“HE’LL COME CLOSE to eat but backs off right away.”
Rachel stood beside him, watching the skittish chestnut.
“That’s better than when you first got him, though, right?”
Nelson’s gaze was focused on the horse. “It is. I need to be patient, but I don’t want to take in another until he’s settled.”
Rachel nudged him. “You asked me out here to give advice on your horses?”
He shot a glance her way and saw the smirk on her face.
“Are you telling me you don’t have any?”
“Come on, Nelson. We know each other. This is the place you come to think. If you wanted me out here, you’ve got something you’re thinking about, and you want to talk about it in private.”
This just might work, Nelson thought.
He’d had a difficult week. Getting drunk and hungover on his days off was not a great way to start. Finding out just how much he’d told Dave, and apparently everyone else at the Goat and Barley, about what had happened at his non-wedding made it worse. And then, Mariah.
Mariah’s visit had been a little hazy in his memory, but she’d reminded him that he’d agreed to fix his mistake, or he’d be destroying Carter’s Crossing’s future and his grandmother’s dream.
He didn’t remember agreeing to that. Mariah didn’t care.
He should have told her to run with the two events she had and leave him alone.
Except...
Except that he’d promised his grandmother he wouldn’t ruin everything. He wouldn’t sneak into town and steal the Christmas presents and decorations and food.
And though he hadn’t done it intentionally, he had allowed, under the influence of too much to drink, his own viewpoint and history to spill over and upset their plans.
He hadn’t had any intentions of influencing Harvey. But he had wanted to let Dave know that Dave had a say in his wedding and engagement, and that fancy parties might damage his relationship with Jaycee.
He should probably thank his lucky stars that Dave hadn’t run off to elope with Jaycee. Nelson suspected that Jaycee wouldn’t have run. She was pretty wrapped up in this party planning.
Not that Nelson was going to offer any more advice. He’d done enough already.
Instead, he’d tried to find out what dating life was like in Carter’s Crossing. Not to participate, but to find out if anyone was ready to make things serious. He was restricted by the fact that no one thought he wanted to know. And no one wanted to tell him.
He’d talked to the owners of his patients, which had led to more than one awkward conversation, and two offers of blind dates, for Nelson himself. He’d asked Kailey, giving her ammunition for months when it came to keeping him in what she considered to be his place.
He’d been forced to face the same truth that Mariah and her committee had. There were not a lot of dating locals, and none were ready to get married, except for Dave and Jaycee, and Harvey and Judy, who were now already married.
Thanks to him.
The elopement had been nothing but great for Judy. She had a smile on her face, most of the time, and now volunteered comments without prompting. It didn’t help Nelson in his quest, however.
He’d come to the end of his ideas. He just had one, mostly crazy, hail-Mary, last-chance idea. And he needed Rachel on board.
He tried to put the words together.
“Are you involved in any of this romance stuff?”
He felt her shoulders shrug beside him.
“I’m helping with Jaycee’s party.”
Yeah, it was more Jaycee’s party than Dave’s, but that wasn’t something he could fix, as much as he might want to.
“Did you know about the proposal Mariah had planned?” She’d said it was a secret, but Rachel and Jaycee had been spending a lot of time with Mariah.
He’d apparently taken more notice of it than he’d realized.
“Harvey and Judy, yeah. We heard about it after the elopement. Mariah asked if we knew anyone else who might be interested, but we couldn’t think of anyone.”
Of course not. That would be just too easy.
“Mariah blames me for the two of them eloping.”
“I know.”
Nelson shook his head. No secrets in a small town.
“Nelson.” Rachel sounded insistent. He turned to look at her.
“I know why you don’t like Mariah and her plans.” She did. Before he shot off his mouth at the Goat and Barley, Rachel had been the only person with whom he’d shared any details of his almost-wedding. Because they were friends, and because the town wanted to pair them up.
He’d been avoiding dating for several reasons. He needed to understand how he’d allowed himself to be so cruel to someone he loved. Someone he’d wanted to marry. He wanted to be sure he’d never do that again. He’d removed himself from situations where he could take over like that, and, as a result, possibly ignored figuring out why.
