Short Time Wife - Softcover

Chance, Las

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1463432550 ISBN 13: 9781463432553

Publisher: AuthorHouse Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Logan Mason was a wealthy Texas ranch owner, who needed a wife, in order to accept a very prestigious job in Japan, teaching a rich Japanese man, how to turn his Japanese farm into a Texas style ranch. All Logan, needed was the right woman to be his short time wife. Without a wife Logan could not take the job. Ryder, his ranch manager, thought he had found the perfect wife for Logan the day Kate, showed up at the ranch, hot, tired and worn out. Kate was a young beautiful woman who had been raised in foster homes since she was four years old. She had decided she needed to makea big change in her life, so she decided to leave Atlanta, Georgia and go to Texas; even-though she didn't know anyone there.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Short Time Wife

By Las Chance

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Las Chance
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-3255-3

Chapter One

It was one of the hottest days of the summer and Kate had all of Atlanta she could stand. There was no reason for her to stick around anymore. She had been released out of the State Child Welfare Foster Care System for over two years.

Now, she saw no real future in waiting tables at the Red Lobster Restaurant. She had everything she owned in this world packed into her old Jeep Cherokee. It was fifteen years old, but it was cheap enough for her to buy at the time and it had been a good car, so far.

Kate wanted to go to Texas. She didn't know anyone there, but she just felt it had to be better than what she had now.

She had never been out of the city limits of Atlanta, Georgia before. This was her first trip and she was making it by herself.

Logan was reading the letter for the fifth time. "Boy, you just as well give up going on that trip, if you aren't married." "Ryder, I don't want to give up on going." "Boy, I've known you most of your life. I've only worked for two men in my life you and your father...." "Yes, but he had a wife." Logan said before Ryder could finish what he wanted to say. "Yes and so could you. There are a lot of pretty girls around here. All you need to do is go out there and find yourself one." "I really wish it was that easy Ryder, but I don't want a permanent wife. I just want one for my trip to Japan and when we get back here to Texas, I will just get myself a divorce. It's just that easy."

"What does the woman get out of the deal, other than the pleasure of being your short time wife?" Ryder thought the Boy sure didn't know much about women. "Well if that's not enough." Logan laughed. "I will pay her, one hundred thousand dollars for her time." "Now that should sweeten the deal." Ryder said as he just sat there. "You would think so, but I don't know one woman around here I would even consider as my short time wife. Ryder, I don't want some woman that I can't stand to be around now and then being forced to be nice to her for three whole months."

"Boy, just reading and rereading that letter will not change the terms of it." Logan was still sitting at his desk, trying to come up with some way around that one awful term. "You will need to be married, and your wife must accompany you to Japan." That meant, that he would have to be already married to any woman he took to Japan with him for the three months.

Logan would be there training Mr. Kumamoto in the art of running a Texas style ranch in Japan. For his trouble he would be making three million dollars, but was his freedom worth just three million dollars. That was something Logan was still trying to decide.

"Well, while you just sit there and sit there, I'm going out and check on the South end fence. If you decide to start ranching again, that is where you will find me." Ryder went out and got on his horse and rode away.

Logan decided, to read that letter just one more time. He needed to see if just by some marvelous happening the words would be changed and the word married, would be gone out of the letter altogether.

Logan had inherited his ranch from his father; his father had inherited it from his father and him from his. Logan had no one to inherit the ranch from him. He was an only child and both of his parents had perished in an airplane crash when Logan was only twelve years old.

Ryder and his wife Marie were not married then. Ryder had been working on the ranch for Logan's parents for quite some time, but Marie had only worked there for a few months as the cook before Logan's parent died in the plane crash. They both stayed working at the ranch and together they finished raising Logan. They did not get married until two years later.

After he had finished college, Logan came back to the place he loved most. He wanted to run the ranch he and his father loved so much, but he still had another dream he wanted to fulfill before settling down at his ranch forever.

He soon gave up on the idea of getting around the terms of the contract and then he went outside and got on his horse. He rode out in search of Ryder.

Logan's ranch stretched over thirty thousand acres. He had a nice home, the same house his grandfather and grandmother had lived in many years ago. Logan had updated every inch of it. It was a stunning two story seven thousand square foot home with a veranda running around the complete ground floor and the back and front of the second floor.

Ryder and his wife, Marie, lived on the ranch in a spacious seven room house, but they had no children of their own. Ryder was the ranch manager and Marie did all of the cooking for them and sometimes for a few of the others who would just drop by at meal time.

Logan did not do much socializing. He did not care for all of the phony people you have to put up with in most of the social circles. He did not really care what anyone thought about him. However most people did respect him because he was a very honest man, but he was no ones fool.

