Joanna Sims - The Maverick's Wedding Wager

Chapter Three

They had decided to take his black decked-out GMC truck for the thirty-minute trip to Kalispell. Was Knox bluffing or was he truly pleased that they were on their way to get married? She had watched the man put away scrambled eggs, bacon, three biscuits with butter and honey, grits and two large glasses of orange juice. She had no idea how he could eat at a time like this! Her stomach felt like a washing machine on a spin cycle; the coffee she had drunk at the diner was just adding to the acid backing up in her throat. She felt miserable while he hummed contentedly behind the wheel.

“You played me pretty good, Knox. I have to admit it.”

For two people who normally had a lot to say to each other, the first half of the ride to Kalispell had been a quiet one.

“How do you figure?”

“You knew I wouldn’t be able to turn down a wager. You knew my weakness and you exploited it.”

“That’s true. I did.”

“That’s a move right out of my own playbook. I don’t like it but I have to respect it,” she admitted grudgingly.

After a moment of silence she added, “I’ve never lost a wager before.” She had her arms crossed in front of her body as she stared out at the pastureland dotted with grazing cows on either side of the highway. “It galls me to lose to a Texan of all things.”

“You didn’t lose,” Knox said with an easy smile turned her way. “I’d call this one a draw.”

“Draws are for losers.”

“That’s not how I see it. We’re both winners, as far as I can tell.”

“The only way I win is if you back out. I can still win. There’s still time.”

He laughed. “I’m not backing out of this wedding wager, Gen. If someone’s gonna back out of this deal, it’s gonna have to be you.”

Genevieve glanced over at Knox’s profile; she took in the strong jawline and the straight nose. Had she finally met her match? Was this cowboy crazy enough to really elope today? Was she so pigheaded that her ego wouldn’t let her back down for a bet? She suspected the answer to her first two questions, but she absolutely knew the answer to the last. Her ego wouldn’t ever let her back down—not when she was racing, not when she was bungee jumping and not even when she was about to elope with one of the Crawford cowboys on a dare.

“Then,” she said with a pensive frown, “I guess we’re really going to get married today.”

“Darlin’, that’s music to my ears.”

“Quit being so darn cheerful,” she snapped at him. “And quit calling me darlin’.”

* * *

Genevieve had hoped for a long line to apply for their marriage license. There was a line, but it seemed to be the swiftest moving line she had ever seen. How did it even make sense that two people could just walk up to a counter and get a license to get married? But that’s what they did. They went to the third floor of the Flathead County Justice Center, showed their driver’s licenses, paid fifty-three dollars and left with a state sanctioned “permission slip” to become husband and wife.

“This is why there’s so much divorce in this country,” Genevieve complained as they stepped out into the sunshine with their marriage license in hand. “They make it too darn easy for just anyone to say I do .”

“Lucky for us.” Knox carefully folded up their marriage license and tucked it into his wallet.

Genevieve had stopped waiting for the cowboy to back out—she could see that he was full-steam ahead on this deal while her mind was whirling with a thousand consequences. What were her parents going to say? What was his family going to say? Of course, she could hear her mother now. Genevieve, when will you ever learn to look before you leap?

“We aren’t exactly dressed for a wedding, are we?” Knox asked as they walked to the sidewalk outside of the Kalispell courthouse.

“I didn’t expect you to show up,” she admitted. In fact, she had only stuffed some things into a backpack at the last minute before she headed to the Gold Rush on the off chance he did show. In her backpack she had a toothbrush, a hairbrush, her laptop and a Swiss Army pocketknife. Not exactly the most practical of wedding trousseaus.

“Well, I did.” He kept on smiling at her like the cat that ate the canary. “So, why don’t we find some wedding duds? There’s got to be a place where a man can get a suit and a bride-to-be can find a dress.”

She wasn’t quite sure why Knox wanted to make such an event of a civil ceremony for their marriage-in-name-only, but the thought crossed her mind that her family, particularly her two sisters and her mom, would want to see pictures. Her family would totally buy her eloping in her barn clothes—they almost expected that kind of behavior from her—but what about Knox’s kin? Would they believe their elopement was the real deal if they didn’t look like a head-over-heels couple sneaking off to make their secret romance official?

“I suppose,” she said, looking up the main street of Kalispell to a row of shops. “If we’re going to convince your father that we eloped because we’re crazy in love, we had better look the part.”

After a quick search on her phone, they headed toward the Kalispell Center Mall on North Main Street. They found their way to Herberger’s department store for one-stop shopping. First, they purchased simple white gold wedding rings, just plain bands without any embellishment. After all, those rings were just costume props and would be discarded once Viv Shuster managed to get the last three Crawford cowboys engaged.

Knox hadn’t wanted to scare Genevieve off, but it could take a while for Viv to make matches for the final three brothers. His brother Finn, older by only one year, might be the easiest to pin down with a bride. Finn didn’t seem to mind their father’s plan all that much and he was always falling in and out of love anyway. But, his one younger brother Wilder was going to prove extra challenging for Viv—he was a busy bee that loved to pollinate all the lovely flowers of Rust Creek Falls and it was going to be a neat trick to get Wilder to dedicate himself to one special rose. And, Hunter, well, he was a single father who wasn’t focused on finding love in the least. Hunter’s heart, mind, and soul were all wrapped up in six-year-old Wren.

Knox pocketed the wedding rings as they parted ways—he headed to the men’s clothing section, while she headed for women’s dresses. They agreed to meet back at the jewelry counter in one hour. Genevieve wasn’t much of a shopper but she was quick to make decisions, so one hour suited her just fine.

“Hi! Welcome to Herberger’s.” A petite salesclerk with a blond bob and bangs popped out from behind a tall rack of dresses. “How may I help you?”

“I need a dress.”

“Special occasion?”

“My wedding,” Genevieve said. “I suppose.”

“You suppose?” The salesclerk’s name tag read Kimber. “That’s a first. Don’t you know?”

She didn’t have any intention of sharing the details of her wedding wager to Knox Crawford with a stranger in Herberger’s department store, so she ignored Kimber’s question and focused on the dress.

“Do you have something you could show me? I’m in a bit of a time crunch.”

“Of course, I do.” Kimber beamed with pleasure. “I love dressing brides. White, off-white?”

“White.” That was for her mom—it was a small token but it was the least she could do.

“Indoors or outdoors?”

Not wanting to say “I don’t know,” she just took a guess. “Outdoors.”

Kimber marched her over to a section of white dresses that could be worn as a casual-ceremony wedding dress.

“You are short-waisted and petite like me,” the salesclerk said as they sifted through the rack. “If we aren’t careful, we’ll have you looking like you’re a little girl playing dress-up in your mama’s clothes. What size do you wear?”