Tough Luck Hero

“Well, I didn’t just go to Vegas overnight for no reason. I went to Vegas to get married.”

“You’re having a psychotic episode, aren’t you?” Maddy’s face contorted. “Please don’t tell me that you married a stripper. If some Las Vegas stripper ends up with a portion of our inheritance because you married her without a prenup...”

“I did not marry a stripper. I went to Vegas with Lydia Carpenter.”

“You did what?” Sierra’s voice had risen several octaves.

“I’m kind of surprised you didn’t hear about it already.” He watched their faces closely, using their responses as a primer for what it would look like to confess all of this to his mother. Not to mention his father.

Though he didn’t really care about his father’s response. His father’s sins were part of why he was in this mess. He had a feeling the scandal had influenced Natalie’s behavior. More than that, it was one of the biggest reasons he couldn’t afford to disappoint his mother.

“Why would we have heard about it? Did you print an announcement in the paper?” Maddy asked.

“Lydia may have...sent some texts.” He cleared his throat. “And I might have sent one or two myself.”

Maddy arched a brow. “And you didn’t text your sisters. You got married in Las Vegas to someone that we barely know and texted a bunch of random people to tell them?”

“Texting decisions were made. They were not made entirely sober.”

“So, you got drunk and you got married in Las Vegas,” Maddy said, her gaze pointed.

“It doesn’t matter if I was drunk or not. I’m married.”

“Wow,” Sierra said. “I really didn’t expect you...”

He looked down at her rounded belly pointedly. “I’m not sure you’re in a position to judge about drunken actions.”

Sierra’s pregnancy hadn’t exactly been planned. But then, her entire relationship with Ace Thompson had been more or less unplanned. And though Colton would never have thought his sister, the town’s rodeo princess, would have worked with the flannel-wearing once-confirmed bachelor, he had to admit that they did.

“I’m in love,” Sierra said, flipping her hair.

“And I stand by my decision,” he said.

He wasn’t going to go throwing around the word love. He hadn’t done so even when he’d been engaged to Natalie; he was hardly going to do so now.

Maddy noticed. “So, you marrying the woman running against Natalie’s father has nothing to do with...I don’t know, revenge?”

Lost somewhere in the murky mists of time was the reasoning behind his decision to marry Lydia. Maybe it had been about revenge. He had a feeling when they’d started taking shots together in Ace’s that it had absolutely been about revenge.

But after that? He couldn’t remember a damn thing.

So he could pretty much give her whatever answer he wanted to and it wouldn’t really be a lie. As long as it sounded reasonable.

“No. I’ve known Lydia for a long time. It’s just that I was involved with Natalie and...”

“And you were going to marry another woman anyway? But then Natalie just so happened to leave you at the altar?” Maddy asked.

“I was committed to Natalie. But then she didn’t show up for the wedding. And Lydia and I...”

“You were overcome?” Maddy pressed.

“Yes,” he said, turning his cup in a circle. “I was overcome.”

Colton had never been overcome by anything in his entire life, but if that was what Maddy needed to hear to accept the situation, then that was what he was going to tell her.

He was not going to tell her this was only temporary. He was not going to tell her that he had never felt much of anything but irritation for Lydia, and for some reason a little alcohol added to that mix had resulted in the two of them ending up in bed together.

Maybe he had been overcome. But not by emotion. And he wasn’t about to explain that to either of his sisters.

Even with Sierra visibly pregnant, and married, he preferred to pretend that neither of them would have any idea of what he was talking about.

He didn’t really have any idea of what he was talking about. Because he still couldn’t remember.

“Anyway, obviously I’m going to have to have a talk with Mom,” he continued.

“Obviously. And maybe a therapist.”

“Thank you, Madison. Would you kindly refer me to yours?” he asked, a little bit of bite in his tone.

“My therapist quit and retired to the Bahamas with all of the money I paid him. He said it was really nice that working with me was so financially successful for him, but unfortunately he was going to have to use a good portion of that money to pay for his own therapy,” his sister said drily.

“Maybe it’s just as well. Lydia is going to be moving into my house today. So I’ll be a little busy.”

