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“I will dedicate fifty percent of BIT’s corporate giving to the school on a yearly basis.” He didn’t need to take time to think about it.
He believed in giving back and not because he was a bleeding heart like Romi, but there were very few charitable options Maxwell felt a personal connection to. Anything related to Romi would be one of them.
Romi gasped. “That’s…” She trailed off, clearly speechless.
“About three million a year.” And better than a building, even if the building cost more up front.
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes.”
“It’s reliant on me marrying you?” she asked.
He couldn’t tell if the idea disappointed or upset her. Maxwell didn’t know what to think of this new ability to hide her emotions from him. He didn’t like it, though.
He shook his head, making an instant decision and taking a gamble. “No, Romi. I believe in the next generation, too.”
Which was nothing but the truth.
She stared at him, like she was trying to read his sincerity.
He lifted his brow in query. “Do you want it in writing before you give me your decision?”
“No.” She ducked her head as Mrs. K brought in their dinner plates.
When the housekeeper was gone, Romi looked up at him. “I believe you.”
She might think she didn’t trust him, but she did. And his risk had paid off because he’d made her realize it, even if only a little.
“Thank you.” Her words were soft, but the look in her eyes?
Pure hero worship.
And he loved it.
“You are welcome,” he replied. “I will have my corporate-giving coordinator contact you next week.”
“Actually, we’ve got a lot of paperwork to fill out, permits to file, et cetera, before we’re a fully functioning nonprofit.”
No doubt. “I have someone who can help you with that.”
“Maddie was going to use her trust’s lawyers.”
“The school’s financial picture will look better with a lawyer that doesn’t charge fifteen hundred an hour.” The old-money lawyers in San Francisco didn’t do pro bono and they charged three times as much as decent corporate lawyers with less prestigious clientele and addresses.
“True.”
“I’ll text you the firm’s name and contact information. I’ll let them know to expect your call.”
“I’ll talk to Maddie about it when she gets back from her honeymoon.”
“Palm Springs? What kind of honeymoon is that?” He liked the city himself, but it was hardly the exotic locale most would consider for a wealthy businessman and his heiress wife’s honeymoon.
“One tailored to the woman who loves that city above all others.”
“Really?”
“It holds good memories for her.”
“What about you?”
Romi shrugged. “I like it. She and I have been there together many times.”
Was his soon-to-be fiancée being deliberately obtuse? “Is it your ideal honeymoon spot?”
“Not really.” One of Romi’s charming blushes pinkened her cheeks.
Intriguing. “Where would you want to go?”
“Europe would be nice.”
“But not where you were thinking of. Come on, milaya, spill.”
She bit her lip and then sighed. “Building a house with one of the organizations that provide homes for people and families in need. You know, something like that. Something we could look back on and say we started our lives together giving a family a home.”
Okay. That was unexpected.
“We could not simply buy a house for some deserving family?” he asked faintly, excitement not his first reaction to the idea.
“It’s not the same, is it?” Romi asked. She shrugged dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. Just a dream. We wouldn’t have a honeymoon anyway.
“Why not?” He really didn’t understand the way her mind worked.
Didn’t Romi want a honeymoon?
She shrugged again and then looked down at her dinner, cutting a precise bite of the lasagna. “I mean, it’s not like we’re a romantic couple.”
They were something and it wasn’t a couple who was going to skip their honeymoon.
“Madison and Viktor are?” he asked with sarcasm.
Romi’s head snapped up and her eyes were filled with fervor. “They are. I mean, they both act like it’s all about the deal and protecting Maddie’s reputation and our dream for the charter school while Viktor gets to take over AIH, but they’re so in love it’s sickening.”
“Are you sure you aren’t seeing things that aren’t there?” Maxwell’s old friend had looked besotted at the wedding and reception, though.
“No. They’ll both figure it out eventually. Until then, things are going to be a little tense. You know with the whole, ‘you married me to get my dad’s company’ thing between them.”
“Maybe Archer was just playing matchmaker.”
“I don’t think so.” Romi grimaced. “He offered the contract to you, too.”
Romi really didn’t like Jeremy Archer.
“Madison was never going to consider anyone but Viktor.”
“Her dad didn’t know that.”
“Maybe he did.” Archer wasn’t an idiot after all.
“Yeah, you go on believing that.”
“You hold a grudge, don’t you?”
Romi looked surprised. “Actually, it takes a lot to make me mad, but then…yes, I suppose it takes a lot more to change that. And I’m really protective of the people I love.”
“I’ve noticed.”
“Yes, well…”
“It’s an admirable trait. I, too, am protective of the people important to me.” His list was just much, much shorter.
Up to the point he’d met Romi, it had had one name on it. Natalya Black.
He thought Romi probably had quite a few friends that had tasted her fierce loyalty, even if they weren’t as close to her as Harry Grayson or Madison Beck.
Romi dropped all pretense of eating and met his gaze, her own beautiful blue eyes filled with serious lights. “Would your wife be important to you?”
Relieved that he could admit to the uncommon protectiveness without acknowledging whatever nebulous feelings might drive it, he nodded. “Naturally.”
“At least as long as we’re married.”
He considered her words and how wrong they felt. “I think that once we have been married, you will always be on my short list of those who can claim my protection.”
Provided the divorce was amicable, but he’d never had a bad breakup. Of course just the thought of Romi walking away from him annoyed Maxwell.
Not something they had to discuss right now however. “Tell me about building houses in Haiti.”
“It could be anywhere in the world really, but Maddie and I did it three summers in a row in Mexico. We always said we wanted to participate in a Haiti build, though.”
“I’m having a hard time picturing Madcap Madison and Romi Grayson, well-known activist heiress, building houses in the Mexican heat.”
“It was the most amazing experience. Everyone works like dogs to get these really simple dwellings built in a week, but the families are so grateful. The children…they’re incredible. I loved working with them even more than working on the house team.”
He could well imagine and said so.
She smiled, mischief glinting in her gaze. “You know what I can’t imagine?”
“What?”
“You pouring concrete in the Haitian sun wearing scrubs and a sun hat.”
Neither could he. Surely he could wear something else.
r /> She must have read his look because she laughed. “Some people wear jeans and long-sleeved T-shirts, but scrubs are the most comfortable. They let air circulate and are easy to get clean. Both are important.”
He wondered if his tailor did scrubs. “I see.”
“So, what about you?”
“What about me?” He’d never had dreams of building a house in Haiti, that was for sure.
“What would your ideal honeymoon be?”
He liked that she asked, so he told her the truth. “I would like to visit Russia, meet the family that turned their backs on my mother and show them the success she raised without their help.”
“I bet they regret pushing her away and miss her.”
“If they do, they’ve never contacted her to say so.”
Romi frowned. “Maybe they don’t know how. Did she tell them she was emigrating to the United States?”
“I do not know.”
“She changed her name, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, neither of you would have been easy to find.”
He refused to let them off the hook of responsibility so easily. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
“For men like you? Absolutely. For lesser mortals, not so much.”
He didn’t want to discuss his mother’s estranged family any longer. He didn’t even consider them his relatives. “Tell me you made your decision.”
“I won’t say I don’t care about Maddie’s shares.”
