Page 8 of A Cowboy's Convenient Marriage

It made him angry. Made him want to lash out not only at Zoe but especially at her. And lash out at the entire church, who would treat an innocent man so badly. Not even giving him the benefit of the doubt. It was so wrong.

“Let me set this mail in my room, and I’ll be back out to eat,” he said as Aunt Karen nodded, and he carried the pot of food to the table before continuing through the dining room to the hall and on to his bedroom. She just had a small ranch house with only two bedrooms. It was all she ever needed. His room was tiny, with a single-wide bed and a dresser taking up almost all the space.

He opened the top letter as he walked down the hall. His intent had been to take off his dress shirt and put on something more comfortable, but his steps slowed as his eyes skimmed down the letter, and he stopped in the doorway of his bedroom.

Could this thing be legitimate?

The paper crinkled in his hands, and he realized his fingers were shaking.

The idea, the implications, the benefits to himself but also his Aunt Karen were staggering, if it was.

His eyes skimmed down the letter again, and he said a silent prayer.

Lord? Could this be true?

He forgot about changing his clothes and did an about-face, walking back down the hall to where his aunt was pouring tea into a glass and setting it on the table.

“Have you ever heard of this law firm?” he asked, saying the name of the law firm.

“No. I can’t say that I have,” Aunt Karen said, straightening up and looking at him quizzically. “Why? Is someone suing you?” She tilted her head, like she couldn’t imagine why anyone would do that.

After what Cash had gone through with his church, it wouldn’t shock him at all if someone were suing him. Just another nasty human, doing nasty human things.

There was that bitterness again. He tried to shove it aside. He needed to deal with it, but he wasn’t sure how.

“No. They want to give me money. It looks legit, even if it sounds far out.”

“Do you want to read it to me?”

He skimmed down through the letter, hitting the high points. An anonymous billionaire donor had been giving random people one billion dollars to get married and to stay in North Dakota. The idea was that he loved North Dakota and wanted to see good people staying and raising families there. The exodus from the state had saddened him, and while he knew the weather was a detriment to a lot of people, he felt that a billion dollars could inspire people to want to stay.

“It says I have thirty days from the date of this letter to get married and submit that information to this law firm.”

“What’s the date of the letter?” Aunt Karen asked, seemingly interested. She didn’t dismiss it out of hand, which gave Cash even more questions.

He said the day and then pulled out his brand-new phone, got the calendar app up, and figured it out. “That means I have three days to find someone to marry me, in order to get the billion dollars.”

His voice held his sinking despair. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Even if the letter was legit, which he honestly wasn’t sure.

“I’ve heard whispers of something like this throughout Sweet Water, over the years. I haven’t heard anything about it lately though.” Aunt Karen spoke in a low voice, as though this were some kind of top-secret deal, which he supposed it almost would have to be, if people were getting handed one billion dollars just to get married, and no one had heard much about it.

“Let’s sit down and eat while we think about it. I know you must be hungry.”

He wasn’t hungry. He hadn’t been hungry for two months, but he didn’t argue with his aunt. She was going out of her way to be kind to him and to treat him better than anyone ever had, other than his parents, and even his mom had a job and hadn’t cooked supper most nights.

They sat, he said grace, and he dished her plate then his before they started talking again.

“So you’ve heard of people getting paid to get married?”

“Just whispers, like I said. There does seem to be some families who are inordinately wealthy for ranchers.”

“So these are mostly farmers?” he asked, wondering why she had said ranchers specifically.

“For the most part, yes. I don’t know anyone who didn’t live on a farm who’s actually gotten a letter like this. But most people keep these things under their hat.”

As Cash intended to do. This certainly wasn’t something he wanted to share around town. He was just getting integrated into Sweet Water. He didn’t want to alienate anyone or, worse yet, make himself a target, whether that was for thieves or for prospective brides, he wasn’t sure. He kind of felt that both fell into the same class, after his experience with Abby.

Still, he tried to process what his aunt was saying.

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