Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 77341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
His gaze softens. “I’d do anything in the world to help you and protect you.”
“But you’d marry me? Even if it wasn’t real? You’d do that?”
“You shouldn’t have come down here with nothing under my shirt.”
I tilt my head, giving him a look to be serious. “I love that you chose this situation to try to be funny.”
“I’m not joking.” He smirks, sitting back and stretching his legs out in front of him. “What are you going to do? Tie this up in the court system for years?”
The thought of that makes me want to die.
“I don’t want to take it to court,” I say. “And I don’t want my dad to win.”
“And I don’t want to see you try to go through that.”
The sincerity in his features slays me. He’s such a good man.
“What would a marriage look like between us?” I ask, shoving a strand of hair behind my ear. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
He chuckles.
“But after everything you said last night, I can’t see how this would function in a healthy way,” I say.
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “It’s convenient.”
“True.”
“And it’s essentially in my job description.”
“Also true.”
He reaches over and lays a hand on my bare thigh. “And when I woke up this morning and thought about you leaving today, it tore me apart.”
I use the neckline of my shirt to dab beneath my eyes. Stop it, Foxx, before you show me every reason it hurts not to be with you.
“I’m sorry,” I say, laughing and sniffling. “My allergies are acting up.”
He laughs, squeezing my leg before withdrawing his hand.
I sniffle, gathering myself once again. “Okay. So let’s pretend we do this. I’m guessing you still feel the way you felt last night and that’s going to make our fake marriage a little tricky.”
“We get the answers as we go. Take this one problem at a time.”
I stare into his bright eyes. “You’ll really do this?”
“What do you want? Do you want me to get down on one knee?”
My laughter feels like it carries some of the weight off my shoulders. The man beside me picks up the rest of it.
I push the button to bring my brothers and Ford back on screen. A shiver snakes down my back as I turn the mic on. Is this really happening?
“Before you say anything, I want to clarify one thing,” Jason says, scooting his chair forward. “I made a quick call to the legal team while you two were discussing this. They don’t love the idea of a fraudulent marriage but agree it’s the easiest solution financially and contractually. But if you do this, it must look real. It must be believable. If they were to get an idea that you were getting married to bust the contract, they could try to sue us for breach.”
“They could go to the people you know—your family, for example. They could subpoena them to see if they knew the marriage was a sham,” Gannon says.
Oh shit.
I look at Foxx for his reaction.
He shrugs. “We can make it work. If that’s what you all want, we can make it happen.”
“You’re the only person in the world I would trust with my baby sister,” Jason says. “If you hadn’t offered, I would’ve taken marriage off the table.”
“What if I wanted to marry someone else?” I ask.
“Too bad,” Jason and Foxx say at the same time.
This gets a laugh from everyone—including me.
My fear and shock fade away, and excitement takes their place.
“Can someone get a prenup together?” Foxx asks. “We can get it signed today.”
Jason beams. “We’ll have someone email it over this afternoon.”
“Does it need to be a public wedding?” I ask. “Or can we just … do it?”
“Just do it,” Gannon says. “The faster, the better. Mom won’t be thrilled she can’t come, but she’ll get over it. She has bigger fish to fry at this point, anyway.”
Ford Landry grins cheekily. I want to ask him what that’s about, but I don’t know him well enough to call him out like that. Besides, I don’t want to waste time on him.
I, too, have bigger fish to fry.
Jason gathers papers and taps the edge of them against the desktop. “Let’s end this now so Foxx and Bianca can get themselves sorted. If you two need anything at all, call us. And we’ll have that prenup over to you shortly, Foxx.”
“Sounds good.”
Jason holds his gaze, grinning. “Welcome to the family.”
Foxx chuckles. “Thanks.”
We exchange hurried goodbyes before I end the Zoom call.
I stand, too energized to sit and lean against his desk. He sits before me—knees parted, hands clasped, and a shit-eating, satisfied smile on his lips.
“What’s that look about?” I ask, unable to get the same one off my face.
“Which one?”
I laugh. “The one on your face.”
“Oh.” He sits upright. “So how real are we making this?”