“But, Nelson, Mariah isn’t like your wedding planner. I swear. She isn’t like how you described that Sherry woman.”
Nelson drew in a breath. He’d promised not to interfere, but Rachel was a good friend. He needed to be able to tell someone.
“Mariah not only worked for Sherry. I heard her tell Grandmother that she’d learned everything from her.”
Rachel was speechless. Her mouth opened and shut, and she finally shook her head.
“Nelson, I don’t know. I don’t know what you heard. But seriously, she’s trying to rein Jaycee in from being too crazy over this. She’s being considerate, and really nice. I like her.”
There it was. If there was a contest, with Nelson on one side and Mariah on the other, Mariah was going to win. Even Rachel, who knew his story, liked Mariah.
Well, until Mariah screwed them over. He didn’t want that to happen, but it didn’t seem like anyone would listen to him. If Rachel and Grandmother wouldn’t, who would?
He might as well see if Rachel would help him with his crazy idea. At least Rachel shouldn’t get hurt over this.
“Let’s see how things go, okay? What I wanted to talk to you about, well, what I wanted to ask you, was about a way to help Mariah. And Grandmother.”
Three guesses who he really wanted to help.
Rachel shrugged. “Okay. I’m happy to help.”
She always was. Rachel was the nicest person he knew.
“Mariah wants another proposal to plan. And no one is ready to propose. So what if I propose to you?”
He watched Rachel’s face. Surprise. Shock. Suspicion.
“You want to propose to me?” she asked, carefully.
He puffed a cloudy breath into the cold January air.
“I don’t want to be involved in any of this at all. But I’m supposed to fix my mistake.”
Rachel was still speaking precisely. “You want to marry me to fix your mistake?”
Nelson almost stepped back. “No, no, not marry you.”
“Of course, how silly of me. Just propose.”
He relaxed, slightly. Now she got it, and she hadn’t yelled.
“Right. I’ll propose, you’ll say yes and then, after things die down, we’ll break up.”
Rachel crossed her arms. Her lips were pressed tightly together.
“Let me see if I understand this. We’ll pretend to start dating.”
Right. They should do that first.
“Sure.” Nelson nodded. “That’s not a problem.”
“Well, good. I’d hate to have our fake relationship be a problem.”
Okay, Rachel was not taking this well.
“Then you’ll fake propose on Valentine’s Day. With a fake diamond, I assume?”
“We can use a real diamond. Really, we can pick a ring, and you can keep it. I hadn’t thought that far ahead because I wasn’t sure you’d agree to it.”
“There is that pesky agreement to get through, isn’t there? But I have more questions. How long are we fake engaged?”
Nelson tried to think of an appropriate time range. It had to be long enough that no one suspected it was fake, but not so long that they had to make serious plans.
“And who’s going to break it off? Are you ready to be jilted again, or am I supposed to take one for the team?”
He hadn’t thought that far ahead, either. Obviously, having two women jilt him was not going to do his reputation any good. On the other hand, if Rachel did this favor, he couldn’t insist that he be the jilter.
“We could make it a mutual decision.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Right. If that’s the case, then we need to set a timeline before either of us starts dating again, because whoever dates first would be the winner.”
Nelson began to understand the magnitude of stupidity his fake engagement idea entailed. He’d thought that since he and Rachel were friends, and kind of dated, whenever one of them needed a plus one, that this was something he could pull off.
But there were ramifications and subtexts behind all these decisions that he hadn’t understood.
“My dad would talk for the rest of his life, or my life, whichever was longer, about how I’d blown my chance. You do understand that half this town thinks I should be trying to get you to propose to me for real, don’t you?”
No, he did not. Not completely. But he did understand that he’d hurt his friend. He needed to let it drop, right now.
“Rachel.”
He waited this time until her gaze returned to his.
“I’m sorry. It was a stupid idea. I thought, since we were friends, that we could pull this off, but I don’t want to make your life more difficult. It’s my problem, not yours.”
Rachel looked away again.
