Forever Dreams (Montana Brides) Read online

  Trent clutched his marriage license in his sweaty hand. All it had taken was fifty-five dollars and thirty minutes. The shuttle driver was now speeding toward a chapel of love. Gracie wasn’t saying much and moving even less.

  The other ladies were more than making up for Gracie’s lack of enthusiasm. They fussed over her hair, checked her lipstick and reminisced about their own wedding days. Gracie smiled and nodded at everything going on around her. If anyone noticed her slightly glazed expression they didn’t comment.

  Ted kept slapping him on the back.

  Trent felt slightly queasy. He’d never done anything this underhand in his life, but his ranch depended on him. There was nothing more important in his life than his land. But man-oh-man, Gracie would kill him once she found out what he’d done.

  They pulled up at a drive-through chapel where Elvis was on checkout.

  “Damn. If this isn’t the most romantic wedding I’ve ever been too.” Ted wiped a tear from his eye.

  After a few hasty “I do’s” and a couple of signatures, Elvis had done the deed and Trent had a wife. He should have felt relieved. He didn’t. He felt sick. Gracie didn’t look much better.

  The only thing he knew for certain was that he wasn’t looking forward to telling the bride they were married.

  Gracie groaned as a blast of sunlight seared the back of her eyeballs. She tried to turn her head to move from the inferno. As soon as the thought hit her brain her head felt like exploding and her stomach heaved. She fell out of bed and crawled across to the Italian marble bathroom, gripping the toilet bowl with what little strength she had left. She’d never felt this sick in her life. She remembered drinking a couple of margaritas, but they wouldn’t have left her feeling this bad. She must have picked up a horrible virus yesterday.

  As another wave of nausea hit, Gracie gave up on being brave and started bawling her eyes out. She had no idea why she was crying. It must be the virus, making her an emotional wreck. She couldn’t remember much of last night. She had a vague recollection of the conference dinner and the Cirque du Soleil performance at the hotel. If she tried really hard she remembered some pretty music, flashy lights, and water. Lots of water shooting everywhere. And Elvis. She felt her head for a temperature.

  Had she been hallucinating?

  And where had Trent gone? Surely he must be sick not to be here with a cold flannel and words of comfort. They’d had mind blowing sex last night. That must count for something when a girl felt like her head had been ripped off and stuffed on backwards?

  Gracie pushed away from the toilet, resting her face on the cold marble floor tiles. She’d wait here until her head stopped spinning and her stomach stopped heaving. It vaguely crossed her mind that the floor of a hotel bathroom wasn’t the most hygienic place to put her face, even if it happened to be the Venetian. But she was beyond caring.

  “Are you alright in there?”

  Her eyelids blinked. She stared at the toilet rolls stacked in a fancy wire basket under the wall-hung vanity.

  “Gracie?”

  The voice got closer. She blinked again.

  Trent crouched on the ground beside her, feeling her pulse and checking her body. “Can you hear me? Are you bleeding? Do I need to call a doctor?”

  It was too much. She winced as his voice boomed off the tiles. “Trent?”

  “It’s me. Can you move? Are you hurt anywhere?”

  More questions. Too many questions all at once. “My head hurts, and I want to be sick, and I can’t see out of my eyes, and I’m going to cry.”

  “Do you want me to lift you back into bed?”

  “No. I need to be close to the toilet.” Gracie took a deep breath hoping some part of her body was filtering out all the bugs on the floor. She tried to pull herself together. “What’s wrong with me?

  “It’s called a hangover.”

  “Hangover? But I only had two drinks all night.”

  “No. Four.”

  “Four?” she groaned.

  “Umm. And there’s one more thing.” He cleared his throat and moved toward the toilet rolls. “The thing is, last night, while we were taking in the sights of Vegas…well…we got married.”

  Gracie froze. Her brain tried to compute what he’d said. Married? She pulled herself up onto her elbows and waited for the room to stop spinning. “Who got married?”

  “We did.”

  “Us?”

  “Yep.”

