The Billionaire Cowboy's Proposition by Kris Bock

Author:Kris Bock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781959988014
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2023-03-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Plenty of people saw them at the Bluebonnet Festival, judging by the looks and whispers. Maybe Mallory didn’t exactly look happy about that, but she held his hand and let him buy her food and he even got her to laugh a few times. After that, operation fake relationship stalled a bit. Mallory was back to her busy school schedule, and TC’s ostrich business was growing rapidly—literally, as they had a batch of youngsters who seemed to get taller by the day. Things were so hectic that he didn’t have a lot of downtime with his family, but he did manage to go for a ride with Carly one sunny afternoon.

“Rumor has it you and Mallory were looking cozy at the Bluebonnet Festival,” Carly said as soon as they were away from the barn.

“Yeah. She agreed to be my fake girlfriend to fend off other women. Didn’t Josh tell you? I assumed he would, or I would’ve texted you myself.”

Carly shot him a look. “He told me something. I want to know what’s really going on. I understand how you benefit from a fake relationship. But why Mallory? Are you sure you’re both on the same page?”

“I’m not only spending time with Mallory to trick people. I mean, I do like her. I had to talk her into it, but she agreed. She doesn’t expect anything more.”

“Okay. She’s a big girl. If she agreed, she had her reasons.”

“I guess.” He frowned for a few seconds. “I’m not sure what they were. Maybe she felt sorry for me.”

Carly gave him another look, one that suggested she saw more than he intended to reveal or even knew he was feeling. “Sounds like you’re feeling sorry for yourself.”

He gave an uncomfortable shrug. “Maybe. I guess I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead when we started this. She probably suggested it as a joke, but it kind of made sense. Only now I’m not sure what to do. She’s worried about her reputation, that people will think she’s only after my money. It’s not like I have a lot else to offer. I can let her be the one to officially call it off, but you know how gossip goes. People will come up with seventeen different variations on the breakup no matter what we say.”

“Wow.” Carly tipped her hat back and wiped her forehead. “That’s a lot to unpack. I guess my first question is, how do you really feel about Mallory?”

“She’s great. That’s why she was perfect for the role of fake girlfriend. I like hanging around her. People know and respect her. And I don’t think there’s one woman in a thousand who would want to go toe to toe with her in a fight, not even over millions of dollars.”

Carly flashed him a pitying look. “They’d be fighting over you, sweetie, not just your money.”

He shrugged again. What could he say? He was trying to figure out how to do good in the world, and he had even made some progress, but his money allowed him to do that.

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