Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23632 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
'I do feel bad for your client's son, Mr. Calder, but I don't understand why his father must find his next wife in this manner.'
'He doesn't believe he'll ever fall in love again, so he wishes to be as methodical as possible in finding his next wife and future mother of his son. He wants someone with integrity and kindness, one who will love his son as if he were her own.
Mr. Calder had looked at her pointedly, and only then did Daisy Rae realize he believed she was such a woman.
'My client is a good man,' her boss had stressed. 'Extremely well-off, not at all unattractive, and a loving father to his son. If you accept this offer, you will have nothing to ask for, and you will finally have the life you've always deserved.'
'He sounds too good to be true.'
'But he is true, and he can be yours. I know you've been secretly worried sick the past few months, Daisy Rae. You think something bad will happen again, once you turn twenty-one.'
Daisy Rae had been stunned. She had confided her fears to Mr. Calder when she had just lost Aunt Helena, and that he still cared to remember this had made her feel like crying. Olsen and Julie had always treated her as if she were their own daughter, and they had always been there for her whenever she needed them.
If it had been anyone else who had asked her to consider this unconventional offer of marriage, she would have said no right away. But because it was Mr. Calder himself who had made the offer, didn't it mean that he truly believed this was an opportunity she was meant to take?
In the end, Daisy Rae had asked for time to think it over, and although she was now back home and busy preparing dinner for Uncle Nolan and Hilda—-
Should I take it, God?
She turned the matter over and over in her mind while mashing potatoes and waiting for her fish to bake. To marry a man simply because his son needed her didn't feel right, but it didn't feel terribly wrong either. And then there were her Uncle Nolan and Hilda. She owed their family so much. It wouldn't feel right to simply up and leave.
Please help me make up my mind, God.
Daisy Rae closed her eyes and crossed herself. Ask and you shall receive. It was something she had always believed in, and now that she had asked the Big Guy for His help, Daisy Rae was content and at peace. The right answer would come, at the right time and place, like it always did.
Dinner was the usual with both Hilda and her father talking about their common friends, and since Daisy had never met any of the latter, it was quite understandable that she ended up excluded from their conversation.
"Do we have anything for dessert?" Nolan asked as his niece started clearing the table.
"There's still some ice cream—-"
Hilda cut her off, asking, "How about we have something delivered, Daddy? There's this new cake place that just opened up, and all of my friends have been raving about it."
Nolan smiled fondly at his daughter. "Sure, sweetheart. Let's go try that."
Hilda eyed her cousin critically. "I think it's best that you skip dessert. You really need to diet."
Daisy Rae wasn't at all offended by the words, since it was the truth. She had always been more curvy than slender, and it was quite understandable her cousin believed she needed to start losing weight.
The doorbell rang just as Daisy Rae finished unloading the dishwasher, and her uncle hollered at her from the living room. "Can you get the door? That's probably Hilda's Uber Eats."
Daisy Rae walked to the door and opened it with a ready smile. "Hi...there." Her voice was nearly inaudible by the end, and hazel eyes gleamed down at her in amusement.
"Hi...there." His tone was faintly mocking, but not cruel.
Rub. Rub. Rub.
Daisy Rae just wanted to make sure she wasn't imagining things, but even after furiously rubbing her eyes, the tall, dark, and broodingly gorgeous man in front of her hadn't disappeared.
"Are you expecting somebody?"
His tone was no longer mocking. It was lazy instead, which was worse. This lazy tone of his was dangerous, with the way it ended up scrambling her brains.
"Um..."
It took her a moment to remember what he had even asked.
What was that again?
Oh.
Right.
He had asked if she was expecting somebody, and Daisy Rae finally managed to shake her head in response. "I'm not—-" But then she remembered Hilda's Uber Eats, and she hastily corrected herself. "I mean, yes."
His gaze gleamed anew, and Daisy Rae was mortified.
Get a grip, Daisy Rae!
She focused on her breathing. Inhale, exhale. And just as she did, it was then she noticed the way his hazel eyes were lazily taking note of the rise and fall of her breasts under her shirt.