Quinn:
omg
A smile twitchedon my lips at Ford’s last text, but even filthy messages from my husband couldn’t make this day better.
I should have known Dr. Dicknose’s stipulation was too easy. That he would never agree to sell his practice if I simply showed up with a marriage license. Not with the way he viewed women as second-class citizens. He’d only told me that because he assumed it was never going to happen for me. So imagine his surprise when I’d taken it to heart and actually found a husband.
But our time was almost up. I’d tried not to think about it when Ford and I were together—especially when it had started to feel a little too much like it was real—but the expiration date Ford and I had set at that first dinner was days away. Which meant it was now or never.
After weeks of avoidance on my boss’s behalf and an official offer on mine, I’d finally confronted him this morning. Told him I was tired of waiting. Tired of tiptoeing around what we both knew was the entire reason I’d agreed to come here in the first place. The entire reason I’d agreed to help him dig himself and this clinic out of the hole he’d placed himself in.
Sitting behind his desk with his hands folded neatly on top, that fucker had looked up at me with a pitying expression and told me point-blank he had no intention of fulfilling what he’d promised.
He didn’t want a woman taking over his practice—married or not.
And that was it. End of.
Everything I’d worked for…my dream… Gone. In a flash.
The smart thing would have been to confront him at the end of the day, but since I had done it first thing this morning, I’d had to sit with this for hours, making my anger increase by the second. And I was certain it was written all over my face.
Thankfully, Ford had a shift at the fire station today, so he wouldn’t be by to take me to lunch. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him. Worse was that Idid.
I’d never had the kind of relationship Ford and I shared. Never had someone to confide in. Someone to count on. Someone who saw me for me.
Someone who took me as is, flaws and all.
Those were the good things my brain told me. But more often were the all too familiar whispers that had been with me my whole life. Telling me that I wasn’t good enough. That the only reason he was in this with me in the first place was because of that contract. That he couldn’t wait to get out.
But lately…I’d begun to wonder if maybe he didn’t mind being married to me. Had begun to wonder if he might actually like it.
And now, somehow, I was going to have to tell him we’d done all this for nothing.
We hadn’t needed to get married to attend Chelsea’s wedding and show her Ford wasn’t who she claimed he was. It didn’t matter anyway—she’d thought what she wanted to, despite us showing up as a committed couple, but Ford hadn’t seemed to care.
I’d known from the beginning that this was an unbalanced partnership, but I’d jumped in without thought. I figured he owed me, considering my entire life trajectory was off course because of him. But now, none of it mattered.
I wasn’t going to get this clinic, whether Ford was my husband or not.
Which meant there was no longer a reason for us to stay married.
That thought pierced my stomach, sending it rolling. Where I’d once detested him—or more accurately, detested what he stood for because it was something I thought I could never have—now, I couldn’t see my life without him. I didn’twantto see my life without him.
In the short time we’d spent together, he’d become my best friend. And somehow, I’d done the dumbest thing in my life and fallen in love with him.
When we’d entered into this, I’d snorted when he’d suggested that I’d fall in love. But I’d had no idea the difference he’d make in my life. No idea how easy it’d be to fall for the man.
Well, the joke was on me, because I was well and truly fucked now.
I glanced at the clock, realizing it was fifteen minutes after closing time. Since I hadn’t had any patients this afternoon, I’d shut myself in my office, trying to figure out how I was going to go home and tell my husband he no longer needed to be. That the expiration date on the contract we’d scribbled on the napkin didn’t matter because this wasn’t going to happen anyway.
I didn’t want to tell him. I wanted to stay in this fairy tale a little longer.
But I couldn’t avoid it forever. Eventually, Ford would come looking for me, wonder what was wrong—I’d never be able to hide that from him. The guy was more astute than he looked, and it would be better if this came out on my terms.
I gathered my things and grabbed my purse before heading out of my office. Walking down the hallway, I raised a brow at the light coming from Dr. Dicknose’s office. Since he didn’t like to stay two minutes past closing time, it was highly unusual for him to be here this late—especially when Alicia was already gone and all the lights in the rest of the clinic had been shut off.
With my luck, he’d stayed just to rub it in again before I left. One last dig at stupid little Quinn, who actually thought her father’s oldest and dearest friend would welcome her into the fold with open arms.
