Page 64 of Single Mom's Christmas Wish

Iknow it’s a bit of a farce, but I believed Reed when he proposed to me. I also know he did it on behalf of his brothers as well. They chose to do it in public for a reason. Callie was present, along with enough people for it to be official and impossible to contest later down the road. Reed and I will be married by Christmas, and all of my financial problems will wither away.

“This is insane,” I whisper as we get to their place.

Maisie was already sleeping when Chelsea drove off with her and Trevor in the backseat, about an hour after we wrapped up the charity event.

“What is?” Reed asks, his hand resting on the small of my back as we walk into the living room. “The proposal?”

“Yeah. I honestly didn’t see it coming.”

Archer chuckles. “We had planned for it to go differently, to be fair. But with a big crowd and your sister there, we figured it was good timing. We needed to get that money shot for the papers, too.”

“Oh, God, they’re going to write about us in the news,” I gasp, briefly horrified until I realize what the headlines won’t be saying: that I’m hooking up with all three Faulkner brothers, not just one.

Maddox heads over to the minibar and pops open a bottle of champagne, which he pours into four crystal flute glasses. “This is cause for celebration,” he says, “despite the unorthodox manner in which it was done.”

“None for me, thank you,” I reply with an awkward smile. “I can’t stomach any alcohol at this hour. I’m too excited, too nervous.”

I sit down in one of the armchairs, practically sinking into it, while Reed, Maddox, and Archer take the sofa, eyeing me intently. This is it. The moment we were waiting for. That awkward silence after a complete flip of the script. It took me a while to put two and two together, though. I’d been so busy worrying about the foreclosure, the pregnancy, and Callie that I failed to notice certain details, which are now so clearly coming into focus.

“Okay, please make this make sense for me,” I say. “What’s going on?”

Reed takes a deep breath, followed by a sip of champagne. “I meant every word back there, Dakota. I’m going to marry you, and you’re going to get that Monroe inheritance because you deserve it more than your sister ever will.”

“She’s going to question everything. At the lounge, before I passed out, I told her that Archer was my fiancé, and he didn’t contest it,” I reply.

“That’s fine,” Archer cuts in. “You don’t want Callie having any facts whatsoever.”

“Why not? She really seems like she’s trying to do better.” I want to believe that my sister is genuinely trying to be my sister, though I definitely noticed her not missing a single opportunity to get handsy with my so-called fiancé throughout the entire charity event. “She even said that I will probably spend that money better than she ever could.”

The brothers exchange quick and meaningful glances before they set their focus back on me. Archer takes a deep breath. “Dakota, we’re your people. We’re doing everything in our power to make sure you have whatever it is you need to thrive and to keep Maisie safe and happy. We made you a promise, and we intend to keep it by any means necessary.”

“Okay.”

“That being said, Callie is not your people,” he continues, a frown drawing a deep shadow between his sandy brows. “I know you want it to be true, but I think you can see for yourself that it’s not.”

“She’s a victim of Katherine Monroe, just like me,” I say. “I think she wants to do the right thing, but she just doesn’t know how. I don’t expect her to change overnight, obviously, but I do believe she has good intentions.”

Part of me aches to trust Callie wholly. But I know better. I’ve met my share of people who manipulate others for a living. It only took one interaction with Katherine Monroe for me to understand that she was never the kind of woman I wanted to be around. I think Callie carries deep wounds from her family and those wounds will take a long time to heal, yet I can’t faultthe Faulkner brothers for their concern, nor can I say anything negative about how they chose to go about things.

“Making the proposal public,” I say after a long and heavy pause, “are you sure it was the right thing to do? I mean, I know you’re doing it to help me, and I cannot thank you enough…”

Reed shakes his head. “We’re doing it because we want to be with you.”

“Perhaps marriage wouldn’t have been an option this early in our relationship under normal circumstances,” Archer smiles, “but if it helps you rise above and accomplish incredible things, we figured it couldn’t possibly hurt. If you’re happy, we’re happier.”

“I was going to ask for your help,” I mumble. “Once I got over my ego, that is.”

“Yeah, we figured that much after we found out about the foreclosure and the inheritance,” Reed sighs deeply. “Callie’s only goal was to hurt you when she told Archer about it.”

“Little did she know that all it accomplished was to bring us even closer to you,” Archer adds.

My phone buzzes. This is the fifth message I’ve gotten from Keith in the past couple of days, and it’s starting to raise some red flags. He’s never been this persistent before. Something has changed, and I don’t like it. For tonight, however, I set the phone face-down on the coffee table and forget all about it, choosing to focus on the here and now.

“So, how do we go about this?” I ask.

“It’s pretty simple, even though it sounds complicated,” Reed says.

“What Reed is trying to say is that we have to tread carefully going forward,” Archer cuts in. “I don’t want any of these recent changes to affect our dynamic. We’re fun together; we’re happy together; we’re building something that may or may not last, though we do want it to last.”

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