Chet
“Oh, boy,” I said to Arya as we pulled up to Horseshoe Ranch.
“What is it?” she asked me as she peered at me curiously.
“Wyatt just texted me to say Mom and Dad are waiting up to talk to me.”
“Oh, why?”
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s not good.” I let out a deep sigh. “She’s probably going to be mad that I went down to the bar to see how it was going. She’s not going to understand that I was trying to look out for you, but—”
“I’m sure she’ll understand,” Arya said, squeezing my arm. “I mean, I understand.”
“Yeah, but that’s because you’re…” I paused. My mom and dad were standing on the front porch waiting for me. They did not look pleased. “Oh, boy.” I let out a deep sigh. “You ready to face the music, Arya?”
“Why would I be ready to face the music?” She giggled. “It’s you they want to talk to you, right?”
“I mean, possibly. Maybe they want to talk to you. Maybe they want to offer you a job—”
“Chet,” she cut me off. “If they wanted to offer me a job, I’m sure they wouldn’t do it in the middle of the night.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” I parked the car and turned off the ignition. “Okay. Let’s go inside.”
I hurried over to her side, but she had already opened the door. “I was going to open that for you.” I frowned at her.
“It’s okay. I can open my own door.”
“Yeah, but—”
“It’s okay, Chet. You’re just trying to delay talking to your parents.”
“Am I that obvious?”
She nodded. “Yes, you are. Come on, let’s go up.”
“Hey, Mom. Hey, Dad. You’re up late,” I said cheerfully as Arya trailed behind me.
“We wanted to speak to you, Chet.” My dad’s voice sounded gruff, and I could feel my stomach turning. This wasn’t good. “Where have you been?”
“Um, out?”
“Out where?” Mom asked.
“Just driving around. Why?”
“Because didn’t we both speak to you about butting into Arya’s business?”
Arya cut in. “It’s okay, Mrs. Hamilton. I—”
My mom turned to Arya. “Arya, you are a dear woman and Eloise is amazing, but my son is being very inappropriate.”
“I know he’s been inappropriate, but I was very grateful to him for coming tonight. He kind of saved me,” Arya said.
“He did?” My mother sounded surprised.
“Yeah, my bartending job actually turned out to be a stripping gig.” Arya grimaced, and my dad’s eyes widened in shock.
“Stripper?” Mom said. “Oh, my.”
“I told you, Mom. I had a bad feeling and that’s why I went because I—”
“We both know why you went, Chet.” Mom pursed her lips disapprovingly. “And honestly, I think out of all my sons, you’re the most obstinate, obnoxious, and—”
“Mom, Arya and I are in a relationship now.”
“What?” A smile blossomed across her face. “Wait. When? I had no idea.”
My dad put his arm around Mom and smiled. “So what’s going on here, son?”
“It just happened tonight. I realized that I was doing all of these things because I had feelings for Arya and I didn’t want any harm to come to her. I didn’t want her to meet any other men. I guess I just realized that I’ve been falling in love with her the last couple of months and she has been falling in love with me, and so we’re going to try and make it work.”
“What does that mean exactly?” Mom asked.
“Mom, is that really any of your business?”
“Well, someone needs to make sure that you have good intentions.”
“Mom, I’m your son.”
“Yes, and Arya’s like a daughter to me, and Eloise is like granddaughter. I need to make sure that—”
“Mom, I want to marry Arya. I want to have lots of babies.”
“You do?” Arya looked over at me in surprise. “You never said that.”
“I mean, I thought that was obvious,” I replied.
“How was that obvious?”
“Because I told you I love you and I want to be with you.”
“Yeah, but that—”
“Oh, Arya.” My mom started laughing. “You will soon realize that my sons are men of few words, just like their father. They always assume you know exactly what they’re thinking. But as I say to Ranger all the time, and as I’ll say to you now, Chet, we can’t read your mind, no matter how much you think we can.”
“Okay.” I looked at Arya and ran my hands through my hair. “I hope I haven’t been too forward. I thought we were sort of on the same page there.”
“You told me that you loved me and that you wanted to date me. You didn’t tell me that you wanted to marry me and have kids with me.”
“Is that going to be a problem?” I raise an eyebrow. “Is that not something you want as well?”
“Well, I’d love to get married and have kids,” she said, “but I kind of thought I would be dating the person I was going to marry for a while.”
“Yeah. Well, it’s not like we’re going to get married right away.”
Arya’s expression was doubtful. “I mean, is this real?”
“What are you talking about? What do you mean is this real?”
She looked over at my mother guiltily and sighed.
“What is it?” Amelia said. “What’s wrong, Arya?”
“Well, I know you put that ad in a newspaper looking for a husband for Chet, and ever since that, Chet’s been upset. Chet, you have to admit you’re the one that said that you wanted me to be your fake fiancée just a couple of days ago. Now you’re telling me you want me to be your real fiancée. I can’t keep up. Are you saying this because you really do have feelings for me and you really do want this, or are you saying this because you want your mom to get off your back?”
