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“Could we talk?” she repeated, her body uneasy being so close to a man. His clean scent drifted over her—lime and coconuts with a hint of vanilla.
He met her gaze, his eyebrows quirking up in surprise. “Sure. Uh, here? Or my office?”
This conversation needed to remain private. “Can we go to your office?”
He blinked, as if surprised, then nodded. Aaron held out his hand for her to lead the way. He stayed close behind but didn’t touch her as they maneuvered through the room towards the hall. A few people said hello to him, and he offered them a friendly greeting with promises to catch up with them later.
The fact he had made her his priority in this moment brought a rush of emotion she hadn’t expected.
She waited outside his office as he pulled out a key from his pocket.
He unlocked the door and waved towards the room. “After you.”
She inhaled a shaky breath, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Her heart raced in her chest like a thousand galloping horses. She was alone with a man, vulnerable and scared to death.
Aaron left the door cracked open before he made his way to the seat behind his desk. She breathed a little easier with nothing between her and escape.
“How can I help you?” he asked, resting his elbows on his desk.
Brynn sat across from him in one of the empty chairs and squeezed her trembling hands together. “Were you serious? About your offer?”
“You mean to marry you?”
She nodded.
“I wouldn’t have offered otherwise. I know you don’t know me that well, Brynn, but I’m an honest man. What you see is what you get. It means I’m blunt and to the point. There’s no sense in dancing around issues or sugarcoating things.”
His confession scared her while another part of her found it refreshing. How amazing to be absolutely honest with another person without games or masks?
“I’d like to understand why a man like you, Mr. Ridley, would tie up his whole life for a woman and child like us.”
He sat back and released a breath. “You want to know what my ulterior motives are?”
“Yes.”
He cleared his throat and tugged the pink shirt away from his neck. “I was a teenager when my younger sibling, Amber, came out and told me she was trans. Amber told me he was, in fact, Emmanuel.”
Brynn’s shoulders relaxed a fraction. That makes sense—why this is a cause he’s so passionate about—but it doesn’t explain why he wants to help me.
“My parents are from the South and are heavily involved in their church. They were not as accepting of Emmanuel as I was. He eventually got kicked out at seventeen. He ended up homeless, drug-addicted, and then he . . .” Aaron looked down at his desk, his voice filled with emotion. “He took his own life.”
Brynn covered her mouth as tears blurred her vision. Her heart ached for what Aaron and his brother had gone through. How was it that this man and her shared something in common? She understood what it was like to lose a sibling to suicide. “I’m sorry.”
Aaron’s glassy eyes met hers, his expression soft. “So, you see, all this—” He waved to the office around him. “—is for my brother, Emmanuel Hope Ridley.”
He wiped the emotion from his eyes.
Brynn sat in stunned silence. She’d never witnessed a man cry before. Where she came from, showing emotion of any kind was forbidden and even punished. “I’m sure he would be proud to know all you’ve done in his memory.”
Pain reflected in his gaze, one Brynn knew all too well—regret, for not having done more to help the one you loved most.
“The reason I proposed marriage was because I promised my brother I would dedicate my life and do whatever it took to save kids like him.”
“And that’s the only reason?” Her belly twisted. She wanted to know, and she needed all the facts.
His eyebrows pulled together. “Yes.”
She nodded. “If we do this, no one can know it isn’t real for Dani’s and my safety.”
