The Cowboy's Make Believe Bride by Kristi Rose

Author:Kristi Rose [Rose, Kristi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944513207
Publisher: Vintage Housewife Books
Published: 2017-11-06T18:30:00+00:00

16

Fort woke the next morning disoriented and frustrated. He'd had indecent dreams most of the night. Many of them had Cori underneath him writhing in pleasure. The others were with him under her. She hadn't talked to him since leaving the tracks last night. He wondered how today would go.

He rubbed a hand over his face and tried to get his shit together. There were jobs to be done around the ranch that required his lazy ass to be out of bed. Just like him, the animals were hungry. The sun was just beginning to break, bringing with it a dusty yellow light that painted a swath of color across his bed. Rolling softly onto his back, he glanced toward Cori, wondering if she was awake. He expected to find her dead to the world, but she was blinking back at him.

He dropped his head back onto the pillow. “You don't have to get up,” he said to her foot, extending an olive branch.

She said nothing, so he searched for the right thing to say. He knew he'd hurt her feelings yesterday, but it had needed to be done. She was hired for a job, but last night they'd forgotten that. Let things get carried away.

“Cori—”

“I think you're right about the rules. We were smart to make them. We should stick by them.”

“So no more of what happened yesterday,” he said. They needed to stay focused.

“Right. We call everything a wash and start over.”

He nodded and stared at her tiny feet. She carried so much on her shoulders. It was nice to see her laugh, and here he was an ass for trying to make it out like something it wasn't.

“Cori, calling it a wash is not the same as calling it a mistake. You see that, don't you? I don't think anything that happened last night should be a regret.”

She sighed so heavily the bed moved. “But I'm so good at regret.”

“Did you really have to sell everything when your dad went to prison?” he asked her, or more like her foot since that was closest. “What did you do when you all lost the ranch?”

“It would seem that good old Pops made sure to provide for Babs but not for the kid, so I worked at the supercenter and picked up odd jobs when I could. The thing for me was to get the most money possible. His lawyer told me if I let the government do it, they'd sell it for pennies. Since the money was going back to the city, I thought it only fair to do my best.”

When everything had gone to shit with his dad, Fort was free and clear to walk away and never look back. Something he'd done without hesitation. So had his dad, and Fort had no idea where he was. Leaving had been easy. A clean slate ahead of him had been refreshing. In the Navy, he hadn't been known as Gambler Karl's kid. Even in Wolf Creek where people knew about his dad somewhat, it was all-superficial, and he liked it that way.

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