“Oh, shit,” I groaned. “I guess I asked for this one.”
“What are you talking about?” Mom’s eyebrows drew together. “Fake fiancée, really, Chet? You were going to pretend to be engaged just so—”
“Mom, you put an ad in the newspaper advertising for a wife for me.”
Mom smiled and looked at my dad. “Well, I wasn’t really advertising for a wife for you.”
“What do you think an ad in the paper with my face and a caption that says, ‘Want to marry a cowboy?’ is going to suggest to pretty much everyone in Montana and Wyoming and Idaho and—”
“I know, son, but you know that I always do things for a reason.”
“You should know that by now,” my dad chimed in.
“So then what was your reason?”
My mom looked at me and then looked at Arya. “What do you think, son? Look who’s been here under your nose for the longest time.”
“I wouldn’t say the longest time, Mom.”
“Long enough. You’ve known from the first moment you laid eyes on her that Arya was something special. I’ve seen the bond that you have with her and the bond you have with Eloise. And Arya, let me tell you now, Chet has never been interested in kids. So when I saw that he was spending time with Eloise going out of his way to make you guys happy and to feel safe, I knew he was in love with you. I just needed him to figure this out by himself.”
“Mom, seriously?” I huffed. “You put an ad in the newspaper just so I could figure out that I was in love with Arya?”
“Well, it helped, didn’t it?”
“No, it didn’t help. What helped was Arya being a dumbass and taking those stupid jobs.”
“Excuse me?” she snapped. “I’m not a dumbass!”
“Honey, you are a bit of a dumbass. You taking a job at St. Rose’s Exclusive Club and not even knowing what you were hired for? Bells weren’t ringing in your head?”
“Well, not really,” she said. “…Okay, they were kind of ringing, but I wasn’t thinking properly.”
“So did you actually have to strip?” Mom looked worried.
“No.” Arya shook her head quickly. “Chet saved me just in time.
“Were you going to strip?” I asked her, eyes narrowed. “From what you said, you weren’t but—”
“I don’t know what I was going to do. I was nervous and I was scared, so I’m very grateful that you came to save me. You’re my Prince Charming.”
“Well, that’s more like it.” I grinned. “I’m your knight in shining armor.”
“So does this mean I’m planning a fourth wedding?” My mom beamed.
“Whoa, hold up.” I held my hand up. “We’ve just started dating. I don’t know about planning a wedding yet.”
“Yeah,” Arya said with a small smile. “We don’t even know if we’ll be able stand each other for a couple of weeks of dating, let alone a lifetime of being married.”
“Oh, you are very funny, Arya,” I grumbled. “You won’t be able to keep your hands off of me after a couple of weeks of dating. You won’t be able to go anywhere without me. You will just…” I pause as I looked up at my parents’ interested face bases. I realized that I could not continue my line of thought. “Well, anyway,” I said with a quick smile, “we should get to bed.”
“And exactly which bedroom will you be sleeping in?” My mom raised an eyebrow.
“My bedroom, of course.”
“And will you be having any guests?” She asked pointedly. Arya’s face turned bright red.
“Mom, really? Do you have to put her on the spot?”
“I’m just asking if I should be prepared to wake up Eloise in the morning.”
“Oh no, no, no. That’s fine. Thank you, Mrs. Hamilton,” Arya said, and shook her head. “See, Chet. I can’t sleep in your room tonight. Sorry.”
“Um, you can and you will.”
My dad raised an eyebrow at me. “Really, son? Do you need to learn the hard way who the boss is?”
“I’m the boss, always.”
“I don’t think so, dear.” My mom shook her head. “But, Arya, if you’d like to sleep in Chet’s room tonight, that’s fine. I’ll wake up Eloise and make her breakfast. Then maybe we can get Eloise her own room.”
“Oh no, you don’t have to do that.” Arya shook her head. “I mean, that’s too much.”
“I’m sure she’d love to have her own bedroom though,” my mom said.
“Well, when I get my apartment—”
“Are you kidding me?” I stared at Arya. “You’re not getting an apartment by yourself. The next time you move, it will be somewhere that we moved together.”
“Really?” She looked at me with a small smile.
“Yes,” I said. “I love you, Arya. And from here on out, we’re planning our future together. Whatever one of us does, the other one needs to be on board with. Okay?”
“So, you’re telling me you’re not going to do anything unless I’m on board with it?”
“I guess that’s what I’m saying,” I said with a laugh.
“And you are ready to look after a kid and to get married and—”
“I don’t know if I’m ready,” I said. “But sometimes in life, you don’t wait for when you’re ready. You just wait for the right time and the right person. And you’re the right person, Arya. You’re my person, and I’m not going to let you go. I’m not going to let my hard head get in the way of true love.”