"What do you get out of this?" Billy said.

"I get to make my own choice of husband."

Billy made a snorting sound. "And then what? How long were you planning on staying married to me?"

"I hadn't thought that far ahead. I suppose until I get my trust fund."

"Two years?"

"That would be a fair exchange, wouldn't it? That'll get you through your mother's illness and your sister's pregnancy. Surely by then you'd have another job and be able to prove to a judge that you can make a better home for Will than his mother."

"I'll concede that getting married helps me," Billy said. "I still don't see what you get out of it."

"A chance to help a friend. And to save myself from temptation. I want to manage Bitter Creek so much I'm afraid I'll marry Geoffrey just to get it. I don't want to be as selfish as my mother. Or as ruthless as my father."

Summer tried smiling, but her mouth trembled, so she gave up. "Marrying you gives me a chance to do something good for you... and for myself. What do you think?"

"I think you're crazy."

She got onto her knees facing him. "Think about it, Billy. We're good friends. We like each other. This could work."

"What about the marriage part of it?"

She stared at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the s.e.x part of it. Or had you forgotten that?"

Summer flushed. "I hadn't given it any thought."

"Well, think about it. Am I supposed to spend two years sleeping on the couch?"

"Don't be ridiculous. We could sleep in the same bed and still not-"

He shook his head. "I'm not drawing some imaginary line down the middle of the bed."

"What do you suggest?" she said with asperity.

"I suggest we forget the whole idea."

She shook her head, her ponytail swinging across her shoulders. "No. We're friends. We can manage this, Billy."

"I doubt that," Billy said under his breath.

"I can live without s.e.x if you can. After all, this is simply a marriage of convenience."

"It won't be at all convenient to live without s.e.x," Billy said, lifting a sardonic brow. "But I sure as h.e.l.l don't want to end up with another child I have to fight to keep."

"I can use birth control if we change our minds later," she said.

"I'm not going to change my mind."

"Fine," Summer said. "So we won't make s.e.x a part of the bargain." She couldn't explain the knot that had formed in her stomach. After all, Billy was making this easy for her. She was going to get independence from her parents at a very small price. Knowing the courts, it would take two years for her parents to untangle their affairs enough to get a divorce. Meanwhile, she would be free of their machinations.

"When are we going to do this?" Billy asked.

"We can go to the courthouse and do it right now, as far as I'm concerned," Summer replied.

"What about that fancy wedding your mother has planned?"

"She'll have to cancel it."

"What's your father going to say when he hears what you've done?"

"I don't really care," Summer said. "Starting right now, I'm making all my own decisions, without regard to what my parents think."

"They're going to be furious," Billy predicted with a grin.

"I really don't give a d.a.m.n," Summer said. "This is my life. I'm going to live it my way."

"You'll lose Bitter Creek," he said.

Summer laced her fingers together over her knees. "Maybe part of growing up is admitting I'll never be mistress of Bitter Creek and figuring out where to go from there."

Billy stood and reached down to grasp Summer's hands and pull her to her feet. He looked into her eyes, his face as serious as she'd ever seen it.

"I want to be sure you realize what you're getting into," he said. "This has to look like a real marriage-at least for two years. There can be no backing out, no running away. If push comes to shove, I need to be able to show the judge I can make a stable home for Will."

"Of course," she said. "I-"

"I'm not finished," he said, his hands tightening on hers. "I'm going to need to borrow that $25,000 you get when we marry. I'll pay you back-every cent. But that much money in one lump sum-and the promise of more along the way-might be enough to get Debbie Sue to drop the custody suit."

"It's yours," Summer said.

"Thank you, Summer. You don't know what this means to me. I..." He dropped her hands. "Just thanks."

She saw the relief in his eyes and something else, a troubled look she couldn't identify. "I'm just glad I can do this for you."

"You have from now until we get to the courthouse for second thoughts," he said. "After that, it'll be too late to change your mind. Between here and there, think long and hard about what you're doing."

"Don't worry, Billy," Summer said. "I know what I'm doing."

"I doubt it," Billy replied. "Just remember. There's no backing out once we're married. A quick marriage and an even quicker divorce would look worse to the courts than no marriage at all. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Summer looked into Billy's worried eyes. He flinched as she reached up to brush a lock of dark hair from his forehead. "Don't worry, Billy. You can count on me. I won't let you down."

He unsaddled and unbridled his horse and put the tack in the back of her pickup. "Target can find his way back to the stable. Let's go."

"Maybe I should stop by the Castle first and get some of my things," Summer said.

"You can pack a bag of clothes after we're married," Billy said. "There's no room for anything else at my place."

Summer thought of her canopied bed and her mirrored dresser and the dozens of pairs of shoes in her closet. Then she thought of Billy's tiny jail cell of a room, with its sagging iron-railed bed and narrow chest of drawers.

She swallowed past the knot of apprehension in her throat. She wanted to ask where she and Billy were going to sleep, but she already knew the answer. Her life of luxury was over.

At least for the next two years.

She tried to imagine the shock on her mother's ageless, unlined face, the outrage in her father's cold gray eyes. Better not to confront them. Better to let them find out however they would.

Billy handed her into the pa.s.senger seat of her pickup, then stopped and stared deep into her eyes. "You know what people say about me, Summer. You know who I am and always will be in this town. You sure you want to marry me?"

Summer's voice came out in a rasping whisper. "Yes, Billy. I do."

Chapter 5.

LAUREN CREED FELT HER STOMACH LURCH AT the sound of someone knocking on her back door at five in the morning-a bare minute after she'd turned on the kitchen light. She set down the coffeepot and stared into the darkness beyond the screen door trying to discern who was there. She was expecting her elder son Sam, who lived in the foreman's house, to arrive any minute to share breakfast and discuss the division of labor for the day. But Sam wouldn't have knocked.