“This is borderline scandalous behavior,” Maddy said, her lips curling up into a smile. “How nice of you to join the rest of us in disgrace.”

“You know, you could work a little harder to look concerned for my well-being.”

“I’m just saying,” she said, lifting her shoulder, “it is a bit daunting to be the sister of Saint Colton West. And more than a little satisfying to see your halo get tarnished.”

He looked at Sierra. “Sorry,” she said, not sounding apologetic at all. “It is kind of nice to know that you can make impulsive decisions.”

“Impulsive, maybe. But I stand by it,” he reiterated.

“You’re too stubborn to do anything else,” Sierra said.

It was easy for Sierra and Madison to sit there and give him side eye. Yes, Madison knew what it was like to be the center of a scandal. And the town, their parents and the dressage riding community had all been unkind to her when she had been caught in an affair with an older man when she was seventeen.

Colton had wanted nothing more than to break the other man’s jaw. Before he killed him. Slowly. But far too many people had held his underage sister responsible for the whole thing.

Madison made a practice of laughing it off now, but Colton knew that she didn’t really find it all that funny.

“I’m steady. All things considered, you should appreciate that. I’m not the kind of person to run for the hills when things get difficult.” It was always easiest to turn the condemnation to Gage. Their oldest brother had left town under a cloud years ago.

“So instead you ran off and married a near stranger.”

“I told you, Lydia isn’t a stranger.”

The moment he said that he realized what a lie it was. He had seen Lydia out of the corner of his eye at events for years. Hadn’t really started speaking to her until he’d gotten involved with Natalie. And then, every time they’d spoken, it had ended pretty badly.

He always managed to get her hackles up, and he didn’t feel a whole lot more sanguine about her.

Of course, now he was going to be dealing with her long-term. In close proximity.

Maybe this was what happened when you spent years being responsible. Eventually, it all imploded and you made one decision that was so bad it rendered all the others useless.

And, thinking of said bad decision, he had to go yank it out of its den and force it over to his place. And he was imagining that was going to go over well, even though they had agreed on it yesterday. Why? Because he and Lydia couldn’t seem to have an interaction that went well.

Actually, they either didn’t go well, or they went too well.

He had the sudden impression of fingertips trailing over his bare chest and the sensation shocked his system like a bolt of lightning.

“Are you okay?” Madison asked. “You look like someone just let a hamster loose in your shorts.”

He frowned. “Thanks for that. I have to go.”

“In all seriousness,” Maddy said, standing as he did. “If this is a hostage situation, blink twice.”

“It is not a hostage situation. And that wasn’t serious.”

“Really seriously now. You aren’t having a crisis, are you?”

“I know what it’s like,” Sierra said, rising slowly and unsteadily. “That feeling of just being...lost. This—” she pointed to her stomach “—this is where that ends.”

His entire face felt like it had been pushed into a barrel of bees. “This is different. Lydia is a completely sensible choice.”

“And is that all marriage is to you? A sensible choice?” Sierra asked.

“Why else would you get married?”

Sierra practically flailed. “Love?”

“Not you,” he said, looking at Sierra, then to Maddy. “You. Why else would you get married?”

“I wouldn’t. So you’re on your own here.”

“But if you did...”

“Obviously it would be for money,” Maddy replied. “And a big penis.”

Sierra snorted. “Nice.”

“Thanks for that,” he said.

“If you can’t stand the heat, don’t come into my kitchen,” Maddy said. “Or something.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Look, I’m going to make time to come by and see Mom. Until then, don’t tell her anything.”

“Don’t you think the news is going to make it through the gossip chain?” asked Sierra.

“The odds are high. But you said Mom was catatonic, so I’m assuming she’s avoiding the garden club at the moment.”

“She’s avoiding anything that isn’t prescribed by her doctor at the moment,” said Maddy.

“That will probably buy me some time. Until I get a chance to sit down with her. And figure out how to spin this in a way that isn’t going to cause even more trouble.”

“And until then?” Maddy tilted her head to the side, her golden-brown ponytail swinging with the motion.

“Until then...I have to deal with my wife.”

