Barbara Dunlop - In Bed With The Wrangler

Katie gave Amber a helpless shrug. “What’s the point in hiding it? It’s obvious to anyone that you’ve had your heart broken.”

“Who is Royce Ryder?”

“The man she met in Montana.”

“I met him at Jared Ryder’s wedding,” Amber corrected. Where he’d picked her up in the bar for a quick fling. At least that’s the way he remembered it.

Reena’s jaw dropped a notch, and her hand went to her chest. “You were unfaithful to Hargrove?”

“I wasn’t unfaithful to Hargrove.” Frustration finally gave Amber an emotion to replace despair. “In fact, Hargrove was unfaithful to me.” She returned Katie’s look. “With Katie .”

Katie’s face went pale, and Reena’s jaw dropped another notch.

“They’d already split up,” Katie hastened to assure Reena.

“That’s true,” Amber admitted. “Nobody was unfaithful to anybody.”

Katie’s voice went soft. “And she did fall in love with Royce.”

Amber was too exhausted to deny it.

“Oh, sweetheart.” Reena took Amber’s hand. Her mother was a romantic to the core. “That terrible man broke your heart?”

“I broke my own heart.” As she said the words out loud, Amber admitted to herself they were true. “We barely knew each other. And my expectations were…Well, he’s just such an incredible man. You’d love him, Mom. You really would.”

Reena’s narrow arm curled around her shoulders. “I wouldn’t like him at all. He broke my baby’s heart.”

Jared’s familiar voice barked at Royce over the phone. “What the hell did you do?”

“Jared? Finally. Where are-”

“I need an explanation,” Jared demanded.

Royce swiveled on the ranch house office chair, assuming Jared had been in contact with the Ryder office in Chicago. “I don’t even know where to start.”

“Start with how you broke Amber Hutton’s heart and infuriated one of our most important clients.”

Royce nearly dropped the phone. “Huh?”

“I’ve only been gone a week, and you screw up this badly.”

“She called you?” Royce could hardly believe it. What was Amber doing running to Jared?

“David Hutton called me. He’s threatening to cancel his lease. You are aware that he’s our second-biggest client, right?”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“Then don’t sleep with our clients’ daughters.”

What could Royce say to that? “It just…happened.”

“Right. Well, un-happen it.”

“I don’t think that’s physically possible.”

“You know what I mean. Fix it.”

“I can’t fix it. She’s engaged to someone else.”

“What?” Jared’s voice rose to a roar.

“Hargrove Alston.”

“Then why did you sleep with her?”

Royce didn’t have an answer for that. There wasn’t an excuse in the world for what he’d done.

Jared was silent for a moment. “David thinks she’s in love with you? ”

“I’m not breaking up her engagement.”

“Admirable,” said Jared.

“Thank you.”

“Could’ve thought of it before you slept with her.”

Royce grunted.

“So, how’re you going to fix it?”

“I’ll talk to her.”

“What are you going to say?”

“None of your business.” Royce didn’t have the first clue.

He’d been thinking about it for days, and had come to the conclusion that by bringing Amber to Montana, he’d turned a momentary hesitation into a life-altering event.

Whatever crazy fantasy Amber had spun around Royce wasn’t real. She barely knew him. And he barely knew her. If relationships built on years didn’t last, there was no hope at all for one that was built on a mere week.

“Make it my business.”

“No.”

Jared went silent on the other end of the line for a few beats. “You ever think…”

Royce drummed his fingers on the desktop.

“That maybe she’s not…”

“Not what?” Did Jared have something intelligent to add here or not?

Jared drew a breath. “I mean, she might really be in love-”

“No!” Royce barked.

“Could happen.”

“No, it could not.”

“I’m a married man, Royce. And I’m telling you it could happen.”

“You’ve been married a week. Talk to me in twenty years.”

“You’re going to make a woman wait twenty years?”

Royce felt his frustration level rise. “I’m going to make a woman wait until she’s sure.”

“How’re you going to know that?”

“I’ll just know.”

“Like you do now?”

“What I know now is that she’s taken, and she’s confused, and she has obligations that have nothing to do with me.”

“She’s not Mom,” Jared said softly.

“Don’t even go there.”

“And you’re not Frank Stanton.”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Mom and Dad’s relationship was demanding and complex. He worked too hard and she had stars in her eyes.”

“And you don’t think all marriages are demanding and complex?” That was what the long haul was all about. It meant sticking together through the rough times, knowing better times would come again. It didn’t mean bailing the second life got a little humdrum.

“Did it ever occur to you that Dad might have shared the blame?”

“He didn’t screw around on her,” Royce practically shouted.

“Yeah, but he wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. Hell, he shot a guy.”

“The son of a bitch deserved it. I’d have shot him, too.”

“You mean, if he slept with Amber?”

“Hell, yes.”

“Gotcha.”

Royce went silent, his jaw clamping down.

What had just happened? He was the illicit lover in this triangle, not the betrayed husband.

Jared’s voice turned jovial. “Okay, fixing this is going to be way easier than I thought.”

“Shut up.”

Jared chuckled, and Royce bit down harder on his outrage. His brother could be positively infuriating.

“Let’s move on to other problems,” he ground out. He wasn’t wrong, and Jared wasn’t right. And it was definitely time to end this discussion.

His brother’s tone changed. “What problems?”

“The China deal fell apart.”

“Yeah,” Jared sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

“We’re in a cash crunch because of it. I’ve got a guy taking a thorough look at our operations. I think we’re going to have to streamline.”

“He any good?”

“He came highly recommended.” Royce drew a breath. “And, Jared. I fired Barry Brewster over China.”

“Seriously?”

“He missed the deadline, blew the deal.” He’d also insulted Amber, but Royce wasn’t going anywhere near that conversation.

“There are a thousand ways to blow a deal with China.”

“Yeah, well, he’s gone.”

“Okay. Your call. You need me to come back early?”

“Let’s give it a few more days. There’s one more thing…” Royce stopped himself. “You know what? It can wait.”

If Jared learned about Norman Stanton and Stephanie, he’d be on the next plane back to the States.

But Royce had already made this month’s blackmail payment. Norman Stanton had no idea they were on to him, and there was nothing Jared could do in the short term but worry.

“You sure?” asked Jared.

“I’m sure.”

“And fix it with Amber, bro. She’s not Mom. You’re not Stanton. And everything’s a leap of faith.”

Amber and Katie stood side by side, gazing into the three-way mirror in Amber’s bedroom.

“You don’t think it would be too weird?” asked Katie as they admired their reflections in the sleek, sleeveless, pearl-adorned wedding gown and the dramatic oriental silk bridesmaid dress.