  Gracie stared at him. She needed pain relief and she needed water. She dropped her head back to the cold tiles. “Ha, ha. I so don’t believe you.” He had a sick sense of humor if he thought she’d find that joke funny. His timing sucked.

  “It’s true. You’re my wife.”

  “Go away. I’m not in the mood for your jokes.” Wiping dribble off the side of her face, she rolled onto her side. “Just leave some pain relief and a glass of water by my bed and I’ll sort myself out.”

  By lunchtime, Gracie’s head had stopped pounding enough to enjoy a cheesy pasta dish in St. Marks Square. Before Trent left for the conference, she’d drunk a gallon of water and swallowed enough pain killers to tranquilize a horse. He’d ordered room service and she’d tried to eat a piece of toast. It hadn’t gone down well. The fruit juice had felt better, so she’d stuck with that and planned her day.

  Going for a slow walk around the Venetian had seemed like a sensible thing to do. It was about time she did something sensible. Four margaritas had to be the most insensible thing she’d ever done.

  Reaching for her sunglasses, she gently pushed them onto her nose. If she didn’t move too quickly she could almost pretend she was normal. As she gazed at the tourists shuffling along the street, a lady with bouncy grey hair came hurtling toward her. She vaguely recalled seeing her last night at the dinner, then on a bus tour of Vegas. Margaret? Marion? Definitely not Margarita.

  “Gracie, darlin’. How are you?”

  She gave the woman a polite smile. She must have seen Gracie’s fall into alcoholic stupor and was concerned about how she felt. Parts of last night were slowly coming back, but most of it was still a big black ball of fuzz. She only hoped she hadn’t done anything too embarrassing. “I’m much better. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, but I’ll be fine in another hour or two.”

  The lady beamed a megawatt smile down at her.

  “Did you enjoy last night?” Gracie asked, not sure whether she really wanted to know.

  “It was the most romantic thing I’ve seen in a long time.”

  Gracie thought she must be referring to the Fountains of Bellagio. That was one tour stop she’d managed to remember. Even to a woman who’d been tipsy, the fountains were definitely something you wouldn’t forget in a hurry. “I agree. The lights, the music, and the water were incredible. I’m going to try and get back before we leave for the airport.”

  “No, darlin’. I meant your wedding. It was so romantic. Ted and I would have done something similar if we were your age.” In a whisper she added, “You just keep that man of yours happy. Lots of good lovin’ and good food is the secret to a long marriage. I must dash. I’m catching up with Ted for lunch. It was a pleasure meeting you little darlin’.” With a wave of her hand, she disappeared into a crowd of tourists.

  Gracie hadn’t moved a muscle after the word wedding.

  She was married?

  Married?

  Trent was in trouble big time. No, more than that. Trouble so big, he’d be lucky if she got on the flight back to Montana with him. She thought he’d been joking when he’d told her they were married. Yeah right. The man was certifiably insane to think she’d happily go along with his harebrained scheme. Gracie Donnelly was no one’s door mat.

  The slimy, unscrupulous, devious, toad had just blown any friendship with her. She wouldn’t stay Mrs. Trent McKenzie for long. If a woman could get hitched in Vegas overnight, then she could get unhitched just as quick. Gracie sat and fumed for another ten minutes, carefully planning her exit strat
egy from Trent’s life.

  “Would madam like something else?”

  Gracie looked at the waiter standing beside her. “How about a divorce? Can you order that to go?” She had to give him credit. He wasn’t fazed in the least by the petit redhead asking him a crazy question.

  “No madam, you’ll have to visit a lawyer for that. There’s plenty along the Strip.” He grinned. “Good luck.”

  Gracie grabbed her handbag, added a healthy tip to her bill and headed toward the nearest exit. Thanks to a demented fool of a cowboy she was now shopping for a divorce.

  Trent paced backward and forward along the corridor. Still no sign of Gracie. Their shuttle would be leaving in half an hour for the airport and he hadn’t seen her since breakfast this morning. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to figure out where she might have disappeared to.

