Roping the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,75
the eye and tell me what’s going through your head.”
She appreciated the soft quality of his voice, because he’d just made a pretty hefty demand. She cleared her throat again. “I need the money, Trey. Plain and simple.” She’d only ever told her father about the financial situation on the ranch. “My horses won’t win derbies or stakes. Somebody’s Lady can win this, and I want to enter. One of the requirements to be able to enter is to be married and own the horse together.”
She shrugged. “I know a few cowboys, but I know you the best. I figured…we could get married real quick. You give me a dollar for Somebody’s Lady, and I put your name on her certificate. We enter her. We win.” She looked away again, despite his demand. “I could give you some of the money, if you want.”
“I don’t want or need the money,” he said.
She knew he didn’t. The Chappells had more zeroes in their bank accounts than royalty.
“Then what?” he asked.
“Then what?” she repeated, looking at him again.
“Yes, Beth. Then what? We enter her. We win. Then what?”
“Then…you can file for divorce. It’s five months, Trey. Only five months. For five hundred thousand dollars.”
Trey exhaled and looked up over her shoulder, toward the northern sky. “You want us to pretend to be married.”
“Yes.”
“Do I have to live here?”
“I don’t see why you’d need to,” she said. “It’s really just a piece of paper. In and out at City Hall. No one would have to know.”
Trey chuckled, the sound dark. It grew into a full-blown laugh, and Beth didn’t like it.
“Sweetheart, they’ll know,” he said, focusing on her again. “You enter that horse with my name on it, and your name on it, and people will know.”
She lifted her chin, disliking how he made her feel small. “Then we pretend it’s real. So what if people know? We’ll be like, yeah, we got married. We’re making it work.”
“Then I would move in here.” He wasn’t asking this time.
“There are a lot of details to work out,” Beth said, her courage fading fast. “I thought I’d bring it up today and you can take some time to think about it.”
“Hmm.” He nodded, looked at the ground, and started walking again. “Let’s get these horses inspected. My mother wants me to come to lunch at her place today, and I said I would.”
“Okay,” Beth said, scampering after him. They worked through the rest of the horses, and Trey didn’t say another word about the Sweetheart Classic.
He laughed with TJ at the farmhouse while they washed up, and he sent her son back outside to get his shoes, which he’d left by the woodpile and the kittens.
“I don’t know what it is with that kid and his shoes,” Trey said with a smile in his tone. He turned away from the back windows and faced her, the grin slipping from his face. “I’ll bring the guys sometime this week to get the garden cleared,” he said. “I’ll think about what you said, and I’ll have an answer for you then, okay?”
“Okay,” she said, glad the word was only two syllables. “Take your time.”
He nodded, touched the brim of his hat, and came toward her. He stopped in front of her, his dark eyes blazing with desire, hope, and danger. So much danger.
He leaned down, and Beth tipped her chin up. Every fiber in her body beat with her pulse, and Trey slid his hand along her waist. His lips brushed her cheek and continued toward her ear. He held her in place, his mouth at her ear, and whispered, “I like you, Beth Dixon.”
Trey stepped back, and Beth reached for the counter behind her so she wouldn’t fall. The nearness of him made her muscles weak, and the whispering buzz of his voice in her eardrums rendered her breathless.
“See you soon,” he said, and he left the farmhouse. Beth stared toward the back windows, only moving a few minutes later when her son came skipping into the house while he sang one of his favorite songs from the shows she let him watch on TV.
“Did Trey leave?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Beth said, clearing the emotion from her voice. “Yes, he had to leave.” She flashed a smile at her son, noting his disappointment. Join the club, she thought.
If he’d agree to marry her, though, then he might not have to leave…
23
Tam sat on the front steps of the homestead at Bluegrass Ranch, sheer will holding her in