The Maverick Fakes A Bride!

She nudged him with her shoulder. “Aurelia won’t mind. Remember, she got married and moved to Sioux Falls?”

Giselle, looking more eager than Travis had ever seen her, prompted, “So tell us what happened.”

“I caught them kissing, Travis and Aurelia.”

“Oh, no!” Gerry, the production assistant who stood at Giselle’s elbow, gave Travis a dirty look.

“Oh, yes,” said Brenna. “And okay, I was only ten, but still it destroyed me. It was in the summer, out at the county rodeo. Aurelia and Travis were both eighteen. Aurelia was so annoying. She had breasts and everything. I took one look at the two of them squishing their mouths together and felt my poor heart break clean in two.”

“Heartbreak?” Travis teased her. “Come on, admit it, Brenna. You were mad, not heartbroken.”

She gave a sniff, her cute nose in the air. “That was not anger, that was pure heartbreak, just like I said. Heartbreak that caused me to pick up a rock and throw it at Aurelia. I hit her in the shoulder.”

Travis elaborated, “Aurelia let out a yelp you could hear all the way to Kalispell.” He scolded Brenna gently, “You hit her pretty hard.”

“Well, I was upset and it seemed to me at the time that she deserved it.”

He shook his head. “You always did have a good arm on you, even when you were ten.”

“I remember she called me an evil little brat. And I turned to you and said, ‘Travis Dalton, what is the matter with you? You’re supposed to be waiting for me.’ I reminded you that I was already ten and it wouldn’t be long now—or it wouldn’t have been.”

“Except that you were so mad—”

“Correction. Brokenhearted. I was so brokenhearted, I ended it between us.”

“Bren. Come on. You were ten. I was eighteen. There was nothing to end.”

She put her finger to his lips. “Shh. I’m tellin’ this story.” And then she spoke to the camera again. “I said that on second thought, I hated him and I wasn’t going to marry him, after all, no matter if he crawled on his knees to me through razor blades and broken glass.”

He leaned in and told the camera confidentially, “She was always a bloodthirsty little thing.”

“Maybe. Now and then.” Brenna let out a rueful sigh. “Especially when the guy I love goes and breaks my heart.” Slowly, she grinned. “But then, look at us now.” She grabbed Travis closer. He went willingly. “Travis Dalton, I forgive you.”

“For...?”

“Not taking me seriously when I was six and breaking my poor heart when I was ten.”

He would have delivered a clever comeback for that one, but she went and offered up her sweet mouth. Comebacks could wait. He claimed her lips in another long, bone-melting kiss that brought a volley of applause and appreciative laughter from the circle of contestants and locals surrounding them.

When he lifted his head, she said, “Finally together, forever and ever.”

It was the perfect moment, the one Travis had been waiting for.

He dropped to his knees, reached in his pocket and took out the ring he’d slipped in there before driving out to the O’Reilly place to pick her up that night. That ring, bought in Kalispell that afternoon, had cost him more than half of his hard-earned savings. But he’d spent that money anyway, because the ring was as beautiful as she was and because it was important that they come across as the real thing.