Page 27 of Broken Player

“Stop being ridiculous,” I snapped. “I’m not in the mood.”

“Further proving my point about the name,” Quinn pointed out.

“I’m going in to shower,” I grumbled. “Are you coming?”

He tilted his hat at me and flashed me his bright grin. “I wouldn’t miss meeting my future sort of brother-in-law for anything. I’ll be in after I take care of Daisy here,” he said, patting his mare on the neck.

Sliding down off of my stallion, I handed him the reins. “Can you take care of Storm, too?”

Rolling his eyes, he kicked his heels into Daisy’s sides. “Fine, but you owe me.”

I turned on my heel, and with one last glance at the quiet house next door, made my way inside. It felt more like I was walking to my doom than to a shower and a meet and greet with my future husband and my parents.

Checking the clock on the stove, I realized I had less time than I thought before Yates was supposed to be here, so I took the fastest shower of all time. I threw on a cute sundress and my cutest cowboy boots, letting my hair hang in damp waves around my freckled face. I opted for light makeup, which was how I usually kept it. A swipe of mascara, a tiny bit of blush, and some lip gloss were my usual staples.

Just as I was taking one last look in the mirror, I heard a car pulling into the gravel driveway. A swarm of butterflies took off in my stomach, and my heart slammed against my chest. This was it. Once my parents met Yates, we’d be officially starting on our path to being married.

I looked down at the ridiculously huge diamond ring sitting on my dresser. I sighed heavily before sliding it onto my finger. There was no way I could do ranch work with this thing on my hand for the next year. Except I wouldn’t have to do ranch work now, would I? I’d be expected to be some fancy banker’s wife which was about the furthest thing from who I really was. What was I thinking jumping into this marriage? Could I hide who I really was for an entire year?

Pushing my unsettling thoughts to the side, I rushed out of my room to greet Yates at the door. He looked just as handsome as the last time I saw him, only this time he was marginally more casual.

He wore tapered khaki pants rolled up at the ankle, a blue plaid button-down with the top button undone, and a blue blazer over the top. His hair was messy in a sexy way, and I had to admit he was pretty hot. Unfortunately for both of us, after Maddox’s late-night apology, I wasn’t so sure my heart was intogiving Yates the chance he deserved. I was glad he agreed to the time limit clause in our contract because, at this point, I was totally sure I’d be taking it.

Mostly.

Except the doubts crept in. If Maddox didn’t actually want to be with me, or couldn’t wait for this whole thing to be over, what would I do then? I couldn’t tell him it wasn’t real because I signed the non-disclosure agreement, which meant I had to act like I was in love with Yates when I barely knew him.

“Hey, babe,” he greeted me with a kiss to my cheek, and then he slung his arm around my waist and pulled me against his body. I tried not to stiffen up, but it took everything in me to relax my muscles one by one so that we wouldn’t look awkward.

“Hey yourself,” I smiled up at him and hoped it looked genuine. I wasnota good actress.

Pulling the door shut behind him, I grabbed his hand and led him into the living room where my dad was reading the paper in his chair. My mom had gone into the kitchen to grab some lemonade and probably something baked, and just as we walked into the room, she popped in from the other side.

“Mom, Dad,” I began, moving back against Yates, who wrapped his arm back around my waist. “This is Yates, my fiance. Yates, this is my mom, Shannon, and my dad, Alexander.”

Yates moved into the room, greeting my dad with a handshake. “Nice to meet you, sir.” He walked over to my mom and held out his hand for her, but she grinned and wrapped him up in a hug, which he awkwardly returned.

“None of that handshake nonsense,” she said. “And call me Shannon.”

“Hey, now, I appreciate that handshake nonsense, as you like to call it,” my dad teased my mom. “It shows the boy is respectful.” He nodded at Yates and motioned for us to sit downon the couch. Sinking against the soft cushions, I exhaled. At least the first part of this fiasco was done with now, and it had gone better than I expected so far.

Quinn picked that moment to walk into the room, his hair still damp from the shower. He narrowed his eyes at Yates’s arm around me before plopping himself down on my other side. I glanced up at Yates. “This is my best friend, Quinn,” I introduced him. “And Quinn, this is Yates, my fiance.”

I could tell Quinn wanted to say something sarcastic, but I shot him a pleading look, and he clenched his jaw, no doubt trying to keep his snark inside. “Nice to meet you, man.”

Yates pulled me closer against him, and I frowned. What the hell was this? He couldn’t possibly be possessive of me at this point, could he? That would be ridiculous. “Good to meet you, too.” His tone was a little frosty, and it was the first time in my limited exposure to him I saw him be anything but charming and kind.

Quinn stiffened beside me, and I reached between us and grabbed his hand, squeezing it firmly. I needed him to hold in all the shit he wanted to say to Yates because it wouldn’t do me any favors. Quinn was incredibly protective of me, and I could tell by his body language that he already didn’t like Yates. If he opened his mouth, this would become a thousand times more difficult.

“Would you like some lemonade?” my mom offered Yates.

He pulled his eyes away from Quinn, and the frostiness disappeared and was replaced by an overly friendly smile that I was beginning to suspect was completely fake. “I’d love some, thank you, Shannon.”

My dad cleared his throat. “So, Yates. I’ve gotta say I was pretty surprised when my girl here came home last weekend and announced she was getting married. We never heard anything about you. Why the rush to get married?”

Yates pulled his arm from around me and started playing with his expensive watch nervously. “We don’t feel like we’re rushing. We’ve gotten to know each other, and the time feels right. I’m training to take over my family business, and before I do that, we thought it best to get settled in our new life.”

I had to admit, that sounded reasonable even to me, and I knew the truth of our situation. He’d obviously given this a lot of thought. “Yates is right, dad. We’re not rushing anything. We didn’t want to wait any longer. You and mom got married when you’d only known each other for six months. It’s been almost thirty years. It seemed to work out okay for you two.”

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