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“How are you?” Madison asked, being overly friendly.
“Fabulous,” she said though the sentiment didn’t reach her eyes, which had turned dark and stormy.
She was angry he’d brought someone, but frankly, he didn’t care. She was the reason he and Madison were together.
Soon their food was served, and trying to remember what Madison had said about how to appear like a real couple, he lifted his fork and stared at her.
“Taste my steak,” he said. Madison leaned forward, close to him, stared him in the eye, and took a bite. Her mouth wrapped around his fork.
The way she moved made it seem like they were an intimate couple, though all they’d ever done was roll around and fight in the dirt when they were children. That’s when he’d learned she threw a mean right hook and given him a black eye.
She moaned. “Oh, honey, that is delicious. We should come here more often.”
“We will,” he said, smiling at her, and then he leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
It was a start. A slow start, but she rewarded him with a smile.
They were faking intimacy.
“When did you two start dating?” Norma Jean asked.
Oh no, they hadn’t talked about the particulars while they were in the truck.
Madison smiled. “We were childhood friends and then we saw each other again several months ago, and well, things just changed between us.”
He liked how she had woven in that they had known each other a long time.
“Really?” Norma Jean said like she didn’t believe them.
“Yes,” he said. “Madison is so beautiful, I couldn’t stop staring at her. And she’s so smart. A lawyer.”
Maybe that would make Norma Jean mind her manners tonight.
“What kind of law?” Norma Jean asked.
“Right now, I’m doing corporate law, but I’m opening up my own practice here in town so I can be close to my mother and Adrian,” she said, gazing at him with a dark heat in her eyes.
Wow, he didn’t know you could fake sexual stares, but she was doing a great job.
Dear God, did she have any idea what this did to him? Yes, they were pretending, but it felt so real, it was starting to scare him. And this was their first night. What would it be like by the time they made it to the Cattleman’s Ball in February?
Norma Jean shook her head. “I’m trying to get out of this Podunk town and back to Dallas. Why would you return here?”
Smiling at the woman, she turned to him. “To be closer to Adrian. Be prepared for a lot of traffic in the big city. If you need information about where to live, just let me know and I’ll do my best to help you.”
Oh, my, she was trying to help his nemesis move.
Reaching over, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her chair as close to his as he could.
“I like having you close by,” he said quietly, intimately.
“Oh, Adrian,” she said, gazing up at him. “I like being close to you as well.”
While they were eating dessert, the presenter spoke about how much cattle ranching had evolved in the last year. How the price on the hoof had changed and what the outlook was for the future. Boring, typical association stuff, but it always paid to be here.
Once that was over, the band played and Madison glanced at him and smiled.
“You promised me we would dance tonight,” she said.
