“Even if it’s your only option?”
She shakes her head again. “I’m not willing to sell my soul to save my flesh.”
I laugh shortly. “You would say that, little Rowan.”
She sticks out her tongue playfully, but I can tell she accepts it as the compliment I intend it to be. The truth is that I’ve always admired Rowan’s moral compass, stringent as it is. I may have given him a hard time over the years about not bringing women home, but besides our views on love and relationships, we shared most of the same values. We’d always agreed that family, school, and work come first, and neither of us cared much for drinking and partying. And while I know I’ll never reach the level of genuine goodness or wholesome likability of Rowan or any of the other LaFleurs, I’d be lying if I said I never tried to emulate him or at least consider what he’d say in certain situations. My lack of success with following through with those good intentions is a whole other story, though.
Now I find myself wondering what I’d want Rowan to do if it were Loren facing this same predicament, and the answer is clear—whatever it takes to keep Daisy safe and healthy. Securing her happiness is secondary to her well-being.
“Then that leaves us with no other choice,” I begin, only partly conscious of the impulsive move I’m about to make. “We’ll have to get married.”
Daisy laughs through a mouthful of popcorn. “Yeah, right.” But she goes quiet when her eyes meet mine. “Wait, you’re not actually serious?”
I shrug. “I’m always serious.”
She knocks over the bowl, spilling popcorn everywhere. But she ignores the mess and looks up at me with widened eyes. “You’d really marry me just so I can have health insurance?”
“I can’t just let you go the next four or five months without coverage. And I don’t really buy into marriage and all that, anyway, so what’s the harm?”
Her jaw opens and closes a few times as she tries to find the words. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you’re willing to do this.”
“Why not?” I shrug. “It’s only temporary. We’ll get an annulment after your insurance goes into effect, and it’ll be like it never happened. No one else needs to know.”
She stares at me a second longer. “And you really think we can pull it off? What happens if either of our families get wind of it?”
“I don’t see how they’d find out, but we can tell them whatever you want if they do,” I hear myself saying. A tiny voice in the back of my mind objects to the idea of Rowan hearing about this, but my intentions are good, so I don’t have anything to hide.
Except I’d probably be tempted to murder any man who married my sister without telling me, regardless of his reasons. Hell, Blake had the courtesy to warn me before he asked my sister to marry him for all the right reasons, and I still wanted to wrap my hands around his throat when I saw him get down on one knee.
“For the record, I think it’s better if we keep it quiet,” I add after a while, and Daisy nods in agreement.
“What about insurance fraud? Haven’t they made movies about this exact scenario?” she asks.
“We’re already living together. I doubt anyone would bother investigating us.”
She purses her lips and furrows her brow in deep thought. “I guess we can always dress up and look the part when we do get married, just in case. And since we’d only be having a civil ceremony, it wouldn’t technically be arealwedding, right?”
“None of them are valid to me, so yeah, sure,” I reply with a smirk.
She smiles back at me before her eyes grow wide again and her cheeks flush. “We wouldn’t have to, you know, consummate anything, would we?”
I force out a laugh, deliberately ignoring the thoughts she conjures up. “Absolutely not.”
“Then I don’t get it,” she mumbles after a while, biting her lip. “What’s in it for you?”
Her question catches me off guard, and I lean back as I think about my answer.
“And don’t give me any more of that ‘I owe it to Rowan’ or ‘you’re like a little sister’ baloney,” she adds.
“I guess …” I reach up and run my fingers through my hair. “Maybe I like helping people. Maybe I feel guilty about being a jerk most of the time, and I’m always looking for ways to make up for that.”
Her mouth curls up on one side. “Because you’re actually a good person with a grumpy exterior?”
I’m already regretting my confession. “Maybe.”
“Or am I so pathetic that you think you have to keep stepping in and saving me?” Her chin wobbles as she strains to hold her expression.
I shake my head slowly. “I don’t think you’re pathetic, Daisy. If anything, I admire your determination, especially since you’re not willing to compromise your morals and take the easy way out. But I don’t think you’ve ever really gotten a fair chance. So even though I know you’re capable of figuring this out on your own, I want to help you in whatever way I can.”
