Page 38 of Substitute Bride

“You can’t expect Rose and James to do something like that. They have a working relationship that would be affected by this—not to mention confusing those poor little girls.”

Rose shot a look over to James, but his expression was unreadable. He didn’t look shocked or angry at least. She had no idea what he was thinking. “I’m not going to do anything to hurt or confuse the girls,” she said.

“Of course not,” Mitchell said. He paused for a moment, clearly thinking. “You could always just tell them the truth.” When both Rose and Deanna started to object, he continued, “I don’t mean the entire truth. Just as much of it as they’d understand. Genevieve is having a hard time with the breakup, so Dad and Rose are going to be spending time together until everything calms down—but then things will go back to how they were, so they don’t need to listen to what anyone says to them about it. They’re the only ones who know the whole story. They’d understand that, wouldn’t they?”

Rose was jittery and a little dizzy, and she was more and more nervous about James, who still wasn’t reacting at all. “Maybe. I don’t know. But it seems silly to do that to them when it’s not a good idea to begin with. Why can’t we just tell everyone the truth?”

“You’ve been trying, haven’t you?” Deanna asked, looking torn between Mitchell’s idea and what Rose was saying.

“Yeah. It doesn’t seem to be working. Maybe some sort of public statement…”

“No one will believe it,” James said, speaking for the first time in a long time and surprising all of them.

Rose turned to him breathlessly. “What do you mean?”

“No one will believe it. Genevieve has laid the groundwork exactly right. Anything I say or do is going to be taken wrong—as some sort of survivor’s guilt that’s being channeled the wrong way. She isn’t going to stop, so this is just going to go on indefinitely—until the girls end up getting really hurt by it. We need to nip it in the bud and take her advantage away.”

“How?” Rose asked, swallowing hard and suddenly knowing what he would say.

“Mitchell’s right. This could do it. We could tell the girls most of the truth and then just play the ruse out until the gossip is over and Genevieve has given up. If I’m publically engaged to someone else, then she can hardly go around saying I’m still engaged to her. I think she’d be humiliated enough to just back off.”

“Do you think so?” Rose wasn’t sure. Genevieve seemed on the edge enough to not be trusted to act rationally in any situation.

“Yeah. So if you’re willing, maybe we can do it. We could get engaged for a few weeks and then go back to normal after it’s all over.”

“Could I still be your nanny afterward?” Rose asked, almost trembling as she realized what was happening. “I wouldn’t want to do something that would make it impossible for me to keep my job.”

“Of course,” James said, looking surprised. “There’s no way in the world I’d want to lose you.”

8

James wondered if he’d finally lost his mind as he showered and got dressed for his first outing with Rose in their fake engagement.

It was a ridiculous plan. Maybe it was the kind of plan an eccentric, old-fashioned grandmother might come up with, but it certainly wasn’t a plan that two sensible people should entertain for more than a few seconds.

But yesterday, as he’d been sitting on the back porch of the Beaufort house and listening to Rose talk to her sister and brother-in-law, it had seemed like the only possible answer for their situation. It had made perfect sense and would work out with minimal consequences. And after it was over, everyone could return to their proper slots in his life, with Genevieve’s slot removed completely.

After all, people ended engagements all the time. So he would have ended two engagements in one year. Surely men had done that before. People would just say he still wasn’t over the death of his wife.

Maybe they were right.

He’d been planning to marry Genevieve since she’d seemed like the best fit for the image of the wife he had in mind—an image that was based entirely on Melissa. He could see now that he’d latched onto her for the same reasons Marta and William had—she’d been a substitute for what they’d lost.

But he could see clearly now. And maybe a fake engagement with Rose wasn’t any stranger or more artificial than his first engagement with Genevieve.

After this, he might just give up on romantic relationships completely. He clearly wasn’t any good at them, and they just seemed to lead him into trouble.

He’d spent his life following his gut, but his gut was clearly failing him where women were concerned.

It would be easier if he didn’t want Rose so much. Maybe then he could make a rational decision. But the truth was his body and heart had heard the idea of Rose being his fiancée and jumped at the chance—as if all of him were desperate for her.

Maybe he was. Maybe everything but his brain was desperate. But he still needed his brain to make his decisions since he had two little girls who would be affected by any decision he made.

It was too late to back out of the engagement now. They’d announced it in the local paper this morning, and his phone had been buzzing with curious inquirers. He and Rose needed to go out tonight and act like a couple in love, and then the deal would really be sealed, no matter what Genevieve tried to do to stop it.

Hopefully she wouldn’t do anything, although he was afraid that was too much to hope for.

He dressed in khakis and a black dress shirt, hoping he looked decent and Rose wouldn’t think he was too sloppy or unimpressive. Then he headed downstairs to where the girls were waiting, grinning at the idea of this new plan that they didn’t fully understand.