8. Zane
Zane
I can’t believe she said yes. I’m going to marry Bliss.
This morning was interesting, to say the least. Maybe after we hash out all the details, we’ll be able to eat lunch in a very public spot together. I’ll have to hold her hand or something like that to make it extra clear that we’re not just friends.
But as far as the particulars for this marriage? We’d better not have an audience for that. I guess we’ll have to do all our serious talking in the cab of the pickup. We can’t risk someone overhearing us at the Shaky Pine.
Around lunchtime, I pull up in front of Henry’s store and park next to Bliss’s truck. Her flatbed is empty, so she must have distributed all the blocks this morning.
Bliss climbs out of her rig and walks toward me, a neutral expression on her face. Her clothes have some dirt smudges, and her cheek has a small scratch, as though a work project got the best of her today.
I roll down my window. “Why don’t you hop in, and we’ll talk for a minute before lunch?”
“Sounds good.”
She nods and walks around to the passenger side, just as my eyes land on the seat next to me.
“Oh crap.”
I forgot to clean out my pickup. Piles of paper, a couple of coffee cups, a fence post pounder, and who knows what all else lay strewn across the seat and floorboards.
Bliss opens the door and yelps as a pile of random junk falls toward her. She bends down, picks up a pair of vise grips, and holds them up.
“Hey, thanks. I’ve been looking for those,” I tell her as I take them and set them on the dash.
I grab handfuls of the stuff and throw it in the back seat. Some of those papers are probably important, but I’ll sort them out later.
Bliss sets a hammer on the floorboard, then climbs in, slamming the door after her.
“What the—” She reaches a hand behind her and pulls out a small piece of wire that was poking her back.
“Sorry about that too,” I apologize.
I hold out my hand, and she places the six-inch wire in my palm.
“You never know when you’ll need a little piece.”
“I’m buying you a truck bucket for your wire,” Bliss mutters.
“Is this our first marital fight?” I ask with a smile.
Her lips twitch at that. “I guess I should have asked what your cleaning style was, but now I see that you don’t have one.”
I chuckle. “It’s usually only my pickup that’s this bad.”
“You could lose a small child in here if you’re not careful.” She laughs.
“I don’t know. I can still see you.”
She folds her arms across her chest and studies me. “Is that a reference to my size or my age?”
I clear my throat and shift to stretch an arm along the back of our seats. “I’m pretty sure both of those are the wrong answer.”
“You’re learning.” She smiles, and the corners of her eyes crinkle when she does. It’s really cute.
That’s weird. I don’t know when I started thinking of her as cute. I mean, objectively, I knew she was good-looking; I just never thought about it.
“How old are you, by the way?”
“Twenty-four.”
I wince. I didn’t know she was that young.
I’m nearly nine years older than her. We’ve grown up in the same town, but I really didn’t start noticing Bliss until my wedding day when she was my knight in shining armor.
I remember her oldest sister, Briar, because we were in high school together, but I don’t remember Bliss.
I assumed she’d been homeschooled or something.
But the reason I didn’t see her was that we weren’t even in high school at the same time.
And now I know why. I’m ancient compared to her. This is probably a bad idea.
“If you want to back out, I won’t blame you. I thought you were a lot older. I thought you were more settled.”
“Are you calling me an old maid?” Her lips turn up in a playful smile.
“You seem content and happy in Pine Ridge. I guess I just assumed you’d had time to figure out what you wanted out of life.”
“First, I am settled in Pine Ridge. Second, I am content with my life.”
“Yet you’re agreeing to marry me,” I mutter.
“This could definitely be a lapse in judgment,” she admits.
“But I’m halfway scared my mom is going to take me to Vegas, and I’ll wake up with a hangover and a husband she picked.
I’d rather be the one to make that choice.
She has gotten carried away with throwing men at me …
and I haven’t had a moment’s peace in the last two years. ”
I laugh, and Bliss glares at me.
“You don’t understand. She’s starting to invite strange men to stay at our house because she’s so desperate to get me married.”
I frown at that.
Bliss continues, “I’d rather decide what man I share a roof with.”
“And you’d be okay sharing a roof with me?” I ask quietly.
“I’d feel safer sharing a bed with you than sharing a house with some of the randoms my mom has brought home.” She snorts.
I gulp at the mental image that conjures up—Bliss and me sharing a bed. Her snuggled against me as we fall asleep. But she said she feels safe with me. It’s a compliment I can’t shake. I won’t take that responsibility lightly.
“I’ve been thinking … we should probably pretend to date for a while,” I say. “Everyone would probably think it’s strange if we simply got married next week.”
Bliss shrugs. “Maybe if we sit in this truck long enough together, someone will spread a rumor.”
As if on cue, a diesel engine rumbles as a truck pulls into the parking lot and parks next to me.
