Page 47 of Flame
I’ve never wanted to get married, and I actively avoided a proposal by the one boyfriend I had in my early twenties whom I feared was on the verge of asking me to be his wife. Nothing about marriage has been attractive to me. What is it about having another person in your life to take care of, to consider—to manage, makes people want to do it?
But my reaction to Foxx’s proposal isn’t what I felt when I imagined Peter proposing years ago.
I don’t want to run. I want to fall into his arms.
I don’t feel vulnerable. I feel safe.
I don’t feel like a heavy, dark cloud just fell upon me, and I’m struggling under the weight. I feel … joy.
I’m not scared of it.
I want it.
Oh God.
“Marry you?” I ask again. The words come out in a laugh injected with disbelief. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”
Foxx shrugs.
I have no idea if he’s serious or not—and that shrug of his tells me nothing.But he can’t be. He just told me we can’t be together at all, and now he’s proposing marriage? This is a sick, terrible joke.
“Why would you say that to me?” I ask under my breath. “Now isn’t the time to find your funny bone.”
He scoots to the edge of his chair and twists so no one besides me can see his face. A mischievous glimmer twinkles in his eye.
“Think about it,” he says softly. “It’s abrilliant plan to solve an impossible puzzle.”
My heart races.
“Well, what do you think, Bianca?” Jason asks.
I realize my brother can’t see me. I’ve stepped off-screen.
I sit beside Foxx, bumping his knee with mine. “I think Foxx picked a really strange time to try to find his comedic side.” I clear my throat. “Let’s figure this out because there’s no way in hell Dad is getting away with this. And if he thinks the road to getting what he wants is by exploiting me—he’s wrong.”
Jason folds his hands together on his desk. “I’m going to be really honest with you, B.” He glances briefly at Gannon. “Foxx doesn’t have a bad idea.”
My mind is blown.
My brother suggested that I marry his best friend—the same best friend who just told me he couldn’t have anything to do with me because it would be a giant offense to my brother.
What the hell is happening with these people?
“Of course, we aren’t pressuring you to do anything,” Gannon says. “And we’re fully prepared to fight this out in court. But I think we need to take a second and breathe here and really take a look at this logically.”
Foxx is bizarrely calm beside me.
“This is a family issue, but may I join this conversation?” Ford asks. “Can I help break this down into manageable chunks?”
“Sure.” I shrug helplessly. “Why not?”
He smiles. “You have two options, Bianca. The first is to put it all into the hands of your legal team and hope for the best.”
My stomach knots.The time. The money. The stress. The uncertainty.
“You do have a fantastic legal team behind you,” he says. “And I have faith they can find a way to undo this mess. But we would be remiss if we didn’t consider the alternative, which is marriage. I know that’s not the most moral or appealing choice, but you’re not exactly dealing with an ethical situation.”
I bury my head in my hands.
