“No.” I shake my head. “I haven’t. I won’t.”
“Youwon’t?” She’s frowning now.
I’m an idiot. I should have kept my mouth shut.
This is a bad idea. A lot of my ideas lately aren’t the best or brightest, though. This is just another on a very long list.
“You know that’s what adults do in a relationship? Eventually, I mean.”
“We’re not in a relationship. Well, not thatkindof relationship.”
There’s a beat of silence as both dog and woman look at me. Madelyn breaks the silence. “I’m confused.”
“It circles back to that secret I have.”
She spins her finger in a circle between us. “That one you’re going to tell me now?”
I release a stuck breath in a rush. “I’m not actually dating Briggs. I mean, the thing between us is fake.”
Madelyn blinks. Then she laughs. “Of course, you’re dating him. You’ve been all over town together. Woman, I saw that man pin you to him just this morning.Not going to lie that was hot as Hades and absolutely real.”
I groan. “No. No, it was not.”
“I don’t understand. You’re going to have to explain it to me in layman’s terms because honey, I’m lost.”
“Okay,” I begin, pause, and start again. “He propositioned me to be his fake girlfriend slash wife.”
“He proposed?” Madelyn shrieks, hands gripping the arm of her chair like she’s on a wild amusement ride.
“Not yet, but he will.” When she fails to close her slack jaw, I press on. “It’s all part of the deal we struck. I’m not going to go deep into detail, but essentially, I got myself into some financial trouble that he offered to pay me out of if I marry him and help him get Fire Falls Ranch and Resort and Fire Falls Estates going. Also, when it’s all over and we divorce,” I air quote, ‘divorce’ before pressing on again, “I’ll walk away with five hundred thousand dollars. I want to help the town, and everyone who knows change doesn’t always have to be bad knows that we need something to change in Sunset Falls—so I just—I mean, why not get something out of it?”
Silence. I’m not even sure she’s breathing, and her jaw is still slack.
After at least two minutes have passed and Senior has shimmied from me to her to nose her in concern, I beg, “Say something.”
She peels her jaw off the floor. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t tell if you’re pranking me.”
“I’m not pranking you.”
“Briggs seriously offered you five hundred thousand dollars to marry him?”
“To be his fake wife, yes.”
“But—” She shakes her head, dumbstruck. “You guys have legit chemistry.”
“We don’t, I assure you.”
She argues, “You do.”
“Okay, well, if we do, it’s the murderous kind.” I groan again. “We’re always bickering about something. The man is infuriating and I’m pretty sure I drive him to the edge of sanity. He calls me a little lunatic.”
Madelyn snorts, but she’s grinning toothily. “That’s cute.”
I eye her, probably a little maniacally. “There’s nothing cute about being called a lunatic.”
“Maybe not a lunatic, but alittlelunatic.” She pinches her thumb and finger nearly together, bobbing her head. “That’s adorable.”
“You’re a freak, you know that?”
