Chapter 13 #3
I wobble my head, then refocus on finishing my sandwich.
“Sometimes I do. Other times I go real long stretches where I don’t.
It comes; it goes. I feel the same about my mama and my pop.
Sometimes I feel them in this land, hear their memories echo through this property when I’m out here workin’ in the sweltering heat.
” I shrug. “Other times, I feel like I was put on this earth completely alone and I have ties to nothing.”
She plucks a chunk of avocado from the plate of fixings as I continue to assemble my sandwich.
“I know what you mean, kinda. I mean, I make films, and I love doing that, but every once in a while I feel empty, like there’s a huge other piece of my life that’s missing, and I don’t even know what it is. ”
We stare at one another for a moment as I wipe my hands on the dish towel. “Maybe it’s that award you want to win,” I say, collecting the plates and guiding us out to the porch. Quinn brings the sweet tea with her behind me.
We settle into the chair, the awning letting the sun lap at our feet, but our faces are shielded. There’s some privacy, and a lot of beauty, and it feels like the perfect spot for this talk.
“Maybe,” she says, drawing her legs up into the chair as she balances her plate on the arm. She points to her sandwich. “You cut it into little triangles,” she coos, then makes me choke on my first bite when she bluntly asks, “do you want more kids?”
“Sorry, sorry,” she apologizes, wincing as she passes me my sweet tea. I take a few sips, trying to wash down the shock and confusion clogging my throat.
“This is a fake, temporary marriage,” I remind her, which causes her face to pale.
She slaps a manicured hand over her mouth, and releases a muffled, “Oh my god.” Quinn sets her plate on the ground and twists in the chair to completely face me.
“I know it’s temporary. I wasn’t— My god, you must think I’m crazy.
No, see, I was asking because one thing I think is important is us getting our stories straight.
Like, what’s our timeline for having kids or are we not doing that?
Are we taking a honeymoon? We got a lot of stuff we gotta get straight. "
I already have half of my sandwich eaten. “Are we startin’ there? I mean, should we talk timeline first?”
Quinn retrieves her plate and gets to work on one of her triangles.
“Yes,” she says around a mouth of food, which I like, though I’d never tell Sadie that.
Quinn is clearly comfortable here around me, and I like that.
It’ll make this fake marriage thing a lot easier.
“That’s true. Okay. So we get married now and, what, you win the rodeo and win in court against the Montgomerys,” she says, saying their surname in a British accent, which makes me chuckle.
She points a finger at me. “You can laugh.”
I roll my eyes. “Of course I laugh.”
She moves on. “So what, a couple of months? How long will the thing with the Montgomerys last?”
I’m two bites away from finishing the second half of my sandwich and about to answer her question, when she interjects, cutting herself off. “Jesus, Landry, you sure inhaled that.”
My eyes hold hers. “I’ve got a big appetite.” The sexual undertones in that statement are so thick they may drown us both, but dedicated to the cause, Quinn pushes through, though she does it with pink cheeks.
“Four months?” she guesses.
I nod. “About that. That’s our best guess.”
“Our,” she repeats. “Who is in on this with us?”
“Tate and Love.” I could leave it there, but I add, “I grew up with Tatum Collier, and Love, too. They were high school sweethearts, known ’em both my whole life. Tate works at Vaughn Ranch; has most of his adult life. Though now since times are challenging, he takes jobs off the ranch.”
She nods, taking it in.
“You got a family you’re gonna share this fake marriage with?” I ask her, hoping to learn more about her family, and her. I’ll need to know this stuff for the fake marriage after all.
“Yeah,” she says around the last bite of her sandwich.
I rather enjoy that we ate and talked, not because we have bad manners but because we’re so eager to get chatting.
Not that I’d admit that. “My mom and sister live in San Francisco, well, I mean, I live there, too, but yeah, that’s where they are. ”
I nod. “You all live together?”
Her face falls and I feel the need to amend my words. “There’s nothin’ wrong with living with your mama. Hell, I hope Sadie stays with me as long as she likes. Life is hard enough without bills and rent.”
Her frozen expression morphs into something softer, and she nods.
“Yeah, I live with my mom. Melvin—” She catches herself, almost corrects herself, then shrugs.
“Melvin wanted me to move in with him and I wasn’t ready.
Something felt so off.” Her laugh is empty, but still so bloated with pain at the same time. “Boy am I smart, right?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, you haven’t told me much about Melvin other than he’s your boss and he’s been condescending about this project.” I mean, I hate the guy just for making her feel frustrated, but I’d like to have the facts to hate him properly.
She sighs. “He cheated on me.”
