PART ONE, the arrangement

The smell of cigar smoke hung thick in the air, the lighting dim in the dark office. You sat stiffly in a large leather chair, and across from you on the other side of the massive oak desk sat your step father, Boyd Augastine. He was a mean old man, and you had hoped in your time away at boarding school that he had graciously paid for, that he would have calmed down. That hope seemed to be more wishful than anything though, in fact, you thought he seemed meaner than the last time you had seen him at Christmas dinner.

"Boyd, please!" You begged, trying to fight back tears. You hated being home, if you could even call this massive estate that, it made you tense and irate, scared. You shake your head at the man in front of you, trying to remain as polite as you could lest you reap the repercussions. "You can't make me marry that boy!" You say, tone as even as you could keep it. "Is this even legal?!"

He had at least let you finish speaking. "I can, and you will." He sniffs, not even bothering to look up at you as he shuffled through some papers sitting in front of him. You assumed they were the documents pertaining to the horrid news you had just been given. "The Tillman boy is a fine young man, he's strong and not entirely stupid, and his family is almost as powerful as me. You will marry him, and you will produce a male heir to take over both families when the time comes." He says, finality in his tone and a hint of annoyance that you knew meant that the conversation needed to end before you wound up being hurt. "Lord knows i'm not about to leave my fortune to some half-witted emotional broads. You may not be my blood, but you are legally an Augastine, you will do your part." You wince. "Unless of course, you'd rather one of the girls marry him when they come of age?"

You purse your lips, trying desperately to bite your tongue. He always knew exactly what to say to get you to do whatever he wanted, and you hated that you had no backbone sometimes. What were you supposed to do though? Your half-sisters weren't even in high school yet, they were mere babies still..they deserved to find their own happiness in life, with someone they actually loved..if you had to marry this boy for a few years and pop out a kid or two for them to be able to live their lives, just to satiate their father, then you would gladly do it. They didn't need to take your place. Besides, it's not like divorce wasn't a common thing amongst young married couples anyway.

He knows your answer before you've even opened your mouth to speak it and tosses his expensive fountain tipped pen across the desk. It lands with a thud and you pick it up with a trembling hand as he slides the documents towards you as well. "Your mother would be proud." He says cooly, watching you scrawl your name across every highlighted area that needs signing. You wondered what the Tillman's were receiving in return for this, they were already fairly well off from what you understood. Pretty much every man in their lineage had been sheriff of the godforsaken county, law ran in their blood, and it paid well too. But who's to say that they weren't being paid handsomely for this?

You felt as if you had just signed away your soul.

You toss the pen back to him and give him his stupid papers back before standing and turning on your heel. You didn't care if you hadn't been dismissed, you were done. You needed to be alone, you needed to cry. You stride across his large office, and just as your hand touches the brass knob of the heavy door, his voice rings out.

"You're to be married in two months' time, wedding planning begins tomorrow." You clench the knob, fighting back the tears. He didn't deserve to see you cry. "Sleep well, Pearlie." You swore on your mama's gravestone that the nickname she had given you dripped with venom when it came from his mouth. Sometimes you wished you could drip actual venom into his mouth, shut him up forever. It was a soothing thought when you were younger, before he had shipped you off to boarding school.

You make your way down the long-carpeted hallway to the large wooden staircase, climbing them as quickly as you could. You could hear your sisters, Victoria and Lucy in their room giggling about something that had happened at school, and you smiled as you pressed your ear to the door. You had worried the whole time your mother was pregnant that the girls would be treated just as horribly as you were when your mother wasn't around, that they would have to hide bruises and emotions and pretend that everything was okay just like you did, but they were his own flesh and blood, his own life force, he could never act such a way towards his own blood. But they weren't boys, so they also weren't good enough to take over his fucking business.

You head a little farther down the hall, closing and locking your own door behind you as you slipped into your room, the only place that occasionally felt safe to you when you were here. "I wish you were here, mama." You whisper to the photo sitting on the dressing table right next to the door.

True to his word, the wedding planning started the next day. You were awoken by your sisters' nanny early in the morning, her knocking at your bedroom door loud to your pounding head. You had spent the night crying and you were paying for it dearly.

"Miss Pearl," Her ever-pleasant voice calls through the thick wood as you sit up in bed. "Boyd is requesting you downstairs, your betrothed and his father have arrived.." You glance at the clock. It was seven-thirty in the morning. You were used to waking up around this time for school anyway, you had only been home twenty-four hours by this point. "He's not too pleased this morning," Her hushed voice comes next, and you sigh, leaning your head back into your pillow.

