Page 31 of A Montana Fake Marriage

“Yeah?”

They were in the dark. It should have been easier to admit that she’d let herself grow attached to him. But it wasn’t. No matter how hard she tugged at those words, she couldn’t bring herself to say them.

“Thanks… for helping with my dad, I mean.”

He was quiet for a beat. Then his low voice flickered through the room. “I’d do anything for you, Sammie.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“Her dad is getting antsy,”Caleb muttered, dragging a hand down his face.

Mack rested his forearms atop the top bar of the corral, his expression unreadable. “What do you mean,antsy?”

“The night of the wedding, he messaged her. I don’t think he calls her regularly. She declines his calls most of the time when he does call. But when he messages her I get why she avoids him. The stuff he texts makes me wonder why he even became a father.”

Mack frowned. “That bad, huh?”

Caleb nodded. “He said he wants her to come home for Christmas, and if she doesn’t, then he’s threatening to withhold her inheritance.”

Mack’s expression scrunched up almost comically. “Isn’t he already doing that? What makes him think he’s got any leverage at this point?”

“No idea, except he’s probably just being difficult for the fun of it.”

“What did Sammie say?”

Caleb cast his brother a glance that couldn’t make it any more clear, but he said it, anyway. “I deleted the message.” When Mack rose his brows, Caleb waved him off. “Relax, she saw me do it. I figured it wouldn’t do her any good to read it, and it would only stir up drama, anyway.”

“Yeah, you probably did her a favor… so what now? Just sticking to the plan? A few more months, and then you get a divorce?”

There must have been something in Caleb’s eyes that gave him away. His brother’s expression turned into something more judgmental.

“Caleb…” he warned, “please tell me you’re not making this complicated.”

“It’s already complicated!” Caleb muttered with exasperation. “Agghhh. I’m in too deep. There’s nothing I can do but sit back and wait to see if she might feel the same way I do about her.”

At his brother’s silence, Caleb frowned. “You don’t think we might be able to make it work, do you?”

Mack shrugged. “I don’t think you should have done any of this in the first place. You didn’t care then, why would you care about my opinion now?”

“Thanks for nothing, bro,” Caleb muttered dryly.

Silence grew between them. Caleb knew his brother didn’t approve. But he’d been right about not needing his opinion, either. Caleb probably shouldn’t have asked.

“You coming to the rodeo this weekend?” Thankfully, Mack changed the subject.

“Are you in this one?” Caleb’s eyes shifted when someone walking near him caught his attention. It wasn’t Sammie.

“Yeah. Bronc riding.”

Caleb nodded absentmindedly. “Yeah, I’ll come.”

“Gonna bring Sammie?”

Caleb glanced toward his brother again. “You think she’d like to go?”

“Heck if I know. She’s your wife, so you should know if she’d like a rodeo or not.” Mack studied Caleb for a few moments longer. He could have said so many things—chastised Caleb for getting himself into this mess to begin with. But he didn’t. “If you like her that much, then you might as well do something about it,” he muttered.

They stared each other down, and Caleb sighed. “Like what?”

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