* * *

LYDIA HAD JUST hung her purse on the peg in her office at the Chamber when Sadie Garrett burst through the door.

“So. I’m going to need to hear this entire story from the beginning, with no detail spared.” She plopped down into the seat across from Lydia’s desk, her blue eyes a little too keen for Lydia’s liking.

“Good morning to you, too,” Lydia said.

“The greeting was implied.”

“We couldn’t have done this over the phone?”

Over the past year and a half she and Sadie had become fairly close, which was surprising considering they had started out as romantic rivals. Okay, they hadn’t really been romantic rivals. That implied that Lydia had ever had a fighting chance with Sadie’s gorgeous sheriff.

All she’d ever done was pine. Without any subtlety. But she didn’t want to remember that whole chapter of her life.

She was happy with the way things had turned out. She needed a friend more than she needed a boyfriend.

“No,” Sadie said, her voice getting shrill. “We cannot discuss your hasty Vegas marriage over the phone.”

“It’s way too early in the morning to discuss my hasty Vegas marriage.”

“That’s why I brought coffee.” Sadie smiled broadly, pushing a large white cup halfway across Lydia’s desk. “It’s a peppermint mocha. Full fat. The good stuff.”

“With whipped cream?”

“I’m not an animal. There is both whipped cream and little candy cane pieces.”

Lydia sat down grudgingly, pulling the cup toward herself, curling her fingers around it. It was warm, and she hadn’t realized she was cold until the heat from the cup began to seep into her skin.

She lifted the cup to her lips, the minty sweetness exploding on her tongue. “Okay,” she said, swallowing her first sip, “you have earned details.”

“Excellent. When I say details I mean...below the belt details. Details about the interior of his pants.”

Lydia winced. “Sorry. I don’t have those.”

Sadie frowned. “What?” She tilted her head to the side. “Is this one of those moments where you tell me you’re too much of a lady to do this kind of back-and-forth? Because it occurs to me that we haven’t ever talked sexual details.”

Mostly because Lydia had not had any sexual details to share with Sadie over the time they’d been friends. But she didn’t want to admit that.

“No. I’m not too much of a lady. It’s just...in order to get married in Vegas I had to get blackout drunk. Which means...”

“You don’t remember.”

“No. I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know what I was thinking. I don’t like Colton. I think he’s an arrogant son of a bitch.”

“Well, that’s because he always is to you.”

“I know!” Lydia took another sip of coffee. “But...when I was standing up there with all of the other bridesmaids, and the groomsmen, and there he was... I did feel bad for him. And...what was Natalie thinking? It was her wedding, for heaven’s sake. Everyone was there. The entire town. And she just...left him there.”

“I get pity sex, Lydia. Trust me, a guy in his position really needed some, but a pity marriage I get less.”

“It just started as pity shots. We went to Ace’s and started drinking. And one thing led to another.”

Sadie held up a hand. “Again, when most people say that, they mean they went back to his place and had sex. You two went to Vegas and got married.”

“I guess that’s what happens when the person you end up taking shots with is stupid rich.”

Sadie’s eyes went round. “Oh, that’s right. He is. I bet you he didn’t sign a prenup before this quickie marriage.”

“I don’t want his money. I don’t need his money. I earn my own. I don’t want to owe anyone anything, least of all Colton West. But I still kind of have to stay married to him.”

“Why?”

Lydia let out an exasperated sigh. “You can’t tell anybody. Because Colton is busily telling his family that this is the secret love match of the century.”

Sadie laughed, allowing a crack of sound in the small space. “And they’re going to believe that?”

“He seems to think so. But I know that you won’t believe it. You know too much.”

“I do. I’m extremely perceptive.”

“Not really so much that as I’ve told you a little too much about my feelings for Colton.”

“Fair enough. But you have to stay married to him... Why?”

“My campaign,” she said, tightening her hold on her cup. “Can you imagine? Lydia Carpenter goes to Las Vegas for a drunk quickie marriage, divorced already! It would be in the Copper Ridge Daily Tidings, and you know it.”

“Was that supposed to be the headline? Because that isn’t a good headline. It would have to be like Mayoral Candidate’s Marriage Didn’t Stay in Vegas!”

