But six weeks? Six weeks! She wants to move the wedding, I’m tryingnotto freak out, Ford disappeared, and six weeks?
Six weeks.
I’m still wrapping my head around it, but I can’t seem to find a reasonnotto get that money back. The note said there were no other strings attached to the money, that we just had to be the first wedding there. An idea sparks in my mind.
“What about holding the ceremony somewhere else? Like maybe at your church? And then just having the reception here?” It could be the loophole I’ve been searching for.
She shakes her head. “I want the ceremony here. Right here, actually.” She nods to the yard where we’re standing, and she spreads her arms around to indicate what she means. “A quick one. No chairs, even, except one for my grandmama. I want our guests to be in a circle around usinstead, and then the reception inside where the tables are already set up. We’ll keep it simple since we cut planning time.”
“I can make that work,” I say weakly. I feel like I’m going to throw up.
Could I really marry my ex-boyfriend’s brother in some crazy bid to get the money back from this place?
Yes. The answer is yes.
It’s five million dollars. Twice as much as the trust fund I blew through to put up my half of the capital for this place.
This is my future. These are my goals and my dreams being served up to me. This is a gift from the universe. You don’t reject gifts from the universe, or you may never get another one.
And that’s what I tell Ford after Devon and Lindsay cut us a check for the deposit to hold their date here at the manor.
I close the door behind them and lean on it, and his eyes meet mine.
“What are you thinking?” he asks carefully.
I don’t want to go first, but I do. “The universe is giving us a gift, and we can’t reject that gift even if the way to claim that gift is a bit nontraditional.”
“So you’re a yes, then,” he says flatly. It’s not a question but a statement.
“What are you?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he admits. “I’m trying to think it all through. Would we tell Archer the truth? Would we invite our families? Tell them? Would we need to start being seen publicly so it’s not such a huge shock when we show up married?”
I bite my bottom lip as I contemplate his questions—all things I didn’t consider at all with those dollar signs in my eyes, but he’s a public figure, and so is everybody else in his family. “We should tell Archer. It would be too big a shockfor him to find out from the media that we’re suddenly married. We could tell everyone close to us, and they can decide if they want to attend, or we could just do it and tell Winston’s lawyer that we had to make it quick since we had a wedding booked.”
“What if it got back to Ms. Winston that we’re not a couple?” he asks.
“She said no strings attached.” Besides…what if wedobecome a couple? We’re in a weird timeline where that could actually happen.
“I can’t just get married,” he points out. “My life is under a microscope. You sure you want those headlines?”
I sigh, not sure how to answer that. I don’t care about the headlines, really. I’m more focused on what would happen if we got married and then things started to work out for us. Is it a possibility? Maybe. We already have feelings for each other. Maybe I was with the wrong brother the whole time, and this was always meant to be where I’d end up.
I won’t know if I don’t give it a try. The money is the motivator here, obviously. But there are other reasons to marry Ford. There doesn’t have to be an expiration date on us.
I turn toward the windows like the answers will be out there. They aren’t. It’s still just a gorgeous yard overlooking a dock and water beyond that.
Eventually, he sighs. “Doesn’t it feel like dirty money if we’re doing it for the wrong reasons?”
His logic is both something I love and hate about him.
“So, what do you suggest, then?” I ask. “It’s a lot of money to leave on the table, Ford. Maybe I could even find a way to use my portion to finance the Bradley Mansion, or we could invest together in that like we did this one.”
His jaw works back and forth as he clenches it, and it’s really fucking hot when he does that.
We have feelings for each other. We’ve known each other a long time. Would it really be so bad to jump into this with him?
No. The answer is definitelyno, it wouldn’t be so bad at all. At least I don’t think it would be.
