“My daddy set me up.” Her nostrils flare. “He stole every last bit of money from the safe without my knowledge.”
“Fuck.” I reach out and take her hand. “I’m sorry, Mace.”
“Thank you.” She sighs in frustration. “I don’t need to tell you how typical this is of him.”
“No. You certainly don’t.”
When he’s sober, Benjamin Henwood is a good man. But when he drinks, which is far too often…he’s a selfish guy who puts the weight of the world on his oldest daughter. Macey loves her father, though, and she has enough to deal with right now, so I keep just how angry I am to myself.
“Explain to me what the two things have to do with each other,” I say to her.
“So my parents decided it was a grand idea to marry me off in order to entice more couples to want to marry at the chapel here.”
I straighten up. “What the fuck?”
She nods. “To clarify, I have to spend Saturday evening with the winner of the race, and we’re going to get fake married in a little ceremony here. No matter who he is.”
I’m catching up quickly. “I’ll enter the race. And I’ll win.”
Macey’s elbows slide across the counter until the entire upper half of her body is leaning on the bar. Her hand goes to my face, and she runs her thumb over my scar, the one put there by my own daddy.
I clench my jaw as our gazes clash.
“You promise?”
“On my last name,” I say to her. “Of course I’ll win. You seriously think I’m going to let another man fake marry you?”
“Can you believe this?”
“It’s certainly ironic.” I take a closer look at her face. “Considering you’re never getting married. Maybe your daddy should choose a woman in town who actually wants to meet the man of her dreams.”
“I know, right? And having you be my fake husband would complete the irony.”
“Two people who never plan to marry is better than one,” I joke.
She exhales. “All joking aside, I agreed to it in order to…”
“Save the bar. Of course, you did. You wouldn’t be you if you hadn’t.” I nod at her. “I’ll be your Darcy for the night, okay?”
“Darcy is your middle name after all.”
“Sweetheart, half the guys in this town are named after Darcy. Your own brother’s middle name is the same. And what about Blake?”
“My little brother as my Darcy…ewww. And Blake? He may be God’s gift to half the girls in this town, but to me…he’s just your cousin. And your friend. Mine too, of course. But you get my point.”
I do get her point. And I don’t want her to know how much I love hearing her talk like this. But I can’t help the smirk that comes over my face. “So you’re saying I’m the number one man in your life.”
Her eyes dilate. “I’m saying that you are the only man I want to play my Mr. Darcy. Even if it’s make-believe.”
The need in her voice goes straight to my groin. And my heart. My gaze drifts to her right ring finger and to the ruby I gave her so long ago.
I reach up and take her hand into mine. “Let’s recap. I’ll enter the contest and cross the finish line first so I can fake marry you for the night.”
“Can you make sure that happens?”
The heat in her gaze is now on full tilt.
I wink at her. “Don’t ever doubt me, girl. I can one thousand percent ensure that happens.”