Logan just had three months before he was to be in Japan, and only one week to decide if he was going or not. That meant he needed a wife now, but who and how?

Logan was a tall six foot five and a half inch man with brown hair and hazel eyes and there was not one ounce of fat on his entire body. He was every woman's dream man.

Anyone of the single women and even a few of the married ones from around the state of Texas would like to have Logan Mason as a husband full time, part time or even short time, whichever way they could get him.

All day Logan and Ryder rode along the fence line checking the long fence to see if any repairs were needed to be done. "I've had it for today; we can start again tomorrow morning. I'm sure Buck and the others are back at the barn by now." Logan's mind was not on repairing fences. "Okay, you're the boss." Ryder said as he turned his horse back toward the ranch house. "Oh, now I'm the boss. That's not what you said when I wanted to turn my house into a party house." Logan had one of his young silly grins on his face. "No, I was the boss back then, you were only fifteen and your hormones were running wild." Both men laughed and rode back in the direction of the house.

Marie had dinner ready and waiting. "Mr. Logan, do you want tea or water? Logan and Ryder were washing their hands up at the kitchen sink. "Marie I will have some ice tea thank you." Logan answered. "Woman how about asking your husband what he wants." Ryder said as he dried his hands and walked over to the other side of the big kitchen. "Oh, I already know what my big handsome husband wants." "Oh, I see my glass of tea is already on the table." "Yes, I know my husband." Marie answered as she gave Ryder a big smile.

Logan had gotten to the table now and had taken his seat. "Marie, if you were not married already I would rent you and take you to Japan with me for a few months. So do you want to tell this old man of yours, you have something else to do other than to pour ice tea for him for the next few months?" "Now Boy, don't you go and try to steal my woman from me. She is all trained just for me." Marie turned her face up at her husband. "Oh, so I'm trained am I?" "Yes, and I have spent twenty years doing it, and no boy still wet behind the ears is going to steal my wife even if he calls it renting you."

After dinner Logan went back into his office in the barn and reread that letter one more time. If he only knew one woman he thought he could stand for the three months, he would go to her and present his proposal. He would give one hundred thousand dollars for the right woman to play his wife while in Japan, but the only catch was they had to be legally married. That's what Logan was so afraid of, the part he did not like at all. He just did not want to be tied to any one of the women he knew for no length of time at all. He didn't care how short or how long it would be.

"Who, who, who could I marry?" Logan kept asking himself. "And still trust them to let me divorce them when we get back home from Japan without too much trouble." He was sitting at his desk, leaning back in his chair with his feet on top of it. If only he could do that, he would be in Japan in three short months. He even went as far as getting out the telephone book. He was turning each page and looking through every line at all the names, just to see if he could find one name who he thought he would not mind sharing a small part of his life. Even knowing he would be getting a divorce as soon as they returned from Japan and he would be a free man again. Still that did not make marriage seem any better to him. After an hour of looking he still had not found one name he thought he could do that with for any time or for any amount of money.

By ten o'clock he had decided to give up all hope of going on the trip to Japan. He went back to the house and upstairs to his bedroom suite. He showered and got into bed; five thirty comes early.

Kate drove all day and she was getting real tired. She was hungry and sleepy. She didn't have money for a motel room, so she stopped at an all night truck stop and had a bowl of soup. That is where she asked the waitress about just parking at the restaurant and sleeping for a while. "Sure honey people do it all the time just as long as you don't mind the noise. You will be alright. You can even use the showers they have in the back." The nice waitress answered.

The next morning Kate was awakened by the sound of big trucks leaving the parking lot. She soon found the showers and in less than thirty minutes she was all clean and dressed in another set of fresh clean clothes. Kate even got a little breakfast before leaving something she never did. She always felt breakfast was a meal she could do without. By seven o'clock that morning she was on her way again. She drove and drove and drove. She had never seen so much land before in her life. In fact she began to think going all the way to Texas, may not have been such a good idea after all. She never dreamed it was this far from Georgia. It sure didn't look that far on the map, but it was too late to change her mind now.

Her brown hair was blowing in the wind that came through the open side window of her old Jeep Cherokee. Her car did not have air conditioning. It was as hot in Texas to her, if not hotter than it had been in Atlanta. Kate's old car began to over heat. She decided to leave the interstate and try driving on the country road that ran parallel to the interstate. She needed to find water for her over heated car radiator. She must have driven almost an hour when her old car just would not go any farther. It was steaming. She could see the white steam coming out from under the hood of her Jeep. Kate let her car roll off the country road until it came to a stop.

