Four-Karat Fiancee

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A smile played around the corners of his mouth. “Believe me, I know that doesn’t even enter into it, not as far as you’re concerned.”

Her pride soothed, she said, “Good.” Then it occurred to her that walking down the aisle was normally expected to lead to sharing far more than a bank account.

“It would, of course,” she added very deliberately, “be a marriage in name only.”

His smile only widened in a way that, for some reason, put everything female inside her on full alert.

“No sex,” he murmured in a suddenly lazy drawl.

“None,” she shot back, telling herself that her pulse had only picked up several beats in delayed reaction to his startling proposal. Physical awareness had nothing to do with it. In fact, nothing physical—or emotional, for that matter—would have to be involved in a marriage in name only.

His gaze didn’t waver for a moment. “Well, the new house I plan on moving into this weekend has enough bedrooms that four kids plus two adults will fill them up nicely.”

“If we decide to go through with it,” she tacked on, far from ready to come to any conclusions.

He nodded. “It’s your call. If you say the word, it shouldn’t take more than a few days to set things up. We can get a judge to marry us at the courthouse in Pine Run and head over to Family Services the minute it’s done.”

And could the marriage be annulled if they failed to get the authorities to change their mind? Probably, Amanda reflected, though she was beginning to doubt that question would even arise. Something told her that Dev Devlin could be persuasive when he wanted to, even if he hadn’t managed to bring her around to his way of thinking after months of trying to buy her out. She’d dug in her heels because her emotions were involved, and monetary gain had come a distant second.

If one looked at the custody situation logically, however, as the authorities were bound to do, placing her sisters and brothers in the care of a married couple whose financial circumstances couldn’t be faulted had to be considered an advantage as far as the children were concerned. And the fact that one half of that couple was a close—and undeniably caring—relative could surely only be viewed, even by the sharp eyes of most dedicated of government employees, as another plus.

But would they question the fact that the caring relative and her new husband cared about each other?

Amanda watched her companion brush a stray strand of hair off his forehead. Once that thick, wheat-colored hair had nearly reached his shoulders, she remembered. Now it was cut short enough to be judged conservative. “Have you considered the fact that, even if we went through with it, we may well have to convince Family Services that our marriage is a love match?”

He mulled that over for a moment. “I’d say we can do it.”

“How?” she had to ask.

“I can talk a pretty good tale,” he told her. “Believe it or not, some people have even been known to think I have my own brand of charm.”

She would have liked to snort at that—might have actually done it if she didn’t know that this man was a big hit with more than a few of the ladies in Jester.

“All you have to do is follow my lead,” he added, “provided you decide you’re willing to go through with this.”

Was she willing? That, Amanda knew, was the real question. Certainly she’d never planned on becoming a bride strictly out of necessity, and she was by no means sure how many of her feelings she could put on hold. Even if this was a marriage in name only, with no physical or emotional commitment, could she enter into it as a purely practical means to achieve a goal and see it end without regrets?

Because it would end, eventually. The nature of their relationship up until this point and the fact that they were basically so different was enough to have her certain that she and Dev Devlin would go their separate ways.

But not before they had the opportunity to do their best to ensure the safety of four young orphans. And that was the bottom line, she realized. Hadn’t she said she would give anything—do anything—to change their fate? Now she’d been given the power to at least make a real attempt to keep them together as a family. Her family. All she had to do was say…

“Yes.”

Amanda got the word out, maintaining a steady gaze on someone she’d never by any stretch of the imagination considered husband material. “Yes, I’m willing to go through with it.”

AT LEAST she hadn’t laughed at him. Dev figured his ego would have to be content with that, because it hadn’t escaped his notice that Amanda had hardly been eager to accept his offer yesterday. It was his fault for going off half-cocked and offering in the first place, he supposed.

Not that he was sorry he’d done it. Not when you considered the fact that he’d had no trouble sleeping last night, and if he’d turned his back on those tow-headed kids, they’d probably have haunted his dreams. So he wasn’t sorry, and the best thing to do now was make sure things went off without a hitch.

“What’s new in the world?” Roy Gibson asked as he stacked clean glasses behind the massive oak bar that stretched nearly the length of the saloon.

Dev glanced up from the Billings newspaper he hadn’t been paying much mind to. His usual routine was to read the Billings Gazette from cover to cover, along with the smaller Pine Run Plain Talker, and most mornings he had little problem concentrating on the news of the day. Not so today, though.

“Nothing major happening that I’ve latched on to so far,” he replied truthfully enough to the man he’d hired as the Heartbreaker’s head bartender once business had begun to pick up and the place had started making a regular profit. Now he’d taken on another bartender, as well, but Roy continued to be in charge whenever the saloon’s owner wasn’t around.

“I reckon anytime a headline doesn’t leap out at you, that’s good news,” Roy said in the Western twang he’d never lost from his earlier days in Texas. He could pour a draft beer with the precision of a skilled surgeon, although as far as appearances were concerned, he favored the outlaw look of a Willie Nelson—long gray braids and all.

Actually, when it came to news, Dev thought as he shifted on his stool and reached for the thick coffee mug resting next to the spread-out paper, he had some that would probably have jaws dropping all over Jester once it hit. Until the knot was tied, however, he and Amanda had agreed to keep it under wraps.

“While I think about it,” he said, “I won’t be around next Monday. You and Lonnie will have to handle things between you.”

Roy dipped his head in a nod. “No problem. Mondays are usually slow, anyway.”

Which was true enough, Dev knew. That’s why he’d picked it as his wedding day. As for today, once Irene Caldwell could come in and man the bookstore for a few hours, he and Amanda planned to slip away and make a quick trip to Pine Run to take care of the necessary details, so things would be all set for the ceremony.

He already had a good suit, one he’d had tailor-made for him to celebrate his big win. As to what Amanda would choose to wear for the wedding, he had no idea. It was a pretty good bet, though, that it would be something the fancy magazines called “stylish.” Which meant the last thing he wanted to do was look like a small-town hick when they stood together in front of a judge. Maybe he’d never spent much time in a really big city, but he could look as though he belonged in one if he had to.

“You wouldn’t be following Dean Kenning’s example and sneaking off for a hot date, would you?” The question came right along with an amused glint in Roy’s eye.

Dev had to chuckle, low in his throat. More than a few of the town’s citizens had often suspected that the bachelor barber had done more than buy lottery tickets for Jester’s longtime players when he’d made his weekly trips to Pine Run.

“I’ll leave the hot dates to Dean,” Dev said, and didn’t miss the way Roy’s gaze abruptly turned probing.

“Seems to me you haven’t been doing any dating lately.”

Dev sipped his coffee. “Maybe I’m saving myself for a good woman.”

“A good woman?” Roy threw his head back and roared. “You’re gonna have me splitting my sides if you keep talking like that.”

“Don’t laugh too hard,” Dev advised, deciding it wouldn’t hurt to plant a few seeds before the news of the wedding got around. It probably wouldn’t do Amanda’s chances of getting custody any good if the real reason behind the marriage became general knowledge. “I just might think it’s time to change a few of my habits when it comes to the female half of the population,” he added.