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“Katherine McIntyre, I know that we are only at the start of our journey together. Tonight I offer you this ring in the hopes that it will be a long, happy one. Will you marry me?”
She didn’t know what to say.
It was the moment she’d been waiting for. This might have started off by accident, but Finn was stepping up and helping her achieve her dream of having a real family for her daughter. Mother, wife, father, husband, child, family...it was all coming together. There was only one thing missing from the picture.
Love.
Kat had told herself she didn’t need it. What the baby needed was more important. She’d told herself that if Finn would marry her, she would make a good life with him and maybe love would come in time.
The moment was right. The ring was perfect. The proposal was heartfelt and well-spoken. She was surrounded by her new family, who were nearly bursting at the seams, waiting for her to say yes so they could spend the rest of the evening celebrating the new couple. It was everything she’d thought she wanted.
It was just the wrong
brother down on one knee.
Eleven
Sawyer could step aside because his father told him to. He could even take his brother shopping to pick out the ring he knew she would love. But he just couldn’t sit at that table and watch Finn propose to the woman Sawyer loved.
Realizing that he loved Kat mere seconds before his brother stood up to make his big speech was Sawyer’s typical poor timing. Before that, he’d known he cared about Kat and the baby. He liked spending time with her. If marrying her made her feel better about raising her daughter, he was willing to do it, and spare Finn from a fate he saw as worse than death. Sawyer knew he didn’t like the idea of his brother with Kat. But until that moment, none of it had added up in his mind to love.
When he realized the truth, it was too much for him to take. He’d been in love before, so he should’ve realized it sooner. But he was stubborn. He knew Kat was never meant to be his, so he hadn’t recognized the signs. How stupid could he be, to fall in love with the woman having his brother’s child? Even after he knew she wanted to marry Finn for the child’s sake, he couldn’t stay away. The whole situation was doomed from their first kiss that day at the District.
So he left. Simple as that. His parents would probably be annoyed. He’d have to explain that he realized he’d forgotten an appointment or something. Left the iron on at home. He certainly couldn’t tell them he was in love with Kat and didn’t want to watch her get engaged to Finn.
His phone rang several times on his drive home that night, but he didn’t answer. He put it on Silent and shoved it into the glove box of his Audi. He didn’t want to hear about how it went. He didn’t want to see a picture of the blissful couple. He just wanted to go home, drink a beer and reevaluate his damn life.
What he certainly didn’t expect was to find his brother sitting in his office the next morning. When he opened the door, Finn was reclining casually on the leather sofa he kept near the window for visits and late afternoon naps.
“Good morning, brother,” Finn said in a chipper tone.
Too chipper, to tell the truth. Sawyer looked at him with mistrust, going past the couch to toss his laptop bag onto the desk. “It’s too early for you to be up.”
“I’m still on Beijing time. I figure since I’m just going back in a few weeks, I shouldn’t bother fighting the time difference and the jet lag.”
“I figured you were out all night celebrating your pending nuptials.”
Finn’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Nuptials? You mean you haven’t heard?”
Sawyer sighed and leaned against his desk. “Haven’t heard what, Finn? It’s too early for guessing games.”
“You haven’t looked at your phone!” Finn got up from the couch and walked over to him. “Hold out your hand,” he said.
When Sawyer complied, Finn dropped the ring box into his palm. He opened it, expecting it to be empty, with the ring on Kat’s finger, but it was still safely nestled in its velvet bed. “Tell me you didn’t chicken out on her!” he said, gripping the ring box in his fist and slamming the lid shut. He would punch Finn in the face right now if he’d changed his mind and broken Kat’s heart.
“No way!” Finn said, as he ducked out of arm’s reach. “I did my part. Pretty well, too. I didn’t want to hear about it from Dad later, so I had a very nice, heartfelt proposal prepared. But she turned me down. Flat.”
Sawyer froze for a moment. A part of him was waiting for Finn to say he was joking, but the relieved smile on his face said it all. Kat hadn’t accepted his proposal and Finn was thrilled, because there was nothing their father could do about it.
“She said no?”
“She said no. With Dad and everyone else there to witness it. And while I’m relieved... I also have to say that I’m a bit concerned about why she changed her mind.”
“Concerned?”
“Yes. Concerned that while I was out of the country, my twin brother may have swooped in and snatched Kat right out from under me.”
“What are you talking about?”
