Page 20 of Beachside Kisses With My Best Friend

Marilee snuggles down in her jacket, which she snatched from my truck on the way to the sandwich shop. “So, how do you feel that went? I liked him. He seems really competent, right?”

“Yeah.” I eye her. “But Lee?—”

“And”—she rushes on—“that means he knows the best plan for ensuring you get to keep full custody of Ryder.”

I squint at her from behind my sunglasses. “Sure. He seems to understand what the risks are and gave some solid advice for how to make sure we show up at court prepared to defend against the Comers’ baseless accusations.”

“Right.” Staring at her food, Marilee fiddles with the edge of her paper. She hasn’t yet touched her sandwich.

Then again, I haven’t touched mine.

Because there’s an elephant in this park, and he’s sitting on this table. Makes it a little difficult to think about eating.

And we can’t ignore it. “Sorry if any of his suggestions made you uncomfortable.” I pop open my bag of plain kettle chips.

Her eyes finally meet mine. “They didn’t.”

Oh.

I clear my throat. “I tried to jump in and explain that we aren’t together like that, but then?—”

“I got an idea, Jay.”

“What kind of idea?”

“What if…” She frowns, nibbles on her bottom lip in that way she does when deep in thought. “What if he’s right? That you being married is the best way to save you grief, time, and money?”

I stare at this woman I’ve known half of my life. I’ve always known what she’s thinking. She’s not the kind to hide her emotions. To hide much of anything from me.

But right now? I feel completely in the dark.

“You feeling okay, Lee?” I force a chuckle as birds chatter and call in the tree above us. “You do know I’m not engaged to anyone, right? And haven’t exactly been on a date in years, either.”

“I know that.” She huffs. “Look, this might be a really weird suggestion, and you can absolutely say no, but…what ifwegot married? In name only, of course. But it makes sense, right?”

There’s a buzzing in my ears, like bees have suddenly descended on our picnic. I glance right, left, but nope, nothing.

“Jordan?”

Inhaling sharply, my gaze reconnects with hers. She’s shrunk in on herself, huddled there, not just from cold, but a hit to her self-confidence. It’s the same posture she used to take when Donny was in the picture.

I hate that something I’ve said or done would cause her to sit that way.

Scratching my eyebrow, I weigh my words carefully. “Lee, that’s an incredibly generous offer, but I could never let you do that for me.”

“Well…maybe it would solve my problems too.”

I sit forward. “What problems?”

She shrugs. “If we got married for, say, a year, I could give Blake and Lucy the house without having to sell my portion to them. Give them their own space, try it out, without having to make a hasty decision. And, if you were okay with it, I could move into your house and not pay rent, so I could keep paying off my debt and maybe save up some extra money to either buy Marla out or?—”

“Or finally start your own cake decorating business?”

“Maybe.” Another shrug. “It just gives me a little time and space to figure out what I want to do next, you know? And I’d be happy to pick Ryder up from school every day and kind of take on a nanny role for him so that you could focus more on work in your busy season.”

But she wouldn’t be a nanny. She’d be my…

I swallow.

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