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When I thought I finally figured out my life and where I belonged, life laughed in my face and shook its head at me. Not only did I end up meeting my mother-in-law and one of my brothers-in-law, and they’d been clueless about my existence, but it turned out they lived a lot closer than I’d realized.
Hell, I had probably served one of them coffee and hadn’t even known it.
“No wonder March didn’t want me to work,” I mumbled to myself, and my lips started to wobble. “Shit.” I sniffled. Now I am the hysterical new girl who talks to herself!
I shut my eyes and tried to calm down. So, March hadn’t told his family about us. Why hadn’t he told them? Is he keeping me a secret? Or had he lied about really giving us a chance? Had he been planning on giving me the boot come April first?
Well, the joke was on me. Naïve and stupid, I’d handed myself right over to the guy. Believing in the best of him. What was the point of taking a chance when it left me exactly where I was before?
I’d be damned if he thought he’d just get rid of me now. He could have a divorce if he wanted, but I wasn’t leaving Odyssey. I liked it here. Maggie was fun to work with, and most of the regulars were really nice.
I was going to stay in the small town and make a life there. I’d just do a really good job of avoiding March in the meantime. Time healed all wounds. Isn’t that the saying?
The rumbling of an engine made me open my eyes, and they turned into saucers when an all too familiar truck pulled up and parked in front of the coffee shop.
So much for getting some time from the man.
I sat up and wiped my face. I’d be damned if he saw me crying. I watched quietly as he hopped out of his truck and stomped right over to me.
“Sunny,” he started to say, and I hated how much I loved the sound of my name when he said it. I put a hand up and started to shake my head, but I should have known better. March West was as stubborn as they came. He grabbed my hand and kneeled in front of me. “Sunny.”
“March, please?—"
“I’m sorry,” he said, and everything in me wanted to believe him. But maybe a little of his stubbornness had rubbed off on me?
“For what?” I asked, trying to ignore the way the tip of my nose tickled with unshed tears. “Why are you sorry? Hmm? For me almost being arrested? Because your mom and brother thought I was an intruder? Or maybe you’re sorry for lying to me when you said you were going to give us a chance when you what? Had planned on kicking me to the curb once the lawyer signed off on this sham?”
“You done?” he asked, and fury kicked in. My brows bunched, and I sat up. I tried to pull my hand from his, but he wouldn’t let it go. If anything, his grip tightened. Not to where he hurt me but in a way to make sure I knew he wasn’t going to release me.
“No! I’m not done!” I clipped. Too deep in my feelings, I didn’t know what was coming. I could never have guessed it.
“Good, Sunny. Go for it. Tell me off. Yell at me,” he encouraged, and I blinked. “Because, baby girl, I more than deserve it,” he strained, and that’s when I noticed it.
The worry in his eyes.
The fear.
It didn’t make sense. What is he worried about? Scared of?
“Tell me what a piece of shit I am. I won’t argue with you.”
“You’re not?—"
“I am,” he cut me off, “because you guessed it. I liked you, Sunny, I won’t lie. I liked you in our emails and texts. You were nice and you seemed sane despite what we were about to do. You should have seen some of the women I came across on there before. Fucking nut cases. But you? You were sweet and kind. But there was a reason I didn’t ask for a picture or to video chat. Because it didn’t matter. You were supposed to be a means to an end. I know what kind of asshole that makes me, pretty girl, don’t doubt that. I had every freaking intention of getting married to you, getting whatever Clerence needed, and the moment he cleared it for the loan, send you on your merry way with a hefty thank-you card.”
I couldn’t help the way his plans made me flinch.
“But that very first day, the first moment I laid eyes on you, my plans imploded in my face. One look at you, sunshine, and I fell in love. I never believed in love and happily ever afters and much less in love at first sight. Lust at first sight? Of course. But love?”
“March—"
“But you did that. You made me fall in love, and I had no idea which way was up. Every damn moment with you was better than the last, and when I took you, honey, and I’m not talking about when I took to bed but when I kissed you that first time, that was it. I was done fighting it. This whole thing was supposed to have an easy and uncomplicated resolution to a pain-in-the-ass problem, but you changed that by making me fall in love with you before I even knew your name.”
“Well, I’m so sorry to be a complication,” I tried to act put out, but I was honestly still trying to process everything he’d just said.
“I’m not.” He leaned forward, close enough for me to smell the scent of his skin and feel the heat of his body. “I’m not sorry even for a little bit. I want this, Sunny. I want you. Forever. I wanna grow old with you, and I wanna give you those babies you want. Something I never thought I’d ever say. And you can ask Clay.”
“The cousin whose house you’re building.”
