“You two can stay there for three months.” She folded her hands on her lap, but tension radiated across her shoulders.
The urge to be relieved passed. The trust said I got a year if I was married before Linda had to decide if our union was real enough to keep the property. “But we’d be married.”
Linda’s back went rigid. “Not for real.”
Her logic stoked the fury in my chest. “You don’t decide that until the end. We’re supposed to be married for a year before you sign off on us. Can we live there for three months without getting married?” Would Van go for that?
“No, you have to be married to be in there.” She nodded, and I heard her unspoken those are the rules.
“I don’t get it. Then why three months?” Why couldn’t she bend just once?
“This is a hard time for you.” She was too damn calm. “But I can’t let you be in a sham of a marriage for an entire year. The baby will be born, and then what? I have to sign off on kicking out a couple and a kid?”
I saw her point, but couldn’t she see what a hard spot I was in? “I can promise?—”
“Three months or nothing.” Linda shot a glare at my dad. He returned her glower. That was where Alder got it from when my siblings or I pissed him off.
I caught Van’s intense gaze. The same punch of awareness hit me in the chest. He was different from his brother. That was all.
“We can make that work,” he said.
“Yes,” I said, more relieved than I should’ve been. I just need a little boost to be independent. If Elijah hadn’t stolen my funds, I wouldn’t be in this position. “I guess we’ll have to.”
An hour later, I was standing across from Van, and the officiant said we could kiss each other.
I froze. Kiss? Van?
He ducked his head to catch my eye. What was the saying? In for a penny. Might as well take the whole pound. Or something. I gave him the faintest of nods.
The way he towered over me when he bent sent shivers through my system. He paused for the briefest of moments, his mouth hovering above mine. His clean linen scent with a hint of cedar didn’t wreak havoc with my heightened sense of smell. Then he closed the distance. Firm lips pressed against mine, and my eyelids fell shut. This kiss was soft yet commanding. One second later, he pulled away and took his heat with him.
A chill gusted over my skin, and I opened my eyes.
Well, it was done. I was married, but not to the man I came to Vegas to wed.
Chapter Three
Van
* * *
I stopped at the end of the driveway, unsure of whether to be thrilled or not. I had packed up my stuff at my parents’ house when I knew they’d be gone for work. The dark basement hadn’t seemed that much emptier once my pickup was loaded. A dismal chapter in my life had closed, and the relief I felt mingled with remorse for Clover. I’d only known her as pleasant. The most tolerable of Elijah’s relationships.
A good thing since I had married her.
What had I been thinking? I’d seen a way out of my own hole while watching her fall into one. I’d helped us both. Right?
I’d make sure of it. I was better than Elijah.
My new home for the next three months stared back at me. It was a small house, ten miles out of town on a few acres, sandwiched between fields of sunflowers and corn and sweeping pastures dotted with cattle. A red SUV was out front.
After the wedding ceremony, I had told Clover that I needed a few days to clear my stuff out of my parents’ house, and I needed the extra time to do it when they weren’t home. I was half afraid she’d think I ran off with someone like my brother had.
One, I’d never take someone else’s money. I wouldn’t have been living in the basement of the home I’d grown up in if I was that kind of person. And two…well, I could no longer say I wouldn’t marry a woman I’d just met. I hadn’t known Clover much more than Elijah knew his new wife. Maybe I was more like him than I thought.
I continued toward the house. A wooden fence that surrounded the main five acres was missing a few posts, but the property was otherwise in good shape. According to her dad, Weston Duke, the house had been rented for twenty years by a couple who recently moved to Florida. They cared for the place but weren’t able to do as much in recent years. The cold was hard for them.
The three months I was living with Clover—my wife—should go just fine.
