The Maverick's Wedding Wager

Chapter Two

The idea that she would leap from single to married struck Genevieve as laughable.

“Giant fat chance of that!” She laughed as she swept up the leftover fragments of hoof that were scattered across the red rubber pavers. “Marriage? To a local guy? How would that get me closer to my goal of getting to California?”

When she finished cleaning up her area and dumping the hoof fragments into a nearby trash can, Knox still hadn’t moved from his spot. Usually, as was their established routine, he would have gone to the office, written her a check, and by the time she was finished packing up her small cache of tools, the check would be in her hand. Genevieve slid her phone out of her back pocket and glanced down at the screen; she had gained a couple of minutes of time and if she left the Ambling A shortly, she would actually be back on schedule for her next client.

“Well...?” she prompted, hoping the fact that she had her hoof stand in one hand would be a silent signal to Knox that, as enjoyable as his company was, it was time for her to move along.

As if it just dawned on him that he was holding her up, Knox gave a quick nod of his head. “Let’s go to the office and I’ll write you a check.”

Fine. We’ll do it this way.

Genevieve set her hoof stand down on the rubber pavers and followed Knox the short distance to an office space that had been incorporated into one of the tack rooms. Knox opened the door for her and let her walk in first. The room, which had rows of Western saddles and bridles lining the far wall, smelled of leather and soap, along with the sweet smell of hay from the small stack of bales just inside the door. Genevieve walked over to a black saddle with ornate designs carved into the leather and fancy-edged silver conches as accent pieces. From the smoothness of the leather on the seat, along with the craftsmanship, she knew that this was a classic saddle from the 1950s.

“That’s my dad’s saddle,” Knox said as he closed the door. “Seen a lot of work over the years.”

At the sound of the door closing, Genevieve’s Cat Woman senses started setting off alarm bells in her brain and she spun around to face the rancher. Knox had a strange look on his classically handsome face. She didn’t like the fact that he was blocking the door and she especially didn’t like it when he reached behind his body and locked them in the tack room.

“Listen here, Knox Crawford.” Genevieve scowled at him, moving her body into a defensive stance. “I’ve had six weeks of self-defense training when I was in college and if you make so much as one wrong move, cowboy, I will hurt you!”

Knox lifted his hands as if he were surrendering, a slightly lopsided grin on his face that she hadn’t seen him use before. “I promise you, I only want to talk business.”

She pointed at the door. “We don’t need a locked door to talk business, Knox. I trim the horses’ hooves and you write me a check. Simple.”

“The delivery of hay is here,” Knox noted distractedly. Earlier she had heard the piercing sound of squeaking brakes on a large delivery truck backing up to the opening in the hayloft and the sound of deliverymen yelling to one another. But she didn’t understand what the heck that had to do with the fact that Knox wanted her alone in the office.

“I have a proposal for you and I don’t want us to be overheard or disturbed.”

Her arms crossed in front of her body, Genevieve’s interest was piqued in spite of herself. Even though he had locked the door, Knox wasn’t giving off any creepy stalker vibes, so her defenses lowered ever so slightly. Knox had always been gentlemanly, kind, consistent and had never come on to her in all the months she had been working with him. It wasn’t beyond reasonable to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“What proposal is that?”

Knox took his hat off and tossed it on the nearby desk, his dark brown eyes so serious.

“Marriage.” He said it so plainly and simply she almost thought she had misunderstood.

Genevieve’s arms tightened around her body, and her heart, without her permission, began to beat rapidly in her chest. This wasn’t her first marriage proposal, but it certainly was the strangest.

“Gen.” Hands in his pockets he took a small step toward her. “I want to propose marriage. Let’s get married.”

Today was the first day he had ever called her by a nickname, and she had to admit it sounded kind of nice when he said it in his raspy baritone voice.

Genevieve stared up at Knox and he stared right back at her. The only sound was the ambient noise of the scraping and stomping of men’s feet as they moved bales of hay into the hayloft above them.

