Page 64 of Exposed

“Hold up,” I put a hand up while my mind tries to process what she’s suggesting. “I’m not marrying a woman I don’t know. I’m not marryinganyone.”

Right? That’s insane, isn’t it?

“You don’t know any girls who’d be willing to marry you so you can keep Simon?” She pushes back.

Pepper is standing in front of me, asking me to find a woman to marry, and she’s the only woman I’d consider doing that with.

Shit. Where did that thought come from? I don’t think I’m ready to give my heart to anyone again.

But it isn’t your heart. It’s marrying to help guarantee you keep Simon.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts, but it doesn’t work. “No way.”

Grace’s engagement ring is sitting in a box untouched in my nightstand drawer. She died in the car wreck a week before I planned to propose to her.

“Suit yourself,” Pepper shrugs and walks out of my room.

Still holding Simon, I stride over to my nightstand and take out the ring box. It was a solitaire, square cut, exactly like Grace wanted.

With a sigh, I take it out and hold it, my fingerstrembling with the thought of the future that was never meant to be.

“I don’t know what to do, Grace. Simon is my son, and I’m not giving him up,” I whisper, even though Grace isn’t here. “I need to marry to protect Simon.”

After four years, the love I have for Grace is different than it was when she passed away. At first, I swore I’d never be in love with another woman. It feels wrong to want to open up to Pepper. Part of my heart will always belong to Grace, but my desire for Pepper is growing stronger by the day.

Hope, her sister, has told me numerous times that Grace would want me to move on and find love. I believe her, and I believe Grace would want me to have a new best friend. Now with Simon, I believe she’d want me to find a mom for him, because he deserves the world.

A noise from behind makes me turn, and Pepper is standing in my doorway. She spins to go, then spins back around to face me. “I’m sorry to interrupt. I was going to ask if you want me to watch Simon while you take time to think or plan…or whatever.”

“I’ve never done this before,” I mumble.

“Done what?”

“Seriously considered marrying someone other than Grace.”

Girls don’t want to hear you talk about another woman you were in love with. I fully expect Pepper to stalk out of the room, but she doesn’t.

Instead, she comes close to Simon and me. Simon turns his head to look at her and when they share a smile, my heart skips a beat.

“Tell me about Grace,” Pepper murmurs.

“You want to hear about her?” I ask, shocked.

“Sure. She once held your heart, so she’s got to be special.”

“She had a bubbly personality and a tender soul. Our moms are best friends, so she, her sister Hope and I grew up together from the time we were babies. She danced like she was floating on clouds and was a principal dancer with the Miami City Ballet. She’d do anything for her friends or family.”

“Sounds like you, minus the dancing on clouds part,” Pepper quips, and my lips tip up. “She sounds amazing. I’m sorry she died.”

I turn the ring in my fingers, feeling the weight of it. “I wish it had been me in her seat when that car crashed into us.”

“Matt, that’s a hard thought to live with.”

“I’m stronger. Bigger. Twice her size. I probably would’ve survived if I’d been in that seat,” I explain.

“There’s no way to know,” Pepper whispers, touching my forearm.

I shake my head as emotion clogs my throat. “Marriage wouldn’t be fair to the other person. I’m not madly in love with anyone. Marriage should be a passionate love affair. Something that every cell in your body calls you to do because you can’t bear the thought of not living a second without the other person.”

---