Page 14 of Sweet Temptation

Chuckling, he wasn’t so sure she was wrong. “Hear me out, then decide.”

“I’m listening.”

“There are a few things about my family, and ranch, that I didn’t share the other day.” He looked up at her. Her expression blank, but not closed. So far so good. For the next several minutes, only stopping once to give Agnes their dinner order, he explained to her as quietly as he could about his father’s passing, about Ray robbing them nearly blind, then stopped when she reached out and touched his hand.

“I’m so sorry.” She leaned back and sighed. “Puts a new perspective on quitting a job that I’d only had a few years, and giving up a rented apartment. Even sneaky, lying Brad doesn’t seem so bad after all. At least he didn’t steal my money.”

“Always a silver lining.” He wished theirs was a little shinier.

“And yours?” She picked up her burger again. “Is there a silver lining for your family?”

Here went nothing. “There’s a family trust fund. Set up a couple of hundred years ago by Grover Eugene Sweet.”

“Perfect.” Her concern for him shifted to a smile.

“Not exactly.”

Biting into her burger, she kept her gaze on him.

“The trust only pays out when a Sweet marries.”

She nodded. “And your brothers recently married, right?”

“Preston and Carson. Yes.”

“So the trust paid off?”

“Not exactly. There’s a small up front payment, then a monthly stipend, but the big payoff is on the first anniversary.”

Still chewing, she nodded again.

“Sarah Sue was our next-door neighbor and she offered to marry Preston for the trust. In name only,” he hurriedly added. “Same happened with Carson, only Jess wasn’t a neighbor, she was his college sweetheart. Well, not a sweetheart, more of his college crush, but I digress.”

“So they’re not really married?” Her forehead crumpled with confusion.

“Oh, they’re definitely really married. The bank wouldn’t pay the trust if they weren’t. And the hardest part at first was making my mother believe they were very much in love and that was the hurry to marry.”

The lines in her forehead grew deeper. “I think I’m confused.”

“Let me back up. When Rachel suggested the whole idea of marrying for the trust money, we all agreed Mom would never let us do that for the money, not even if it saved the ranch. So we agreed she would not know about the arrangement. They had to fool Mom, and pretty much the whole town.”

“And it’s worked?” She took another bite, her burger almost finished.

“Better than planned. Everyone is head over heels in love with each other.”

Swallowing, she grinned. “So all is well that ends well.”

“Not exactly.”

“Déjà vu,” she teased.

He glanced down at his own burger; he hadn’t touched it yet, and he wasn’t sure he could. His stomach was rolling and not till this second did he realize how much he wanted her to go for the idea. “We need a lot more money, a lot.”

She nodded.

“So we’re all trying to get married.”

Her hands froze, the burger halfway to her mouth. She’d finally figured out where this was going.

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