Page 24 of Fall For Me
“No. No way. I’ve just escaped a marriage I didn’t want to be in, I’m not jumping into another one.”
“I don’t know why you walked out on that guy, but I’m nothing like him. This would be an equal partnership. You’d be free to do as you please.”
“Yeah, what if I want a real relationship? What if I want to fall in love?”
“Really? So shortly after leaving a guy at the altar?”
The question stops her. “Well, not right this moment. But in three to five years, yeah, probably.”
“Three years is nothing.”
“You’re insane.”
“Maybe.” I shrug. “But I’m also your best option.”
She presses her fingers to her temples, closing her eyes. “This is insane.”
“You’ve said that.”
“Well, it bears repeating.”
I should back off. Give her space.
“Don’t say no.” I hold up a hand. “You don’t have to answer now. You’re not thinking clearly.”
She opens her eyes, watching me warily.
“I am thinking clearly! You’re the one out of his mind!”
“I’m being practical.” I walk back to the door and grip the handle. “I’ll go get those clothes. You take some time. Think about it.”
“I won’t change my mind in half an hour.”
I pull the door open, glancing at her. She’s standing her ground, her dark curls wild, eyes fixed on me without blinking. She looks formidable even in a bathrobe.
“I’ll be back,” I say. “And when I am, we’ll talk about what this could look like, how it would work, what we’d both be agreeing to.”
“And if I still say no?”
“Then I’ll arrange a car to take you wherever you want to go, and you’ll never have to see me again.”
She doesn’t respond. I don’t wait for her to speak. I slip out of the suite before she throws a lamp at me.
The door clicks shut behind me, and I lean against it, my leg throbbing, my heart pounding against my ribs. What did I just do?
I pull my phone from the pocket of my robe and unlock it.
The screen lights up with a cascade of notifications. Emails, voicemails, calendar reminders. But the number that makes my stomach drop is the seventeen missed calls from my mother.
And the single text message from her at the top of the stack.
Mom
Flying in. Landing at 6p.m. I want to meet your wife. Tonight!
Ah, this puts us on a time crunch. The shortened timeline should terrify me, but it doesn’t. In business, it’s better to add pressure to a negotiation. This will force Peyton to give me an answer either way.
If we’re going to pull this off, it’ll have to be airtight. And we need all the time we can get to prep.
