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“In person?!”
“Yeah, I guess he’d overheard the conversation and?—”
“What did you think of him?!” she cries.
“He’s very…” I abandon all attempts to play it cool. “He’s incredibly hot,” I admit. “I would hit that, absolutely, no reservations. I mean, except for the fact that—at least if you believe Google and the entertainment sites—he’s a player and probably an asshole.”
“I have heard that,” Nia admits.
“Here’s the truly off-the-wall thing. Brace yourself, because lightning doesn’t strike twice, but: he tried to convince me to marry him in exchange for use of the barn at Hott Springs.”
“Whoa,” Akemi says, her head suddenly popping up from her intent concentration on red peppers. “I was so not expecting that plot twist.”
“Right?”
Nia is staring at me. “Shane Hott proposed marriage to you?”
“I mean, I think that’s overstating the case. It wasn’t a proposal. It was a proposition. If it had been an actual proposal, I probably would have thrown something in his face.”
“Fair,” my sister says. “So he made you this proposition and you turned him down?”
“Understandably,” Akemi says. “She’s not going to marry some guy she barely knows so she can use his barn.”
“That sounds so dirty,” Nia says. “I don’t even know what the double meaning would be, but there’s that whole thing when your fly’s down and people say, ‘Shut the barn door before the horse gets out’—”
Akemi puts a hand up. “Oh God, stop.”
Nia smirks. She loves riling Akemi. “And barns are just—I mean, ‘roll in the hay’ and stud stallions and all that. Barns are very earthy-sexy.”
“Can we maybe get back to Shane’s proposition here?” I plead.
My sister returns her attention to me. “Why the hell would he want you to marry him? Oh, crud—I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
Akemi snorts.
“He’s trying to save his family’s land and his sister’s business.” I explain the situation to them—what’s at stake with the will and Hanna’s livelihood.
Nia whistles when I’m done. “Wow. That’s some serious family mud.”
“Right?”
“So if you help him with the will, he’ll let you use the barn?”
I nod.
“Huh,” she says. “For free?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Stop right there,” Akemi says.
“What?” Nia demands.
“I can see the wheels turning. You’re not going to sell your sister on the marriage market to get a temporary piece of real estate.”
You can see why I like Akemi.
“Thanks, Akemi,” I say. “And yeah, no way I’m accepting Shane’s proposa—proposition. It would be a hot mess. Getting fake married, dealing with loads of publicity and paparazzi, and spending way too much time with a guy whose claim to fame is that there’s only one woman he’s ever been photographed with twice. We’ll find another place to house the theater.”
