“I could call a few people, but I don’t know who knows what happened with Abby Nora and who doesn’t and who’d take sides and it’s all just—it’s too much work. Too many mind games. None of the people who would’ve been at the baby shower have reached out since then, and it’s not like I kept in touch with other people from high school who wouldn’t think it was odd that I randomly wanted to catch up after not talking for over ten years.”
“Huh.”
“What about you? Where did you grow up? Do you keep in touch with them?”
I shake my head.
“You didn’t grow up?”
“Nebraska,” I tell her. “Shitty parents. Not interested in ever going back.”
I get the normal sharp glance, but she doesn’t ask the question that usually goes with it.They’re still alive?
Beats the fuck out of me if they are or they aren’t.
Don’t really care.
Just glad I’m not there anymore.
I finally sip my coffee, and holy hell.
Did she sprinkle magic in this?
“Oh, I forgot to ask if you want anything in it,” she says.
I shake my head and sip it again.
Fuck me. “We could get married if you need insurance for the baby. That thing that happens in TV shows. We could do that.”
I get one long, slow blink, and then she cracks up again. “Stop being funny before I’ve hadmycoffee,” she says.
“You’ve never had someone propose to you for your culinary prowess before?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m a workaholic wine connoisseur who doesn’t have time to date and never cooks for people.”
“Never?”
“No reason to. We had fantastic chefs on the ship, and I loved my job, which was pairing the wines with the food, not making the food, and my job was also my life. So no, I never cook for people.”
Except me.
She’s cooking for me.
And making me coffee.
And marrying her would be a terrible idea.
I could fall for this woman. I could fall so hard for this woman.
What do they call them on that show Caden liked?
Marriage of convenience.
There would be nothing convenient about the boner situation if I was serious about marrying her to give her health insurance and then keeping her here to cook for me.
