“Then why?”
“Your grandma’s sick, Dev. If she genuinely doesn’t have much time, then we should do it now rather than later.”
“I’m not convinced she’s sick.”
Jia raised an eyebrow. “Way harsh, Dev. That would be taking the meddling auntie shtick a little far, wouldn’t it? No one cares that much.”
“She does. If I lose the inheritance, the money will revert to my grandfather’s sister—whom my grandmother hates.”
“Is this will even legal?”
“Maybe not in America.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t want the money. She taught me how to act, I can spot her tells. That was a manipulation tactic, nothing more. What’s your motivation, is the bigger question.”
“I genuinely think it would be a good idea. It’s what my gut is telling me.”Also, now you’re getting something tangible out of it.
Another woman might worry that a man had a literal fortune to gain upon their wedding, might think he was marrying her for wealth, but given Dev’s resistance to getting hitched before the deadline, Jia wasn’t too worried about that. The truth was, despite how much Lakshmi had empowered her, she couldn’t banish all her insecurities in a matter of days, and Dev having something to gain from marrying her other than herself actually put her at ease.
This was a curveball to their plan, but she was going to react to it and adjust and be flexible. This was what she was good at.
“Has your gut never led you astray?”
“Not yet, not when I feel like this.”
He was silent for a beat and her heart sped up, so fast it was like a jackrabbit in her chest. This was a weird, bizarre way to tell someone she had feelings for them, she supposed.
“You want to... marry me?”
Her heart froze. She stiffened. “You don’t have to say it like that, like it’s absurd. We already said we’d give the engagement a shot.”
“An engagement is different. An engagement has an out.”
“I mean, technically, like you said, marriage has an out. Not that I’m going into this expecting a divorce. We can have a prenup. I don’t want your money.”
“There’ll be no prenup.” Dev hesitated. “I feel like I went from convincing you to you convincing me.”
“You didn’t have to work too hard to convince me before. I was on board from jump. You’re kind and practical and handsome and generous. The longer we wait, the more rumors there’ll be, the more we’ll have to finagle our families. I’m sick of the drama, let’s just do it.”
Dev shook his head. “I don’t know if any good marriage started withlet’s just do it.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I mean, our engagement started with you sayingI wouldn’t mind it.”
“That bothered you?”
She pursed her lips. There was no need for him to find out how annoying her insecurities were before they got married, yet she couldn’t lie. “Yeah, it bothered the hell out of me.”
“I’m sorry. I tried to clarify, it was more than that.”
“And this is more than that. There’s other reasons to get married tomorrow.”
“Like what?”
“Like...”
Tell him.
The words bubbled up in her throat, and she tried to beat them back. The same spontaneity that he said he liked about her—that had been what had forced her to make that declaration at the dinner table, even though she’d known it would complicate everything. “I like you more than a lot. And... what I’ve learned over time is that we don’t havemuchtime. If we want to get married, we should do it now. Even if we didn’t have all these zany factors pushing us together, I’d still say we do it now.”
The silence dragged on for so long, she almost threw up. She would have, if he hadn’t reached out to hold her hand. Dev moved closer. “I watched all your videos, you know. I couldn’t stop. Perhaps that’s why I feel as though I know you so well.”