“I have my own problems, Nelson. I just—really, I can’t take on yours, too.”
He examined Rachel, while she watched the chestnut. He’d assumed Rachel was happy, contented, living in Carter’s Crossing, taking care of her dad, working for her uncle, helping everyone in town.
He’d shared his problems with her. He hadn’t been a good friend, though, because he hadn’t helped with hers.
“Rachel, if you need something, just ask, okay? You’ve been a good friend to me, but I haven’t been as good to you.”
Rachel let out a long breath of cold air. “It’s okay. I’m just—I don’t know. Having a midlife crisis or something.”
“Rachel, you’re not even thirty yet. I don’t think you can call yourself midlife.”
“I’m advanced for my age, I guess.”
MARIAH KNOCKED ON Nelson’s door. This time she heard steps coming her way and didn’t have to yell and pound.
Since she was no longer blazing angry, that was just as well. She didn’t have any pounding and yelling in her today.
Just a desperate flicker of hope that somehow, Nelson had come through. He’d asked to talk to her, so she hoped he’d found someone ready to propose.
That was plan A. The next plan she had was a plan F at best.
Nelson wasn’t in wrinkled clothing, and he didn’t stink of whiskey, so things were looking up already. He didn’t look excited, like he had a great idea, but she didn’t think he’d be excited even if he did find someone for her.
He didn’t like her. Or at least, he didn’t like what she was doing, and he hadn’t been willing to look past that.
It bothered her more than it should. Despite their rocky beginning, she had to recognize that he was a good guy. To everyone except wedding planners anyway.
He was a crappy darts player, but he cared about his friends and grandmother. He was a good vet, according to anyone she’d heard talking about him. He even rescued horses.
And yes, he was good-looking. But none of that mattered. He wanted nothing to do with her. She had less than a year here anyway, so it really shouldn’t bother her.
“Come in.” He stood back to let her enter.
She hadn’t paid much attention to his place last time. She’d been frustrated, angry and convinced she was going to fail. She’d wanted to make him feel some of that pain.
Today she noticed that the apartment was extremely tidy and finished in a way that reflected his grandmother’s house. Like he wasn’t the one who’d bothered to pick out the furniture and curtains.
She was probably just trying to find things not to like about the man.
“Have a seat. Can I get you anything?”
Two people who want to get married? She shook her head. She wasn’t interested in anything else.
She sat on a chair, and Nelson sat on the couch across from her. Exactly like they had a week ago.
He drew in a breath and exhaled again.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t able to find anyone.”
She clenched her fists. No, no, no. He couldn’t do this. She needed this, so much. She’d made a commitment. Almost a promise. She had to come through.
He shook his head. “This is a small town. Kids who grow up here often move away. There just isn’t a big dating pool, and no one in it is ready to make the leap to the married pool.”
“Except for Harvey and Judy.” She knew she was being bitchy. She didn’t care right now.
“I promise, I tried. I asked every client I saw this week. I asked Kailey, and what she doesn’t know, or Grandmother, doesn’t happen in this town.”
She frowned at him. He said he was sorry, but he wasn’t invested in this.
“I know you don’t like what we’re planning for Carter’s Crossing. And deep down, you probably hope it fails. But the town needs this.”
She saw anger on his face.
“I know the town needs outside business to survive. I might not be a big fan of this particular idea, but I didn’t plan to sabotage it. I really tried to find someone who would like to take advantage of your proposal. I even asked Rachel if she’d agree to a fake engagement, just so you’d have someone to get a ring on February fourteenth. But it was a stupid idea, and she said no.”
Mariah blinked at him. A fake engagement? He’d really tried to arrange a fake engagement?
That could have worked. It’s not like engagements didn’t get broken. The big thing for now was to show a romantic proposal, one that would entice people from out of town to come here to replicate.
Maybe she could get Rachel to change her mind?
Mind buzzing again, she made sure. “Rachel said no?”
“She had good reasons. I hadn’t thought it through.”
Right. Mariah wouldn’t push Rachel into this. But it was a smidgeon of hope. A possibility. If there was someone else who would agree to a fake proposal with Nelson.
