Christine Rimmer - The Maverick's Accidental Bride

The gossip column was a long one. It covered a lot more strange goings-on than what had happened between him and Jordyn. Others had behaved badly last night, and the mystery columnist hadn’t hesitated to lay it all out there in black-and-white, including the waitress who went swimming in the park fountain and ended up in jail for it, and also a poker game at the local watering hole, where one of the Crawford boys won somebody’s ranch.

The part about Will and Jordyn came last. Unlike those two awful ladies in Crawford’s, the column was not cruel. Looked at objectively, he supposed the story of his spur-of-the-moment marriage might even seem romantic. But the fact remained that he hated to have a spotlight shone on the night he could barely remember—and he knew that Jordyn would hate it, too. In the end, what were they but two moonstruck idiots who’d lost their heads and tied the knot?

Frankly, reading it pissed Will off. No, it wasn’t mean-spirited. But come on. Whoever wrote it should at least have had the guts to put their name to it. And didn’t that columnist even wonder what had gotten into everyone last night?

Will did. He still suspected that cowboy in the white hat of spiking their punch. And beyond the issue of who put what in Jordyn’s punch, the column and the encounter with the two ladies in Crawford’s store had him rethinking what to do next.

Because they were married, and everyone seemed to know it. And in a town like Rust Creek Falls, people took their wedding vows seriously. If he and Jordyn didn’t find the right way to deal with this accidental marriage of theirs, she would be shamed before the whole town, and he wouldn’t look like much of a man.

The more he reconsidered their situation, the more certain he became that he and Jordyn needed a better plan than just to race off to Kalispell to see if they could call the whole thing off. Because it was too damn late for that.

Chapter Three Contents Cover Introduction “This isn’t the first time you’ve acted like you want to call it off.” “Call it off?” she repeated in a stark whisper. Will nodded. “I don’t like it, but I can accept that maybe this just isn’t something you’re willing to do. You can move back to the boardinghouse. We’ll tell everyone we realized it wouldn’t work, after all. But then, if there’s a baby, I want you to promise me that you’ll come back.” Call it off… Did she want that? They’d been “married” for just three days. Not only did Jordyn Leigh have to deal with her guilt over the lies they were telling, but sometimes when she told a lie, it came out seeming way too much like the truth. The stuff she’d just said to Cece, for instance. About how wonderful Will was, how superhot and protective, how when he kissed her, she melted… Well, she found it easy to tell those lies because those lies felt so very true. It didn’t seem possible. She didn’t know how it had happened. But somehow, Will Clifton was beginning to look like her dream man. *** Montana Mavericks: What Happened at the Wedding? A weekend Rust Creek Falls will never forget! Title Page The Maverick’s Accidental Bride Christine Rimmer www.millsandboon.co.uk About the Author CHRISTINE RIMMER came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at www.christinerimmer.com . Dedication For MSR, Always. Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Extract Copyright

In the morning, when Will pulled up in front of the boardinghouse, Jordyn Leigh was waiting on the front steps wearing faded jeans and a little white T-shirt. She jumped up and ran down the steps to meet him, the morning sun picking up glints of bronze and auburn in her pale gold hair.

“Hey.” She gave him a nod and a wobbly attempt at a smile as she pulled the passenger door shut. A hint of her scent came to him, that pleasing perfume he remembered from Saturday night, like flowers and spring grass and ripe, perfect peaches.

“Mornin’,” he said.

She plunked her bag at her feet, hooked up her seat belt and stared straight ahead.

He put it in gear and off they went. “You sleep okay?”

She sent him a look that said, Are you kidding? And then she went back to her intense study of the street ahead of them.

Once they got to the highway, he tried to get her talking—about harmless things. About the weather and her job at the local day care. But she was having none of it. Her answers consisted of as few words as possible. She volunteered nothing.

He went ahead and asked her if she’d seen the Gazette .

“I saw it,” she answered. That was it. Nothing more.

He kept trying. “I talked to Craig again last night. He had more on the Brad Crawford story—Brad’s the guy who won that ranch in the poker game.” He waited for a nod or a grunt from her to tell him she was listening. Nothing. He soldiered on. “Well, now the ranch belongs to Brad, and the former owner has vanished into thin air. Nobody’s seen him since Saturday night. Some folks are thinking there’s been foul play.”

Jordyn only shrugged and stared out the windshield.

Will gave it up. For the time being, anyway. They rode the rest of the way in silence.

In Kalispell, it only took a few minutes to get to the county justice center. Will parked in the lot, and they went in together. The county clerk’s office was on the third floor. They waited their turn in line and quickly learned that the clerk himself wasn’t in the office right then.

At that news, Jordyn muttered, “Thanks a bunch, Elbert.”

The woman who helped them told them that yes, their license was on file and they were indeed married. As Jordyn stood wide-eyed and silent at his side, Will went ahead with the original plan and asked about the possibility of an annulment.

The woman clucked her tongue as if in sympathy and then patiently explained that it would actually be very difficult for them to get an annulment. “In Montana, an annulment requires proof that there has been no sexual intercourse between the married couple. You can imagine how complicated proving that can be.”

Jordyn made a strangled sound. Will fully expected her to burst into tears, and he braced to deal with that.

But somehow she held it together, and the woman went right on, “What you want is a joint dissolution—joint dissolution meaning that you two file jointly for your divorce. It’s simple and straightforward and also fair.” She gave them the large packet of documents they would need and said that the same documents were also available to print off online.

“Fill them out completely and bring them back,” she said. “When you return all the needed documentation—in person, together—you’ll be given a hearing date a maximum of twenty days out. The hearing is a formality. Bottom line, twenty days from filing jointly, you will be divorced.”

They went back downstairs and out the door. Back in the quad cab, Jordyn remained scarily subdued.

Will tried again to get through to her. “Jordyn. I think we really need to talk some more about all this.”

But she only shook her head. “Just take me back to the boardinghouse, please.”

He drove north on Main and turned right on Center. Two blocks later, he pulled into the parking lot of a cute little café. The tidy building was painted white, and there were cheerful geraniums in cast-iron boxes at each of the wide windows. He switched off the engine and stuck his key in his pocket.