  She was probably shopping up a storm in one of the casino boutiques. Or maybe she’d decided to see another show before they left. Or maybe she wasn’t answering her door on purpose. He banged again, loudly, just in case she had the television on full volume.

  “Trent, how are you?” Marianne Davidson walked toward him with a pile of shopping bags clutched in her hands.

  Trent tipped his hat in her direction. “Ma’am. Nice to see you again.”

  “I saw your lovely wife at lunchtime. Such a nice person. I told her how romantic we thought your wedding was. Ted hasn’t stopped talking about it.”

  Trent stared at Marianne. Oh, boy. When he’d left Gracie this morning she still didn’t believed they were married. She’d definitely know they were husband and wife now. “Gracie hasn’t come back from shopping yet and we’re getting close to needing to leave. Can you tell me where you last saw her?”

  A frown creased Marianne’s brow. “I hope she’s alright, Trent. Now let’s see. I went to see the shark reef just after I left her. So that must mean I was in the Mandalay Bay Resort.”

  “Thanks. I’ll go and phone the hotel to see if they can put a call out for her.”

  Marianne wished him well and disappeared into a room further down the hall. The elevator pinged open as Trent slotted his key card into his door. Out stepped Gracie. She looked hot and disheveled, with a mutinous scowl in her eyes that didn’t bode well for him. But at least she was alive. “Thank God you’re back. I’ve been worried.”

  “I don’t know why, Trent McKenzie. You weren’t worried last night when you signed my life away on that tiny little marriage license you registered at the Regional Justice Centre.” She reached inside her handbag and waved a piece of paper in the air. “This license is worth zip, Mr. McKenzie. You’re nothing more than low-life scum to pull a trick like that.”

  “Gracie, look…” He reached out to calm her down.

  “Don’t you dare touch me. I’ve spent the last three and a half hours trying to find some way out of this marriage. All I’ve got for my troubles are sore feet, another headache and a bad temper. I’m going to have a quick shower and get my bags ready for the shuttle. If I never speak to you again it’ll be too soon.”

  Gracie stormed past him in a flurry of cotton and anger. She didn’t wait for the door to close softly in her wake. Giving it a good shove with her arms, she slammed it loudly against the frame.

  Trent stared at her door. Oh, hell. He was in trouble now.

  Gracie flicked through the woman’s magazine for the third time. Not because it happened to be particularly good, but because it saved her from having to talk to the idiot sitting beside her. The plane trip back to Bozeman had so far been uneventful, unlike the hostile shuttle ride across to the airport. She’d nearly thrown her suitcases at Trent’s head as he’d been ever so pleasant at making sure she was ready for their return flight.

  As soon as she got back to Bozeman she’d book into a hotel. She wasn’t going anywhere near the Triple L. Trent might have married her, but she wouldn’t spend another night under the roof of her husband. He was on his own.

  Gracie threw the magazine down in disgust. Reading about the latest celebrity marriage to hit the skids was so unfair. She’d give anything for her marriage to be null and void.

  “At least let me tell you how it happened.” Trent touched the top of her shoulder.

  She pulled her arm away. “I’m not discussing anything with you. And I know how it happened. The lady in the chapel showed me the recording.” And that had just about left her in tears. She’d looked so happy, grinning like a fool as Elvis serenaded the newly married couple.

  “Please. Just listen to me.”

  Clamping her lips tight, Gracie refused to even look at him. She thought about sticking her hands in her ears. It seemed a bit childish, but marrying someone when they were as drunk as a skunk didn’t exactly reek of mature behavior either.

  “You told Marianne you were going to marry me when we were outside the Bellagio. I tried to tell her and Ted we weren’t getting married.”

  She sent him an evil glare.

  “Okay…I didn’t try too hard,” he admitted. “But you were talking about wedding dresses and flowers and things, so I thought, why not? Why not marry Gracie? So I did. I mean, we did. Get married, that is. With Elvis. At the drive-through.”

  She kept quiet. She remembered Elvis, she remembered signing her marriage license, and she remembered feeling like the luckiest woman alive. Damn.

