Shotgun Vows by Teresa Southwick

Author:Teresa Southwick
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance: Modern, Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Romance - General, Westerns, Romance - Contemporary, General, Texas, Fiction - Romance
ISBN: 9780373217472
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2004-05-15T13:07:41.425000+00:00

Nine

“Marry me? I’ve just discovered that you’re the lying, cheating spawn of the devil—and you want to marry me?”

Dawson winced as the pitch in Mattie’s voice escalated to a level that only he and dogs could hear. Not to mention the words spawn of the devil. How many times had he told himself he would never sink to the same level as his father? Before he could give that any more thought, she started to laugh. But there was a tinge of hysteria mixed in.

“I get it,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Dawson, you’re too much. Your first practical joke worked so well, you decided to try another one.”

“What joke?” he asked.

“The one where you pretended to be interested in me while you were in cahoots with my brother to keep me from having any fun.”

He met her gaze and willed her to understand. “Mattie, let’s get one thing straight, here and now. I never pretend.”

Especially about what had transpired between them tonight. He couldn’t say for sure about her, but taking Mattie to bed had been the best thing he could remember in longer than he wanted to think about. Common sense told him that saying so in front of her brother would be a big mistake. He would lay money on the fact that Griff was mentally scrolling through his repertoire of three hundred ways to kill a man with his bare hands as he calculated the merits of each—as in, which one would hurt the most for the second-and-a-half it took Dawson to die.

Griff wasn’t someone he wanted to make an enemy of. Which made him grateful that they were on the same wavelength. They both agreed on the issue of changing Mattie’s marital status based on Dawson’s participation in tonight’s events.

She shook her head. “Maybe your term for it is ‘play acting.’ Whatever you want to call it, the fact is, it worked. Really well. But I guarantee you’ll never sucker me again.”

“It was no joke, Mattie. Not to me. In fact, I started to tell you what was going on, but you sidetracked me. And the bottom line is that now none of that matters. I want you to marry me.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do.”

He winced for the second time in as many minutes. But this time it was because his words extinguished the light of expectation and hope in her eyes.

“Damn straight, it’s right,” Griff said. “And the sooner, the better.” Obviously agitated, he ran a hand through his hair. “Since there’s already a wedding in progress, maybe Brody and Jillian wouldn’t mind making it a double—”

“Griff!” Mattie cried, glaring at him as if he were a wrestler asking to join a royal tea party. “This isn’t a drink, and they aren’t bartenders. Even if I wanted to—which I don’t—I can’t just walk up to Jillian and Brody and say ‘make it a double.’”

Dawson wasn’t so sure. He thought Griff’s idea had some value. Preparations were definitely going on. People were already planning to attend.

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