by Shirley Jump
Love—or any approximation of it—was a dangerous thing that left a man vulnerable. Not a position Finn McKenna relished or welcomed. A marriage of convenience would be void of all those things.
Still, the cynic in him wondered if Ellie was proposing this as a way to knock him off guard, or maybe even an alliance that would allow her to gather facts about him and his business, facts she could use to take over his company later or eliminate him as a competitor. Hadn’t Lucy done exactly the same thing?
But the man in him, the one standing beside a very beautiful, very intriguing woman with a smile that stayed with him, hoped like hell it was something more than that.
Was he truly considering this…this marriage of convenience? What choice did he have? He needed to be a part of that hospital project. Making it a joint venture with a company like WW would reestablish his company’s reputation, and distract attention from that fiasco last year. And, as calculated as it sounded, a marriage to a charming woman like Ellie would also distract attention from the mess his company had been in lately, give the gossips something else to talk about. He’d be back on top before he knew it, and then he and Eleanor Winston could quietly dissolve the union, as she’d said. She’d have the child, and he’d have his business back. He could feel the old familiar surge of adrenaline that always hit him when he landed a big job, one that he knew could change the future of McKenna Designs.
“This contract looks pretty good,” he said.
“I wanted to make it clear this was business only.” Her gaze flicked to the water, and she let out a small sigh. Almost like she was disappointed. Which was crazy, because she was the one floating the idea in the first place. “But we don’t have a lot of time to waste. Jiao is stuck in that orphanage, farther away from me with every passing day. And you, I suspect, would like to be on board from day one with the hospital project. The initial drawings are due the fifteenth so we have very little time to get everyone up to speed.”
“The fifteenth? That does put a crunch on our time. By all rights, we should start right away.”
“I agree. In the end, Finn, we’re both decisive people, aren’t we?” She smiled at him. “I’m not looking for a courtship with flowers and dancing and dinners out. What we are doing is more of a…”
“Partnership. Two like minds coming together.”
“Exactly.”
A part of him felt a whisper of…loss? Finn wasn’t sure that was the right word to describe the yawning emptiness in his gut. Surely a deal like this—one that would benefit his company and at the same time, fill those quiet, lonely nights with good conversation, was a win-win all around.
Except…
No, he didn’t need any more than that. As Ellie had said, a romantic relationship came with complications, emotional drama—all things he didn’t have time for, nor wanted in his life. And clearly, not something she wanted, either. She saw him as a means to an end, and he saw her the same way.
Hadn’t he learned his lesson with Lucy? A heady relationship would do nothing but draw his attention away from the business. In the coming months, the company would need more of his attention than ever, so the kind of relationship Ellie was proposing was perfect. With the addition of the legal contract, the risk to McKenna Designs would be minimal. He saw no downside to this.
Except the fact that it wouldn’t be a real marriage. That it would be as faux as the wood paneling that still flanked his grandmother’s fireplace, forty years after the house had been built, the same house she lived in because it was the one she’d bought with her late husband, even though she could now afford ten times the house.
A hummingbird flitted by, heading for a bright swath of flowers. Finn watched it for a while, as the world hustled by behind him.
“There’s this bird in Africa,” Finn said, watching the tiny hummingbird dart from bloom to bloom, “called a honey guide. Its whole job is to find beehives and lead the honey badger to them. When he does, the badger gets in there and gets the honey, clearing the way for the honey guide to eat the bee larvae.” He turned to Ellie. “I guess that’s sort of what this will be. Us working together to serve a mutually beneficial purpose.”
“Not exactly the same as swans mating for life, but yes.”
“Definitely not a partnership for life,” Finn said. But even as he clarified, he felt a twinge of something like regret. He shrugged it off. Be smart, he reminded himself, like the badger and the bird. In the end, everyone wins.
“I don’t want to rush you,” she said. “But we need to make a decision. If you don’t want to do this…I need to think of something else.”
“Fine,” he said, turning to her. “Let’s go.”
She blinked. “What…now?”
“Why wait?” he said, parroting her words back. “I have a friend at the courthouse. He’ll take care of it. You can be my wife by the end of the day, Miss Winston.”
“Today? Right now?”
“Yes, of course.” He watched her closely, and wondered if, despite the contract she’d given him, she was as committed to this partnership as she had sounded. Only one way to find out, he decided. “You weren’t expecting me to get down on one knee with some flowers or a ring, were you?”
“No, no, of course not.” She swallowed. “Business only.”
“My favorite kind of relationship.” He gave her a smile, then turned to go back across the grass. He paused, turned back, waiting for her to join him. He had called Ellie Winston’s bluff. The only problem…
He wasn’t so sure she’d been bluffing.
* * *
“Are you ready?”
Was she ready? Ellie had no idea if she was or wasn’t. The events of the last hours seemed surreal, as if it was some other Ellie Winston who had proposed to Finn McKenna, then hopped in his Town Car and headed to Rhode Island in the middle of the day.