“Okay, that’s a cliché.”

Sadie shrugged. “It’s a small-town newspaper. You’re not going to get much better than cliché.”

“That’s beside the point. I’m up against an incumbent that makes this place look like it’s a monarchy.”

“Close enough,” Sadie said. “He’s been mayor for as long as I can remember.”

“He usually runs unopposed. Well, I’m opposing. And I know that I would be better for the job. I understand where the town is going...” Suddenly, she remembered Colton looking at her in the hotel room, his expression filled with disbelief as he asked her if she was stumping for votes. Maybe she had a little bit of a problem. But she had spent the past few years as a workaholic, and she didn’t really know what else to focus on. Particularly when things were chaotic. She tended to fall right back onto the topics she found easy. Right now, that was her campaign. And since her marriage, or rather, the continuation of it, was directly related to that campaign, it was particularly easy to do now.

“You know you have my support,” Sadie said. “And Eli’s. I mean, he can’t actually force people to vote for you under threat of arrest—I asked—but if anyone talks to him about it he makes his preferences pretty clear.”

“And I appreciate that. I appreciate the support that he’s given me, always. Which I mean in a nonsexual way.”

“I know.”

“Eli, in my opinion, is Copper Ridge. You two. The best, the future.”

“I feel like you’re avoiding giving details.”

Lydia let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m running against an institution. Not only that, he’s a man. It seems like the personal lives of women are always more scrutinized in these types of situations. I was single, which already made me somewhat unapproachable. I mean, people wonder why. They want to know if I even care about family. If I throw a quickie marriage and even faster divorce onto the pile...well, that’s it. I’m done.”

Sadie nodded slowly. “Okay. I see your point. So...what’s the plan? You stay married to him forever?”

“No. I stay married to him until I get elected. But, basically we’re just going to pretend to be married. I mean, we’re going to actually be married, but without the love, or the sex.”

Sadie frowned. “So, marriage with all of the annoying things like compromise, cohabitation and having to eat what he wants for dinner, without the things that make it fun?”

“For a limited time. We’re going to be roommates. Roommates who don’t like each other and who probably had sex and don’t remember it.”

“Wow. Good luck with that.”

“That is not helpful to me, Sadie. You’re an optimist. You’re supposed to be optimistic about this.”

“Sorry. Realist Sadie is the one who feels like weighing in. This is going to be a giant pain in your butt.”

It was Lydia’s turn to frown. “I think Realist Sadie is a pain in my butt.”

“She’s a pain in mine, too. I’m just saying, you honestly think that you’re going to live with Colton West for the next few months and pretend to be his wife and that isn’t going to be...awkward?”

“Oh, it’s going to be awkward.”

“Let me rephrase. You aren’t going to sleep with him?”

“No,” Lydia said, feeling each and every one of her muscles begin to tense up. “I’m not. The situation is complicated enough. We’re not going to mess it up further. It’s a blessing that we don’t remember what happened.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t believe me.”

“I believe that sex often overrules common sense.”

“Well,” Lydia said, “that has never been the case for me.”

“Except with Colton.”

Lydia set her cup down on the desk and threw her hands up. “I don’t remember it. It’s basically the same as it not happening.”

“Except that it did.”

“It isn’t happening again.” She picked her cup back up again, then set it back down. “You know what? I haven’t had sex in four years.”

Sadie’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

“So celibate, Sadie. So celibate. I don’t think a couple of months sharing a very large space with Colton is going to undo my willpower.”

“Except, you did... A couple of days ago. With him. He was the one that broke the celibacy.”

“Whiskey broke the celibacy. Alcohol is to blame. I’ll just...stay sober. Which is fine, because I usually am.”

“I support you.”

“But you don’t believe in me.”

Sadie shook her head. “Two different things.”

“You just can’t tell anyone that our marriage isn’t a real marriage.”

“Well, I’m going to tell Eli.”

Lydia scrunched up her face. “Do you have to?”

“Sorry. Husbands before... Well, nothing rhymes with husbands. But, I don’t keep secrets from him.”