  “I like you a lot. There’s no one else I’d sooner marry.”

  Gracie balled her hands into tight fists. ‘Like’ didn’t even come close to how a man was supposed to feel about his wife. ‘Like’ wasn’t how she wanted her husband to feel about her. “You had four choices and I wasn’t one of them.”

  “I didn’t want any of them.”

  “I’m not staying married to you.”

  Trent sat back and closed his eyes. “Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll file for a divorce when we get home and you’ll never hear from me again.”

  Folding her arms across her chest, Gracie glared at her soon to be ex-husband. “We wouldn’t be in this mess if you weren’t so pig-headed about having children. Why would you throw your life away with a woman you didn’t love?”

  “Why did you start searching for your father?”

  “That’s got nothing to do with getting married,” she huffed. “And anyway, you know why.”

  “Spell it out again. If I’m the simpleton you think I am, I should have forgotten what you told me.”

  Gracie speared him with a look sharp enough to slice him in two. “I want to know who my father is, where I belong.”

  Trent frowned at her. “That’s the easy answer. Why keep looking for a father that might want nothing to do with you?”

  “You can be a real bastard sometimes,” Gracie growled.

  “Not in this lifetime. My parents were married when they had me.”

  Gracie froze.

  Trent’s gaze shot to her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”

  She looked out the window, closing her eyes against the bright glare of the sky. She wanted to disappear, pretend that the last couple of days hadn’t happened. Pretend that she’d never started searching for someone that didn’t want to be found.

  Trent’s hand brushed her arm. “Gracie?”

  She opened her eyes and focused on the seat in front of her. A heavy sadness settled inside her body. “You’re surrounded by family who love you. Three generations of McKenzies have put down roots so deep that a tornado couldn’t loosen their grip on your land.”

  Gracie glanced up and frowned at the shuttered look on Trent’s face. “I’ve got a hole in my heart that I can’t fill. Sometimes I get a pain in my chest, and it hurts so bad that I can’t imagine a time when it’s ever going to go away.” She closed her eyes, trapping her grief behind her lids. “I need to know who my father is, why he never contacted me. I’ve traveled halfway around the world to fill that hole with something that might take the ache away.”

  “I guess we’re not so very diffe
rent after all.”

  Gracie looked up. “If we’re both looking for the same thing, then why are we making such a mess of our lives?”

  “Maybe we’re trying too hard,” he sighed.

  Gracie’s gaze dropped to his mouth. The same mouth that had set her blood on fire, coaxing her body into a tight bundle of need. She didn’t want to remember the tender way he’d held her or the possessive way his eyes had roamed over her body. She didn’t want to remember feeling as though he was the most amazing man she’d ever met. Or that she was loved.

  But she did remember. Trent’s jaw clenched tight, flexing under the strain of emotions every bit as complicated as hers.

  “My land’s the single most important thing to me. I’ve given everything I have to make the Triple L somewhere that future generations will be proud to call home. It’s in my blood.” He gazed over the heads of the people sitting in front of him. “I need a family to pass the ranch onto. I want my children to love the land as much as I do.”

  “Life doesn’t come with guarantees. Even if you do find someone to marry…” Trent raised his eyebrows. Gracie poked her nose in the air. “…that isn’t me…your children might not want to spend their lives on the ranch.”

  “I’d better aim for a dozen kids then, hadn’t I?”

  The grin on his face nearly undid what was left of her anger. Not that there was much left anyway. She needed time to think, and having his body pressed close against hers in the tight confines of an airplane wasn’t helping one bit.

  Trent stared at her hands, clenched tightly in her lap. “You haven’t managed to find your father yet. If you stay married to me you can live in Montana for as long as it takes to track him down. You can be my wife in name only. No one needs to know our marriage isn’t for real.”

  Chewing her bottom lip, Gracie squinted at the man beside her. “That’s a low down devious way to get me to stay married to you.”

  Trent wiped his hands along his jeans. “It’s not devious. I’m desperate.”