My Rancher Valentine (Be My Fake Valentine)

Chapter 8

Beau

I waited as long as I could to see if Kat changed her mind about riding with me. When I didn’t see her come down from Madison’s room in time, I figured I was out of luck. Besides, it was probably for the best. I needed to get my horse ready for the day and I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if she was there.

The drive didn’t take that long. I got out and headed for the stables to saddle up Valentine, my horse. They had a training area set up for us to trot out and practice before the rodeo got underway, and I planned on taking full advantage. Now that I finally had the guys from Patchwork interested, I needed to win this weekend. Hopefully, that would seal the deal, and by the time the full season was underway, I would have their logo on my vest.

I didn’t push too hard, but I definitely worked out a bit of frustration. Last night’s conversation with Kat filled in a lot of holes. I knew what she thought of my reputation, but I also didn’t think she honestly believed I was sleeping with everyone on the circuit. When would I have the time? Between training, riding, and working with the family, chasing women all the time just wasn’t in the cards.

It also helped that as I got older, I wanted more of what I saw with my parents. I couldn’t remember a single time I ever questioned the strength of their relationship. They were true partners in every way. My father couldn’t function if it wasn’t for my mother. The same could easily be said for our whole family. Juliette Wynters was a force to be reckoned with. She was amazing and I wouldn’t be half the person I was today without my mother’s guidance.

I could see that same type of strength in Kat. I smiled, thinking of how pissed she was when I went out of my way to get her to stay, but she did it, and she did it on her own terms. Looking back, it made way more sense for her to stay with Maddie, but if I was being honest, I wanted her in my room. I liked the idea of her in my bed, even if I wasn’t there with her. The thought of taking care of her felt right.

“Yo.” Dallas almost bumped his horse into mine.

“What the hell?” I sidestepped him and pulled to a slower trot.

“I’ve been calling you for like ten minutes.” He matched my stride.

“There’s no way.” I looked around. The small practice area was fuller than it had been when I first got here.

“Yep. What were you thinking about?” He smirked. “Or should I ask who?”

“Guess you talked to your sister, huh?”

“Yeah.” He laughed. “Dude, this might be the craziest thing you’ve ever thought up.”

“I doubt that.” I had come up with plenty of crazy shit when we were first coming up.

“True.” He nodded. “But what are you going to do when she figures out how much you already love her?”

“I don’t love her.” Not yet, at least.

“Come on, man.” Dallas’s laugh got louder. “Every time she shows up, I have to hear you go on and on about her for days.”

“Not true.” He didn’t bother replying. “Alright.” I caved. “I don’t love her, but I don’t not love her.” I had no idea how deep my feelings were for Kat. All I knew was that I wanted this to be real. I needed it to be real. We deserved a shot, and I intended for us to have it.

“If you talked to Maddie and Kat talked to Maddie, what did Maddie tell you?” I wasn’t above getting whatever information I could that might help.

“Only what was going on,” he said. “I mean, I had already figured something was happening when you asked me about having her hang out with Vic and Halle. I just didn’t think this.”

“Speaking of, are they here already?” I wanted to know if Kat was in the building.

“Yep. Vic is showing Halle around, and I’m assuming Kat is with them.”

“You’re assuming?” My eyebrows went up. “What if she is off on her own?”

“Relax, man. It isn’t like she’s new to the circuit. She interviews the riders all the time.” He reminded me.

I knew he was right, but after walking up and hearing the end of her conversation with Devon, I didn’t want him anywhere near Kat.

“It’s too bad Sydney and Cheyenne couldn’t be here,” I mentioned his two younger sisters. They were both up and coming on the rodeo circuit.

“They wanted to be, but Sydney got sick, and with Cheyenne graduating from college this year, she couldn’t miss the start of the semester.” He shrugged. “There will be plenty of time for them to get in rides when the season officially starts.” He wasn’t wrong.

“But if they were here there would be more people to keep an eye on Kat.”

“What do you think is going to happen? She knows pretty much every rider here.” He shook his head. “My family is here. Your family is here. I think she’s going to be fine.” Again, he wasn’t wrong.

“I know.” I headed for the exit. “I think I’m done.” I didn’t want to tell him I wanted to go looking for Kat just to ease my mind.

“Alright.” The smile on his face let me know he wasn’t fooled. Not by a long shot.

I HAD BEEN SO WORRIED about Devon finding Kat that it never occurred to me he might come looking my direction.

“Beau.” Devon walked up beside me right before I got back to the stall.