After a second or two, her arms fell away from her body as she laughed. “Very funny, Knox. Ha, ha. Yeah—let’s get married. That makes total sense.”

But Knox wasn’t laughing.

“You’re right. It does make perfect sense.”

“You’re serious?” She stopped laughing. “You want us to get married?”

“Yes.”

Now she was frowning at him. They had started a friendship over the last several months and she liked him. But what in the world had possessed him to propose marriage out of the blue? He had never even so much as flirted with her!

“Are you going through some sort of mental crisis, Knox?” she asked seriously. “Because you can get help for that.”

“I’m perfectly sane.” He wasn’t smiling but there was now a conspiratorial gleam in his eye. “Just hear me out.”

“No.” She scooted around him, unlocked the door and swung it open. In the open doorway, she held out her hand. “I’ll take my check, please, and then I’ll be on my way.”

He didn’t move to the desk to write her a check. “What if I told you I had a way for us to help each other get exactly what we want?”

Now that the door was open and any passing ranch hand could overhear their conversation, Knox had lowered his voice. She had to lean in slightly to hear his next words.

“You want to move to California.” It was a statement of fact.

She nodded.

“How much does a move like that cost?”

His words touched a raw nerve in her body. From her calculations, to move her and her horse to California and get her business established it was going to take much deeper pockets than she currently had. In truth, as much as she hated admitting it, she was most likely years away from moving out of her parents’ garage apartment.

“A king’s ransom,” she admitted gloomily.

“I just happened to know a king.”

Everyone in town knew that the Texas Crawford cowboys were wealthy; if Knox wanted anything in his life, he just had to go out and buy it. It seemed to her, in this moment, that he was trying to buy himself a bride.

She wasn’t for sale.

“Hear me out, Gen. If you don’t like what I have to say—no harm, no foul.” When he used one of her favorite expressions, her eyes moved back to his face. “We’ll never speak of this again.”

In spite of herself, she just couldn’t say no to at least listening to a plan that could possibly shave off years of saving for her move to California. She would be crazy not to at least listen, wouldn’t she?

Genevieve stepped back inside the tack room and closed the door behind her. “You’ve got five minutes.”

“We elope,” he told her in a no-nonsense manner. “Now that Logan is married to Sarah and Xander is happily married to Lily, my father will think he’s three sons down with only three more to marry off. And when my other brothers get engaged, we’ll get the marriage annulled.”

“You really want to get back at your dad that much?”

She saw a shift in Knox’s eyes, a flash of anger that disappeared as quickly as it had arrived, like a quick flash of light in the darkness.

“Nobody controls me. He needs to learn that lesson, yes.” The rancher continued, “After the annulment, I’ll make sure you get to California. All expenses paid. In the meantime, as a bonus, you’ll be free to live your life without any hassle from your dad.”

“As your wife.” She scrunched up her face at the thought. She had never equated marriage with freedom.

“As my fake wife,” he said. “A marriage in name only. You do your thing and I’ll do mine.”

“You know what, Knox? This is absolutely the most extreme way a man has tried to lure me into his bed. And there have been some doozies, let me tell you.”

“I don’t want to sleep with you, Gen. I want to marry you.” He said it seriously, and then added as almost an unimportant aside, “Not that I don’t think you’re attractive.”

“Gee thanks, Crawford.” She rolled her eyes at the way he delivered the compliment. “You really know how to make a woman feel all girly inside. Am I blushing?”

As if the sarcasm didn’t register, he asked, “So, what do you think?”

“What do I think?”

He nodded.

“I think,” Genevieve said in a slow, thoughtful tone, “thank you, but no thank you.” She gripped the doorknob. “Do me a favor, would you? Please put that check in the mail. My next client awaits.”

Before she could open the door and walk out into the hall, she noted that Knox’s expression was cloudy. He had his head tilted downward and he was tapping his finger on the top of the desk, as if that action would help him find a way to change her mind. Logan had told her that Knox didn’t like to be wrong, he didn’t like to lose and he didn’t like to be told no. She and Knox had those three things in common.

