The Rancher's One-Week Wife Read Free Page A

marriage. Karly had reasoned that it was better to end things before it came to such hard feelings between herself and Blake. But there was no sense in dwelling on the mistakes and heartaches of the past now.
    “I never said I was in a hurry to get rid of you.”
    He stared at her for a moment before he shrugged. “That’s debatable, but it’s not the issue. I need a notarized copy of the final decree.”
    Karly nibbled on her lower lip as she nervously met Blake’s fathomless brown eyes. The time had come to lay out the reason for her visit and apologize for making such a mess of everything. “Actually, I don’t even have a copy of it myself.”
    “Didn’t they send you one?” he asked, his frown turning to a scowl.
    “No, but I’m sure they will,” she said evasively. She needed to explain what happened before she told him the reason she’d traveled all the way to Wyoming. “The import company I work for sent me to their offices in Hong Kong for several months shortly before the ninety-day cooling-off period was up and I wasn’t able to check on it from overseas.” Her head pounded as she thought about how badly she’d handled something as important to both herself and Blake as their divorce. But she’d been sad and unsure as to why she’d felt so badly about a logical, sensible decision that should have brought only relief. “When I got back last week, I called to inquire about our copies of the final decree.”
    He must have been able to sense that there was more to the story because Blake’s scowl darkened. “What did they say?”
    Shaking her head, Karly took a deep fortifying breath in order to tell him the rest of what had happened. “I called the Lincoln County courthouse to see if I could get a copy of the final decree...”
    When she let her voice trail off as she searched for the right words, he prompted, “Yeah, I got that. You called about the papers. And?”
    Karly briefly closed her eyes as she tried to gather her courage for what needed to be said. Opening them to meet his suspicious gaze, she did her best to keep her voice steady. “Apparently the papers were lost in the mail because the court clerk has no record of us ever filing for a divorce.” She had to take a deep breath before she could finish. “It appears that we’re still husband and wife, Blake.”
    “We’re still married,” he repeated as if he had a hard time grasping what she’d said.
    “Yes.” She hurried on as she reached into her purse to take out a new set of divorce papers. Her hand trembled slightly as she placed the envelope on the desk in front of him. “I’m really sorry for the inconvenience. Once you sign these, I’m going to fly to Spokane and drive over to the Lincoln County courthouse to file them with the clerk myself.”
    “So all this time, I’ve been thinking I’m a free man and I wasn’t,” he said, sitting back in the desk chair.
    “Have you met someone?” she asked before she could stop herself.
    He raised one dark eyebrow as he stared at her. “Would it matter if I had, Karly?”
    Yes! “No,” she lied. Thinking quickly, she added, “I was, um, afraid this snag might have derailed plans you might have made with someone else.”
    He continued to stare at her for a few moments before he smiled, shook his head and opened the envelope to remove the document. Reaching for an ink pen, he signed where she had flagged the papers with colored sticky notes.
    “Well, you’re stuck with me for at least another ninety days,” he said, sliding the pages back into the envelope and pushing it across the desk’s shiny surface toward her.
    Karly winced at his acidic tone. She knew he was disillusioned and extremely unhappy with the situation. “I’m really...sorry, Blake. I never meant for any of this to happen.” At least, not the mishandling of their divorce.
    “Yeah, well, it did,” he said, sounding resigned. “When you file these at the courthouse, make sure they send me copies