Amy Vastine - The Rancher's Fake Fiancée

“Really? Whose wedding are you planning exactly?” Ben’s tone clearly suggested he wasn’t buying it.

Tyler locked eyes with Hadley and put a finger to his lips, hoping she’d stay silent. She tipped her head and her eyes narrowed in curiosity.

“Mine and Hadley’s.”

CHAPTER TWO

THERE WAS NO way this was happening. Hadley felt her heart stop for a second. What in the world would make Tyler say such an outrageous lie?

“You guys aren’t the only ones who can fall in love and get married. I’m in the same boat and probably headed down the aisle before Ethan and Jon. I can’t leave now when Hadley and I have so much going on professionally and personally.”

Hadley must have been hallucinating. Why in the world would Tyler be telling his brother they were getting married? How was that the best idea he could come up with to get out of going to Montana to help them out?

Tyler’s face turned red. “Subpoena me for what? I have nothing to do with anything that’s going on out there.”

Hadley underlined the word vacation on the piece of paper she had shown him a minute ago before he had announced to his family that she was his betrothed. The man needed to go. It was the only way she was going to prove her worth around here.

“Hold on, my fiancée needs me for a second.” Tyler put the call on Hold. “Listen, I know this isn’t making any sense.”

“You mean you didn’t just reveal your love for me and propose?”

Tyler sighed and his shoulders slumped. “It’s a long story and I just need them to understand that I can’t come to Montana right now.”

“Why not? Kellen just told you to take a break. I’ve been begging you to get your brothers to stop calling. You taking a vacation to Montana and helping your brothers sell your family’s ranch seems like it solves all of our problems.”

“It won’t work,” Tyler argued. “Even if I went to Falcon Creek for my two-week ‘vacation,’ there’s no way that I could turn things around enough to make a difference.” He paused and stared at her for a second. “Not by myself.”

Hadley felt her face warm. She didn’t like how he was looking at her. Feeding his ego was her only hope. “You’re Tyler Blackwell. You can rebrand companies in your sleep. You can do anything.”

Tyler put the phone back to his ear and resumed his call. “Hadley and I will be there in a week.”

“No,” she interrupted. “I can’t go with you.”

Tyler ignored her. “We’ll do what we can for two weeks.”

Two weeks? In Montana? With Tyler Blackwell, pretending to be his fiancée? No. No. And no.

“I’ll do some research, find some potential buyers and paint a pretty picture for them. With any luck, someone will take it off our hands before the summer is over.”

Hadley shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. This was not the plan. The plan was Tyler goes to Montana by himself. Hadley stays in Portland and manages Tyler’s accounts while he’s gone. Tyler comes back and gives her the job she deserved in the first place.

As soon as Tyler hung up the phone, she pounced. “Ty, I can’t go with you. Who’s going to handle everything you’ve got going on here if we both go? You wanted my help getting things done while you were on vacation. I can’t do that if I go on vacation with you.”

“I need you to come with me. If both of us work on this, we’ll have the place sold in no time. Plus, my brothers can’t wait to meet the woman who convinced me to settle down.”

The knot in the pit of her stomach got tighter. And then it hit her. He needed her. He needed her to do something for him. “If I go, what do I get in return?”

Tyler blinked. “What do you get in return? What do you want?”

Hadley leaned forward as a sly smile spread across her face. “You know what I want. I want the same thing I wanted a couple months ago, but you let Kellen give it to Eric.”

* * *

SHE WAS SO darn smart. He’d have to give her that much.

“Looking back, I probably should have gotten a little more information about Eric’s qualifications,” he said. “Or maybe I should say lack thereof.”

“He’s Kellen’s nephew. That’s it. He does not know how to do the job. You know that. I know that. Kellen would know it if he was here day in and day out. You need to tell him. Convince him to give the job to me. If you do that, I’ll go to Montana with you and help you sell your ranch.”

She wasn’t wrong. Hadley was the better choice for brand strategist. Given Eric’s difficulty finding his bearings, Kellen might not be so reluctant to reassign him to a more suitable position.

“And you’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”

“I was thinking a better plan would be telling your brothers you were just kidding about that part.”

His spur-of-the-moment lie about getting married was supposed to keep him from going to Montana. He never imagined having to pretend, but if she wanted him to go, Hadley had to come with and there was no way he was letting his brothers know he wasn’t as blissfully in love as they were.

“Nope,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “Fake engagement is a go. Either you’re in or you’re out. And if you’re out, Eric keeps his job.”

Hadley sank back in her chair, contemplating her options. There were no options. If she wanted the job, she had to go along with this plan.

“If I do this, there will be very strict rules. I don’t know what you expect out of a fake fiancée, but there is no way I will compromise myself or my morals.”

“Come on, Hadley. I’m not going to ask you to make out with me in front of my brothers.” Clearly, there was no way the thought of kissing him could be unappealing, but he wouldn’t ask her to do anything that would make either of them uncomfortable. He didn’t need a harassment charge brought against him. This was still a business arrangement.

“As soon as we’re done and back in Portland, you will let your family know the wedding is off.”

“No problem.” Hadley wasn’t his type anyways. He’d be lucky if they didn’t notice how incompatible they were as soon as they got there. Tyler would have to put on a real show if he wanted to keep them in the dark.

Hadley stood up and smoothed her skirt. She reached a hand across his desk. “Then, we have a deal.”

The two of them shook on it and Hadley hustled out of his office. Tyler opened a new window on his computer and began his search for flights to Billings. Like it or not, he was headed back to Falcon Creek.

* * *

HADLEY’S HEAD WAS SPINNING. Had she just made a deal with the devil? Or had she made the deal of a lifetime? Two weeks marketing some ranch in Montana to potential buyers and she would have the job she deserved. That had to be a win for her.

She tried not to think about the fact that she had to pretend to be engaged. To Tyler Blackwell.

“Can I ask you a question about the Kingman account?” Eric stood next to her desk with a file folder in his hand. She couldn’t imagine what was in the manila folder given that they did everything electronically.

“Sure.”

“So, I’m supposed to be doing some market research and put together a report analyzing the market data and trends, right?”

“That’s what a brand strategist does.” She had answered this question more than once. He seemed to need constant confirmation of his role. She couldn’t tell if he kept forgetting or was asking in hopes he’d get a different answer one of these days.

Eric scratched the back of his head. “Do we have any of that from maybe a similar account? I mean, no reason to reinvent the wheel if it already exists, right?”

If he ended one more sentence with the word right , Hadley was going to lose her mind. She tried hard not to sound too condescending even though she wanted to let him know his incompetence was the reason she’d be taking his job in a few weeks.