“A year.”
“Six months.”
“I might require more time.”
“To do what?”she demanded, feeling energized by the back-and-forth.
With most jobs there’d been a posting, and she’d shown up and they asked all the questions and made the demands.
This handed her some power.“Six months.A year.Those are both a long time.”
“Do you enter every job interview with one foot out the door.”
She returned for her coffee and sat down again, picked up her cup, she palmed it for the warmth and to keep her fingers from trembling.Was she really considering this?
“I’ve had to,” she said, wanting to keep her claim of honesty real.She lied only to protect herself.“But my work with the cruise ship was my longest position though I moved around ships, routes, positions.Three years, so I can stick if I want to.”
“Six months with an addendum that we will renew for a second six months if both parties are agreeable, and there will be a bonus for you to re-sign.”
“You might want out.”
“I won’t.”
She could barely swallow around the lump in her throat.“You don’t know that.”
“I want to travel to Montana.Research my family.Find land or something that will help me to build a legacy for Cam—to keep his memory alive.Those things take time.I require a partner who’s good with the social to ease my way, as I imagine a stranger, who clearly doesn’t fit it will be suspect.A wife creates a… family.”
His word changed on the last one, and she felt it reverberate in her soul.She didn’t have a family.Not really.The Family hadn’t had her best interests at heart, not ever.It was all about serving the Father.Knowing your place.Submitting to His will.
“I admire your intellect.I will be out of my element, especially if I pursue an effort to connect with my blood kin.”His mouth narrowed, and Ayana began to see how she could be a benefit, although she was the last one to advise anyone on what it would be like to embrace family.Or to be embraced.That was a fairy tale.
“I will require your judgment, honesty, and loyalty to bounce ideas.Obviously, this is not yet a completely formed plan.Winging it and planning to interact with people I don’t know will be a new way of operating for me.”His face shuttered for a moment, then he looked directly at her, and she felt his regard to her toes.“You strike me as extremely discerning with a well-developed BS meter.”
“True… to my detriment many times, but true.”
“You don’t have any ties that will hinder any plan I make.”
“True,” she frowned.“And I’ve set my life up like this deliberately.”
“And it’s working for you?”
He didn’t sarcastically snap it or sound mocking, so it hit harder than it should.
“I just don’t see why we can’t pretend to be married if you think me posing as your girlfriend would offend small-town, God-fearing Montanians.”
“In a highly digitalized world, too easy to disprove, and then you’ve given someone potential power over you.”
“Who would want…” she began, automatically, the argument quick to form, but then she realized truly how different their lives were.
He’d had articles written about him, his company, his wealth.He was thinking about reaching out to his potential family—his brother was a famous bull rider who’d recently gone viral.His bio dad clearly had some scheme to wring money out of both of his estranged sons.
So, no flying under the radar.
But marriage?
“It’s a protection for you as well.You’ve been living on the margins.The payment for your job as my wife will be beneficial, and at the end of the contract, you’ll be set you up so that you will have time and money to plan your next steps.Enough to buy a home or start a business.”
“No kids,” she said.“Too permanent.”
