Page 53 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

“Because I want the man I marry to expect everything.” I walked backward to the bed and sat down, my gaze still on the Chicago skyline as I tried to explain something to my brother I wasn’t sure he’d ever understand. “I want him to expect me to be his partner and his friend. I want real love, Marcus.”

“What about the terms you set?”

I shrugged. “Unless I missed something, they haven’t been met yet, but I meant it when I said I’d do it if I can do it my way. Since no one but me seems to care about the actual marriage as much as the show itself and fact that our families will be connected.”

“Alright,” he said finally, sounding so tired that I almost felt bad for him. “Let me talk to Dad. Call me when you’re back.”

When he hung up, I glanced at my suitcase and considered upending the whole darn thing just to delay our departure at least a little bit more, but in the end, I simply finished packing and headed to the airport with Ryan when he’d wrapped up his last meeting.

He sat beside me in first class, working while I watched the clouds drifting below. I’d only ever flown private, so once again, this was a new experience for me. Unfortunately, with my conversation with Marcus heavy on my mind, I couldn’t even enjoy it.

“Ryan?” I asked finally, waiting for him to wrench those blue eyes away from his laptop before I finally just asked the question I hadn’t been able to get out of my head since I’d talked to my brother. “Have you ever thought about getting married?”

He held my gaze for a moment before he shrugged. “Eventually? Sure.”

“Eventually?”

“When I meet my wife.”

I frowned. “Your wife? How will you know that this theoretical woman you’ll meet will be her?”

He took a beat, just looking into my eyes until he gave another shrug. “I’ll just know.”

Something inside me clicked as he said it. He’d made it sound almost offensively simple. I’ll just know.

That was what I wanted, too. I wanted to know, but that wasn’t in the cards for me.

“Your family has never made any noise about an arranged marriage?” I asked.

He turned back to his laptop. “Nah, they have. Alex Westwood in particular is on my back about making a good match, but so far, thankfully, he’s been too busy to start introducing me to eligible bachelorettes.”

“But…” I trailed off, doing a slow double-take as I gawked at him. Ryan, for his part, was clicking through his inbox like what he’d just said didn’t matter at all. “What will you do when he does start introducing you to people and you don’t suddenly just know?”

“I won’t marry them,” he said, once again making it sound like an unimportant side quest that wasn’t worth discussing.

I shook my head slowly from one side to the other. “Will you be able to say no?”

He glanced up at me again, his eyes somehow even bluer against the locks of dark brown that’d fallen across his forehead while he’d been typing. “My situation isn’t the same as yours, Maggie. Alex is trying to help the Thayer name recover by making connections between us and other powerful families, but he’s not my father. In his case, it really is a matter of trying to use his contacts and influence to help.”

As I stared at him, I suddenly knew exactly what I had to do. Obviously, I had to get married eventually because Ryan was right. Alex wasn’t his father. He couldn’t attach strings or hold inheritances hostage. My father, on the other hand, had proven exactly how far he was willing to go to make this happen.

As things stood, the wedding had only been postponed, not canceled. My parents and the Hawthornes certainly weren’t just going to give up. Neither Daniel nor I had a choice, but I could make our parents wish we did.

If they wanted a wedding, I would give them one, but it would be mine. I could stall until I got them to agree to the craziest wedding of the century—and I would love it. I would make it so spectacularly, unapologetically me that everyone involved would protest to the point that they called the whole thing off.

At least that would buy me a few years to meet my actual husband. Ryan was getting the time he needed to just know because Alex was apparently too busy, and that was what I needed. Time.

When I looked at him again, he was still working, completely unaware that I’d just solved my entire life. I felt a slow grin spread on my lips as I tapped his shoulder.

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, his attention clearly still on his work, but I met his gaze and just blurted it out. “Will you plan my wedding?”

His fingers stopped over the keyboard and he blinked a few times too many. “Will I do what now?”

“You heard me.”

“Okay, then the answer is no.”

I sighed. “You didn’t even think about it.”