Bet on a Cowboy. Julie Benson

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СКАЧАТЬ and faced possible legal action.

      He read the clause twice to make sure he understood. Damn. Getting out of proposing might not be as easy as he thought, but how could he turn down earning some fast cash to help the family? He had to pull this off. His mom needed him to. The clause meant he’d have to do some fancy dancing and watch his every word to avoid proposing without breaking the misrepresentation clause.

      A plan. That’s what he needed. If he came up with a good one, remained focused and clearheaded, he could do this.

      “Maggie, has the show ever used the misrepresentation clause?”

      “No, though we came close last year.”

      “What happened?”

      She poked her head out of the bathroom door, a frown causing little worry lines on her forehead. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

      Of course he was, but not for the reason she thought. “I answered that question this afternoon. My concern is that this clause gives you the right to ask for your money back for vague reasons.”

      The lines above the bridge of her nose deepened. “As long as you’re up front and honest about everything you’ll be fine.”

      A knot formed at the base of his neck at her choice of words. Honesty. He’d be straddling the line with that one, but honesty didn’t mean a man had to share everything. Plus, he was going on the show for a good cause. His mom. That had to more than balance the scales.

      “Then there’s no problem,” he said as Maggie stepped out of the bathroom. As far as he could see the only thing she’d done was put her hair in a ponytail, pulling it back so tight she had to have a headache. “Why’d you change your hair?”

      “If I don’t put it up it gets in the way.”

      “It looked better down.”

      She blushed and smoothed her hand over her hair. “You think so?”

      “You should wear it down all the time.” He grinned. “I’ll wait while you change it.”

      “It’s fine. No sense in taking time to mess with it.” She nodded toward the contract. “Do you have any more questions?”

      Instead of answering, he picked up the hotel pen beside the phone, initialed the contract where indicated, and scrawled his signature on the last page. No turning back now.

      “We need to talk about the women.”

      He’d spent the afternoon scrutinizing the bios. Not wanting to be sidetracked by a pretty face, he’d flipped the photos over and concentrated on the facts.

      Reading the bios made his decisions easy. He concentrated on women who’d find ranch life or moving difficult. Since relocating to Colorado would force the lawyer and the dentist to start over with their practices, they went directly into his keep pile. The job prospects for an opera singer in Estes Park were worse than dismal, and wouldn’t she want to live in New York?

      He pulled two pictures from the inside pocket of his leather coat and placed them on top of the contract. “I want to use my veto on these two.”

      Maggie picked up the first grade teacher’s photo. Griffin figured if the woman faced a class full of ankle biters, what were the chances that he could scare her off?

      “You can’t veto her. Every season we need a woman who tugs at viewers’ heartstrings. This year it’s the teacher. She’s sweet, loves the outdoors and has a great sense of humor. Her husband was killed in a plane crash two years ago. Our viewers will go crazy over her.”

      “I didn’t agree to my vetoes being conditional.”

      Maggie pointed to the contract. “You did when you signed that. It states that you are ‘allowed to veto three of the selected bachelorettes unless removing said bachelorette will detrimentally change the dynamics of the show.’ In our eyes, removing the teacher does.”

      He’d read the stipulation, but hadn’t thought anything of it. “There has to be someone else the viewers can root for.”

      “This decision comes from higher up.”

      He thought about pushing the issue further, but would doing so make Maggie suspicious? When they’d first met, he’d tried to charm her into viewing things his way, but she’d seen through his ploy. If a man were looking for a wife, this teacher would be at the top of the list. He couldn’t risk tipping Maggie off and losing thirty grand before he even started.

      “Why don’t you want her on the show? Is it because she was married before?”

      “I don’t want to talk about it, and since she’s staying, it doesn’t matter.” That was true enough.

      “Finding Mr. Right is in the works. To get the show off to a good start, we want our first bachelorette to be someone the viewers are familiar with. Someone they’ve gotten to know on a previous season. The teacher’s one of the names being talked about, so the producers would like her to stay as long as possible.”

      Griffin shoved his fisted hands into his coat pockets. What had he gotten himself into?

      Maggie lifted the other photo. “This veto is fine, but may I ask why?”

      When he’d first read this bio, he couldn’t believe a single mother would come on the show. How could she leave her son for ten weeks? How could she put her love life or fifteen minutes of fame above her child? Sign her up for mother of the year. “I’d rather not say.”

      Maggie picked up the photo and scanned the back. “If you tell me what the problem is I will avoid finding a woman with a similar issue.”

      “I can’t respect any woman who leaves her kid for ten weeks to go on TV.”

      Maggie’s eyes widened and her brows knit together, as if she couldn’t believe the thought occurred to him. “I agree. There’s no way to explain leaving like that to a four-year-old.”

      “Something tells me the boy isn’t going to have a Brady Bunch childhood.”

      Maggie nodded. “Once I get back to Los Angeles, I’ll find a replacement.” She placed the bios and contract inside her briefcase beside the desk. “We need you in Las Vegas immediately. Is that a problem?”

      The sooner he started working, the sooner he could pay his mom’s medical bills. “I need to find someone to fill in at the ranch, but that shouldn’t be hard.”

      “Is there any way I can help? What do you do?”

      The innocent question hit Griffin like a hard gut punch, because to tell the truth, he really didn’t know how he fit in at the ranch. He frowned. With the lousy economy a lot of folks needed extra income. Hell, a high school kid could do what he did. Toting hay bales, watering the horses, and fixing busted fences took brawn, not brains. Basically, he was a glorified ranch hand. Jack of all trades, but master of none.

      “Let’s get outta here.” He walked across the room to the door. “A friend of mine’s band is playing at Halligan’s tonight. You up for some dancing?”

      Maggie СКАЧАТЬ