Page 42 of One Reckless Moment

“Fuck!” he shouted at the top of his lungs, which only made the tears flow faster. He turned to me with wide eyes. “No, baby, stop. It’s going to be okay,” he pleaded, dropping to his knees and slipping between my legs.

“None of this is okay,” I sobbed.

Cash ran his thumb over my cheek to wipe away my tears. “Yes, it is.”

“How are we going to face them?”

“Together,” he said, lacing our fingers together. “Is this unconventional? Yes. Is it a lie? Kind of. But, P, we’re married for real. That isn’t a lie.”

“I know it’s not. But what happens when they ask how we started dating? How long this affair has been going on? What’s worse? That we dated for years in secret, or that we got way too drunk, made out at a country bar, and got married like two young idiots? Either way, there’s going to be screaming and probably blood.”

Cash’s face paled slightly. “I think option one is cleaner. We can say we started dating last summer. Our love was so strong that we couldn’t wait another second but didn’t want to steal the thunder from Lottie.”

“Great, so you get to keep your job and I’m the bitch who lied to my entire family for a year.” I rolled my eyes.

“We have to do this, P. We have to be the loving, doting couple. It’s the only way we get out of this unscathed.”

“And then what? We can’t stay married forever, Jesse,” I snapped.

“We get back from the last part of the circuit and say our lifestyles were too different and it didn’t work out. People get divorced all the time. They’ll understand.”

I didn’t like the plan, but it was the only way that Cash kept his job—and his life—so it would have to do. Two weeks of pretending to be madly in love.

That wasn’t so hard. Right?

I nodded in agreement as Cash pulled me to my feet.

“Great, so now that the cat is out of the bag, I have something for you.”

He jumped onto the bed and stretched out his arm to grab something off his nightstand. He reappeared with the chain that was looped around my rings. He unclasped them, took my left hand, and slid them right back onto my left ring finger.

“They look better here anyway,” he said, running his thumb over the diamonds.

I looked down at the gleaming rock and had a sinking suspicion that, at this moment, they were more like handcuffs than a vow of commitment.

20

MEETING THE FAMILY

CASH

My knee bounced uncontrollably as we approached the ranch gates. I wasn’t even this nervous when I showed up on my very first day, begging for a chance to work and a safe place to sleep. I was trying to act calm in front of Paige so she didn’t spiral, but I was clueless as to what I was walking into. I was potentially about to lose the only family I had ever truly known.

Paige asked Taylor to pick us up at the airport since she was a fairly unbiased third party—apparently, everyone was in town due to our news. The two women squealed at an unhealthy pitch when they saw each other, before Taylor demanded to see the rings. Once she approved, she punched me in the arm and called me a dumbass. The entire drive to the ranch, she detailed exactly why she always knew we would end up together.

I was informed that it was obvious.

I tuned her out after the third time she mentioned me picking up a drunk Paige from her house. I lived through it. I certainly didn’t need to relive it right now.

Taylor pulled in front of the garage of the main house, and I froze as the car shifted into park, unable to open the door. Paige reached over the center console from where she sat in the front seat, and placed a warm hand on my knee.

“It’s going to be okay,” she said, gesturing for me to open the door.

I took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. I’d been to this house so many times it was impossible to count, but it had never seemed as much like a fortress as it did right now. The main house was three stories and built right into the hillside. The ground level spanned three garages that housed the ranch trucks we all used for business and leisure. Leading up to the front door was a stone staircase built into the land as if it was carved from nature. It led to a set of massive black iron french doors with handles on them in the shape of bull horns.

There was a wraparound porch that ran across the second-floor level and the entire property was floor-to-ceiling windows which let light from every angle. The property felt more like a swanky hotel lodge than a house, but yet it still had all of the charm and warmth that a family brought to a home.

The first time I was ever inside the house, I couldn’t imagine how someone could have so much wealth and stability. I was envious of the way they were raised. While the Brooks wealth still shocked me sometimes, I learned that the true value they held was the love they had for each other. It was something I envied and wanted more than anything.