Page 36 of Keeping My Wife
This was all supposed to be a business deal. I was pretty sure that hadn’t even lasted two days. Not after that night in the kitchen.
“Hey.” Eloise gripped my arms. “Cam is as steady as it comes. I know you haven’t had many people in your corner, but he’s definitely got your back.”
“Why though?”
“It can’t be just because of you?”
Everything with my mother had always been transactional. Then I’d gone to Shaw Media, and I was so used to a cutthroat life that it didn’t faze me when it was the same there. Again and again, I’d only seen how trusting people made me a chump.
She shook me a little. “It’s because of you, Maxie. He sees the same thing Gus and I do. You’re amazing and hilarious and youhave vision for this place.” She waved to the library where she’d been helping me to get ready. “You could have sold this place and taken the money and gone back to Georgia.”
“A smart person would. What the hell am I thinking running a bed and breakfast?”
“You’re thinking that this place is perfect for it. All this history is exactly what people want in an experience. And during track season you’re going to make a killing. We’re only twenty miles away from the racetrack. You know people are crazy about the horses. Trick it out for the holidays and you could get those people too.”
I laughed. “I thought I was the marketing one.”
She shrugged. “Creative game writer here. I’ve been making up stories about this town. I can’t wait to add this place to Story Brook. The quest for Christmas would be so cool for my game.”
I laughed. “Your brain is incredible.”
“I just have to write code. You have to do the hard stuff. But you get to do itwithsomeone. Cam was made for this. You guys just found each other at the right time. Trust that.”
I nodded. “You’re right.”I sniffed back the tears that were threatening. “You can’t ruin my makeup.”
She laughed and drew me in for a hug. “No way. I already sprayed both of our faces with that finishing stuff Lexi swears by.” She set me back and waved her hands in front of her face. “I’m not going to cry either.”
“Okay, I’ll be right behind you.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?”
“I’m sure.”
She sighed. “Always so stubborn.”
“You know it.” I walked her to the door and shut it behind her.
I walked through the house slowly, imagining what it could be with Cam’s help. The holes where furniture items weremissing, the ragged wallpaper that needed to be replaced, the crumbling stonework of the fireplace.
My grandmother had been alone here. I didn’t want to be like her.
I wanted people around me.
I wanted this place full of people who could appreciate it. Who would come back year after year because they felt at home here.
But I didn’t want to do it alone anymore.
I wandered into the kitchen and to the folder that held the contract. Heck, it was a prenup for all intents and purposes. It was simple. In the end, that’s all I needed. We both agreed that if the marriage dissolved, we left with what belonged to us. I made sure to add a stipulation that Cam would get his selection of furniture and a generous dollar figure.
I knew he hadn’t read the contract because he would have balked at that.
He trusted me to not screw him over, no questions asked.
No one had ever treated me like that.
If I wasn’t already half in love with him that would have done it.
I traced my finger over his bold signature. The slashing k of his last name just a little bit bigger than the rest of the letters.
