Page 13 of Married to the Frenemy

“I’m sorry. I think I misheard,” I finally say once the shock wears off. “Did you say your solution is for me to…marry you?”

“I did.”

“Beckham, I?—”

“Grady’s selling the vineyard. I offered to buy it. Unfortunately, he doesn’t want to sell to me because he’s worried the vineyard would become my life.”

“Become?” I scoff. “It already is.”

“Regardless, he promised my dad he’d always look out for me. I guess he doesn’t want me to make the same mistake he thinks he did by putting the vineyard first and not marrying.”

“And if you were married…”

“He’d sell to me, even if someone else came in with a better offer. He’d rather it go to someone who cares about the land.”

“Don’t you think he’d be suspicious if you announce you’re getting married so soon after he tells you he’ll only sell to you if you’re married?”

“We won’t get married right away,” he explains, making it clear he’s given this some thought. “We’ll wait until closer to when Belinda moves. That’s the end of January, right?”

I nod, fidgeting with my glass of water.

“We’ll get married then. If you agree, of course.”

“Why me? Isn’t there some other woman you could ask?”

He slowly shakes his head. “There’s no one, Haley.”

I struggle to suppress the relief filling me at the idea that he’s not currently dating anyone. I shouldn’t care. That ship sailed years ago. Hell, that ship never even left port.

“It needs to be you. If there’s anyone Grady will believe I married, it’s you. He knows all about our…history.” He lifts his dark eyes to mine, so many emotions swirling within.

Regret. Guilt. Fear.

It’s the fear I can’t quite understand.

“So, what?” I ask. “We’d pretend to date for now?”

He furrows his brow, his brown eyes darkening with confusion. “Why would we do that?”

“Won’t people get suspicious?”

He shrugs. “We’ll tell them you didn’t want Maggie to get attached in case it didn’t work out.”

“And I don’t.” I lean across the table, dropping my voice. “Have you thought about how this might affect her?”

“Of course I have. It’s one?—”

“Because it doesn’t seem like it, Beckham,” I interrupt. “If you want people to think our marriage is real, if you want Grady to think it’s real, then Maggie has to believe it’s real, too.”

“Why?”

“This may come as a surprise, but four-year olds aren’t known for their ability to keep secrets. Hell, most forty-year-olds aren’t, either. Especially in this town.”

His shoulders fall as he peers into the distance, a furrow creasing his brow. “I didn’t think of that.”

“We wouldn’t only have to pretend in public. We’d have to pretend all the time. Share a room. A bed.” My cheeks flush at the thought, but I quickly push it down. “Not to mention, what will she think when our sham marriage is over? She’ll worry she did something wrong.”

“I’ll still be there for her.”

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