Someone desperate. Someone motivated.
She sighed. She knew of only one person right now that desperate and motivated. Could she make it work?
“I’m sorry, really. I tried. But there’s nothing more I can do.”
He stood up, waiting for her to leave, convinced he was off the hook.
No, she wasn’t giving up on that hook.
“I’ll do it.” She almost called the words back. This was crossing lines, smudging borders.
Nelson’s brow creased. “You’ll do what?”
“I’ll accept your fake proposal. We can get engaged for Valentine’s Day.”
NELSON SHOOK HIS HEAD. Then pinched himself for good measure.
She thought they were going to get engaged on Valentine’s Day? Okay, now he knew. She was crazy. Certifiable.
She flipped open her notebook.
“We’re going to need to set some rules and make a plan. If we suddenly act like we’re madly in love, it will look suspicious.”
Nelson choked.
Mariah narrowed her eyes. “There’s no way we can do this otherwise. No one will believe it.”
Now she was making some sense.
“No one will believe it. With Rachel, at least we’ve been friends since we were kids. Like Dave and Jaycee. But us...”
He didn’t think he needed to clarify just how much the two of them had been anything but friendly.
“Exactly. The first rule is that we’re going to need to spend most of the next few weeks before Valentine’s Day together.”
Strange how she could start that sentence saying “Exactly” and then take it in exactly the wrong direction.
“I have a practice to maintain.” He hoped she didn’t miss that edge he added. What, was she going to sit in on his day-to-day work? If so, he hoped the Fletchers needed more visits to their pigs. He could almost smile at the picture of Mariah hanging out at a pigsty.
“Right. And I have a lot of planning to do. But we have weekends and evenings.”
Nah ah.
“I have other things to do on weekends and evenings.” Things he enjoyed. Things that relaxed him.
She looked up at him. “I’m sure I can survive spending a few evenings at the Goat and Barley.”
Did she think that was all he did in his free time?
“I’m working with rescue horses on my time off.” Sure, Mariah grew up on a boat and could apparently find herself anywhere in the world with a sextant and who knows, a box of nails, and she was killer at darts, but he was pretty sure a life on a boat didn’t give her a chance to become a horse whisperer.
“That will work!”
Oh, no, she really was a horse whisperer. Kill him now.
“We’ll go out for dinner tonight. The Moonstone. I want to talk to you about using your horses in my plans for the town. We can work out the details on that. Then we’ll discover that we actually ‘like’ each other and start dating. I can offer to teach you how to play darts, and—”
“No.”
Nelson used to be like Mariah. He’d run his plans all over poor Zoey, with his wedding planner urging him on. He wasn’t going to do that now, and he wasn’t going to let anyone do it to him. Especially not to his horses.
Mariah had already sailed quite a distance past him. “No?”
“No, you’re not using my horses.”
Mariah rolled her eyes. “Tell me about that tonight, not now. You have dated before, right? You know what you’re doing? I don’t have to coach you?”
“Uh, yeah. I’ve dated.” She’d been upset that he assumed she was lost but she could assume he’d never gone on a date? He’d dated, proposed and almost got married. He knew how to woo a woman. When he wanted to.
“Okay, then. I’ll leave you to make the reservation. You can pick me up just before seven. The sweater you wore that first night I was here was nice—you could wear that again.”
Nelson opened his mouth to answer when her phone chimed. She glanced at it and stood up. “Sorry, I need to take this. I’ll see you at seven and we can hammer out the rest of the details.”
And while Nelson mentally mustered up his arguments, she was gone.
He stood, listening to the door close. Except for the whisper of perfume in the air, it was as if she’d never been there.
But she had. He could try to pretend, but she’d been there, told him they were dating and would be getting engaged in a few weeks.
She was definitely in the right career for her. Bossy, managing, planning, riding roughshod over others.
He had to follow her over to Grandmother’s house and make her sit and listen to reason. Or just flat-out tell her he wasn’t doing it. But when he got to the door, he saw her car pulling out.
