Page 18 of In this Moment

“I know you told Russ we were already betrothed. But…I still think it would be okay to do things right, don’tyou?”

Confusion and exhaustion lined her face. No doubt the stress of the day had taken its toll on her, and it wasn’t even noon. He didn’t want to add to her stress, but he was still old-fashioned in some ways. He needed to do it properly.

“Evie. I know there’s a lot on the line here, and I’m not going to do anything to jeopardize that. I promise. Just trust me.” He took her hand in his and squeezed gently before placing a kiss on the top. “Can you dothat?”

Tears flooded her eyes, but they didn’t fall. She nodded. “Of course.”

“Good. I promise you it will all be okay.” He slipped the ring into his shirt pocket and stood. “After all, we McCormicks have a bit of a reputation to uphold, don’t you think?”

It wasn’t an excuse. It was very true and everyone in town was aware of the romantic grand gestures his brothers were fond of. Ian had proposed dramatically to Gwen in the middle of the summer solstice festival. Mitch had not only made up with his girlfriend, Jade, but had proposed to and then moments later, married her in an impromptu wedding in front of all their family and friends. And most recently, Cal had orchestrated a huge party at the gazebo in the middle of town in honor of his girlfriend. He’d stopped short of proposing, but it was almost more romantic that he was the only brother who hadn’t gone that route. With the exception of Declan.

Untilnow.

Regardless. He had his family’s reputation to uphold and maybe it wouldn’t be as grand as what they had done, but his proposal to Evie Rose was most definitely not going to consist of a handshake and an agreement.

She deservedmore.

Even if it wasn’treal.

“We’ll have to tell our family and friends,” Evie was saying. “I mean, after Jonah. He needs to know first. I think that’s important, don’tyou?”

“Absolutely.” Declan thought it was essential that Jonah be as big a part of what they were doing as possible. Especially considering he couldn’t ever know the truth.

Declan turned away from Evie and took a moment to compose himself as the reality of what they were about to do hit him. Less than twenty-four hours ago, he’d been convincing himself that he could never even date Evie because she had a child. Now he was agreeing to be engaged to her because of herson.

The irony of it all was laughable and more than a little overwhelming.

But Evie needed help and that’s what he did. He helped. The fact that he was unreasonably attracted to the woman and was going to be forced to spend more time with her was secondary.

But it was definitely a bonus.

“Where is Jonah today, anyway?” He looked around quickly. “He’s not here, ishe?”

Evie’s hand fluttered to her chest. “Oh no. Of course not. He’s down at the lake with some friends this morning. I asked Joanne Ito bring him to the store at noon. Oh God, that’s in ten minutes. He’s going to be here soon and I don’t know what I’m going to tellhim.”

She started to shake again so Declan did the only thing he knew how to do. He crossed the room and wrapped her in his arms. She was tiny in his embrace. Fragile almost. But not quite. There was a core of strength running through Evie despite her delicate appearance.

He squeezed her close, trying not to notice how perfectly she fit into his arms. She filled all the empty space. He held her for a moment, breathing in the flowery scent of herhair.

“We’re going to tell him that we want to spend more time together as a family and one day we’ll get married.”

“You make it sound so simple.”

He held her at arm’s length so he could look her in the eye. “I know it’s not so easy, Evie. But if this is what you want to do, I’ll help you with it. But we need to have the same story.”

She nodded.

He held her hand as they walked to the door. “There’s Jonah now,” Declan said when he noticed him walking up the street with his friend. “We’ll talk more about this later. I’ll come by, okay?”

She nodded. “I don’t mean to be pushy, Declan, but…the engagement. We needto—”

“Later,” he said. “Don’t worry.” He opened the door and walked out onto the sidewalk with Evie right behind him. He turned and could see the panic and worry on her face. She needed all the details to be perfect and for good reason. There couldn’t be any reason why their story wasn’t believed.

“You know, if you just put the ring on my hand, we don’t need a storyor—”

“Excuse me!” Declan turned to the street full of people and hollered. “If I could just get everyone’s attention for a moment.”

What the hell was he doing?

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