland.”
“You can’t marry him,” the woman behind the counter whispered. “You deserve better than that.”
“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t marry him even if he had bought me a first-class ticket.” Tyler Blackwell was the last man on earth she’d want to end up spending her life with.
He was already headed toward the security checkpoint. Hadley weaved through the crowd of anxious travelers to catch up.
“You’re a real charmer, Ty,” she said just as her carry-on with its one bad wheel veered left when she wanted it to go right. It crossed paths with an older gentleman walking past her, ramming him in the leg.
Hadley apologized profusely as Tyler took the bag from her and carried it to the security line. “How was that for charming?” he asked as he handed it back.
“If that’s all you got for charm, our engagement is doomed.”
“I’m fine with that. It only needs to survive the next two weeks. After that, we go back to boss and employee.”
“Boss and brand strategist.”
“Boss and whatever you want to be called.” He got out of the line. “I have precheck. I’ll meet you at the gate. Try not to take out any other unsuspecting passengers with that thing,” he said, pointing at her bag.
“I’ll try.” Hadley had to keep her eye on the prize. Two weeks and she would be promoted. It didn’t matter if Tyler was so standoffish. She wasn’t his real fiancée. They didn’t have to sit by each other or walk through the airport side by side. She was fine with the fact that the act began and ended at the ranch.
Once through security, she stopped and bought a coffee. There was no reason to buy one for Tyler since he’d be sipping whatever his heart desired once he boarded the plane. They weren’t together until they were on Blackwell land—his words, not hers.
She lugged her defective bag to the gate and took a seat without even bothering to look for Tyler. She stared down at the ring on her finger. A fake diamond ring for a fake wedding. Tyler had bought it a couple of days ago. It was so cheap Hadley wouldn’t get it wet for fear it would turn her finger green or something.
How was she going to pull this off? Her phone chimed with a text from her best friend, Maggie, asking for an update on this nightmare adventure. Maggie already thought Hadley was taking a risk by going on this trip without having the promotion secured. She feared that Tyler might not hold up his end of the deal. What if Kellen wouldn’t agree with the change?
He’s sitting in first class without me, she texted.
Are you kidding me? Maggie wrote back.
Doesn’t matter. I’m going to enjoy my alone time while I can, Hadley messaged.
I swear if he doesn’t give you a promotion for this, you better quit. You’ve gone above and beyond! He’s a schmuck. Hot but a schmuck.
Hadley smiled. Maggie had developed this weird crush on Tyler after she stopped by one day to take Hadley to lunch. One look at him and she thought she was in lust. Hadley had popped her bubble real fast. Tyler wasn’t anyone’s Prince Charming.
“Thanks for getting me a coffee.” Tyler stood in front of her with his eyebrows raised. “And after you made me feel guilty for only thinking about myself.” He held out a new boarding pass. “Here, you’ll need this.”
He had upgraded her to first class and she suddenly felt like the schmuck. “You didn’t have to do that. I was only giving you a hard time earlier.”
He sat down in the empty seat next to her and took a deep breath. “I want you to know that I appreciate what you’re doing for me. I might not know how to show it all the time, but I want you to know I feel it.”
“Thanks,” she replied, staring down at her new boarding pass in her lap. Hadley had never flown first class. Her brother had once bragged about how he’d never fly with “the averages” again. Asher always had a way of making her feel small without even trying.
“Hopefully it won’t be torture.”
“It’s only two weeks and we’ll be working most of the time. It won’t be much different from any other day at the office. The only difference is you’ll have to be nice to me the whole time.”
Tyler’s brows pinched together. “Am I not usually nice to you?”
She hadn’t meant to offend. It wasn’t like Tyler was a tyrant, he simply wasn’t warm. He was all business, all the time. Which was fine with Hadley but one of the reasons everyone in the office liked Kellen better than Tyler. It was also a huge reason the staff asked Kellen to force him to take a break.
“You’re very focused. On whatever it is that you’re working on. Which is great,” she added. “It’s the reason 2K is doing so well as a company. But if we are supposed to convince your brothers that we’re in love, you’re going to have to make an effort to pay me a little attention.”
Tyler gave an understanding nod. “I’ll work on being extra nice.”
“The upgrade was a good start.”
“Well, maybe I’ll be a fast learner.”
He wasn’t the only one who would have to learn a thing or two. All she knew about Tyler was that he was the hardest-working person she’d ever met. She didn’t know what he liked to do in his free time, the little that he left himself, or what his favorite anything was. She knew practically nothing about the person sitting next to her.
It wasn’t like her to be going into something so woefully unprepared. She’d been following Tyler’s lead thus far, but his way seemed like a recipe for disaster.
