Page 3 of A Marriage Pact for the Cowboy

She blinked. “Montana? They call it Big Sky Country, but can it really compare to Kansas?”

Maxwell chuckled. “I live in the hills just west of the Continental Divide. The skies are wider in the east. I’ve driven across the state a few times on my way to and from Chicago, and it lives up to its nickname.”

Was that wistfulness on Eryn’s face? How did someone go her entire life and not get to experience life outside her birthplace?

Maxwell wouldn’t wish divorced parents on anyone, but having two distinctly separate homes had broadened his horizons right there.

Eryn Ralston studied the man before her. Memories of Maxwell Sullivan from childhood zipped through her mind, and time had only been good to him. He’d always been slight of build. Now his shoulders had broadened, and those were real muscles visible below the sleeves of his T-shirt. What did he do for a living with biceps like that? The Sullivans had money. There’d be no need for him to take on a menial job.

Not like her.

She needed to say something. Do something, anything besides stare at him. “Your family has a chain of hotels, right? Is that where you work?”

Maxwell nodded. “My grandfather is over 80, but he still heads up the company. My dad and my uncle work for him. I guess all the grandsons do, too, though I struck out on my own for a while.”

Eryn tried to imagine a business that employed all its family members. It sure wasn’t a wheat farm in Kansas like Dad’s. He’d been barely hanging in there before the medical bills from Amelia’s accident tipped the balance. Not helpful. Eryn blocked the thought. “Oh? What did you do?”

He shook his head with a self-deprecating smile.

Was that a dimple? How had she not ever noticed a dimple on him back when they were kids? Yeah, he’d been Amelia’s thing. If Eryn had learned anything in life, it was never to compete with her twin. Amelia would win, and Eryn would lose. The rules had been simple and reinforced often until Eryn had been trained.

She pulled her attention back to Maxwell, who was speaking.

“I didn’t go to college, much to my father’s dismay. I found I was good at construction when working on renovations on one of the Sullivan hotels, so I struck out on my own. My crew and I flipped a bunch of houses, and then Grandfather bought a guest ranch in Montana and summoned all us boys out there to fix up the place and put it on the map. I’ve been working there the past eighteen months now.”

“That sounds cool. I love watching those house flipper shows.”

He laughed. “It’s not like that in real life. We don’t gut and renovate a three-thousand-square-foot house to move-in-ready in a week. And the pace is different at the ranch, too. Some of my crew members didn’t want to leave the Chicago area, but the ones who stuck with me have been a real asset as we rehab cottages and build new ones. And my grandfather has vision. Next year we’ll be adding eight treehouses for guests. That will be a fun challenge.”

Eryn tried to imagine the beauty and the delights of that sort of life. Failed utterly. Seeing it would be like Dorothy transported to the wonders of Oz, but that was only a fairy tale. Dorothy might have said there was no place like home — meaning Kansas — but Eryn wasn’t sure she’d feel the same if she could escape.

“Someday I’d like to see a place like that. It sounds… delightful.”

Maxwell studied her for a moment. “I like Montana a whole lot more than I thought I would. You should come out there sometime. Take a vacation.”

Eryn forced a laugh. “That’s a nice dream. I can’t even remember the last vacation I took.”

His grin was lopsided. “Then it’s high time, don’t you think?”

“If only.” She needed a change of topic. Stat. A rich guy like Maxwell — oh, yes, she remembered the Sullivan money — could never understand the realities of the life she wallowed in. Every penny she or Dad earned went into trying to keep the farm afloat.

Eryn didn’t need Maxwell Sullivan figuring out her secret and feeling sorry for her. Pity was the worst.

She’d had enough of it to last a lifetime by being the twin left behind. Everyone talked about Amelia’s bright light being dimmed too soon. Had it been Eryn? No one would even have missed her.

Chapter

Two

Maxwell let himself into his mother’s house as quietly as he could, but of course, her miniature poodle greeted him at the door with a series of yaps and growls.

“Max, honey? Is that you?”

He sighed. “Yes, Mom. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.”

“No trouble. I was waiting up for you.” She appeared in the archway to the great room. “You must have had a better time than you expected to have stayed this late.”

“It was okay. Interesting.”

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