Page 28 of Acquiring Ainsley
I snapped my attention his way. “Yes, I—I do.” A nervous laugh escaped my lips. “I just can’t believe that you selectedthisparticular ring.”
“Why?” He glanced at the other people in the restaurant, who had now fallen silent and stared as us as the final moments of this proposal played out before them.
“It’s exactly what I would have chosen,” I said, my mind still racing as I tried to process everything that had happened in the last five minutes or so. I could hardly think, hardly breathe, and hardly believe this was happening to me.
But it was.
“I can’t wait to marry you, Trevor McNamara.” My last bit of caution slipped away. The tight grip inside my chest eased and allowed me to finally breathe. Briefly, I wondered if somehow, without me realizing, this whole situation had gone from a business transaction to something I really wanted in my heart. Oh, good god, was I falling for him? But I didn’t have time to contemplate it. Everyone was watching, waiting for my answer.
So, I gave it to them. “I can’t wait to marry you, Trevor McNamara. Yes! A thousand times, yes!”
The article had the top spot ofPage Six’swebsite, and a screaming headline in bold, black lettering.
NEW YORK’S MOST ELIGIBLE BACHELOR TO MARRY PUBLISHING HEIRESS AFTER WHIRLWIND ROMANCE
We can’t believe it ourselves, but this story is a merger for the ages…
Below it, seven paragraphs detailed the proposal in Palm Beach (in front of dozens, and featuring a two-carat diamond ring, how romantic), our love affair (smoldering for years, insiders say, given how parallel these two families have been in business and beyond), the wedding (we hear in Palm Beach after the end of the season, since Ross has her social calendar already set, just like any good socialite of the Instagram generation), and the current state of my business affairs (an expanding empire). A few gushing sentences followed about how our families would finally unite after years of business duels, and then some complimentary photos of both of us rounded out the writeup.
And the article had no mention of my past. No allusion to the unpleasant memories I wanted to stay hidden. Nothing at all.
Good.
I closed thePage Sixbrowser window on my office desktop and returned to the emails I’d been typing for most of the morning. It had been three days since the proposal, and one since my return to New York from South Florida. Plenty of things clamored for my attention, not the least of which included the acquisition of Ross Publishing. Thank god I didn’t have a board to answer to about big decisions like this one. Any competent CFO or COO would consider this deal ill-advised, given the size of debt and bloated spending of the company. Anyone who saw the kind of financial disclosures about Ross Publishing that lay on my desk would have demanded I reconsider the buyout.
But for me, the pursuit of the company wasn’t about how much money I might make, or how much I’d lose. It was about pride. It always had been. Win this, and I’d get to declare victory in the game my father had played for most of his life.
Maybe I’d get a few spoils of war, too.
As I considered this, my desk phone rang. When I answered it with the speaker button, Janet, my longtime assistant asked, “Mister McNamara, are you there?”
“I am.”
“I have your—umm, well, your new fiancée on the phone, Ainsley Ross.”
Electricity pulsed through me as I heard her say that sentence. It was the first time anyone in person had referred to Ainsley as my “fiancée,” and I liked the sound of her name and that title. Honestly, it pleased me more than I’d planned.
Interesting.
“Patch her in.”
“Right away, Mister McNamara.” She made an audible click, and Ainsley took over the line.
“Hi, Trevor.”
I struggled with what to say to her. How did I greet her? What was I supposed to say? We weren’t in love, and she wasn’t my girlfriend, but at the same time, she was also going to be mywife. I didn’t have a playbook for this.
Unusual for me. I hardly made any moves without calculating all of the potential outcomes. But maybe that needed to change.
“What’s going on, Ainsley?” I asked. “Why didn’t you call my cell phone?”
“I figured you were too busy doing major deals and managing your empire to answer your cell. And I wanted to get through.” She paused. “So, who toldPage Sixabout us?”
Even though she couldn’t see me, I raised two hands. “I swear, I knew nothing about this.”
She laughed. “I don’t believe you.”
“No, I swear, I didn’t alert them.” I leaned closer to the receiver. “I let my PR team do that.”
