“What?” Knox asked. “Do you see a snake or something?”
“No, but I see a Callahan,” she whispered.
He was one of those multimillionaires that her mother talked about, and that was why she had been called agold digger.She couldn’t believe she had brazenly asked him to be her fake boyfriend. But then, in her defense, nothing at that fairly simple wedding said that the familywere rich folks. Even Mary Jane, who had more than a twenty-year writing career of bestselling books, didn’t act all hoity-toity.
“And that means?” Knox asked.
“I am not a gold digger. I am not after your money by starting a fake relationship to make you fall in love with me. Why are you doing such a manual job when you are rich, anyway?”
“I like what I’m doing. It makes me happy, and honey, if I thought you were angling to get your name on my bank account, I wouldn’t be sitting here beside you.” He chuckled. “Let’s talk about something else. Did you stay in Aunt Bernie’s trailer or the Paradise when you were in Spanish Fort?”
“I stayed in my trailer, but the Paradise is more like a small hotel than a house,” she answered. “Bernie told me that the house started off as a brothel back when Spanish Fort was a booming town that got a lot of trade during the days when cattle were run from Texas up to Dodge City.”
“Yep, and the whole family is working to get the place off the ghost town register,” Knox said.
Lord have mercy! She had trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that he was a rich man.
“Why did you agree to do this with me?” she asked.
“It suits both of our needs. You don’t want to deal with the unmarried men. I don’t want to put up with Aunt Bernie and her matchmaking.”
Her emotional moment at the idea of Jack leaving had passed, but she couldn’t make herself scoot away. Sittingthere with him in the moonlight was both comforting and exciting—even though she didn’t want to admit the latter.
“That said and understood,” he said, “the Paradise is kind of like a hotel, and you really ought to come around and see it at Christmastime.”
“Bernie showed me pictures,” Lottie said. “I bet it’s the best-decorated place in the county.”
“Yes, it is, and the whole town of Spanish Fort looks like something out of a Hallmark movie during the holiday,” Knox replied and stood up.
He extended a hand to her, and she took it. She was surprised that the sparks didn’t catch the floating apple blossoms on fire, but Knox didn’t even seem to notice. He kept her hand in his, creating even more heat all the way back to his trailer.
She vowed that she would not let their relationship be any more than a passing fanciful fake one.
Chapter 5
“You are the most stubborn man on the face of this earth.” Lottie pulled the trigger on the nail gun half a dozen times and then gave Knox a dose of stink eye. “No, that’s not right. The earth isn’t big enough. You are the most exasperating guy in the Universe.”
“Whoa!” Thomas said. “That’s giving him a lot of credit, and my wife, Angie, would say that he’d have to fight me for the title.”
“What’s the problem anyway?” Gabe asked.
“We’re going to Spanish Fort for the weekend. She wants to take her trailer,” Knox answered.
Leave it to a man to not explain the whole situation. She popped a dozen more nails into the supports to hold up the last wall and seethed with every one of them.
Eddie stretched up and nailed in braces to hold the two walls together. “What’s wrong with that?”
“We’ll have to take two vehicles,” Knox answered. “There’s plenty of room at the Paradise for her to stay there two nights, but she won’t leave her cat alone that long.”
“Why can’t you ride with her?” Thomas asked.
“Because I don’t let anyone else drive my truck, andhe’s being a…” She couldn’t think of a word mean enough to say.
Thomas glanced over at Knox. “If that means you’d have to ride in the passenger seat, then I don’t blame you for taking your own vehicle. I hate it when Angie insists on driving and I’m over on the other side trying to brake by stomping the floorboard. I swear that woman should’ve been a NASCAR driver.”
“Same with Jeannie,” Eddie agreed. “She’s the princess of procrastination and always leaves the house in a rip-roaring hurry. She’d be the queen, but her mama is still alive and kicking.”
“Y’all are not helping!” Lottie declared. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”
