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He hadn’t talked much about what happened in Colorado, not to anyone. Mostly because the whole thing left him feeling sick. He had spent the whole of his adult life working on that ranch. He’d met old Jimmy Grant by accident at a rodeo in Wyoming. They had gotten to talking and Jimmy had convinced eighteen-year-old Finn not to chase the rodeo around, but to come work for him on his spread in the Colorado Rockies instead.

Finn had been there ever since. He’d been there while Jimmy’s own sons went off to various cities to chase down dreams that had nothing to do with their birthright, and he’d risen through the ranks on that ranch to foreman.

He’d also become another son to Jimmy in the process. It was as simple as that. They had talked about it often. It didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out that Jimmy missed his own sons or that Finn hated his own father. Over time, the relationship they’d forged went a long way toward healing them both.

Or so Finn had thought.

They had always had an understanding that Finn would take over when Jimmy couldn’t work the land anymore. But Jimmy hadn’t gone gently into his old age. He had dropped dead one cold morning, his city slicker sons had come back for the funeral, and they hadn’t given one shit about any understandings between their father and a man it turned out they’d never much cared for.

Finn wasn’t sure he was ever going to get over it.

And he didn’t have the slightest idea how to talk about any of it. It had happened so fast. Jimmy’s douchebag sons must have been planning to sell that land for years, because it had all been in motion before the old man was lowered into the cold ground.

They’d given Finn twenty-four hours to leave the only home he’d ever had as an adult.

Maybe he wasn’t over that, either.

“You look very ranchy,” Kitty was busy assuring him. “And there are a lot of ranches around here, too. I’m sure you can figure something out.”

“I appreciate the interest in my career, truly.” Finn ran a hand over his jaw, mostly because he would have preferred to put it on her. “But I’m not actually looking for a job at present.”

“That works, then.” Kitty looked delighted. “Because I have a job for you.”

“This gets better and better,” Finn said, and he really did laugh then. “So this is a husband for hire affair?”

She was dressed in what he considered her uniform. Always a pair of overalls, with fingers stuffed into every pocket. It was June now, and the sun was out, but this was still the mountains. So instead of the tank top she wore beneath her overalls in the summer, she was wearing a sweater he suspected she might have knit herself.

But they were standing close enough that he got her scent all over him. Something sweet, like the cookies she baked. Something that reminded him of rosemary, or thyme. He wanted to tip his whole body forward and press his mouth to her collarbone, and he could envision that with such specificity that he was actually surprised to find himself still standing straight.

Kitty, of course, seemed as oblivious as ever. “This will be great. We can get married. We’ll agree on a period of time, live together through that, and then go our separate ways. Obviously we can renegotiate if circumstances change.” She said that last part as if she was considering all the angles. Maybe just thinking out loud. “You know, like if you meet some girl or something. But to be honest, I don’t think it will take very long to convince Izzy and Alessandro that they’re being ridiculous.”

He had that sensation of spinning again, which made sense. Because really, he was still reeling.

“Flattered as I am to be the random man you ran into on the street and chose for this position, I have to think that there is someone else who’s better for the job of playing this part.” Finn found he really didn’t like thinking about that, but he kept his gaze steady on hers just the same. “You’ve been here a while now. There must be some local boys who can handle this kind of task.”

She was already shaking her head. “No, that’s why you’re perfect.” When he continued to gaze at her, she sighed. “Everyone in Cowboy Point knows that I’ve never given any of the local men a second glance. Or even a first one. I cook them food. That’s the extent of it.”

“You must have dated someone.”

Though he realized when he said that out loud that he was entirely too invested in her answer.

She gave him a look he couldn’t quite interpret. “The point is, no one would believe that I was swept away by passion and married one of them. Because when would this sweeping have occurred? Or the passion, for that matter. That’s the thing about a town like this, if you don’t know already. Everybody knows everything about everyone.”

Finn nodded. “So that brings me to another question. If everyone knows everything about everyone, how do you convince your landlords that what we have going on is real as we decide to play this game? If we decide to play this game.”

“I told you. We’ll have to live together.” She pointed back over her shoulder. “My sisters and I live in the big house. There’s tons of room. I doubt you’ll notice any difference from Dr. Ramona’s apartment.”

“I need to make sure I’m following this.” Finn crossed his arms over his chest and settled his weight on his heels so he could really fix his gaze on her. “Not only am I marrying you in this scenario, but only for a year or so. I’m also moving into a house with you, my fake wife, and my two fake sisters-in-law.” He blew out a breath. Not because he was specifically attached to the apartment he found to rent, though he did like it. But because it had obviously failed to occur to Kitty that he might have a different take on what she found so reasonable. “I’m still not clear on why you chose me, but I’m even more unclear on what’s in this for me.”

“Oh.” She considered that, shoving her hands into the deepest pockets of her overalls. That made it impossible for him not to notice that she had also shoved what looked like a to-go coffee cup from his sister Helena’s coffee cart into one of the other pockets. “What do you think we should get out of something like this?”

“That’s a very interesting question.” This close to her, he could see things that weren’t evident from across a counter or back in the kitchen at the pizza place. Like the dusting of freckles over her nose. He’d seen them before, but this close, he could count them. “If we’re calling it a job, is there a salary?”

“You won’t have to pay rent,” she fired back. “How about that?”

“That is a consideration,” Finn drawled. It wasn’t. He’d been saving all his money for years now, planning to feed it all back into the land when it was his. Just like Jimmy had encouraged him to do. And wasn’t that a stroke of luck? Because if that hadn’t happened, he would have nothing.

As it was, with his bank accounts full, he still felt a little bit more like the walking wounded than he cared to admit.