Chapter 6: A Royal Prince Rejected?
1088 Words
This woman was in over her head, Luke could tell. Though he couldn't quite understand why she bothered to bring him here only to discard him.
“Luke, you're a nice guy," she said, “more or less. I'm sorry to have to break this to you, but when I picked you up, I wanted you to pretend to be my boyfriend. It was just to make my parents happy so they would get off my case, you know?"
He stood there for a while, blinking in the bright sunlight. He had expected her to tell him to take it slow, but this?...
“I'm sorry if you find it disappointing," she added.
Luke opened his mouth slowly, deciding what to say. “I was supposed to be a pretend boyfriend?"
“Yes!"
“Me?" He scratched the back of his head, almost unable to cope with the situation. Of course, she didn't know he was a royal prince, but still, a guy like him had never been used as a fake boyfriend before. In fact, women would kill to make him their real boyfriend, not that they ever could. Did she have no interest in him at all?
“There's no one else standing here."
That was true. They were in the middle of a green field with a few cows lazing here and there. How did his life come to this? True, being a cowboy had been his childhood dream, but not if it meant the local women were immune to his charm.
Maybe it was time to reconsider his playboy lifestyle, get back to work as the tireless Miss Santer would no doubt suggest, be more mature.
No, that sounded like a fate worse than death.
Hallie was still standing there, expecting him to say something.
“I agreed to this?" he asked, grimacing with disdain.
“Yeah, you were pretty out of it at the time. I'm really sorry. I was going to ask you to stay on, but you're obviously not okay with this."
“No, it's fine," he said, trying to regain some of his polish, at least on the outside.
“You can be honest," Hallie entreated, “You're probably thinking you want to get out of here."
“There you go again, trying to guess what I'm thinking. I'm telling you, it's fine."
On the inside, he was seething. But he had lots of practice concealing his emotions, and his outward appearance of calm should have been fairly reassuring.
Hallie was still eyeing him with some doubt.
“Anyway," he said, “My stuff won't be delivered until tomorrow morning, so I'll stay until then."
“Great!" Hallie said, her face brightening. Maybe she was still hoping to rope him into being her fake boyfriend, but if that was her plan, she had another thing coming.
“I'm going to go look around the ranch, if you don't mind," he said.
“I'll give you a tour," she offered.
“Oh, thank you," he replied in his most polite fashion, even though he couldn't wait to be away from this annoying woman who had the audacity to reject him.
She took him through the big stables, where he met many horses, and Hallie pointed out some of her favorites. Here, he also met a couple of ranch hands, who were rolling wheelbarrows filled with straw into the stalls.
“This is Diego," Hallie said, introducing a cheerful-looking guy in his thirties. “And Johnny," she pointed out a stocky teenager in a tattered hat. “Guys, this is Luke, he'll be staying with us for a while."
Not if I can help it, Luke thought.
Hallie's sister and her husband walked in, though it didn't look like they were doing anything useful.
“You've already met Terry and Bill," Hallie continued. “They have their own house over there."
She pointed to a smaller house, built from the same cream-colored limestone as the main family home.
“Would you like to go for a ride around the property?" Hallie asked.
“No, thank you, I don't have any riding clothes," Luke said. “Besides, you probably can't wait to tell your mother about the successful deal you made."
“I can't believe mama asked you to buy cattle," Terry grumbled. “I thought I was going to do it."
“I got a pretty good deal. Jake lowered the price, just for me," Hallie said, rubbing it in.
“Me, me, me," Terry mocked, “that's all you can think about."
“That's so not true," Hallie said, “I think about the ranch. Unlike you. Have you even done any work today?"
“Yeah, Bill and I did some work in the fields," Terry said vaguely, “And now we'll go into town for lunch. See ya."
“Couple of losers," Hallie muttered under her breath as they departed. “Come on, I'll give you a tour of the house as well."
“Maybe later," Luke said, “I'll stay here and help Diego and Johnny with their work." He was already formulating his secret plan for revenge.
“That's really nice of you," Hallie said. “I'll go tell mama. She'll be thrilled."
Luke was furious, and he was going to ruin her little plan of playing house with her parents and her fake boyfriend.
He chatted with Johnny and Diego, who were still working in the stables. They seemed to enjoy the distraction.
“Hey, guys," Luke said, putting on a nonchalant attitude, “Do you know any places to have fun around here?"
“There's a bar," Diego said, “It's called the Lonesome Cactus."
“Bars are boring," Luke stated, “What about a hot and happening night club?"
“Uh… there's nothing like that around here," said Johnny, “You'd have to go to Austin."
“There's mini golf," Diego offered sheepishly.
“Mini golf? I take it that's a smaller version of golf?" Luke asked.
The ranch hands stared at him in disbelief. “Yeah."
“Let's do it!" Luke declared.
“What, now?" Johnny asked in confusion.
“Yeah, now. We aren't getting any younger."
“But we still have a lot of work to finish. Mucking out stalls, fixing the pasture fence, fertilizing the fields."
“Hallie said you should take the day off," Luke lied. “She wanted you to know how much she appreciates you both."
“Okay, then what are we waiting for?" Johnny exclaimed, “Let's go!"
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