I chuckle when I see who it is. “Well, you’re not wrong. News is about to travel fast.”
Bliss whips her head around, and we both stare at my dad climbing out of his truck. He walks toward us and opens the passenger door.
“Well, hello, Bliss. How are you today?” He smiles up at her.
“I’m doing great, Mr. Madden.”
Dad waves a hand through the air. “No more of this Mr. Madden stuff. You’re going to make me feel old if you’re not careful.”
Bliss laughs along with him. “What are you up to today?”
“Up to no good—that’s for sure.”
And then Bliss laughs at his little joke, and I know there will be no living with him after this. Dad loves it when people laugh at his cheesy jokes. It makes him incorrigible.
“Now, what are you doing in Zane’s pickup?”
“I, er, um … I—he was …” Bliss fumbles for words, and I can see that lying is not going to come easily to her, so I’d better make it as easy as possible for her to tell the truth.
“We were just talking about where we were going to go for a date,” I say as I spot the missing lid to my brake cleaner fluid. I pick up the cap from the passenger floorboard and set it on the dashboard.
“Date?” Dad asks with a shamelessly hopeful look in his eyes. “You’re not taking Bliss on a date, are you?”
“Of course I am.”
“You should know it would be smarter to just propose already. Don’t let her get away!” Dad teases, the glee evident in his tone.
“I already proposed, but she said we had to go on a date first.”
Dad laughs like I told the best joke of the year.
“Well then, I’ll leave you two kids alone.” He leans past Bliss as though that will keep her from overhearing. “Good choice. I couldn’t have picked anyone better myself.” Then he steps away from the truck and shuts the door.
She turns to look at me. “Does this make us official?”
“Dad’s walking into the store right now. The news will be all over town in the next five minutes. He’s taking Mom to eat at the grill tonight. It will definitely be everywhere by tomorrow.”
Small towns are notorious for word traveling fast. And the fastest news spreaders are ranchers and farmers. They put tabloids to shame with how fast they can spread gossip.
“Should we just get married right now? Might be less dramatic,” Bliss says with a laugh.
“They’ll probably already be making the invitations.”
Bliss’s phone rings. She looks at the name on the screen. “It’s my mom. She never calls me in the middle of the day. I’d better take this.”
She taps the screen and answers the call. “Mom, is everything okay?”
I can’t hear what she’s saying because there’s an unintelligible jumble.
But Bliss relaxes back against the pickup seat.
“Mom, calm down,” she says tiredly. “Yes. Yes, I am. No, I didn’t. I am. Yep.”
I’d pay a lot of money to know what her mom is saying because Bliss has rolled her eyes twice now.
“He’s sitting right next to me. No, you can’t talk to him. Okay. Yes, yes, I will. Okay. Love you too. Bye.”
She hangs up the phone and stares at it for a moment. “Well, cat’s out of the bag now.”
“What did she say?”
“A lot of things.” Bliss looks at me with wide eyes. “She wanted me to invite you to dinner sometime this week. She wanted to know if I was ever going to tell her that I was dating you. And she also wanted me to know I made her the happiest mom in the world and to not mess this up.”
I grin in the face of her distress. “Isn’t that nice?”
She glares at me. “She could have acted slightly concerned about me and who I was dating. Instead, she acted like you were the answer to all her prayers.”
“I can see how I would be,” I reply with a smile, knowing Bliss will get mad.
“Zane, I hope you realize you need this marriage more than I do …”
My grin drops fast, and I narrow my eyes at her.
She continues unhurriedly, “You have to be nice to me. Or else.”
I slide an arm along the back of the seats. “How nice exactly?” I ask in a low, quiet voice as I rest a hand on her shoulder.
“Not that nice!” she squeaks and turns around to swat at my hand.
I laugh as she levels me with a glare.
“Watch yourself, Madden.”
I hold up my hands in an innocent gesture. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was so much fun to tease you. I would have started a long time ago.”
Her scowl slowly creeps into a smile. “Just know that makes you fair game too.”
I shake my head. “I don’t think you’re supposed to tease your boyfriend. I think you’re supposed to be infatuated with him.”
She attempts to scooch away, then glances up at me from beneath her lashes. “You mean like this?” She bats those eyelashes at me and gives me a demure look.
“Stop making it weird.” I laugh.
She makes a silly face and then points out the window. “Are we actually going to eat lunch or just sit here and fog up your dirty pickup?”
“I think a foggy pickup would help the rumor mill better.”
She snorts. “Probably. But I’m hungry.”
“All right. Let’s go eat lunch.”
We are not prepared for the amount of interest there is in the two of us walking into the Pine Ridge Market together. All thanks to Dad running around and practically heralding the fact that we’re dating now. Maybe we won’t have to fake date for long after all.