Had she really just proposed to him? And had he really accepted?
She’d gone to his office right after leaving the adoption agency and then her lawyer’s office, her mind filled with only one thing. She needed a husband and she needed one now. She’d do whatever it took to get that. She’d seen Jiao’s trusting, hopeful face in her mind and thought of nothing else. Jiao needed a mother. Needed Ellie.
Linda had made it clear—marriage was the only sure route to bringing Jiao home. There was no one else that Ellie knew—not well enough in her short time living here in Boston—who would marry her on such short notice. No one who would go along with such a crazy plan, and not expect a real marriage out of the deal. So she’d gone to Finn, the only man she knew who needed her as much as she needed him.
A part of her had never expected him to say yes. But say yes, he had, and now they were on their way to get married.
Married.
To Finn McKenna.
A man she knew about as well as she knew her dry cleaner.
This was insane. Think of Jiao, she told herself. Just think of Jiao. And as the miles ticked by, that became her mantra.
Massachusetts had a three-day waiting period for a marriage license, Finn had told her, as he got on I-95S and made the hour-long journey to Providence, Rhode Island, where there was no waiting period. The car’s smooth, nearly silent ride and comfortable interior made the whole drive seem almost…romantic, even though it was broad daylight and the highway was filled with other cars. It was something about the cozy, dark leather of the car that wrapped around her, insulated them, drew them into a world of just the two of them, like lovers making an afternoon getaway. Which was crazy, because what they were doing was far from romantic. And they were definitely not lovers.
“How did you know there was a three-day waiting period in Massachusetts?” she asked.
“My brother.” A grin slid across Finn’s face. “Riley is a little…impetuous. We’ve had to talk him out of mor
e than one crazy decision.”
“We?”
“My younger brother Brody and me. We’re the ones who received all the common-sense genes.”
“Inherited from generations of common-sense McKenna men?”
He chuckled. “Exactly. Though my grandmother might quibble with how much common sense is in our DNA.”
“So there are three of you altogether?” Ellie asked.
“Yep. All boys. Made for a busy life. Hell, it still does.”
She tried to picture that environment, with three rambunctious, noisy siblings, and couldn’t. The camaraderie. The joking. The warmth. “I’m an only child. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to grow up with two sisters, or a bunch of brothers.”
“It’s loud. And sometimes things get broken.” Finn put up a hand and pressed three fingers together. “Scouts’ Honor, I had nothing to do with that antique vase or the missing coffee table.”
Ellie heard the laughter buried in Finn’s voice and craved those same kinds of memories for Jiao. She bit back a sigh. Adopting just one child as a single mother was proving to be difficult enough. Adopting multiple children seemed impossible. But maybe someday—
She’d have the warm, crazy, boisterous family Finn was describing.
Except that would mean taking a risk and falling in love. Ellie didn’t need to complicate her life with a relationship that could end up hurting her—and in the process her daughter—down the road. This marriage, based on a legal contract and nothing else, was the best choice.
“Remind me to tell you the tree story sometime,” Finn said. “And every year at Thanksgiving, we revisit the Ferris wheel one. That one was all Riley’s fault. There’s always an interesting story where Riley is concerned, and Brody and I try to exploit that at every opportunity.”
Her gaze went to the city passing by outside the window, streaks of color in the bright sunshine. Thanksgivings and Christmases with a whole brood of McKenna men sounded like heaven, Ellie thought. Her childhood had been so quiet, so empty, with her mother gone all the time and her father working sunup to sundown. She envied Finn and for a moment, wondered if they would be married long enough for her to sit around the Thanksgiving dinner table with a trio of McKennas, sharing raucous stories and building memories over the turkey.
She pictured that very thing for a moment, then pulled away from the images. They were a bird and a badger, as he’d pointed out, not two swans in love. Besides, she knew better than to pin her hopes on some romantic notion of love. That happened for other people, not her.
“My parents weren’t around much when I was a kid. Now my mother lives in California, so it’s really just my dad and me.” She shifted in her seat to look at him. “I guess you could say my life has always been pretty…quiet and predictable.” Now that she said it, she wondered if that was such a good thing. For one, she wanted to add the chaos of a child. Would she be ready for it? She, who had never so much as babysat a neighbor’s kid? Save for a few vacations spent in China with Jiao and Sun, she had no experience with children…what made her think she could do this? Heck, Finn, with all those younger brothers, was probably better suited to parenting than she was.
All Ellie had was a deep rooted conviction that she would love her child and be there for her. She wouldn’t leave Jiao with an endless stream of babysitters or miss her third-grade recital or pay a tutor to help her with her homework so Ellie could work a few more hours. She would be there.
Somehow, she’d find a way to run WW Designs and be the mother that Jiao needed, the kind of parent Ellie had never had. Even though she knew it would be easier to do that if she had a real husband, one who was a plugged-in father, she vowed to make this work on her own. One attentive, loving parent was better than two inattentive, unavailable parents. And she had no intentions of forcing this marriage to limp along after the adoption was final. The worst thing for Jiao would be to have a distant parent, one who left her wondering if she was truly loved.