I believe her, but I don’t believe there’s a good reason why anyone would ever cheat, much less on a woman so goddamn beautiful. “What a fucking idiot.”
Quinn blinks at me, mouth open, a look of bewilderment on her face. “I’ve never heard you curse.”
I get to my feet and gather our plates. “I rarely do.” She smiles, and I stand there with the afternoon sun at my back, looking down at my future wife, the woman who’s gonna help me save everything that matters to me.
“I appreciate you helping me out, Quinn. I know it’s a strange thing to ask and I know it adds complexity to your life, but, well, thank you. ”
Then I push inside, because I can’t look at her with glossy eyes and a pink-tipped nose. But she follows me, and after I place the plates in the sink, I turn and find her right beneath my nose, staring up at me with those intoxicating eyes.
“My demands,” she starts, her voice quiet. “I think it makes the most sense if I move in.”
I nod, my heart racing. “Agreed.”
“I’ll take the room across the hall from Sadie’s,” she continues, and I nod to that, too.
“And, of course, I’m sure you’ll figure out what to tell her, but I was thinking I’d like to be there when you talk to Sadie about all this, you know, so I can be on the same page.
” Her eyes search mine as she lays out her demands, and I can’t stop thinking about how we’re alone, and how she’s gonna be my wife, if only in name, for temporary.
Still.
“Anything else?”
“We do it soon. As soon as possible. And then we start going out together, so it’s believable.
In case the judge calls any witnesses,” she says, and my ribs feel a bit too small when I consider that Quinn is thinking about what’s at stake for me, not wanting to risk a damn thing. For me and my girl.
I nod. “Okay, soon. Next week, even.”
She agrees, then says, “We should go back to Mabel’s and get my stuff after this, and I’ll start sleeping here tonight.”
“Okay.”
We’re not talking but still standing so close. Then it occurs to me, she hasn’t told me what she wants out of this. “What do you get out of it?”
She nods her head, like she’s prepared her answer to this very question.
“More access to you, to make the film better. I want more training sessions—like this morning, you went out there when I wasn’t here.
” She shakes her head. “You get the itch to train at two a.m. because you can’t sleep?
Come wake me up. I want access to everything, so I can make you the best film I can make to help us both, okay? ”
I nod.
“And I want more footage of you outside of training, too.”
“Workin’ the ranch?” I ask, because pretty much all she’s been filming are chores and tasks. It’s no Mission Impossible, but it’s real.
But that’s not what she means, because she shakes her head, giving me the faintest notes of berries and vanilla from her shampoo.
“You with Tate, with the Collier family. You being you, outside the ranch. The longer I’m here, the more I think the full picture is more than training and the ranch.
It’s you being adored by this town, you being in the place you love, where you were raised, doing what you were born to do.
We need more of Landry Vaughn the man, not just Landry Vaughn the rodeo star. ”
She smiles, going on. “Part of the reason I’m a one-camera documentarian is that the camera I use, and not having boom mics and all that around, is it allows a home-movie feel in the moment but is edited to look like any other documentary.
So don’t worry, if you think me filming you in your element indoors is going to feel strange. I promise, it won’t.”
“That’s quite exactly what I was thinking about,” I admit, envisioning me wearing a crooked smile as I eyeball the camera like Jim in The Office.
She smiles. “I know. I saw your brain working.”
I smile. She continues.
“And I’d like to have a local premiere here in Sable Sky, and for us to go together.” All her access requests are really to make the film better for me, too, but I’m not sure where this request lies.
“You want me to go to the premiere with you?” I assumed if there was one, I would, even without the marriage.
She looks a little embarrassed, maybe by the request. Quinn shakes her head. “I do, but I feel embarrassed to ask.”
I tip my head to the side. “More or less embarrassing than me asking you to be my temporary fake wife?”
She wobbles her hand between us, nose scrunched. “About the same.”
We smile at each other and even though I could easily swoop down and kiss her, I don’t. She’s helping me and I’m not trying to confuse help with feelings.
“And we have to be honest with each other. If something comes up and you get hurt, or a new, super good rodeo guy enters the race and you’re stressed, or if your in-laws pull something—whatever it is, we have to stay honest. Communicate.”
“Okay,” I say, “I agree.” I have to laugh, though. “But if I come to you with my hat in my hands all torn up over some twenty-something comin’ for my title, you better check the carbon monoxide detector. Or make sure I’m not bein’ drugged.”
She smirks. “You’re mighty confident.”
I nod. “I am.” Her cheeks flame, and it makes me feel like I won a million dollars. “C’mon, let’s go to Mabel’s and get your stuff.”