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At that single syllable, the tiny idea bloomed into possibility. It grew even more at her next words.
“If there was a way for me to stop working, keep my insurance, and go back to school, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” Her slumped posture indicated she found the entire premise hopeless.
“Maybe there is,” he said.
She looked at him, confusion marring her forehead.
His heart pounded, and it suddenly felt as if his lungs couldn’t get enough air. A strange sense of excitement filled him, even as his brain rained down rational thoughts to reverse his decision.
Don’t.
It’s a terrible idea.
It’s fraud.
He ignored them all. “What if we got married?”
3
Mia stilled as her mouth dropped open. “What if we what?”
Noah’s throat worked as he swallowed. His hands gripped his knees, but his ice-blue gaze remained steady on hers. “We could get married.” He said it in the same way he might say “next week let’s get tacos instead of chicken wings.”
Her pulse tripled, and she frowned at her body’s reaction. She just stared at him.
“I could put you on my insurance, and you could accept the scholarship. Go back to school.”
“As yourwife?” she squeaked.
“Yeah.”
She remained frozen for a split second, then blinked several times, shaking her head slowly. She’d been confident Noah would come up with a plan, but never in a million years would she have come up withthat. “Noah.”
“Mia.”
“You can’t be serious.” She knew he was, though. He’d one hundred percent do that for her, because that’s the kind of friend he was.
He just looked at her. He knew she knew he was serious, too.
“I would never ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t.”
She groaned. “Okay, I couldn’t let you do that.”
“What’s the big deal? It would just be on paper, and it’s not like it would be forever. You said yourself you could get a kidney any day. Then you wouldn’t need the company’s coverage anymore, and we could get a divorce. Or an annulment, I don’t really know how that works. And either way, it’s only for two years max, right? Once you have your degree and license, you’ll get a job as a dietician somewhere and have your own insurance again. We’d separate then.”
“Two years, Noah? We can’t do that. You can’t.”
“Why not?”
“What if you meet someone you want to date between now and then? You run into a nice girl at a bar and want to ask her out, but oh, wait.” She smacked the side of her head with her palm. “Can’t. You’re already married.”
He shot her a look eerily similar to the one he gave her whenever she said an outfit didn’t look good on her. Full of disbelief and borderline annoyed. “I care more about you than I do a few potential dates. What’s two years? This is your dream, Mia. Your career. Being a dietician is always what you’ve wanted to do. If I’d known you were considering going back to school, I’d have suggested it a long time ago. An opportunity like this won’t come around again. You have to take it.”
She pressed the heels of her palms to her eyes. How could he be so blasé about this? “I... No, Noah. It’s too much. You’re so sweet, but—”
He held up a hand. “Stop. Just think about it, okay? I mean this. It’s not an empty offer.”
