Chapter One

Chapter One

J

ordan Spinelli gave the tie around his neck a tug. First right, then left. No matter which way he tugged it, it still felt too tight.

"Feeling like a noose around your neck?" laughed his best friend, David Porco.

"No," denied Spinelli, shifting the cloth while looking at his reflection in the mirror. "The knot is just wrong."

With deft fingers, Spinelli unraveled the knot. The color of the tie was a soft shade of brown with touches of orange that pushed it toward gold, but not quite. Hazel, the shade could be called. But the blending of colors didn’t come near the brilliance in her eyes.

“Did you know that the necktie actually originated in Croatia?” Spinelli flipped the collar of his dress shirt up and wrapped the cloth around his neck, making a new knot. “It was a handkerchief made of silk worn by the soldiers around the neck. The soldiers were presented to Louis XIV wearing the style, and he adapted it, calling it

à là croàte

, meaning of the Croats.”

"Nope, didn't know that," said Porco. "All I know is that I look good in a tux. Wish I'd gotten married in one instead of jeans and a T-shirt. But I was in a bit of a rush at the time."

Porco had married Jules Capulano within a few hours after meeting her. It wasn't an uncommon feat in this particular corner of America. Quickie marriages were all the rage in this small Montana town that boasted a rehabilitation ranch for Wounded Warriors. Most of the residents of The Purple Heart Ranch had married for convenience. But each marriage had turned into something more, a strong partnership filled with love and devotion.

Spinelli pulled the simple ring from his pocket. Devotion, he could promise his soon to be wife. But love? That wasn’t on the table. Romey Capulano didn’t believe in romantic love. If anyone had asked Spinelli a week ago, he would’ve said he didn’t believe in the notion either.

But then he’d seen her, and his mind had… changed.

He looked at himself in the mirror. The tie was straight, a perfectly balanced Windsor knot where each line hit the right angle. His face was clean-shaven, without a hint of stubble. His dark hair was neatly trimmed, resting just above the collar of his tuxedo jacket. His broad shoulders were back and straight, just as he’d been taught in the Army. So why did his knees feel weak?

"Did you know the tuxedo originated in the Hudson Valley of New York around the year 1888?" Spinelli asked the room of men dressed similarly to himself. They each had a tux handy since weddings were as frequent as cattle runs in these parts. “At the time, it only referred to the white jacket that the elite wore when they went out to dinner. The term later came to include the trousers and other accessories associated with the ensemble, and then it was shortened to tux."

Five pairs of eyes stared at him. Keaton lifted his gaze from a list he was making on a small notepad. Grizz scratched at the stubble on his chin. Mac tore his gaze from the window where his wife stood outside, chatting with another woman. Porco and Rusty sighed in unison as they regarded Spinelli.

Spinelli had never been good at reading facial expressions. He could get by on the basics. A smile meant approval. Though sometimes, it could mean mockery. A frown meant disappointment. A scowl meant anger. Currently, all of his friends’ stares were blank. He had no idea what that meant?

"I don't recommend you lead with that explanation on your wedding night," said Rusty.

“Romey is a highly intelligent woman,” said Spinelli. “She likely already knows that fact herself."

From the first moment he’d laid eyes on her, standing in the pasta section of the grocery store, Romey Capulano’s intelligence had been as clear to see as the perfect diamond he clutched in his palm. He’d been admonishing Porco for his hasty marriage based on the notion that Jules had made his heart speed up and put butterflies in his stomach. Spinelli had aptly diagnosed his friend with, not love, but a medical condition. Across the store, he’d sensed someone agreeing with his words. His gaze had been drawn to Romey. When she’d turned to face him, his entire world had tilted with just that one glance.

"Maybe she knows that fact,” said Porco, snapping Spinelli back to the present. "But I bet she'll be interested in other things tonight than a history lesson. By the way, Jules and I are going to clear out and let you two have the cottage to yourself for the night.”

"Why would you do that?" asked Spinelli.

The others looked at one another. Mac turned entirely from the window, giving Spinelli his full attention. Grizz’s lips twitched as though the big man was trying to hold in a giggle. Keaton held his pencil in mid-air, his checklist forgotten.

“I thought you had

the talk

with him," Porco stage-whispered to Rusty, loud enough so that the people out in the halls of the church could’ve easily heard.

“I did,” said Rusty. “But I didn't pull out any diagrams or equations, so I doubt he was listening."

Spinelli vaguely remembered Rusty bringing up Romey and his upcoming wedding earlier in the week while they were at work. Something or other to do with the mating habits of birds and bees. Though why they were talking about pollination and eggs hatching, Spinelli had no idea. He supposed it was a metaphor. But his mind had never been able to wrap around those. He preferred when people simply said what they meant. That’s what dictionaries and encyclopedias were designed for.

“Do you mean sex?” All the tightly held expressions relaxed across the features of his friends’ faces. Good, he’d gotten that one right. "Our marriage will be purely platonic.”

Five pairs of brows rose towards the ceiling. Five jaws went slack enough to reach the floor. Their looks of surprise surprised Spinelli.

“You all know this is a true marriage of convenience. You were all there when we proposed it.”

Just a week ago, the Verona Commune where Romey lived and the Vance Ranch where Spinelli lived had been practically at war. With lawyers and regulations rather than guns and ammo. Porco had made a tactical error when he’d accidentally sprayed chemical fertilizer on the organic farm. That move had lost the commune their certified organic status.

To make amends, Porco offered to buy the strip of land he’d contaminated. That piece of land at the edge of the boundary was where Jules and Romey lived. Unfortunately, Porco didn’t have enough to cover it. But Spinelli did. The catch was that in order to buy the land, he had to marry someone from there; Romey.

“This is a purely logical relationship," Spinelli went on. "We're coming together to solve a problem.”

"Like me and Brenda did when she wanted to sell me a portion of the ranch," said Keaton.

"Exactly,” agreed Spinelli.

Now they were getting it. Brenda Vance and Anthony Keaton had also gotten married on the day they’d met so that she could transfer a portion of her land to the training camp Keaton wanted to establish. It had been a practical, business transaction. Though these days, you couldn’t pry the two apart with a shovel.

"Then you're going to need to have

the talk

.” Keaton put pencil to pad and began scribbling. “With diagrams and equations this time."

Now it was Spinelli who scowled at his friends. Their grins were all definitely mocking this time. He knew they were trying to imply that he wanted more from Romey than what they had both agreed to. But that wasn’t true. He always said what he meant and meant what he said.

He wanted to marry this woman to right a wrong that was partially his fault. It had nothing to do with the golden flecks he’d seen in her almond-shaped eyes. Or the way she bit at her lower lip when she was working out a problem. Or the flare of her nostrils when she came up with an answer.

"This is the best thing to happen," said Porco. "I married the woman who lit a spark in me, and her sister's marrying my best friend."

There Porco went again about that spark. There was no such thing. Spinelli didn't deny that he was attracted to Romey. But it was her mind that he was most interested in. When he’d seen her in the grocery store, he’d been attracted because she had understood what he was saying about love being a medical condition. It was her intelligence, not the fact that her proportions were in the shape of an hourglass.

Thinking about Romey’s figure made his heart skip a beat. The knowledge that in just a matter of moments he would take her hand in his and vow to spend the rest of his life with her made his stomach flutter, as though there were butterflies in there. God, he hoped he wasn’t coming down with something right before his wedding.