Okay, he could go over there at seven and tell her it wasn’t happening and why. With Grandmother listening in.
No, he couldn’t do that. Mariah was right; he wanted to make up for his mistake. He didn’t want the chaos and stresses of big weddings messing up his town and his friends, but he didn’t want Grandmother to lose everything investing in a disaster. She was committed to saving Carter’s Crossing.
This whole idea had been a conflict for him since Mariah arrived.
Fine, they could talk tonight at Moonstone. He’d make the reservation, but it was going to cause a lot of gossip.
He texted Jaycee, since he didn’t want to talk to anyone. He told her he wanted a table for two at seven. Sure enough, she responded right away.
You’ve got it—best table in the house! Looking forward to seeing your date! We’re all rooting for you.
Right. He’d forgotten for a while that he was a damaged husk of a man after his non-wedding.
That was when the beauty of it struck him. He’d been told he needed to date again so that people would stop feeling sorry for him. He needed to show everyone in town that he wasn’t traumatized by weddings.
Okay, then. Mariah wanted her event. If he dated her, the romance planner, he’d show people he was fine. He was over the jilting of the past. They could start treating him like a grown-up again.
But he had one important rule for Ms. Van Delton. He was not going through this whole poor-baby routine again. This time he got to be the jilter. And that was nonnegotiable.
MARIAH HAD BEEN confident when she ordered Nelson to pick her up, but now, with the clock ticking down toward seven, she wasn’t sure he’d show. If he did, she wondered whether he’d play along with her. She didn’t like the idea of a fake engagement, but she also wasn’t thrilled about falling short of her commitment.
And, she argued to herself, so many engagements didn’t last. It wasn’t a big deal if this one didn’t. She could stage a fake proposal to promote Carter’s Crossing without claiming it was real, just a publicity event. It would market better if everyone thought it was real, that was all.
She wasn’t happy with the arguments she was using to convince herself. She wasn’t going to give up on finding another proposal or similar event that would be real. But having this in her pocket, ready to go if needed, made sure things were going to work out.
She wanted Nelson to agree for that reason, but she had another reason she wasn’t going to share with him. Nelson demonstrably had influence in Carter’s Crossing. He’d already managed to blow up one event she’d planned. She didn’t intend to let him have the chance to mess up anything else. If they spent all their free time together, then she could make sure he didn’t do any more influencing.
That was why she tried on four outfits before finding one that looked good without trying too hard. And took time to curl her hair and apply extra makeup. She had a fake romance to sell, so she was working hard on selling it.
It was not to impress Nelson. They were coconspirators here, not dates.
When Nelson did pull up in front of his grandmother’s house, at seven exactly, in a car that wasn’t the clinic van, she was pleased to see, underneath his jacket, that he was wearing that sweater. The one she’d told him to wear. It wasn’t because it made his eyes look extra blue, or that it outlined what was undoubtedly an attractive chest. No, it just meant he was going to do what she’d asked.
Suggested. No, demanded.
She had to work a little harder to explain the pleasure that sizzled down her spine when his eyes widened in appreciation when he saw her. She hadn’t wasted her efforts. Right.
He followed her out to the car and opened the door for her. She thanked him. Then he walked around the hood to the driver’s side and slid behind the wheel. He’d left the engine running, so the interior had warmed up.
As he put the car in gear, he shot a glance at her. “How did you get Grandmother out of the way?”
She shrugged. “I lucked out. She got a call—about the architect, I think.”
She noticed Nelson’s frown. Probably better not to talk about that. Renovating the mill was going to push all the buttons he had against this project. Another reason to make sure he was on board. She’d half expected him to bail, but he was here.
“We’ll have to tell her the truth.”
Mariah stifled a grin, as something warmed her from the inside. If he was laying down rules about telling Abigail, he was in. This was good.
“We can lay down the guidelines when we’re at the restaurant.”
Nelson shook his head. “Not really.”
Mariah sat straighter. “No? Any good reason for that other than contradicting me?”
He pulled into a parking space, not far from the restaurant. It was a small town, and they were already here.