“Devon.”

“Ready for today?”

“Yep.” I took comfort in the fact if he was talking to me, then he wasn’t looking around for Kat.

“My guy is looking really good.” He tilted his head.

“I’m not worried.” This was how people tried to get in your head.

“Good. Good.” He nodded with a half smile. “Wouldn’t want you distracted.”

I led Valentine into the stall and started unhooking the saddle. “Why would I be distracted?”

He shrugged. “You just seemed very interested in Kat last night, and I heard a crazy rumor about you two that I know can’t be right.”

“What rumor?”

“That there might be more going on between you two than what I thought.” He leaned on the bar.

“If you’re talking about our being engaged, the rumor is true.” I picked up a brush.

Devon didn’t say anything at first, and then he broke out laughing.

“Get the fuck out of here.” He bent over, holding his side. “There’s no way Kat would ever agree to marry someone like you.”

The brush paused over the top of Valentine. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Guys like us aren’t the ones that win a girl like Kat.” He straightened up. “We are the ones they get all their wild tendencies out with. Accountants, doctors, teachers. That’s the guy who gets to marry Kat. Not me and definitely not you.”

“Guess you underestimated my girl because she is marrying me.” Somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt as if I should stop, but I couldn’t.

“We’ll see.” He shook his head and walked off, chuckling to himself.

My hand tightened around the brush, and I came really close to throwing the damn thing against the wall.

I didn’t want to believe Devon was right about Kat, but I couldn’t deny that an accountant or a doctor sounded better suited to Kat. Someone reliable who probably hadn’t slept with more than one woman in his life and didn’t have a hostess at restaurants throwing themselves at him right in front of her.

She deserved a guy that she could trust wouldn’t screw around, and if last night’s conversation told me anything; it was that she didn’t see me as that man. It probably wouldn’t matter to her that I had never cheated on a girl. Granted, I had only had one real girlfriend back in high school and a short-term girlfriend freshman year of college, but I had kept my dick in my pants when it counted while I dated both of them. I never wanted to be that guy. Still didn’t.

Yet how was I going to prove that to her? It wasn’t as if I thought she would follow me around the US to every rodeo I rode in. That’s a lot to ask. Especially when her job, her friends, and her family are all in Bliss.

“Here he is.” I turned at the sound of her voice. Kat walked in with a smile. Randall and Leonard were trailing behind her.

“Hey, Kitten.” I reached for her, grateful that she stepped willingly into my arms.

“Hi.” She placed a kiss on my cheek before pulling back. Her smile dropped, and her eyes narrowed as she stared right at me for so long I got a little nervous.

“Everything okay?” I asked. Had Devon found her while I was in here worried that I wasn’t good enough for her?

“Yes.” I didn’t believe her for a moment. She put on another smile. “I ran into these two while I was doing an interview.”

“Oh.” I faced the other guys standing right outside the stall. “How’s your morning going?”

“Good.” Randall nodded. “We were looking for you because it turned out we are going to be in Bliss Haven in a few weeks.”

“Really?” Maybe that meant they wanted to set up a meeting.

“And we know it might be a little irregular, but we were thinking, if there’s room, we would love to join you for your engagement party.” Leonard raised an eyebrow. “It would give us a chance to meet your whole family.”

“But it’s not for two weeks,” I pointed out.

“We know.” He didn’t back down.

“But that’s Valentine’s Day” Kat added. I hadn’t realized that until she said it.

“Our wives will actually be in town as well.” Leonard smiled.

“Well, won’t that be special?” She pulled into a long breath and turned to me. “Isn’t that great, babe?”

“It sure is.” I nodded.

“You know how important family is to us,” Leonard continued. “For us, it’s about everyone. What better place to get to know everyone than at a party?”

“That does make sense.” Kat nodded.

“Yes, it does.” This was getting a little out of hand. “Look, the thing is...”

“We would need to talk to our family to make sure first.” Kat jumped in, squeezing my hand.

“No, that isn’t it.” I knew what she was trying to do, but I couldn’t let her keep going with this. It was far above what I had asked her to do in the beginning. If I wanted to prove to her that this was real and that I was good enough for her, then I couldn’t keep going with this charade.

“I...”

“Can you give us a moment?” Kat spoke before I started.

“Sure thing.” Randall nodded.

“Mhmm.” Leonard agreed. Both of them walked out.

I waited long enough to make sure they wouldn’t be able to hear us.

“What are you doing?” I turned to face her.

