Page 29 of Bridesmaid By Chance
“What the hell do you think?” I ask as I straighten up and let out a deep breath.
“You know, I told you I could help you with that tension.”
Yeah…I know.
I tried to assist with the tension this morning in the shower, imagining what’s under that goddamn blazer of hers, and let’s just say my imagination and my hand were lackluster at best.
“The answer is no, whatever you have to say today, the answer is no.” I move toward my desk. “As I said before, I don’t buy brides, and I’m not fucking marrying you.”
“Hudson.”
“What?” I say, exasperated as I look up at Sloane, standing before me, hands clutched in front of her.
A serious expression crosses her face as she quietly says, “I…I need this.” The tone has changed, and I can almost feel her words as she says them.
“You need to marry me?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I need this deal because I need the money.”
The seriousness in her voice tugs me in as I take a seat at my desk and ask, “Why?”
She looks off to the side and from the droop in her shoulders andher timid expression, I can tell that this is not easy for her. “Stacey and I got a letter in the mail from our landlord. They’re selling the house that we’re living in, and we can either move, or we can rent to own. Rent to own requires a down payment of forty thousand dollars. Stacey and I don’t have anything close to that, which means we’ll have to move out if we don’t find the money and…and we can’t move out.” Tears start to form in her eyes, which of course makes me move around my desk to her. “This was the house that Jude found for us once our grandma passed. It was our sanctuary, our comfort, and we’ve shared so many memories in it, we don’t want to let it go.”
“Have you spoken to Jude about it?”
She shakes her head. “I don’t think he has enough capital, and it’s also something we don’t want to do. We said we’d provide for ourselves when he moved out, and we promised ourselves we wouldn’t bother him.”
“He’s your brother,” I say.
“Yes, which means he’d do anything to help us. He was wary of leaving us to begin with when he moved in with Haisley. The last thing we want is for him to worry again. We want to do this on our own because we are not children and don’t need a handout from our brother. That’s why I came up with this idea; that’s why I came to you.”
“Christ,” I say as I tug on the back of my neck and start pacing the room. Well, this puts a much different spin on her proposal, one that I wasn’t prepared for. It has me…hell, it has me thinking. “You think getting married is the solution?”
“It’s the best one I could come up with, and I swear, I’ll sign any prenup you want. I don’t want your fortune or your business or your house. I just need the down payment, preferably my job back until I can find something else, and I’ll help you secure the deal with Wimbach.”
It feels doable.
Like it could all work.
But there’s a small element holding me back: Jude.
Hell, that’s not a small element, that’s a big element.
I shake my head. “No, Jude would kill us both.”
“He doesn’t have to know,” she says, walking up to me. “I promise, Stacey will be the only one that knows on my end. You can tell who you need to tell. I’ll even sign an NDA. Please, Hudson. I know this is crazy, but it could work. And it’s not forever.”
Gone is the sarcastic girl who came into my office two days ago after being fired and in her place is a girl who reeks of desperation, the same sort of desperation I feel when I consider the shitstorm I’ve put myself in.
I pull on the short strands of my hair. Hell, I can’t believe I’m even considering this. It’s dumb.
Foolish.
A really bad idea.
Yet she’s right. It has all the potential to work. It’s only for a few weeks. We can go to London, she can be a bridesmaid, I can secure the deal, and then we can be on our merry way.
Feels simple.