“Speaking of learning, perhaps we should do a little getting to know each other before we face your family. I mean, I know how persistent your brothers can be. What if they have a lot of questions? What’s the plan here?”
“We’ll be on our own most of the time. I wouldn’t worry.”
Not worry? He didn’t know her very well if he thought she was capable of not worrying. Meeting the family was nerve-racking when she was the real girlfriend. Being the fake one made it a thousand times worse.
* * *
TYLER KNEW TWO of his brothers had way too much going on in their own lives to worry about his. Ben and Jon weren’t going to pry too much. Ethan, on the other hand, could be a problem. He was running the ranch presently, which made him troublesome. But there was one person who might be more of a hard sell than his brothers.
“I think the only person I’m really worried about is Katie, our ranch hand. Growing up, she was like the annoying little sister we didn’t ask for. Always in our business. Ratting us out for everything we did. She’s the one we might need to be wary of.”
Hadley paled. “Wait a minute, I didn’t realize we had to outsmart a woman. Not that I haven’t been nervous about pulling the wool over your brothers’ eyes,” she quickly clarified. “But women are more attuned to the intricacies of relationships. They pay attention to things like body language and the details that are shared with them.”
She had to be kidding. Katie was female, yes. But honestly, she was more like one of the guys than a woman “attuned to the intricacies of relationships.” Annoying? Yes. In touch with her feminine intuition? No.
Tyler chuckled. “Then maybe we should be more worried about Grace, my brother Ethan’s pregnant fiancée.”
“Pregnant!” Hadley was loud enough to attract the attention of more than a few people sitting near them. “Pregnant?” she repeated in a whisper.
Tyler was confused by her outburst. “What’s the matter with being pregnant?”
“Pregnant women are freaks of nature!” Hadley threw her hands up. “They have superpowers you can’t imagine. Do you even realize the amount of blood flowing through their bodies, feeding their brain? Not to mention the fact that all of their senses are in overdrive during pregnancy. She might be able to smell our lack of pheromones.”
Pheromones? Tyler was quickly reconsidering his lack of a plan. Not because he feared being unable to convince everyone because of Grace’s apparent bloodhound sense of smell but because Hadley was hysterical. He had chosen her because she was the smartest, most put together person in the office. He hadn’t expected her to lose it over pheromones.
He placed a hand over hers. “Look at me,” he said as calmly as he could. Her blue eyes locked onto his. The vulnerability he saw there was definitely new and created this strange sensation in the center of his chest. It was such a foreign feeling, he forgot what he was going to say.
“Are you going to tell me we’re going to be fine?” she asked.
That was it.
“We’re going to be fine. Grace and Katie will be preoccupied with a hundred other things while we’re there. We’ll just have to save our best stuff for the few times we’re around them, okay?” he said with a wink.
The tension seemed to leave her body as her shoulders relaxed and she gave him a small smile. “You’re right. We’ll be fine.” She thankfully sounded sure. “Good thing you got me that upgrade. We’ll have plenty of time to cram.”
“Cram?”
The gate agent announced they were ready to board first-class passengers. Hadley stood up. “Get ready to learn everything there is to know about me. I know I can’t wait to become a Tyler Blackwell expert.”
Tyler swallowed hard. No one was a Tyler Blackwell expert. He never let anyone get that close and he wasn’t sure he could start now.
* * *
THEY’D BEEN IN the air for over an hour and Hadley was already a lifelong fan of first class.
“Favorite color?” she asked, starting with an easy question to get Tyler to open up.
“Don’t have one.”
“Come on, everyone has a favorite color.”
“Not everyone because I don’t. I have no preference.”
Of course he was going to be difficult. “Favorite food?” she tried.
Tyler glanced out his window. They were flying high above a white blanket of clouds. “Nothing really stands out as a favorite.”
“Favorite movie?”
He stared blankly back at her.
“Book? Television show? Band? Coffee shop? Come on, Tyler.”
“What? I’m not a favorites kind of guy.”
Hadley took a deep breath to keep her anxiety at bay. She’d told Tyler everything she could think about herself. Perhaps embarrassingly too much about her obsession with Harry Potter during middle school. The important thing was he’d be prepared with plenty of Hadley knowledge.
He seemed determined to leave her completely in the dark about himself, however. She couldn’t go into this knowing next to nothing.
“Tell me about your brothers. What are they like?” she asked, hoping he’d be more willing to discuss the other Blackwells.
“Jonathan is my oldest brother, the only one who isn’t a twin, but he does ironically have twin girls.”
“What’s Jon’s wife’s name?”