Something's happened to Luke.

Her heart had been lodged in her throat ever since her restless and rebellious twenty-year-old son had headed to some G.o.dforsaken African nation with his National Guard unit five months ago. She lived in daily dread of hearing that Luke had been injured or killed by some machete-or machine-gun-wielding native.

Ren couldn't seem to make her feet move toward the door. She opened her mouth to urge her visitor to come in, but no sound came out. She tensed as someone shoved the screen door open with a groan of springs and stepped inside.

"Oh, it's you." She tried to hold back the sob of relief in her chest, but to her chagrin, it escaped.

"My G.o.d, Ren. What's wrong?"

She wasn't sure which of them moved first, but a moment later she was being held tight in Jackson Blackthorne's arms. She let out another sob and wrapped her arms around his waist, amazed that he was here holding her, when she hadn't allowed herself more than a glimpse of his beloved face for the past two years.

"I've been sitting in my truck, waiting for the light to go on," he said in a gruff voice.

"You should have called. I would have let you in."

"I was going to do that, but then I figured it was crazy to wake you up in the middle of the night. I've waited my whole life for you, Ren, but I swear the past two hours have seemed like an eternity."

He rocked her in his arms, his face buried in her shoulder-length hair.

She didn't want to let him go. It felt too good to be held in his arms. But Sam would be arriving any minute, and she didn't dare let him find Jackson here. Sam had warned her what would happen if she ever tried to have a relationship with his father's worst enemy.

Ren leaned back to tell Blackjack he had to leave, that they would have to meet somewhere else later to talk, but frowned as she took a good look at him. His body had felt strong and solid, but his eyes looked haunted and his features looked haggard. He would be fifty-seven next month, with a bad heart that had been corrected with bypa.s.s surgery four years ago. Was he ill? Was that why he'd come?

"Are you all right?" she asked, reaching up to touch his cheek with her fingertips.

He grasped her hand and turned it to kiss her palm. "I'm free, Ren. Free of Eve at last."

She felt her heart leap at his words. She searched his face for the joy that ought to be there-but was not. He looked anxious and uncertain in a way he hadn't since he'd first come to her thirty-seven years ago to propose ... and she'd refused because she was already pregnant with Jesse Creed's child.

"What happened?" she asked. "Was Eve in an accident? Is she dead?"

He shook his head. "Summer knows everything. There's nothing left for Eve to use as blackmail."

"How did she find out?"

Jackson blew a breath of air out of puffed cheeks. "I met up with Billy Coburn in the Armadillo Bar. He told me Summer's known the truth for the past two years. She overheard her mother and me arguing."

Ren tried to see past the gray stone wall Blackjack had made of his eyes. Why did he still seem so worried? What was he thinking? Now that he was finally free, was he having second thoughts about a life with her? She was afraid to ask, so she said, "Is Summer all right?"

"I should have trusted her more," he admitted. "She said she didn't want things to change between us. That's why she didn't say something to me sooner about her knowing the truth."

Ren pressed her forehead against his chest. "Oh, Jackson. Oh, my dear."

"I plan to start divorce proceedings as soon as the Houston office of DeWitt & Blackthorne is open for business. Knowing my cousin Harry, I won't have to wait much past daybreak."

Ren lifted her face to his. "What about Bitter Creek?" She couldn't imagine Jackson Blackthorne without the ranch that had been his lifeblood. "Will Eve be able to take it from you?"

He shrugged. "I don't much care. All I want is you."

Ren leaned her cheek against his shoulder. It was hard to believe that the fight between their two families that had begun over a piece of land so many years ago might finally come to an end.

Three Oaks was a small island-a mere hundred square miles of land-in a sea of Blackthorne gra.s.s. And Blackthornes had been trying to buy it-or take it forcibly from Creeds-since the Civil War. It would be ironic if the two clans were finally united by marriage now the way they had been when the first Blackthorne married Creighton Creed-against her son's wishes-and started the feud that had survived until the present day.

The conflict had been very much a part of their lives during all the years of her marriage to Jesse. Two years ago, her eldest son had vowed he would murder Jackson Blackthorne-and make it look like an accident-if Ren pursued any relationship with his father's nemesis. She'd believed Sam would do what he'd promised. It had almost been a relief when Jackson wasn't able to divorce his wife.

But her respite had come to an end.

She felt her stomach churn. Sam's feelings hadn't changed. If anything, he hated the Blackthornes more than ever, despite the fact-or maybe because of the fact-that both his sisters had ended up married to Blackthornes.

Four years ago, Callie had married Blackjack's eldest son Trace and taken their two children, Eli and Hannah, and moved with him to a cattle station in Australia, where they'd produced another daughter, Henrietta. Two years ago, Bay had married Owen Blackthorne, and they were now living happily in Fredericksburg with their twin sons, Jake and James. Sam had felt betrayed by his sisters' embrace of the enemy.

But perhaps Sam was ent.i.tled to hate Blackthornes. He'd certainly suffered more from the feud than any of his siblings. The Blackthornes had stolen something precious from him. Something he'd never get back.

"You have to leave, Jackson," Ren said. "Sam will be here for breakfast in a few minutes."

"I'm not leaving you, Ren. Not again. Never again."

"Be reasonable," she said, backing away from his embrace. "Sam will need time to adjust-"

"Are you telling me I need your son's approval to marry you?"

Ren heard both arrogance and irritation in his voice. Jackson Blackthorne wasn't used to being told he couldn't have something he wanted. But she'd learned a long time ago that you couldn't always have what you wanted, even if you wanted it very badly.