The Airman's E-Mail Order Bride (Heroes of Chance Creek Book 5) (2 page)

December

“A
re you really
going home to Montana to marry some stranger?” Tanner said, lounging in the doorway of Colt’s room at Eglin Air Force Base.

“Yep.” Colt focused on the laptop screen in front of him. “As long as I can find a stranger who wants to marry me. How’s this for a title:
Get Paid to be My Wife
.”

“Catchy.” Tanner rolled his eyes. “You’ll reel in some high quality girls with that one.”

“You got a better idea?” Colt had already spent way too much time on this damn ad. Each time he tried to write it, his gut tightened with an anxious feeling he was setting a lethal trap for himself. It was one thing to go home. It was another to get married, especially when you had a deadline. Back in the spring when Mason first told him about Heloise’s conditions, he’d thought it would be funny to advertise for a fake wife. Now it wasn’t quite as amusing. He would have to live with the woman for months and he’d have to convince his aunt he actually loved her, which wouldn’t be simple. Heloise was wily.

The process had made him face the fact that he’d never given marriage a serious thought. He wasn’t a man to ruminate over the reasons behind his actions, but it was too clear to miss that he’d avoided any kind of commitment with a woman.

He knew why, too.

“How about
Airman Seeks Bride
? They’ll line up to get you.”

“No way. I don’t want them lining up. I want one woman who gets the drill and won’t try to hang around when it’s time for her to hit the highway.”

“Always the romantic.”

“To hell with romance.”

Tanner watched him type. When his scrutiny got irritating, Colt locked eyes with him. “You got something to say, say it.”

“You could approach this differently.”

“Differently how?”

“Like there’s a chance you’ll actually fall for one of the women who answer your ad.”

“There isn’t any chance of that.” He might be ready to go home and patch things up with his family—if that was possible—but he wasn’t ready to fall in love. Certainly not with someone he met from an online ad.

He’d fallen in love once. It hadn’t worked out.

“Why not? Each of your brothers has, right?”

He didn’t know why Tanner kept trying to make the situation more than it was. “Here’s the rest of it,” he pressed on. “
Wife needed for four to six months. Room, board and expenses plus generous salary. Must act the part under intense scrutiny and be willing to sign a pre-nup
.”

Tanner sighed. “You’re missing an opportunity here, Hall.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” He filled in his payment information and prepared to place the ad.

“What about that girl—Heather? Why not see if she’s still around?”

Colt stilled. He should have never told Tanner anything about Heather. Unfortunately Tanner had snuck up on him earlier this year and saw her photograph on his laptop screen. It hadn’t meant anything. When Mason sent Colt an invitation to his wedding last June, Colt had looked her up to see if she was still in town. Pure curiosity, nothing more.

She was still in town as far as he could tell, but her Internet presence was decidedly lacking. She featured in photos taken by a few of her friends. Once he got over his surprise that she’d dyed her dark hair blonde, he decided she hadn’t changed all that much. The few photos he found showed a mature version of the girl he’d lusted after all those years ago. She was still beautiful, but something in her eyes told him her life hadn’t been easy.

His curiosity was far from satisfied, but he didn’t plan to pursue his search. He hadn’t seen Heather when he attended Mason’s wedding, and he told himself he was relieved about that.

He wouldn’t look her up when he got home, either, and even if he saw her he wouldn’t try to renew their relationship. Heather belonged to the past—to the life he’d had before Aaron’s death.

As a teenager she’d meant everything to him. He’d wanted her from the first time Austin brought her to the ranch, and he’d done everything he could think of to show her he was the one she should be with, but in all the months she’d dated Austin she’d never noticed him. The day she and his brother had split up, however, he knew his chance had finally come. He’d waited three more weeks to make his move—three weeks that felt like three years to a sixteen-year-old boy. When he’d finally asked her out and she’d said yes, he’d felt faint for the first time in his life. He’d taken it slow and minded his manners on the first date, kissed her good-night on the second, and made out with her until neither of them could breathe on the third.

“I want to be with you,” he’d whispered into her hair as they stood on her front porch late that night.

“I want to be with you, too.” Her soft words had sent shivers of desire down his spine.

“When?”

“Tomorrow. I’ll borrow Mom’s car. Meet me at the obstacle course.”