“No wife. Jon is divorced. Although, he recently got engaged to his nanny, Lydia.” Tyler raised his eyebrows like it was a bit scandalous.
“He left his wife for the nanny?”
“No, no. His ex has been out of the picture since the twins were born.” The invitation to talk about someone else was all it took to open up the floodgates. “Jon’s the quintessential good guy in the white hat. He’s a hardworking cowboy. He was my dad’s favorite, probably because they were so alike. You’ll never see the guy in anything other than jeans, a plaid shirt and cowboy boots. Total opposite of Ben. Ben is all city boy. I’m sort of shocked he gave up his life in New York to settle back down in Falcon Creek, especially since he got dumped at the altar a few years back. No one likes getting dumped, but it was worse than that. She left him for our grandfather.”
“Whoa, wait. What?” Hadley knew about family dysfunction, but that was really messed up.
“Trust me, I think Ben got the better end of the deal. Zoe was nothing but a superficial gold digger. Ben deserved better and I’ve always thought that maybe Big E proposed to her because he knew Ben would have been miserable if they had ended up together. Ben has always been our grandfather’s favorite. The two of them have the same cutthroat mentality.”
“What’s keeping him in Montana, then?”
“Since he’s been home, he somehow managed to fall in love and get married to Rachel, an old friend whose family lives on the ranch next to ours. You’ll meet her, too.”
Fantastic, another woman in the mix. Hadley needed more information if she was going to trick three men and four women.
“In fact, the latest is that Big E filed for divorce and Zoe is back in Falcon Creek heartbroken,” Tyler said with a smile.
“Will I have to meet Zoe, too?”
“Lord, I hope not,” Tyler said as the flight attendant offered them a refill on their drinks and a warm cookie. Hadley might never be able to fly economy ever again.
“Jon and Ben will be busy with their own ranches. Ethan will be with us. Ethan is Ben’s twin,” Tyler continued after devouring his cookie. “Ben will tell you he’s five minutes older so that makes Ethan the middle child, which fits his personality. He gets along with everyone and always tries to be the peacekeeper. He was the softy in our brood and our mother’s clear favorite. The two of them had the same love of animals. She’s probably the reason he became a vet.”
For someone who didn’t have any favorites, he was awfully aware of how his family played them. “So let me guess, you and your twin brother were the black sheep of the family. No one’s favorites?”
Tyler chuckled. “Chance would tell you he’s the lone Blackwell black sheep because living in Big Sky Country wasn’t for him, but when we were little and our real grandma was still on the ranch, he was by far her favorite. She used to sing and play songs on the piano with him. I’m the only one in the family who didn’t have anyone’s undivided attention.” His gaze drifted back out the window. “I was the invisible one.”
Hadley knew exactly how it felt to be the invisible child. How frustrating it was to never quite be enough. She had felt that way her entire life. Being the younger, less successful sister of Asher Sullivan wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
“Maybe we have more in common than I thought,” Hadley said, turning her body in his direction.
“You don’t want to be like me. No one loves me the most for a reason.”
“Oh, come on. You aren’t that bad.”
His jaw tightened and he took a deep breath through his nose. “Trust me, Hadley. I’m the worst.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TYLER STRUGGLED TO ignore Hadley’s incessant fidgeting in the passenger seat of his rental car. He had warned her that she should be prepared to be in the middle of nowhere.
“We’re almost there. Can you try being still for a minute?” he asked. When she wasn’t peppering him with her millions of questions, she was distracting him with her anxious silence. After two hours on the plane and two hours in the car, maybe they had both hit their limit of togetherness.
“Any chance we can stop to use a bathroom?” she asked. That explained her wriggling.
They were only a few miles away from Falcon Creek. Tyler was more than happy to delay their arrival at the ranch. Actually, he wished he could turn around and get back on a plane headed anywhere but here. Being this close to the place he used to call home made his stomach ache with something other than hunger.
“Maybe we should grab some lunch in town. We’ll be eating at the ranch the rest of the trip.”
Hadley seemingly had no issue with that idea given that her stomach growled loudly. Tyler spotted the sign for Falcon Creek and exited the highway. This place was still a one-stoplight town. It hadn’t changed since Tyler was a baby.
The dive bar where Chance played his first real gig was still standing. Pops Brewster sat out front Brewster Ranch Supply playing chess just like he had for as long as Tyler could remember. Maple Bear Bakery was where Big E used to buy Ty and his brothers doughnuts when he was feeling generous, which wasn’t often, but that made the treat so much more delicious.
Clearwater Café was probably the best place to stop for a hot meal. Tyler sat in an open booth while Hadley ran to the bathroom. He glanced over the menu and ordered a couple of sodas for the two of them.