The fact that it was Eli made it slightly worse. Lydia was over her Eli crush, but since she had been occasionally pathetic in his presence already, she didn’t want to add to it by having him fully aware that her marriage wasn’t real.

A very unsettling thought occurred to her. Even if people believed the marriage was real, she still looked kind of pathetic. The bride hadn’t shown up, so Colton had snagged the nearest bridesmaid.

But you weren’t the nearest bridesmaid. You were on the other end. So, he passed over like three bridesmaids to get to you.

The thought made her scowl.

Sadie clearly thought the scowl was directed at her. “He won’t tell. Not anyone. Not even Connor.”

“I believe you.” She couldn’t imagine the very serious, upright sheriff gossiping to his brother like a couple of hens. If there was one thing she trusted in, it was Eli’s goodness. He was one of the most truly responsible and decent people she had ever known. Which, really, explained her attraction. That and the fact that he was an integral part of the community that had become so important to her. The community that she wanted so desperately to be part of.

In a deep way. Not just a superficial way. She wanted Copper Ridge to be hers. Not out of a thirst for power; that wasn’t why she was running for mayor. It was just that she cared. She cared so deeply about this place, this place that was perfect in ways she could not begin to describe.

The sharp, salt air; the fresh scent of the pines; the way the mist hung low over the mountains. It was in her blood. It was part of her. When she had first driven into town with her car full of her earthly possessions eight years ago, ready to make a fresh start, she had felt like she’d crossed the earth, not just into the next state.

Had felt for the first time like something was hers. For her.

And she wanted more. Something that couldn’t be taken from her. It was an ache, a longing that she had a difficult time articulating, even to herself.

“So, where do you go from here? What’s next?”

“I guess...I’m moving.”

CHAPTER FIVE

LYDIA HAD NO idea what she should bring with her. Obviously, she wasn’t going to bring her furniture. She was going to have to forward her mail. She would need clothes, but mostly early fall clothes. Maybe a winter jacket. Definitely nothing for the late-coming spring. Because they weren’t going to be married that long.

She was standing in her living room pondering these things when there was a knock on her door.

She wondered if it was Sadie with more mochas, or perhaps that was more of a fantasy than a wonderment.

“Just a second.” She turned, moving to the door and jerking it open without checking to see who was on the other side. “Hi,” she said, trying to ignore the fluttering in her stomach when she came face-to-midchest with Colton.

He was so tall. It was borderline obscene. Tall and broad and extremely muscular. Utterly masculine, with just a few days growth of gold-tinted whiskers covering his square jaw. And it made her feel a little bit regretful that she didn’t have any memories about the interior of his pants.

No. No, she was not going to go there.

“I just came to see if you needed help with anything,” he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“I’m fine,” she said, very aware of the fact that she didn’t have everything together at all.

“So, are you about ready?”

“I mean, I’m ready kind of. Mostly. Also, you didn’t have to come and pick me up.”

“Sorry, I’m a little rusty on the protocol of how exactly you help your fake wife move into your house for a temporary period of time.”

“Yeah,” she said, “we may have to pioneer that.”

“Do you need any help?”

Absurdly, she was ridiculously edgy about the idea of him coming into her house. Possibly because when all was said and done, she kind of wanted to go back to life as it had been before she had decided to make a Colton-sized mistake.

“No. I have it. Just wait there. You can sit in...” She didn’t really want him sitting in her porch chair, either. But denying him a spot to wait was a little bit shrewish. “You can sit in the chair,” she said finally.

“Okay,” he replied, looking rather like he thought she was insane.

Well, maybe she was. But he had married her. So, that didn’t say anything good about him.

“Just a—” She held up a finger. “Just a second.”

She slammed the door shut and turned back around, looking at her half-packed duffel bag. She picked it up, turning quickly into her bedroom, then grabbing some clothes that were hanging in the closet and stuffing them into the bag. They didn’t fit. She was going to have to get a suitcase.

Several suitcases, probably.

What had she been thinking? She had been thoroughly convinced that this was some kind of overnight trip, and she was going to pack a bag, and then she was going to return to her house as though nothing had happened. She was moving in with him. That was completely different. It was... Okay, now she felt like she was going crazy.