He had, but after that Colt had never been with Heather again.

Heather had been proud, happy, intelligent, and going places. He wondered why she’d never left Chance Creek.

Did she ever think of him?

“You should at least meet up with her. Go have a drink or two. What harm could come of it?” Tanner interrupted his memories.

“Not going to happen.” Colt scanned his ad one last time and checked the image he’d added, a photo of himself in uniform that was several years old. He wondered what kind of woman would be attracted to the serious man with close cropped hair and blue eyes the photo depicted.

It didn’t matter; he’d take whomever he could get.

“But, you—”

“I said, it’s not going to happen. Why are you so set on this, anyway?”

Tanner looked sheepish. “Because… that day you had her photo up on your screen? I don’t know, man. I’ve never seen you look like that. You’re still in love with her.”

Colt clicked to publish his ad and waited for confirmation that it would post soon. He was not in love with Heather. Or even the memory of her. “This marriage will be a business deal, plain and simple. Once it’s over, it’s over.”

“And you still haven’t let your family know you’re coming home, either?”

“Nope.”

“That’s fucked up.”

“I want to surprise them.”

“More like you want an out in case you can’t go through with it. What kind of ghosts are you running from, Hall?”

He wasn’t running from a ghost. If anything, he was running
to
one. Colt remembered the words he’d thought he’d heard his father say on that ridge in Afghanistan.
Time to go home
. As much as he thought he’d made the right choice by terminating his career in the Air Force, he was beginning to have doubts about his father’s message. He wasn’t sure his brothers would actually welcome him home once they heard all he had to say. Austin in particular might hate him when he learned that Colt had dated Heather, and the others might blame him for not stopping to talk to Aaron the day their father died. What if his brothers sent him packing again?

“If you don’t go home you won’t have the military, you won’t have a ranch, you won’t have a real wife.” Tanner ticked each item off on a finger. “What the hell will you have?”

Colt had no idea.

And that scared the hell out of him.

“If you try
to refinish that dresser inside you’re going to make yourself sick,” Heather Ward said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“I don’t want to wait until spring. I wanted to get it done before New Year’s.” Camila Torres bent over the display of wood stains. They stood in the third aisle of Renfree’s Home Décor, which Heather had purchased only a few months ago with the help of a hefty loan from her mother to cover the down payment. She still couldn’t believe the place was hers. Hers and the bank’s and her mother’s, that is, with the bank and her mother owning the lion’s share. She appreciated her friend’s desire to make a purchase, but it was late December—not the ideal time to stain a dresser.

Heather had learned over the last few months though that once Camila had an idea in her head she ran with it. A vivacious woman with thick, dark curls and sparkling brown eyes, Camila was more fun than just about anyone else Heather knew. She had a seemingly unlimited supply of energy and a can-do attitude Heather could relate to. She’d left Texas due to a family fight and now co-owned one of the most popular restaurants in town.

“Isn’t there a workshop you could use—?”

“There you are!”

Heather turned to see Regan Hall walking toward her down the aisle, her long dark hair caught up in an artfully messy bun and her pregnant belly protruding in front of her. Regan was married to Colt’s older brother, Mason, and Heather had gotten to know her over the last few months when she took her son, Richard, to see his uncles. Regan held out a cell phone and waved it at her. “I found it!”

“Found what?”

“Colt’s ad.” She reached them and shoved the phone into Heather’s hands. “It took forever, but I did it.”

Camila looked from one to the other. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Heather said, shooting Regan a significant look.

“Colt finally put up his wife-wanted ad,” Regan said. “Now Heather has to answer it and win him back!”

“Keep it down!” Heather stood on tip-toes to make sure her employee, Susan Beecham, still manned the till at the front of the store and no one else was close enough to hear their conversation. “For heaven’s sake, Regan—are you going to tell everyone?”

“No.” Regan looked contrite. “I’m sorry, I thought Camila knew.”

“I know Colt has to marry within the next three months. I didn’t know Heather wanted the job.”

“Of course she does. Colt is Richard’s father.”

“But I haven’t seen him in years,” Heather said. “Who knows what he’s like now.”