"Thank you, Lorraine," you say loud enough for her to hear, your thick comforter falling off of you as you sit up. "Tell them I'll be down soon, please.." She doesn't respond but you hear her footsteps fade away from your door.

You stretch before swinging your legs over the side of your bed, rolling your head from side to side. You knew it was in your best interest to play along with Boyd's scheme, and he would know if you were half assing or catching an attitude the moment you walked into the room. If you were going to do this, then dammit, you were going to do this right.

Within fifteen minutes you were dressed in a sleeveless white dress that flowed down to your feet, the top of it pushing your breasts up in the illusion of a push-up bra. You had purposely bought this one a size or so too small for that effect while you were still at school, wanting to impress one of the guys you had been previously dating before graduation. You left your hair down to fall around your shoulders, brushing it and using one of your favorite hair serums to run through it with your fingers, leaving a nice smell before you slid on a glossy lip oil and mascara, with a spritz of your favorite perfume to your wrists.

With one last look at the photo of your mom, silently wishing she were here with you to help you through this, you open your door and make your way barefoot down the hallway and stairs.

You hear their voices when you come off the stairs in the middle of the grand hallway on the first floor, floating out of the massive dining room that was hardly ever used. You don't pause, afraid that if you did it would be all you would need to turn tail and hide in your bedroom forever, and head immediately for the doorway, waltzing in as if you weren't interrupting their apparently humorous conversation.

You paint a smile on your face as Boyd narrows his eyes at you, a look that you knew meant he wasn't at all happy with you and you were certainly going to hear about it later. "Sorry to keep you waiting, sir," you say, kissing his cheek to keep up the appearance of a loving father and daughter relationship, something you had been doing since you were ten. He couldn't have the world knowing that he despised his late wife's daughter, could he? You squeeze his shoulder. "The drive up from school must have exhausted me more than i realized, i didn't mean to sleep in and miss greeting our guests." You shoot them an award-winning smile as well as you smooth out your skirt, taking your seat next to Boyd, but across from the Sheriff and who you assumed was his son.

Boyd hums and you just know that he's boiling with rage at you, though in your defense, he hadn't informed you that there would be a breakfast this morning. "You haven't missed much, we were just talking about your horse actually, and your award from Eventing last season." Just the topic brought another smile onto your face, a real one this time.

"That was a close one too, we were neck and neck with our second place competitor.." You had spent the majority of the time after the event wondering if Boyd had paid off the judges to put you in first, though you did know that you had put in a lot of training hours with Bubbles, and it had clearly shown. Besides, Boyd didn't like you nearly enough to pay off the judges just to see you place first in any sport, let alone Equestrian Eventing.

The older man sitting across from you, the Sheriff, smiles what appears to be a genuine smile at you. "You love your horses, I can tell from the way your whole face just lit up like the sun had touched it.." You can't help the blush on your face, and judging by the look on his sons face as he looked at you, you had just done something right without even knowing it. "You and I already have something in common with each other, perhaps i'll make time to take a ride with you this weekend.." His sons face completely changed at the mention, you would say it resembled a sort of panic.

"I would love that!" You exclaim, more than pleased to spend any kind of time on your horse, even if it was with your soon to be father-in-law. He nods at you in return, and nudges his son, as if communicating with him.

Breakfast is served not too much longer after that, and the time is spent with your step father and the Sheriff talking about things you couldn't even have pretended to care about in that moment, like golf or what the government was doing, while you and the boy across from you shared a couple of glances, staying silent unless spoken to.

You had to admit, he wasn't terrible on the eyes. He wore a black polo shirt underneath of what you could only assume was a bullet proof vest with a velcro patch that said Sheriff across the chest. His hair was slicked back away from his face, and you noticed a tattoo peaking out of one of the short sleeves stretched across his bicep. Oh, he was certainly handsome, but probably not the type to ever be happy with a girl like you..nor did you think you could be happy with him.

You were obviously younger than him at only eighteen (your birthday thankfully just before your wedding date), you had just graduated highschool. You had no job, and your only future now lay with the man in front of you. He didn't speak too much, and you couldn't tell if it was because he was a naturally quiet person, or if it was because his father and Boyd were obviously the alphas in the room and from what you could gather, weren't to be bothered until they bothered you first. You didn't mind that he was older than you, though you guessed he was at least mid twenties if he was already a cop. You kind of liked the thought of being with someone older than you, the boys you had been with at school were all dipshits and childish. You hoped that he wasn't the same. And if he was, well, at least he was handsome to look at.