He looked up and pinned her with eyes that looked more black than brown in the moment.

“I suppose all of those things I heard about you must’ve been a pretty big exaggeration then.” Knox’s words were laced with a challenge that made the small hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I heard that Genevieve Lawrence never backs down from a challenge.”

Knox caught her off guard by skillfully tapping into one of her weaknesses.

“I don’t.”

“I also heard that Genevieve Lawrence has never lost a wager in the town.” This was said with a small challenging smile, as if he knew that he had just sunk the hook.

“You heard right.” She found herself still standing there, gripping the doorknob. “I haven’t.”

She had always been a tomboy who felt more comfortable hanging out with the boys than the girls. And, for the most part, the boys had accepted her as one of their own. But they thought, wrongly, that because she was a girl she would be easy to beat. She wasn’t. The boys in town had always made bets with her and they had always lost. When the boys grew into men, they still lost. What she lacked in strength, she more than made up for it with an innate desire to win. She had been competitive since she was a kid and that had never changed. Everyone knew Genevieve was the reigning champion for winning wagers in Rust Creek Falls; it was a title she wore with pride. And she planned on leaving this town undefeated.

There was a cockiness lurking behind Knox’s dark eyes that made her jaw clench. This was the exact look cowboys gave her right before she beat them at tractor chicken. No matter how big or tough, the braggadocios all blinked and ended up driving their tractor into a ditch while she kept right on driving her tractor on the road. She never blinked.

“Then,” Knox said as he took a step toward her, his tone steady and serious, “I dare you to marry me.”

She’d always had a bit of a temper and it had gotten her in trouble more times than she could remember. She took a step toward Knox.

“You dare me?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You dare me?” she repeated, surprised that he had thrown down a gauntlet that he had to know she wouldn’t be able to resist picking up.

“You’ll be married by morning, Crawford, so you’d better watch who you’re daring to do something.” She jabbed her finger in his direction, her cheeks flushed.

“Naw, I doubt it. I bet you won’t marry me.” She hated the fact that there was smugness in his tone now. “You’ll chicken out.”

Chicken out? Did he actually know that those words were like waving the proverbial red flag in front of the meanest bull in Rust Creek Falls? “I never chicken out, Knox.”

“Neither do I.”

Genevieve slipped her phone out of her back pocket, typed in a search, and then scrolled through the information on the website she chose. She held out the phone for Knox to see. “We can drive to Kalispell tomorrow, get a license and get married the same day. No waiting.”

“That doesn’t scare me.” He smiled at her. “Does it scare you?”

“Nothing scares me.” She kept searching for information about getting married in nearby Kalispell. “There’s a problem.”

“What’s that?”

“We need someone to officiate the wedding and it says here we need to book months in advance.”

“That’s not a problem. I know a guy I can call.”

“You know a guy?”

“Yeah. I know a guy. I’m sure he’ll be able to squeeze us into his schedule.”

“How romantic.” Genevieve slipped her phone back into her pocket. “Meet me tomorrow morning, eight o’clock outside of the Gold Rush Diner.” Genevieve pushed open the door, bristling mad. “If you show up, we’ll go get ourselves hitched.”

“I like the sound of that.” Knox held out his hand. “Shall we shake on it?”

Her hand slipped easily into his. “We enter into a platonic marriage and then when we get an annulment you pay all of my expenses to move to California—including moving my horse, Spartacus.”

“My word is my bond as a man.”

“My word is my bond as a woman,” she countered as she tugged her fingers free.

She had meant to call his bluff, but it had backfired. Instead of backing down, he’d stepped up.

He picked up a long piece of greenish alfalfa hay off the floor, quickly tied it into a small circle and, with his straight white teeth showing in a genuine smile, he knelt down before her on one knee and extended the makeshift ring.

“Genevieve Lawrence, will you do me the honor of being my fake bride?”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Don’t ruin this special moment for me.” He moved the hay ring back and forth for her to see. “It’s not every day I get engaged.”