“He’s sweet and kind…” Regan caught Heather’s expression and laughed. “Okay, he’s a handful, but he’s a good guy at heart. And he’s cute, too. Not as cute as Mason, mind you, but not too shabby.” She poked through the contents of Camila’s basket. “What are you working on?”

“A dresser,” Camila said.

Heather looked down at Regan’s phone, but the screen had gone dark. Regan took it back, fiddled with it and handed it to her again. Now a photo of Colt filled the screen and Heather bit back a sigh. He looked so good. All those years in the Air Force had turned him into a hell of a man. He’d already had the height when she’d known him, but now he had the broad shoulders and powerful musculature of a seasoned warrior. Looking closer, she frowned. Colt had always been happy-go-lucky when they were young. In this photo his expression was serious and his eyes haunted her. What had he seen that had changed him so much?

“Colt was the one to spill the beans about Heloise’s requirements to me when Mason had hoped to keep them a secret.” Regan’s lips turned up in a wry smile. “I was pretty pissed off then, but now it’s kind of funny.”

“Better you should know about Heloise before your wedding than afterward,” Camila said. “Can you imagine how mad you would have been if you came home from your honeymoon and then found out she’d forced Mason to marry you and get you pregnant?”

“That would have been a mess. Not that anyone had to force him to do anything once we fell for each other.” Regan lifted up the can of stain Camila had chosen. “Ooh, this is nice. Anyway, all’s well that ends well, right Heather?”

“Nothing’s ended well for me yet.” She kept looking at Colt’s photograph, but asked absently, “Do you have a drop cloth, Camila?”

“No.”

Heather pointed down the aisle. “Down there. Get a big one.”

Regan moved to her side. “Scroll down and read the ad.”

“
Get paid to be my wife
,” Heather read. “Ugh, that’s awful!”

“Keep going.”

“
Wife needed for four to six months. Room, board and expenses plus generous salary. Must act the part under intense scrutiny and be willing to sign a pre-nup.
Oh my God, it gets worse and worse! Who on earth is going to marry him?”

“It sounds to me like he’s just being practical,” Camila said, coming back with a drop cloth. “Didn’t you say he plans to stick with the Air Force until he retires?”

Camila was right. Heather knew from his brothers that Colt planned to make the Air Force his life. It hadn’t always been that way. Back when she’d dated him—briefly—he’d talked only of the ranch. He’d outlined a future for them in which they would build their own house somewhere on the property and he’d take his place by his father’s side running the cattle operation. That was before Aaron died, however, and all their dreams died with him. Colt’s Uncle Zeke had kicked his family off the ranch after the funeral and Colt hadn’t spoken to her once before they left. She had been sure he’d come to say good-bye, but he hadn’t, and to this day she regretted waiting for him to make the first move.

“Maybe he’ll change his mind and quit,” Regan said. “Once he knows about Richard…”

Heather had no idea what Colt would do when he learned he had a son. Would he want to be involved in Richard’s life? Or would he be too angry with her to want anything to do with either of them? Richard was so ready to love his father. Now that three of the Hall brothers were home, he was desperate for Colt to come home, too. If Colt hurt their son’s feelings, she didn’t know what she’d do.

“Maybe,” she said. “But remember, he hasn’t gotten in touch in all these years. After his father died, he never talked to me again.”

“I don’t understand that,” Regan said. “He couldn’t have blamed you for Aaron’s death.”

“No,” Heather said softly. “But I think he felt guilty about being with me when he knew Austin would hate it, and I think that guilt got all wrapped up with his sorrow over Aaron’s aneurysm. Whatever the reason, he never got in touch with me again.” She wondered what her life would have been like if Aaron hadn’t died. Would Colt have stayed on the ranch? Would he have asked her to marry him?

She would have said yes.

She understood his guilt, though. She’d wrestled with her own after Aaron died and the Halls left Chance Creek. If she was honest, she’d begun to be attracted to Colt long before she broke up with Austin. His passion for life and his utter lack of concern for authority echoed her own inclinations. Austin, on the other hand, lived for order and long-term plans. The more Austin talked about enlisting in the Army—and what their future might hold—the more Heather understood that soon he would ask her to be his wife. At seventeen she wasn’t ready for marriage—especially not to Austin. Not when she secretly wanted Colt.