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“Are you still going to...do your business out of town? Like you do.”
“Are you asking me if I’m going to sleep with other people?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t have a need all that often, Alaina, if I’m honest with you. I’m not out every week the way my brothers are. If I have a need, I go off and take care of it. Don’t like to talk about it. Don’t like to advertise it. I expect I’ll do much the same. You won’t know about it. Nobody will.”
“Okay.”
Well, that answered her question. About as good as anything could. He wouldn’t embarrass her. Nobody on the ranch would know. Their child wouldn’t know.
Their child.
Isn’t that handy? You can erase your mistake, just like that. Pretend that Gus McCloud is the father of your baby.
Except... Gus never touched you.
No. And he never would. And that was fine.
She felt breathless again, and she did her best to ignore it. When they drove into the town of Mapleton, she started to pay close attention to all the restaurants they passed, trying to figure out if she had a craving of any kind. She was kind of looking forward to cravings. In general, food had been mediocre for her for the last few weeks.
“What are you thinking about?”
“Food.”
“I knew I liked you,” he said, the corner of his mouth tipping up into a grin.
They pulled up to the curb, and got out. Then they went in to the office and found that there was no line. They filled out the paperwork required, and left with the instructions that the license had to be filed within three days.
“I didn’t realize we were going to have to get married in three days,” she said.
“Well, sooner rather than later. Like you said.”
“I don’t have a dress or anything, Gus.” She felt small and silly then.
His eyes took on a strange light. “Did you want a dress?”
She looked at him for a moment. His eyes were different than Hunter’s. His eyes were green. Deep like the forest. His hair was dark, a little long, touching the collar of his shirt. Probably just because he was too lazy to go get it cut all that often. Or maybelazywas the wrong word. He just didn’t care.
That was probably closer to the truth.
“Well, yeah. I’d like to look nice. So maybe your brothers know it’s not real, and so do my sisters. And so do the Garretts. But the whole rest of the ranch doesn’t, and neither does the town. And I want to look like it means something. I want it to mean something. This is...this is changing our lives. Whether we really want to marry each other inthatway or not. It’s changing our lives. And that has to matter for something, doesn’t it?”
“It matters,” he said.
“Well, okay then.”
“Let’s get you some food. And then we can stop at one of the shops in town.”
“I’d like that.”
They decided on a little café that served farm-to-table food, and Alaina got a hamburger, which wasn’t adventurous, but was safe. The stoutness of the burger and the salt content in the fries provided just about everything she needed. And she felt bolstered by the time they were through.
They walked down the street, and lingered in front of some of the shop windows. But it was a thrift store that had a dress that really caught her eye. Lacy and old-fashioned, and since they were getting married in three days she didn’t have to worry about whether or not it would fit because of her expanding waistline.
Gus wasn’t standing with her when she found it, and he didn’t go with her to try it on. Which, she supposed, was a good thing. Given that it was bad luck for the groom to see the bride. Or something. It was also probably pretty bad luck for the bride to be pregnant with another man’s baby. But, she wasn’t lying to him about it.
Hedidknow.