"Where am I?" She got out of her old Jeep and looked around. A few hundred yards down the road she could see a set of very large gates. It's driveway lead to a very big house. "What do I have to lose other than my life?" She asked herself then she began to walk toward the big tall gates. The gates were open wide just as if they were waiting for her to walk through them. She stopped and looked both ways hoping to see just one person so she would not have to walk the full length of that long driveway. But there was no one in sight. She had no other choice so she just started walking. She was so hot that her skin began to burn. It took her over thirty minutes to walk the length of the driveway. Kate didn't stop walking, until she had gotten to one of the big white barns. Before she entered the barn she could hear voices coming from the other end of the barn, so she decided to walk towards them.

"Hello, is anyone here?" Kate began to call out as she walked. "Ryder, I think we have company." "Yep, it sure sounds like it Boy." But neither one of the two made a move to see who it was. Logan was in his chair leaning back with his feet resting on the top of his big desk with his hat pulled down over his eyes. They had just finished lunch a short time ago and both men were still feeling lazy.

"I guess you want me to go and see who our company could be." Ryder was sitting in his usual chair behind his big desk too. "Yes, since you are the one up." Logan answered. Ryder got up out of his comfortable chair and left Logan still sitting in the office as he went walking towards the two big open doors of the barn to see who was there.

"Hello, young lady, how can I help you?" Ryder asked Kate as soon as he saw her. She was so tired and so thirsty she could not speak now. All she could do was just stand there. Ryder knew exactly what was wrong with this pretty girl he had seen it a lot of times before. "Young lady, you need something to drink. Just follow me and I will get you a nice cold drink of water." That was just what Kate needed plus the shade that the barn gave made her feel at least twenty degrees cooler already. Ryder gave her a paper cup of cool water from the cooler. Kate drank it all as fast as she could. "Thank you, very much. My throat was so dry I could not speak another word." She answered. "Yes, young lady I could sure tell that. That happens a lot out here."

Ryder found himself to be very interested in this young girl. "Where are you from?" He asked. "I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, but I'm not going back there ever again." Kate did not know, why she felt the need to tell this stranger all of that, but she did for some odd reason. "Where are you headed to young lady if you don't mind me asking?" "I don't really know." Kate answered. "I was just driving and looking for a place I would want to live when my car over heated. So that's why I walked all of this way up to your house from the road." "Oh, honey this is not my house. I just work here. My name is Ryder and the name of the man who owns this big ranch and all the land your eyes can see for miles and miles is Logan Mason." Kate thought this Mr. Mason must be another older man too. She thought that only because it would take a very long time and a lot of very hard work for a man to have a place as nice and as large as this.

"What did you say your name was young lady?" Ryder asked as he took Kate's empty cup. "I didn't say, but its Kate, Kate Harrison." "Well come on in here and you can meet the owner and then I will go and see about your car. You need to stay out of the sun for a little while. Your face is still as red as a beet." Kate followed Ryder to the other end of the big barn. By the time they were walking into Logan's office Kate was beginning to feel a little better.

Chapter Two

"Boy, look what I found. This pretty little girl just came wondering up here." Logan slowly opened his eyes to see who Ryder was talking about. That's when he saw the prettiest girl he had ever seen in his entire life. "Kate Harrison, meet Logan Mason. He's the owner of this ranch." Ryder wanted these two young people to talk some to each other and get to know each other some. "How tall are you?" Logan asked while still not taking his eyes off of her. "Why?" Kate asked. "I was just wondering. You look way too short." Logan was still staring at her. "Too short for what Mr. Mason may I ask?" Kate did not understand at all what this man was taking about. "Too, short for anything and everything I would say." Logan was just testing her. "I don't believe there is such a thing. I'm five foot one and a half. How tall are you Mr. Mason?" Kate asked back. "I'm six foot five and a half." Logan answered as he sat there without moving. "WOW." Was all Kate, could muster to say. She had never known anyone that tall before.

"Kate, take a seat. I know you are tired from that long hot walk all the way from your car out on the road to up here." Ryder wanted Logan to take a real good look at this beautiful young woman. He wanted Logan to really take a good look at her. She could very well be the answer to the Boy's problem. Ryder went over to Logan's desk and picked up the letter that he had been reading and rereading for the last few days and put it down on the desk right in front of him.

"Miss Kate, Kate that is your name isn't it?" Logan asked, knowing very well it was. "Yes sir it is." Kate answered, but her voice did not sound like her own. Logan smiled; he could tell she was a little scared of him. The women around there didn't say yes sir to him; they mostly would just bat their eyes and smile, hoping to get his attention. That is one of the reasons why Logan was still looking for a short time wife.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Short Time Wifeby Las Chance Copyright © 2011 by Las Chance. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: AuthorHouse Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1463432550
• ISBN 13: 9781463432553
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 420