“If we’re lost at sea, I’ll be sure to do what you tell me to. But Carter’s Crossing is different, and here I can navigate better than you.
“I made the reservation with Jaycee. I didn’t tell her who I was bringing, but I’m willing to bet any amount you want that she’s going to be there, watching every move we make. We can’t be overheard making rules about dating, or no one is going to buy what we’re selling.”
Mariah squinched up her nose. “Fine. We can’t talk about dating in there.”
“I have two stipulations.” Nelson moved his body over, leaning against the door, watching her face in the light from the storefront in front of them.
Mariah frowned. She didn’t want to argue this. She just wanted it done. This was her job—couldn’t he just let her do it?
“What are the two things you want to stipulate?” She wasn’t going to accept anything blindly.
“The first is telling Grandmother.”
Mariah nodded. She hadn’t been looking forward to pretending to fall in love with Nelson in front of Abigail. She was a party planner, not an actress. Keeping up the front in public would be hard enough. She wasn’t sure she could sell Abigail.
No, she was sure she couldn’t.
“And secondly, I end it.”
Mariah shifted back in her seat. She hadn’t seen that one coming.
“You end it? You get to unilaterally decide when and how?”
Nelson huffed. “No, we should agree on that. But I’m the one who breaks it off, as far as everyone knows.”
Her mind struggled to wrap around this stipulation. Did he have that fragile an ego? He couldn’t bear to have a woman end things with him?
As she opened her mouth to tell him what he could do with that stipulation, she suddenly understood.
Mariah was leaving Carter’s Crossing in the fall. Once she had everything underway, Abigail and her committee could take over. Mariah might offer some assistance from afar, but she’d be gone from Carter’s.
Nelson would be here still. She could put it all behind her, but he couldn’t. If he didn’t want to be the jiltee it made sense, even if it wasn’t the gentlemanly behavior she’d expected from him. He wouldn’t have to pretend to be heartbroken once they were done and she was gone.
So instead of arguing, she agreed. Though she would have liked to argue on principle.
He sighed. “Do you have more rules to add?”
She nodded and watched his mouth quirk up. He wasn’t surprised she had rules. He wasn’t stupid, either.
“I plan the proposal, but you do the asking.”
He rubbed his jaw, freshly shaven, she noticed.
“No problem. I don’t want to plan anything.”
He was more forceful in that comment than she’d expected. He really didn’t want anything to do with the Romance Center idea.
“I’m going to keep looking for another option, and if I find one, we cool off on the ‘dating.’ But if we do have to roll out this proposal, it needs to be done well, and that’s my forte. I’ll do the planning, but ask Abigail to front for it, so we can pretend that you’re behind it. I can’t appear to be planning something for myself.”
Nelson’s gaze was centered on the dash of his car. Mariah wondered what he was thinking.
“I want to hear about it beforehand. If it’s supposed to be coming from me, it needs to look like something I’d actually do.”
That might limit her. This proposal had a primary purpose, which was promoting Carter’s Crossing as a romantic destination.
“Will people believe you planned a truly romantic proposal? Something beyond asking if I wouldn’t mind?”
Nelson’s gaze drifted over her shoulder, and it didn’t look like he was seeing the hardware store across the street.
“If it doesn’t include me making a fool of myself, then yes, people here will believe I could pull something together. Something nice.
“We should head in now. Jaycee will be looking for us.”
He’d cut off the conversation, and there was a lot behind his statement that he wasn’t sharing. She remembered that first dinner and knowing that there was more going on with Nelson than she knew.
She was tempted to tell him he had to let her in on whatever it was, or she wouldn’t go through with this. Because as gossipy as this town could be, no one had shared with her what had happened to Nelson. And she hadn’t asked, because, well, what reason would she have beyond a personal interest in the man? Which she didn’t have, obviously. Not before.
She had no leverage to make him open up. He’d agreed to this fake dating and proposal, presumably to help his grandmother, but she didn’t think he wouldn’t happily opt out if possible.
She was taking a risk here, and she didn’t like that. Not at all.