Page 7 of Marrying a Cowboy

He pulled back and her cheeks heated from the feeling of his gaze on herface.

“What?” she asked after a few seconds passed by. Being under his scrutiny made heruncomfortable.

“Your job? Why would your job want you to getmarried?”

She shrugged. “I’m just guessing. An intern got the job I’d been hoping for. I might be wrong but the only thing I can think of that made me different from her was the fact that she was married and I wasn’t.” Heat raced to her cheeks. “It’s just hard being the only single person. It gets to you, you know? And now that every one of my friends are married, I’m going to just be that tag-a-long loser friend that only gets invited so they don’t feel bad.” She pinched her lips together. Since when did she become such a whinyperson?

“So, you really want to get married, is that what I’mhearing?”

“Yeah. . .” What was he suggesting? “I’m not doing some mail-order husband thingy. That’s just not me. I’ll find another job and new friends.” Was it that terrible that she might have looked up mail-order husbands? If Austin found out, he’d discover just how desperate she was. Why had she even saidanything?

“Mail-order husband? Is that a thing?” He pressed on her back, motioning her to spin. She complied and when she came back, she braced herself against his chest. Her cheeks heated as she noted that there were incredible muscles underneath histux.

“Maybe,” was all she could say. Pushing away from him, she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. How could she be having these kinds of reactions to him? Something was seriously wrong withher.

The song that they were dancing to faded, and Emma slowed, moving to pull away from Austin. But he kept his hand firmly placed on her back. She wasn’t going anywhere. He seemed to have paused, keeping his gaze on the DJ like he was waiting for the next song to start. Was it possible that he was enjoying this as much as she was? She bit her lip as she studiedhim.

When the next song started, he counted the beats and began moving her around the dance floor one more time. Besides sweaty-palmed Ronnie from the eighth grade, no other guy had voluntarily stayed on the dance floor with her this long. Maybe he was enjoying her company. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Part of her loved his company. The other part fearedit.

“I have a proposition for you,” he said as he glanced down at her with an uneasy expression. She narrowed her eyes. What did thatmean?

“Okay,” shesaid.

“I—um. . .” He cleared his throat. “Do you promise not to think I’mcrazy?”

She stared at him. Why would she think he was crazy? “Okay.”

“You need to get married to get your friends off your back. I need to get married to fully inherit my grandfather’s ranch.” He leaned closer to her with his eyebrows raised. “Do you see where I’m going withthis?”

She laughed. He was joking. “You’re crazy. Get like, fake married?” She shook herhead.

He shrugged. “Would it be such a badthing?”

She studied him. He wasn’t joking? Or, he was a he was a fantastic actor. Why would he say that? How could she have been so stupid? This must be another prank. Making fun of the single girl at the wedding. Self-preservation took over and she jerked away from him, waving him away. “You’re crazy.” How did she always seem to find the psychos of society? It was a pity. Austin had seemed so level headed. Why did she only attract unstableguys?

He stepped toward her. “I’m not kidding,Emma.”

Now she really needed to get out of here. She turned and walked as quickly as her ridiculous heels could take her to the exit. Of all the ways to be proposed to, this was not the way she’d ever thought it would go. At least with Vincent, it had been somewhat romantic, even if she’d choked on the ring he’d hidden in her cupcake. Butthis?

“Emma,” Austin called after her as she pushed open the door and stepped out into the night air. The breeze surrounded her, cooling her hot skin. The door slammed closed and she took a deepbreath.

“Emma,” Austin’s deep voice sounded from behindher.

She turned to see him standing just outside the door with his hands shoved into his pockets. He was watching her as if he didn’t know how she’d react. Sighing, she wrapped her arms around her chest and stared out at the glimmering lights of New YorkCity.

“It wasn’tfunny.”

He stepped closer. “I wasn’tjoking.”

Man, this guy was good. He was even convincing her. “It’s just mean, what you are doing. I may be single, but I havefeelings.”

“I’m serious when I say, it would be mutually beneficial for the two of us to getmarried.”

He was serious? But why? “You want me to get married just to get divorced? How is thisbetter?”

Austin stepped toward her. “How can anyone fault you for trying? Their energy will be diverted to me and how horrible I was because I.. .” His voice trailed off as he studied a nearby building. “Cheated on you. Or whatever excuse you want to use as to why you had to call itoff.”

She glanced over at him. “But why would you dothat?”

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