“What’s wrong?” She asked instead of answering my question.

“I don’t want you to have to keep going with this just because Leonard is being an ass,” I told her. “Why didn’t you let me tell them the truth?”

“That isn’t what I’m talking about.” She shook her head. “Something was wrong when we walked in. What is it?”

I walked around her to pick up the brush. “There’s nothing wrong.”

“Beau.” Silence stood between us. “Beau.” She repeated my name. “If you think I’m going to drop this, then as my friend, that is one of the first things you need to learn about me.”

“What’s that?” I brushed the back of Valentine.

“That I’m very tenacious. It’s what makes me a good reporter.”

“You’re a brilliant reporter.” I didn’t miss a beat replying.

“All the more reason you should just answer my question.” I looked to the side to see her standing there with her arms crossed, staring back at me.

“It isn’t important.”

“Let me be the judge.” She didn’t back down.

“Devon just said some things to me.” There was no way I was going to tell her what he said.

“Why would you let that jackass get to you?” She shook her head.

Another curse word.

“I didn’t mean to,” I answered. “It was just something I wasn’t expecting.”

“Like what?”

“It isn’t important.” I faced her. “Why wouldn’t you let me tell them the truth? You didn’t sign up for this, and asking you to keep going for another couple of weeks, especially once we get back home, isn’t fair.”

“I know that, but we can figure out something.” She blew out a breath. “I agreed, and another thing you should know about me is that I don’t back out of my commitments.” She dropped her arms. “I’m not inviting my mom, though. She doesn’t need to be involved in this. I don’t know about your parents, but you could probably talk your sisters into being there.”

She wasn’t wrong, and I agreed. I wouldn’t want my parents there or a lot of other people, either.

“Are you sure?” As much as I wouldn’t mind spending more time with her, I didn’t want her doing this out of some type of false commitment. I wanted her to do this because she wanted to spend more time with me, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

“No, but this is important to you, and I wouldn’t be a great sorta friend if I left you hanging now.” She gave me a half smile. “Besides, if we said anything, you’d probably do more harm than if you had never approached them in the first place.”

She wasn’t wrong, but I needed to clear something up.

“I want the sponsorship, but it isn’t more important than you.” I knew the words were true as soon as I said them. Well, fuck me. Dallas might have been more right than I thought. It was possible my feelings toward her were stronger than I believed.

Kat pulled in a long breath. I let the brush drop and walked closer to her. My arms went around her waist. “I like this shirt,” I smirked.

Her eyes widened, and then she groaned. “It’s yours, isn’t it?”

“Yep.” I leaned forward and ran my nose up the column of her throat. “I also like seeing you in my clothes.” It would be better if we were somewhere private, and the shirt was all she was wearing, but hopefully soon.

“No one’s here.” Her breath was shallow.

“Is that an invitation?” Not that I would make love to her here. There was far too much of a chance that someone might walk in. Later would be a different story.

“No.” She breathed out. “Just a reminder. You don’t have to keep pretending.”

I pulled back to look into her eyes. “I don’t care about anyone being here. This isn’t about them anymore. It’s about us.”

“Beau.”

“Kat. All of this is about us,” I repeated.

My lips closed over hers. If I was done playing games before, I was completely over it now. I had waited too long for her.

Kat grabbed hold of my chest and then slowly let her arms glide up and around my neck. I pulled her closer. My mind fully focused on the feel of her pressed against me. Nothing else mattered except getting her to feel exactly how I felt. I needed her to want me as much as I wanted her. I wanted her to decide at the end of this that she didn’t want to stop. That she wanted all of this to be real.

“Oops.” The sound of my sister’s voice broke us apart. “Sorry.” Daphne grimaced. “We were stopping by to wish you luck.”

“But I guess we were a little late.” Hailey’s smile had a bit of humor to it. Her lips twitching at the edges.

“I should give you guys some privacy.” Kat moved away from me, but I held her close.

“You’re fine.” I looked over at my sisters. “Thanks for being here.”

“Sure thing.” Daphne walked forward and put her arm through Kat’s other arm. “Why don’t you hang out with us today?”

“I have work to do,” Kat replied.

“But you can still sit with them for most of the day.” I didn’t want Devon near her. “And it isn’t like you can interview any of us while we are performing.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Great.” Daphne dragged her away from me.

“Wait.” I held her closer and brushed my lips across hers. “I’ll see you later.”

“Sure.” I watched her walk out with my sisters on both sides of her.