Finn turned on his blinker, then exited the highway. “Your life might have been quiet and predictable up until now, but I’d say getting married on the spur of the moment is pretty far from either of those adjectives.”
She laughed. “You’re right. No one would ever think I’d elope.”
“That goes double for me.” Finn paused at the end of the off-ramp. He turned to face her, his blue eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. “Still sure you want to do this?”
She thought of what he had just told her. About his brothers and his noisy childhood. Then thought of the quiet, empty life she led. She had her father, yes, but other than that, all she had was work.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said.
“Okay.” Then he made the turn, following the signs that led to the downtown area. “Me, too.”
He said it so softly, she wondered if there was more behind the words than a simple agreement. Was he missing something in his life, too? Was he looking to fill the empty spaces, add life to those quiet rooms? Or was this solely a business merger for him?
He said nothing more, just drove, and she let the silence fill the space between them in the cavernous Town Car. A little while later, they pulled in front of the courthouse, a massive brick building with dozens of tall windows and a spire reaching toward the clouds. The stately building resembled a church as much as it did a place for justice.
They parked in one of the many parking garages nearby, then walked the short distance to the court. Ellie noticed that Finn opened her car door, opened the garage’s door, lightly took her elbow when they crossed a street. Such small gestures, but ones that Ellie appreciated. After all, this was a business deal. He didn’t have to play the chivalrous man.
They went up the few stone steps to the entrance, with Finn stepping in front of her to open and hold the heavy courthouse door for her, too. “Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do for my future wife.”
She faltered at the word. She’d heard it twice already today, and still couldn’t believe it was happening. “Are you planning on carrying me over the threshold, too?”
He paused. “We hadn’t talked about that detail.”
“Which one?”
“Where we’re going to live after this.”
The mirth left her. Oh, yeah.
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. In fact, she’d just gone with this insane plan, clearly not thinking it through. The adoption agency would undoubtedly do its due diligence before signing off on Ellie’s adoption. At the very least, they’d want a report from Linda on the living conditions.
It wouldn’t take a genius to realize her marriage was a sham if she and new “husband” were living in separate homes. Ellie had never been much of an impetuous woman. Until today and now, she could lose it all by not thinking this through.
“We should live together,” she said, all the while watching for his reaction, “or no one will believe it’s real. We’ll need people to believe we’re together for more than just a business deal.”
“We’ll have to make it seem…real,” he said.
“Yeah. We will.”
Finn turned to her in the bright, expansive lobby. People rushed around them, hurrying to courtrooms and offices, their shoes echoing on the marble floors, their voices carrying in the vast space.
But Ellie barely noticed. She stood in a world of only two, herself and the man who had agreed to marry her and in the process, change her life. And Jiao’s, too.
“Maybe if people find out I eloped, it’ll change their image of me as the Hawk.”
She laughed. “And what, turn you into the Dove?”
“I don’t think so.” He chuckled. “I could get married at a drive-thru chapel in Vegas with Elvis as my best man and that still wouldn’t be enough to do that.”
“You never know. Marriage changes
people. Relationships change them.” Her voice was soft, her mind on one person a world away.
“Yes, I think it does. And not always for the better.”
She wanted to ask him what he meant by that. Did he mean the ex-fiancée who had ruined his reputation? Or was he talking about something, someone else?
He cleared his throat. “You’re right. Our marriage is going to need a measure of verisimilitude, and being in the same residence will do that. In addition, we can work on the hospital project after hours.”
Even though Finn’s voice was detached, almost clinical, the words after hours conjured up thoughts of very different nocturnal activities. Since the first time she’d spotted Finn in the ballroom of the Park Plaza, she’d been intrigued. She’d liked how he bucked convention by having a beer instead of wine, how he’d been so intent yet also charming. From a distance, she’d thought he was handsome. Up close, he was devastating. Her heart skipped a beat every time he smiled. Her traitorous mind flashed to images of Finn touching her, kissing her, making love to her—
Whoa. That was not part of the deal. At all. Keeping this platonic was the only—and best—way to ensure that she could walk away at the end. She didn’t want to chance her heart on love, or risk her future with a relationship that could dissolve as easily as sugar in hot tea. Falling for him would only complicate everything.
And marrying him on the spur of the moment wasn’t complicated? All of a sudden, a flutter of nerves threatened to choke her. Ellie opened her mouth to tell Finn this was crazy, she couldn’t do this, when the door to the courthouse opened behind them and a slim, tall man hurried inside.
“Sorry I’m late. My day has been crazy.” He chuckled. “As usual. Story of my life. And yours, too, huh, Finn?”
Finn patted the other man on the back and gave him a grin. “Charlie, how are you?”
“Just fine. Not as good as you, though. Running off to get married. You surprise me, old friend.” He grinned, then put out a hand toward Ellie. “Judge Charlie Robinson, at your service.”