The wrinkled white fabric stretched over my stomach, which seemed to have popped overnight. The hem of the dress now hit my shins rather than below my ankles. I couldn’t even wear the little matching jacket because my boobs were too big, barely fitting zipped into the bust of the dress, my chest spilling over the neckline. It looked ridiculous. Why didn’t I see it before? I looked ridiculous, like a sausage stuffed into too tight a casing.
“Daze.”
I jerked my head up, and Max’s eyes captured mine. Not just his eyes, the intensity in his stare as it roamed over me.The hunger.“You look beautiful.”
Heat dammed in my cheeks.How did he know?
How did he know what to say? When to say it?
“You’ve seen me in this dress before,” I said, like it would pop the bubble the butterflies in my stomach were fluttering in. It didn’t. In fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect.
“Not like this,” he murmured, his stare leaving a path of fire over my skin.
“Like what?” More pregnant? More belly?
Or about to be his?
And in that moment, I let my own eyes wander over my soon-to-be groom.
Unlike me, Max had on a different suit than my last attempt to get married. Deep navy instead of dark gray. It favored his dark caramel hair and warm skin. It also highlighted his wide shoulders and trim waist. And somehow, I’m sure, the perfect proportions of his face.
His gaze snapped back to mine, and I watched him rein whatever had come over him back in. “Ready?”
I nodded, suddenly too overwhelmed to speak. A condition that plagued me as we went down to his truck and through the entire drive all the way to the courthouse.
Was I ready?Why was I acting like this was some huge change? It was signatures on a piece of paper. A document as a means to health insurance and safety, stability for me and my baby. Nothing more.
So what was I afraid of?That it would turn into something more?
Or that it wouldn’t?
Chapter 13
Max
“Iwant to marry you,” I said and handed Daisy the bouquet of lavender and peonies I’d made especially for her this morning and then hid on the floor behind my seat in the truck.
Courthouse or not, marriage of convenience or not, I wasn’t going to walk through those doors and swear to cherish her without showing her that first, even if it was only as friends.
Daisy balked, staring at the flowers with more surprise than when I’d dropped to one knee.
“Daze?”
“Sorry, I…” She blew out an exhale and carefully reached for them, her hand brushing mine. “Thank you for these.” As she pulled them to her, I just managed to catch my wince. Todd’s engagement ring still glinted on her finger—giant and flawless and wholly unlike the man who’d given it to her.
The words burned on the tip of my tongue to ask why she still wore it, but I swallowed them down, letting them scorch the air from my lungs.
It doesn’t matter. It couldn’t matter to me.
I lifted my hand to my neck, hooking my finger into my collar and giving it a tug. I shouldn’t have been surprised when it didn’t help the tightness in my chest.
“You didn’t have to do this,” she murmured even as she pulled the bouquet to her nose. Her appreciative moan destroyed me.
“I know I’m not Todd and that this isn’t the wedding you imagined, but I care about you, Daisy. About what you deserve. And you deserve to have flowers on your wedding day.”
She deserved more than fucking flowers. She deserved a husband in more than name, and a ring that didn’t belong to a man who never deserved her. And that was why I’d driven up to Portland yesterday to visit a jewelry store. It made sense—going far enough away where people didn’t know my family and the rumors wouldn’t spread back to them. It made sense right up until I made it home with the simple, elegant gold band in my possession.
Daisy wouldn’t want my ring. She didn’t want anyone to know we were even married. It wasn’t a marriage for show but a business arrangement. A contract for benefits. And I didn’t give rings to anyone else I’d ever signed a contract with.