“Fine,” she said with an annoyed sigh as she held out her left hand. “I will be your fake bride, Knox. But only if you show up tomorrow.”

The cowboy stood up and slipped the crude ring onto her finger. Did she imagine it, or did a small shock pass between them when he took her hand in his? She looked at the ring encircling her finger; she had never thought to see any type of ring on that finger for years, if ever. Even a hay ring made her feel boxed in like a trapped wild animal.

Genevieve swayed backward and put her hand on the door to steady her body. She pushed the door open quickly so she could get some air into her lungs. When she stepped out into the wide aisle of the barn, she took in a deep breath, wanting to fill her lungs with as much air as possible to fend off the dizziness that had sprung up out of nowhere. She forced her brain to will her body to get it together and calm down. She was well-known for her nerves of steel when she was off-road racing or vaulting on the back of her horse—why were those nerves failing her now? Perhaps because this was the most serious bet she had ever made in her life—and if she was wrong, and Knox actually showed up, Genevieve knew that she wouldn’t be the one to back down. If she was wrong and he showed up, she would be married by sundown tomorrow.

Genevieve closed her eyes for the briefest of seconds; when she opened them, she had her game face firmly back in place. To Knox, she said in a clipped, no-nonsense tone, “Don’t forget to put that check in the mail, Crawford. I’ve got bills to pay.”

“No need, darlin’,” Knox called out after her with a pleased laugh in his voice that made her shoulders stiffen as she walked away. “I’ll just bring it to you tomorrow.”

* * *

The next morning, thirty minutes before their planned meet time, Knox parked his truck in the crowded lot of the Gold Rush Diner. He spotted Genevieve’s truck, still caked in mud from her off-road shortcut, parked nearby. He hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, thinking about the moment he would arrive at the diner, not knowing if Genevieve would really show up. It surprised him that the sight of her truck didn’t make him feel nervous in the least. In fact, his stomach had been churning all morning at the thought of her not showing up. Now that he knew she was here, all he felt was relieved. And hungry.

Knox pushed open the door to the diner and nodded his head in greeting to the folks he knew. Rust Creek was a small town; it was typical to run into folks he knew everywhere.

“Find a seat where you can,” the waitress pouring coffee behind the counter called out to him.

Knox had already spotted his target. Genevieve was sitting in a booth in the back of the diner, her long, wavy blond hair freshly washed and cascading over her shoulders. She wasn’t dressed for an elopement, but then again, neither was he. Just like him, Genevieve had on her work clothes—jeans, boots and a T-shirt. No doubt she assumed he was going to back out of the wager, just as he assumed she would. He couldn’t explain it fully, but the moment he spotted her sitting alone in that booth, his spirits lifted and all of the nerves and anxiety he had been feeling slipped away.

“Mornin’.” Knox sat down in the booth bench opposite his fiancée. He took off his hat and placed it on the table. From the pocket of his T-shirt he took out a folded check, unfolded it and slid it across the table.

Genevieve, who seemed to be stiff as a statue, her hands seemingly glued to the sides of her steaming coffee mug, stared at the check for a second before she snatched it off the table and put it in her jeans pocket.

“You’re early.” She stated the obvious in a harsh whisper.

“So are you.”

“Do you really think that it’s a good idea for us to be seen together like this?”

He caught her drift. There were some town gossips in the diner who stared curiously in their direction.

Feeling happy, Knox smiled at her. “May as well start giving them something to talk about.”

“I can feel them staring at us,” his bride-to-be said under her breath.

“They sure are.”

The waitress swung by their table with her order pad and a pen. “What can I get you folks?”

“Are you hungry?” he asked Genevieve.

“No.”

He took the menu out from behind the salt and pepper shakers. “Really? Suddenly I’m famished.” He winked at the pretty, frowning blonde sitting across from him. With a teasing, private smile, he asked, “What do you suggest for a man who’s about to eat his last meal?”