“Okay. This other room up here, I just have a bed in it as an extra guest room. Sometimes, if people come and help with roundup, they’ll come stay with me.”
“That makes sense,” Bliss says as she follows me past the extra room and down the stairs.
I walk past the kitchen to the hallway, which leads to two more bedrooms. “I sleep in here and thought you’d want this one next to it.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Just how cozy do you think we’re going to get in this marriage?”
I smirk. “How cozy do you want to get?”
Her gaze turns murderous, and I hold my hands up in surrender.Too soon.
“Let me show you why I thought you might like this.”
I swing open the door and lead the way through the sparsely decorated room with a queen bed centered under the window.It’s a big bedroom, but that’s not what I think will catch her attention.
I push the door open to the bathroom. “You can go straight from your bedroom to the bathroom. And … Charlie renovated the bathroom for me in February. Personally, I think it’s a bit much. But my mom promised me it would be something a future wife would love.”
“I’ll be the one to determine that, thank you very much,” Bliss snaps as she marches toward the open door.
She thinks she’s being snarky, but the fact that she’s talking as thoughshewill be my future wife? That’s the part that gives me hope.
And then she gasps. “Yes. I do. Put a ring on it. Till death do us part. The whole nine yards.” The words tumble out in a rush as she looks around the bathroom.
There’s a walk-in shower with multiple showerheads. Double sinks with a huge mirror. A stand-alone tub beneath a large skylight for stargazing. I had Charlie add heated tile floors as well.
“Even the tiles are beautiful,” Bliss says quietly.
“I was hoping you’d like it.”
And I truly mean it. I like Bliss. She’s no-nonsense but a genuinely good person. I want her to be happy. And if she agrees to this marriage, I hope she’ll be happy here.
Bliss looks at me. “You’ve made a strong case.”
“Will you think about it?” I expect her to laugh and say no immediately.
Instead, she nods once. “I’ll think about it.”
I don’t know why, but my heart speeds up. And I realize I’m actually excited about the idea of Bliss marrying me.
CHAPTER 6
Bliss
I can’t believeI just told Zane I would think about marrying him.
When did I reduce something so special into a business transaction?
I drive home in silence. I can’t even listen to music right now; the thoughts in my mind are too loud.
This is ridiculous. Why would I marry him? It would be a horrible idea. I’ve had a crush on him for a year now. If I were to marry him, it would probably break my heart to live in the same house while he never returned an ounce of affection.
My feelings for Zane started to grow shortly after his fiancée left him. I was the one to pick him up from the church and drive him home that fateful day. I did that because I knew he shouldn’t sit there in shocked silence the whole night.
I didn’t have feelings for himthen. But no one else knew what to say or do to help him after that. So I did the only thing I knew…I invited him to different work projects. And he came. So I kept inviting him, acting like everything was normal. And soon he would call me and invite me to come work with him.He eventually got into the swing of regular life again, never mentioning Alexa, his ex-fiancée.
When you work with someone, you get to know them. And what started off as a way to help a ‘friend’ soon became my downfall. I learned that Zane has a wicked sense of humor. I learned that he could make any work project fun, and that he was friendly and kind to anyone who crossed his path. It didn’t take long to develop a full-blown crush. But it’s been a full year and he has said nothing that would indicate he has any of the same feelings for me.
Zane is a good guy. But I don’t know that I could survive a practical marriage with him. Because if I marry Zane, I would want him to fall in love with me—and if he didn’t? I would be heartbroken.
