Page 55 of Runaway Bride’s Husband

Either way, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, unable to believe that this was my life now. My phone kept buzzing with incoming emails and texts, but instead of working, I paused in front of an elaborate flower arrangement and squinted.

Are those fake? They’re too pretty to be real, but they don’t look fake either.

“How’s it going in there?” Marcus asked, appearing at the top of the staircase leading into the foyer from the upper levels. “Have they made any progress yet?”

“No.”

He sighed, pausing with one hand on the balustrade to listen when another round of shouting started up. “Those are my conditions, Mom. Take them or leave them.”

Marcus winced. “If this works, I’ll give you the money.”

“I don’t care about the money,” I said without even thinking about it.

At this point, I was starting to feel like a broken record, but at the same time, I kept asking myself why I didn’t just take it. The Pembrokes offered continuously and it wasn’t like they were hurting for it.

And yet… I can’t bring myself to say yes. Which has to mean something. It’s almost like the reason I’ve stuck around this whole time is because I actually care about her, but that can’t be it.

Shaking off the thought, I refocused on Marcus as he descended the stairs. “I think it’s a moot point anyway. I doubt this is actually going to work.”

He chuckled, groaning when their mother yelled something about becoming a laughingstock if Maggie was serious about any of this. Then he inched toward the hallway and glanced back at me. “You should still think about taking the money. God knows, you’re earning it. This is the second time you’ve brought her back, Ryan. No one else has even been able to do it once.”

I slid my hands into my pockets. “She might be here, but she’s not going to agree to go through with it unless your mom lets her plan the wedding. Trust me, not even I’m going to be able to talk her out of that. I haven’t talked her into or out of anything, actually. It’s all her. I’m just giving her the space she needs to figure it out.”

“Either way, Maggie probably would’ve been in Bora-Bora by now if not for you.” He offered me a small smile. “I always thought I was her favorite, but then you came along. I think she and I are just too far apart on this one. We owe you, Ryan. Big time.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

He shrugged. “That doesn’t make it any less true. Also, in case no one has actually said it properly yet, thank you. I honestly don’t know what we’d have done if you hadn’t been around right now.”

I almost told him that they’d managed just fine without us for years since my father’s arrest, but I bit back the retort. The Pembrokes weren’t bad people. Marcus wasn’t personally responsible for our ostracization and he and I had never been close.

Getting into it with him about this would only make me look and feel bitter and weak, which wasn’t really my jam. “You’re welcome, man. Good luck trying to convince your parents that they made the right call if they do cave.”

“Thanks, I’m going to need it,” he said. “I’ll be in Dad’s study if they need me, but I really hope that doesn’t happen.”

“I’ll pray for you,” I said solemnly, resuming my pacing once he’d disappeared.

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Maggie was yelling when I tuned in again. It sounded like she was about to start tearing her hair out. “This is who I am, Mother. I’m just a weird little creature who somehow invaded the illustrious Pembroke lineage. I get that, but if Daniel is going to marry me, he deserves to know what he’s getting himself into.”

“There is no if about it,” Adelaide argued coolly. “Daniel will marry you because he, unlike you, understands duty to his family and the power of this particular association. You’ve already humiliated the man once. Do you honestly want to do it again?”

“Of course not.” Maggie scoffed. “I just don’t think a wedding that’s a little different is something to be humiliated about. In fact, non-traditional is sort of the in thing right now.”

“No, it’s not,” Adelaide insisted, sighing loudly. “Regardless, Pembrokes are trendsetters, not followers, so it doesn’t matter. We have always been the very embodiment of elegance and grace, Maggie. That need not change.”

“Fine, then we’ll make it an elegant carnival and I’ll do my best to be graceful.”

“There’s no such thing as an elegant carnival.”

When Adelaide started listing all the ways in which carnivals were tacky, I shook my head and accepted that she wasn’t going to win this round. As I spun to pace my way across the foyer again, Cliff came striding toward me.

Adelaide and Maggie were still arguing, but Cliff looked like he’d reached the point where his patience was running on fumes, his cheeks slightly red and his jaw tight. “If you’re serious about planning my daughter’s delusional wedding, you’ll be paid well.”

God, not this again.

I almost sighed, but instead, I flashed him the smile that’d gotten me into more boardrooms, panties, and bars as an underaged kid than I could count. “That’s still not necessary, Cliff. I’m doing it as a favor to my mother.”

He looked back at me for a beat, then shook his head, grunted, and walked down the same hallway Marcus had disappeared into. Once he was gone too, I finally bent over to study those flowers that’d been bugging me, only just stopping short of actually feeling the leaves when yet another throat cleared behind me.