The Rancher's Fake Fiancée. Amy Vastine

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      Tyler blinked. “What do you get in return? What do you want?”

      Hadley leaned forward as a sly smile spread across her face. “You know what I want. I want the same thing I wanted a couple months ago, but you let Kellen give it to Eric.”

      * * *

      SHE WAS SO darn smart. He’d have to give her that much.

      “Looking back, I probably should have gotten a little more information about Eric’s qualifications,” he said. “Or maybe I should say lack thereof.”

      “He’s Kellen’s nephew. That’s it. He does not know how to do the job. You know that. I know that. Kellen would know it if he was here day in and day out. You need to tell him. Convince him to give the job to me. If you do that, I’ll go to Montana with you and help you sell your ranch.”

      She wasn’t wrong. Hadley was the better choice for brand strategist. Given Eric’s difficulty finding his bearings, Kellen might not be so reluctant to reassign him to a more suitable position.

      “And you’ll pretend to be my fiancée.”

      “I was thinking a better plan would be telling your brothers you were just kidding about that part.”

      His spur-of-the-moment lie about getting married was supposed to keep him from going to Montana. He never imagined having to pretend, but if she wanted him to go, Hadley had to come with and there was no way he was letting his brothers know he wasn’t as blissfully in love as they were.

      “Nope,” he said, folding his arms across his chest. “Fake engagement is a go. Either you’re in or you’re out. And if you’re out, Eric keeps his job.”

      Hadley sank back in her chair, contemplating her options. There were no options. If she wanted the job, she had to go along with this plan.

      “If I do this, there will be very strict rules. I don’t know what you expect out of a fake fiancée, but there is no way I will compromise myself or my morals.”

      “Come on, Hadley. I’m not going to ask you to make out with me in front of my brothers.” Clearly, there was no way the thought of kissing him could be unappealing, but he wouldn’t ask her to do anything that would make either of them uncomfortable. He didn’t need a harassment charge brought against him. This was still a business arrangement.

      “As soon as we’re done and back in Portland, you will let your family know the wedding is off.”

      “No problem.” Hadley wasn’t his type anyways. He’d be lucky if they didn’t notice how incompatible they were as soon as they got there. Tyler would have to put on a real show if he wanted to keep them in the dark.

      Hadley stood up and smoothed her skirt. She reached a hand across his desk. “Then, we have a deal.”

      The two of them shook on it and Hadley hustled out of his office. Tyler opened a new window on his computer and began his search for flights to Billings. Like it or not, he was headed back to Falcon Creek.

      * * *

      HADLEY’S HEAD WAS SPINNING. Had she just made a deal with the devil? Or had she made the deal of a lifetime? Two weeks marketing some ranch in Montana to potential buyers and she would have the job she deserved. That had to be a win for her.

      She tried not to think about the fact that she had to pretend to be engaged. To Tyler Blackwell.

      “Can I ask you a question about the Kingman account?” Eric stood next to her desk with a file folder in his hand. She couldn’t imagine what was in the manila folder given that they did everything electronically.

      “Sure.”

      “So, I’m supposed to be doing some market research and put together a report analyzing the market data and trends, right?”

      “That’s what a brand strategist does.” She had answered this question more than once. He seemed to need constant confirmation of his role. She couldn’t tell if he kept forgetting or was asking in hopes he’d get a different answer one of these days.

      Eric scratched the back of his head. “Do we have any of that from maybe a similar account? I mean, no reason to reinvent the wheel if it already exists, right?”

      If he ended one more sentence with the word right, Hadley was going to lose her mind. She tried hard not to sound too condescending even though she wanted to let him know his incompetence was the reason she’d be taking his job in a few weeks.

      “Kingman is a unique brand that sells men’s shaving supplies and gift sets. We don’t work with any other companies that sell in that niche market. You’ll have to start fresh.”

      “It sounds like you know a lot about them. That’s great!” It was clear the file folder in his hand was empty, a shameless prop to make him look like he was doing something. “Maybe you could help me out with this one. Put together a few things for me and I’ll do the analyzing part afterward.”

      “I wish I could,” she said with a frown. “But Tyler just roped me into another project. I’m going to be out of the office for a couple weeks.”

      “A new project?” Veronica sounded panicked.

      “Don’t worry,” Hadley reassured her. “Tyler and I will be handling this one by ourselves. We won’t be asking you to do anything. Stay focused on the Paint-A-Lot redesign.”

      Eric wouldn’t leave. “You sure you can’t get me started on this Kingman thing before you move on to whatever Tyler has you doing? I’ll run out and get you some coffee from that place you like on the corner.”

      Hadley couldn’t hold back a sigh. What did it matter? The truth was she would be handling the Kingman account as soon as she got back from Montana and took over Eric’s job. Her job. “Let me see what I can do.”

      “Thank you! You are the best. She’s the best, right?” Eric scanned the room for someone to agree.

      “She’d be better if she’d let us use her Hollywood connections,” Lee said from his desk. He’d been giving her a hard time ever since Veronica let it out of the bag that Hadley’s older brother was Asher Sullivan, star of TV’s popular family drama When We Were Young.

      “I heard there are already rumors your brother is a shoo-in for an Emmy this year,” Eric said before his eyes went wide. “Hey, I bet your brother shaves, right? Maybe he’d want to be the spokesman for Kingman.”

      He was unbelievable. Did he know anything about the client? “I’m going to assume you’ve at least glanced at Kingman’s financials, so you know Asher is definitely not in their budget.”

      “But he’s your brother, right? You could talk him into doing it for a steal.”

      Wrong. Hadley did not mix business with her personal life. Asher was her brother, not a potential spokesman for a client. “I have a ton of work to do, especially if you want me to gather some market data for you.”

      “That’s her way of saying no, Eric,” Lee said, clueing him in.

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