The boy, Gator, looked up at you from across the table. You decided that his eyes were hazel, a beautiful color for a decidedly beautiful man. You give him a shy smile from where you sat, raising a mug of your favorite breakfast tea to your lips. You noticed the way he licks his lips, his eyes darting to your mouth and back to his plate once you had set your cup down on its saucer. Well, you thought, at least he's clearly attracted to me. Maybe our marriage won't be completely boring..

You had long ago tuned out the droning voices of your step father and your soon to be father-in-law, using your fork to pick around at the fruit salad you had served yourself for breakfast, adding a little yogurt to it here and there. You couldn't bring yourself to fully eat, your stomach uneasy the more you thought about your impending marriage. God, how was arranged marriage even still a thing? How was this even fucking legal? You made a mental note to ask Boyd for copies of all of the documents you had signed so you could take them to a lawyer in town somewhere, have them double check that the documents were in fact legal. If there was anything you could do to get out of this, you were willing to do it.

You're jolted from your thoughts by Boyd's voice, and you jump, startled. "Sorry, i was day dreaming.." You say, shaking your head with a small giggle, hoping that he hadn't been trying to get your attention for too long. You can see Sheriff Roy give a small smile from across the table, another nudge to his son.

Boyd gives you a subtle eye roll as he faces you, and you can tell from his body language that he's upset with you for zoning out. You were certain to hear an earful about it tonight and that made you nervous. "Roy and I have some business to attend to in my office," He says, giving a pointed glance to the boy sitting across from you guys. "How about you take Gator on a walk around the grounds? The girls are out getting piano and violin lessons right now, you won't be bothered for a while." Is he trying to tell me to fuck this boy? You wondered disgustedly, you knew Boyd was..well, Boyd, but really?

You want to say no, you want to tell him to marry the boy himself if it was that important to him, but you're afraid of what could possibly happen to you if you do, so you paint another smile on your lips and look over to your husband to be. "I'll show you my horse!" You say, setting your napkin next to your plate as you stand, walking around the table to lead him out into the foyer. "The barn is a little ways out there," You say when you notice him following you out of the dining room. "Hope you don't mind a little walk.."

He follows you silently through the formal living room and into the kitchen, straight back into the mudroom where you bend over to put your well worn boots on. They were brown, and the leather was starting to wear down on them but you didn't mind, they still got the job done. They were a gift from your mama and you would wear them until they fell apart, and even then you would probably duct tape them back together again.

He's gentlemanly enough to hold the back door open for you, and you breathe in his scent as you brush past him. He smells good, his cologne floods your scents. Its a woodsy kind of scent, mixed with a little bit of leather, and something a little fruity that you can't quite name and you wonder what the hell it is as he falls in step next to you as you both walk off of the porch. His hands are slipped into his pockets as you guys walk, a casual look, and you notice that he's tall too, even in his work boots.

You realize that he's not going to make the first step to conversation.

When you're a good enough distance away from the house, out of sight of Boyd's office, you stop abruptly and turn to face him, the sun beats down on his face even with his baseball cap pulled down over his eyes. He stops too, tilting his face down at you, an eyebrow raised and an amused look on his face. God, you thought, he really is handsome.

"Can I help you with somethin'?" He asks, his drawl washing over you. That was the first time he had spoken and good lord his voice could do things to you if this were any other kind of situation, you just knew it. His shoulders are squared, and you realize that now, alone with you, he is the alpha male. You kind of like the vibe that rolls off of him, but it makes you wonder why he cowered when he was in the same room as your guys' fathers.

You look around, lips pursed and hands on your hips as you thought. "Look," You start, meeting his gaze under the brim of his hat. "The way I see it, neither of us particularly wants to be in this situation." He hums in agreement, crossing his arms over his chest as he listens to what you have to say. "Neither of us are happy, but that doesn't mean that we can't at least try to be friends..we're both stuck doing this, and even though i wasn't given a choice, I would still like to at least be friends with the person i'm marrying in two months.."

He sniffs and looks around for a moment, and for the first time, you see a smile on his face and you couldn't help but think it was beautiful. "Alright then," He says, holding out his hand for you to shake. "Let's be friends." 

xxo