Accidental Knight: A Marriage Mistake Romance(10)

Two days later, it was still snowing, but no longer a blizzard. We used a tractor to pull my truck to the house. That’s how I arrived at the Reed Ranch with a second lease on life, and I haven’t left since.

Can’t now either. Promised Jonah I wouldn’t.

Yeah, I’ll see this insane will through to the end. It’s the least I can do for a man who saved my life when I’d almost made peace with dying alone.

And if payback weren’t a bitch and a half, it wouldn’t be Jonah’s style.

I’d half expected his granddaughter to arrive yesterday, but she’d gone straight to the funeral home. Sheridan called and told me as much.

And when she didn’t arrive last night, I assumed she’d be here after hearing the dirty details at his office. Sheridan said he’d call as soon as it was over, give me the heads-up, and he probably had.

My cell phone is still on the back porch with all my gear. Everything except for one Smith and Wesson .500. Jonah loved shooting that gun, and I know exactly where it’s at.

The range.

I said my goodbyes to Jonah in person. Didn’t need to go to the funeral home.

Instead, I went to the range behind the shack on the back eighty. Jonah loved shooting my Smith and Wesson. Said it reminded him of the big guns of the Old West, when one shot was all a man ever needed.

So this morning, while the family gathered around him, I set that gun on the bench he always liked and fired several rounds, just like we used to.

My very own personal salute to a man who left his mark on this world, and me.

Too bad I forgot the gun was there when I packed up and came back to the house.

Then old Edison decided to make a break for it. Again.

Can’t blame him, totally.

The horse knows things aren’t right. He knows Jonah isn’t here anymore.

I swear, if I hadn’t finally caught up with him near the lake, he’d have walked all the way to town. Edison probably would’ve shown up at the funeral or the cemetery.

Maybe I should’ve let him. Edison was more of a family to Jonah than these strangers blowing into town now, picking over his financial bones.

Of course, Jonah wouldn’t have agreed. Not when it came to his granddaughter.

He loved her like no other, and always swore up and down he’d make damn sure nobody ever cheated her out of what he wanted to leave behind. Just like he made sure nothing would ever put an end to the Reed Ranch or North Earhart Oil.

I sit down, pull on a pair of socks, and slip on my boots, then standing up, I tuck the shirt into my jeans and head for the door. Might as well get this shenanigan started.

Of the three, I believe the granddaughter will be the easiest to deal with. She talked to Jonah regularly, which is far more than I can say for her folks. Shit, I can count on one hand the number of times his son ever called in the four years I’ve been here, and have no reason to believe it was any more often before I arrived.

The granddaughter was in college when I first showed up. Jonah thought she’d move here once she graduated. She disappointed him by not, but he never admitted it. Not even to me.

I could tell, though. And that disappointment makes my stomach churn as I walk downstairs.

He’d blamed it on his son and daughter-in-law, of course, and that’s partly what convinced me to go along with this madness.

A shiver rips up my spine. Fuck.

Tightening my hold on the banister, I take the steps carefully, on my merry way to meet the woman I’m married to.

A proxy marriage. The kind permitted in Montana.

Since I’m still legally a resident, it’s fully legit, even though she doesn’t know a fucking thing about it. And can’t just yet.

Not till I get her signatures nice and neat on the papers and get them over to Sheridan. He’s a by-the-book lawyer and went along with everything Jonah requested, except for this.

The damn signature.

He doesn’t even want to know how I’ll get the paper signed. That was the only time he put his foot down and stuck to it.

It hadn’t fazed Jonah one bit. He was confident I’d be willing and able.

Confident I’d handle it all.

Confident I’d sort Bella’s shit, whether she wanted it or not.

I take a deep breath before stepping off the bottom stair.

Sort doesn’t seem like the right word for this.

Married? Fuck. Not something I ever saw myself getting into. Not like this.

The tension in my Army days before you just knew an ambush was coming has nothing on this.

But that’s why Jonah swore I was the perfect man for the job. My sixth sense always shows me how to complete a mission.

I bite back the grin. He probably had told the girl we were old Army pals just to mess with me.

She’s in the kitchen now. Sitting at the table. Pouting. Or pissed.

I can’t tell. Don’t know her well enough. Don’t want to either but, unfortunately, there’s no choice in that.

She’s prettier than her pictures. The house is damn near full of them. Same long brown hair, big green eyes, a face and body that could be in pin-ups. Trim in all the right places, and just the right fullness where it counts.

An hourglass with a natural talent for hounding my dick – which won’t make this any easier.

Lifting her head, she watches me emerge into the room. Her lips quiver, a slight smile forming.