Page 54 of Parading the Cowboy Billionaire (Bluegrass Ranch 4)

Mariah loved everything about it, and she once again thought there was something very special about this family and this ranch. She wanted to bottle the magic here and pour it into her life whenever it became too dull.

She also needed to figure out how to bottle it so she could give everyone a sip over the next couple of months to fill the stands for the Summer Smash.

Just as the first waiters started serving dinner, Mariah pulled out her phone, the question Lawrence had posed infecting her mind. She needed to answer him so she could enjoy the rest of the wedding.

Her thumbs flew across the screen as a smile curved her lips.

I’d like to go to dinner with you, she said.But I have a strict policy not to date clients. What do you think about what you said a couple of months ago? My boss is having a summer kick-off party I’d love to be at…

She wasn’t sure if his phone was on silent or vibrate. She didn’t hear it go off, and with everyone else at the table now—including a dark-haired woman with a smile as nervous as a sinner in church who’d sat next to Conrad—she and Lawrence didn’t have a chance to continue the conversation.

She would, though. She wasn’t going to let this drop the way she had last time.

* * *

“He’s goingto be here any second,” she said, dashing through the living room and back down the hall. “You’re sure you haven’t seen them?”

“No,” Alicia called after her. “The last time was sometime last week.”

Irritation built in Mariah’s chest, because that just wasn’t true. Alicia had borrowed Mariah’s little red sandals on Thursday night for her date with Malcom, and Mariah darted into her sister’s bedroom.

Clothes littered the floor, as did shoes. Mariah came to a stop, wondering how she and Alicia were related. Where her sister was a slob, Mariah liked everything lined up and neat. She hung her blouses and dresses in the closet in a rainbow configuration, for crying out loud.

“Red,” she muttered, telling herself that her younger sister would be moving out in a week. Seven more days. She could survive. “Red.”

Most of Alicia’s shoes were down at the end of the bed, and Mariah dropped to her knees to look under the bed, her heartbeat racing. Her jumpsuit was a little too tight around the hips to be down on all fours, but she needed those shoes.

She’d just yelped in triumph and closed her fingers around one sandal when the doorbell rang. “I’m coming!” she yelled, but Alicia would let Lawrence in.

A wave of dizziness hit Mariah as she lifted a pair of Alicia’s skinny jeans and found the other shoe. She couldn’t believe she was going out with Lawrence.

“You’re not,” she said, flopping onto her sister’s unmade bed and slipping on the first shoe. “This is a pretend date for a business party.”

He’d said yes to the idea of being her stand-in boyfriend for the parties this summer. She wouldn’t date him until the Summer Smash had ended, and they’d texted hundreds of times working out the details.

If they weren’t dating, there would be no kissing.

If they weren’t dating, they were both free to date other people.

If they weren’t dating, he didn’t have to pay for everything.

They hadn’t been out yet, and the work between them hadn’t suffered a bit since the wedding, about three weeks ago now.

Every night, they texted a little bit, though as Mariah slid on her second shoe, she knew some nights were more like texting marathons. He’d reasoned that they’d need to know a little bit about each other to come off as a believable couple in front of her boss.

Mariah honestly didn’t think Dr. Biggers would even notice she was there. She’d had Lawrence call The Gemini Group a few times and ask for her, each time telling the receptionist that he was her boyfriend.

Karl, who had a direct line to Dr. Biggers, had told the boss, and Mariah had an invite in her box for this summer kick-off pool party at the doctor’s mansion north of Dreamsville.

With the shoes finally strapped in place, Mariah jumped to her feet and nearly fell right on her face again as she tripped over an article of clothing on the floor. “Stupid skirt,” she muttered as she kicked it out of the way.

She wiped her hand through her hair, feeling clammy and sweaty. She couldn’t go out in to the living room and greet Lawrence like this. Panic built in her chest. What had she been thinking?

Alicia appeared in the hallway, her shorts far too short for a woman her age. “There you are. Are you coming?” She approached, her eyes scanning Mariah from head to toe. A smile touched her face. “You look so pretty. He’s going to go nuts.”

Mariah resisted the urge to ask how he looked. This was a fake date. A façade. She couldn’t think it was real until the Smash ended. Then she and Lawrence could become a real couple—if he was still interested at that point.

To be honest, Mariah didn’t have much hope that he would be. Most of the men she dated seemed intrigued by her at first, but the charm and allure wore off after only a few weeks.

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