Page 20 of The Work Wife

“We’ll marry each other.” She stopped tapping her fingertips together, so as not to frighten him even more.

She watched the different emotions cross his face as he processed her words. Confusion was the most prevalent, until the shock set in.

To say he looked horrified would be an understatement. He acted as if Freddy Krueger had shown up holding hands with Jason Voorhees, carrying Michael Myers on his shoulders. It was a bit insulting, but she powered on.

“You said ‘if we were married,’ and it gave me the idea.”

“Whoa. Do not make me responsible for this horrible idea. I didn’t mean married to each other. I meant married in general.” He moved his arms in a wide circle to encompass anyone else in the world besides her.

“So? What if we married each other? It would eliminate the problem for both of us. Besides, we spend more time with each other than anyone we’ve ever dated. You already refer to me as your work wife.”

“That’s a joke. Marriage is serious.”

“What’s the big deal?” she asked.

He stepped closer and ducked his head. She could see the color in his cheeks.

“We aren’t in love,” he whispered, looking embarrassed for having to say it.

She couldn’t help it, she laughed, earning a glare from her potential betrothed.

“Weston, people get married all the time and they don’t love each other. They might think they do, but the divorce rate proves otherwise. At least we wouldn’t go into it under the delusion of something elusive and highly unattainable.”

She was using his own logic against him. And she could tell he was thinking about it.

* * * *

Wes let out a sigh because she’d touched on something he himself had said before. Marriage didn’t mean love. It was obvious his father hadn’t loved his mother. Not really.

“Wouldn’t you rather wait until you meet The One? You’re only twenty-eight. That’s hardly old-maid territory. You have plenty of time.”

“I haven’t been on a real date in three months. And haven’t been out with a viable candidate for two years. You do the math, Wes. My odds aren’t good.”

He could tell her the reason she wasn’t married. She was too confident. He’d known her for five years, and in that time he’d heard all the reasons she’d been given for why men called it off. He also knew it was a bunch of crap.

Jamie didn’t need a man in her life. She was more than capable of taking care of herself, and this intimidated men. At least most men. He was rather impressed by her independence and tenacity.

He would have told her the problem before, but he didn’t want to risk she’d try to change herself into a damsel in distress just to attract some insecure caveman.

“We get along better than any real couple I know. We have fun together,” she continued.

“You do make me laugh,” he said, softening to the idea a tiny bit. Though he didn’t think it was enough to constitute marriage.

“Think about it tonight. You love analyzing things. Make up a list of potential risk factors and we’ll discuss it tomorrow.” She held out her hands. “All I’m asking is that you don’t just brush it off because of the love thing.”

The love thing. As if it were insignificant. While he wasn’t sure how to go about falling in love, he’d kind of hoped it was one of those things that just happened. It was sort of implied that it worked like that. Still, it hadn’t happened yet. Maybe he would wait around the rest of his life and it would never happen.

“Okay. I promise, I’ll consider it with an open mind. I’ll write down my concerns and we’ll discuss it together like any other project.” They were pretty good at solving problems when they worked together.

How many other couples could do that without arguing?

He shook his head, not liking that he’d already come up with a reason why this plan could work. He was supposed to be the voice of reason.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out how to add a sprinkler system to an existing build, and taking note of issues that would help him decide if he should marry his co-worker.

It was even more distressing that he was having more resistance from the sprinkler system. So far, he had only two things written down on the other list. He wasn’t ready to reveal them. He’d been given a day to come up with a complete collection of reasons why it wouldn’t work.

And these reasons were shaky at best. He’d need to come up with something big if he was going to save them from this.