Page 44 of Italian’s Christmas Acquisition

“Where are you?”

“I’m in New York.”

“New York City?” her friend asked, emphasis on each word.

“Yes,” she said. “New York City. And... I’m engaged.”

She flipped the phone around to face her again.

Melody’s expression was wild. “Engaged? Not to that gorgeous man you brought into the coffee shop.”

“The very same.”

“No, well... You barely know him.”

“I know parts of him pretty well,” she muttered.

“You don’t have to marry a man just because you slept with him,” Melody said. “I don’t care what the church elders say.”

Noelle snorted. “That’s not why I’m marrying him.” Though, it was a little bit. Not because she thought she had a moral obligation to do it, but because she felt connected to him in a way that she couldn’t explain. She wasn’t even going to try. She couldn’t even make it make sense to herself, much less her friend.

“So he’s rich?”

“Yeah. Well, he’s sort of the billionaire that has been trying to buy my bed-and-breakfast.”

“No,” Melody said.

“Yes. But we got snowed in together...”

“Real life is not a Hallmark movie,” said Melody. “The evil developer stays an evil developer. I mean, the fact that he dragged you back there instead of moving to the small town is kind of making that point for me.”

“Oh,” Noelle said. “I know.”

She went over to the closet and pulled out a red dress. It was satin and slinky, with straps that went... She didn’t even know where.

“But you got engaged to him.”

“I have feelings for him,” she said. She sighed heavily. “I know. I know. And he hates our town. But he agreed to let me keep the bed-and-breakfast. He agreed to give my mom the payout that she wants anyway.”

“What’s he getting out of it? I mean, no offense. Not that you aren’t a prize.”

“I am definitely a prize,” she said. Then she laughed. “No. I mean... He wants a baby.”

Melody’s forehead wrinkled. “Oh, I don’t know what to do with that.”

She imagined a baby. Soft and small, with Rocco’s dark hair. “I’ve always wanted to be a mother,” she said. “And... You know my mom leaving hurt. It broke something. I get to keep my bed-and-breakfast. I get to have a family. Unconventional, maybe. He’s going to keep living in New York most of the year. But he says that I can go back home and stay at the bed-and-breakfast sometimes.”

“So it’s a marriage of convenience,” Melody said.

She wished that it was that straightforward. That there were no feelings involved on her end. But there were. There were a lot of feelings.

“Yes,” she said. “Of a kind. It’s not that we don’t have... A certain amount of passion.”

Melody blinked. “Wow.”

“I don’t want you to think of me as some sacrificial lamb going to the slaughter when I go to his bed. I certainly went the first time with no coercion whatsoever, and no offer of marriage or saving my bed-and-breakfast on the table.”

“Admittedly,” Melody said. “He is the most handsome man I have ever seen.”

---