“Will you do it?” Connor asked.
The color faded from Ellie’s cheeks. “You want us to stay married for your grandmother’s sake?” Her eyes hardened. “It would be a lie.”
The words twisted inside him, but he pushed aside the memories that threatened. “My grandmother needs something to encourage her to fight for her life. Please, Ellie. I’m not ready to let her go just yet.”
“You really think our marriage will give her something to live for?” The glimmer of compassion in her eyes filled him with hope.
“Yes.”
Ellie pushed a lock of hair away from her face. “And when we tell her the truth? You think she’ll be better off knowing we lied to her then?”
“She’ll be alive at least. I can deal with the rest,” Connor replied.
Ellie closed her eyes, hiding her emotions from him. When she opened them a moment later, their brown depths were clear and expressionless. “I need to ask you something, Connor. Something that has nothing to do with your grandmother.”
“Okay,” he said, suddenly curious.
She opened the small purse at her side and withdrew a handful of hundred-dollar bills. “We didn’t gamble last night, did we?”
He shook his head, remembering the stack of bills he’d given her. He also remembered the radiance of her smile when he’d placed them in her hand.
“You gave these to me, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I found it very admirable, what you’re doing.”
“Why support me in that way?” In that moment, she looked at him through the eyes he remembered.
“When you told me about the Birthday Project, you looked so sad because you didn’t have the funds to continue for October. I had the money, so I gave it to you,” he said with what he hoped was a casual shrug.
“Do you still feel the same way today, now that the thrill of last night and all the tequila are gone?” she asked, holding the money out to him.
He curled his hand around hers, gently guiding her hand and the money back toward her purse. “I still think what you’re doing is noble, and I’m happy to sponsor this month’s party.”
She stared at the money a moment longer before returning it to her purse. “I started the Birthday Project because of a little boy. He couldn’t have been more than five, strolling through Pike Place Market in front of me. He reached out and stole an apple from one of the vendors, then raced off. Before the vendor could chase him down, I paid for the apple, then followed the boy myself. I found him a few blocks away, hunched down in an alley, holding the apple before him and singing the birthday song to himself. When he saw me, he started to run, but I talked him into staying. We sat in that alley for a long time, talking about all the homeless kids, like himself, whose parents can’t celebrate their birthdays in any notable way given their circumstances. In that moment, I vowed I’d find a way to change that. To help kids like Kevin feel recognized and loved.”
She looked up at Connor, meeting his gaze. “Thank you for helping me keep my promise for October. It means the world to me and to the kids it will help.”
Connor could only nod, owing to the tightness in his throat.
Her expression softened. “All right. You helped me. I’ll help you. When do we leave?” Her words were only a thread above a whisper.
Connor forced back his own response to her story and looked at his watch. “I already called the airlines. Our flight leaves in two hours. We have just enough time to get back to the hotel for our things and then return my rental car before our flight.”
She frowned. “You were that sure I’d agree to your plan?”
He shrugged. “I hoped.”
She tipped her chin. Defiance radiated from her every pore. “Yeah, keep making assumptions about me, Grayson, and this arrangement won’t last very long,” she said, walking away from him, down the aisle toward the door.
After a few seconds he caught up with her. “It won’t happen again.” He tossed the apology out there like it meant something; then he realized that it really did. He needed her help. There was really nothing for her to gain from this arrangement except his cooperation with a quick divorce.
Connor took her hand.
She started to pull away.
He held tight. “We might as well start practicing now if we’re going to convince my grandmother we’re a couple.”
Ellie released a sigh. “This really wasn’t what I had planned when I came to Las Vegas.”
Connor forced back a flippant response. “What were you hoping to accomplish?” he asked instead, certain they’d never discussed why either of them was in town last night.
“I was looking for clients for my business,” she said as they made their way to the parking lot.
“I’ll hire you.”
She pulled her hand from his. “To do what?”
He shrugged. “I’ll need a launch party for my latest robotics project in the next few months if all goes well.”
“That won’t help me right now—besides, I’m not sure it’s wise to complicate our situation further, Grayson.”
At the moment, and in that tone of voice, she made his name sound like a curse. The thought rattled him as he opened the car door for her. She had been the curse of his life, not the other way around.
They had met the beginning of their senior year in high school because Ellie had needed a tutor for calculus. Sequestered in the library each day after school, the geek and the cheerleader became friends, allowing each to see who the other truly was despite the social pressure from their peers.
Connor hadn’t let anyone get too close after his mother disappeared from his life. But Ellie was different. Special. She didn’t dismiss him as a nerd like everybody else seemed to, and she truly cared for him. After four months of dating, things got serious. They’d planned to attend different colleges on opposite coasts, yet they wanted to make a lasting commitment to each other. Prom would have been the night, except that plan hadn’t gone as expected.
Old, painful memories flooded back as he settled into the car beside her. He told himself he didn’t blame her for leaving him behind. They’d been so young—young enough to lie to themselves about their future. Over the years he’d convinced himself their breakup had been for the best. They would have ruined each other’s lives, suffocated each other’s dreams.
But in this moment, staring at her in the front seat of his car, he realized he hadn’t forgiven her. How could he? She’d abandoned him just like his mother had. Aside from his grandmother, every other woman he’d allowed into his heart had let him down.
Ellie Hawthorne might not be the girl he once fell in love with, but she was the best hope for saving his grandmother’s life.
CHAPTER THREE
“Here we go,” Connor said outside the door of his grandmother’s small ICU room at Swedish Hospital on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
The words grated on Ellie’s overly sensitive nerves as she and Connor stepped into the room. She’d agreed to this scheme. There was no turning back now.
Connor’s grandmother lay as still as death on the narrow bed. No wonder Connor had been so eager to get to the hospital as soon as they’d landed at Sea-Tac Airport. Viola Grayson’s eyes were closed. The railed sides of the bed made the woman in between look so frail and small, with the covers tucked up under her chin. Several bags hung from a metal pole beside the bed, sending a long line of clear tubing into the back of her hand.
The gray-haired woman looked serene, as though she hadn’t a care in the world. Ellie kept an easy smile in place even as her heart climbed in her throat. They’d been allowed to see Viola for only a few minutes to share their good news . . . or their lie, depending on how you looked at the situation.
The electronic drone of the cardiac monitor filled the confines of the small room. A glance at the man beside her revealed he was keeping his emotions in check, but she didn’t miss the tightness of his breath or the slight sheen of moisture in his eyes. His worry was palpable.
Unable to stop herself, Ellie reached out and took his hand. He hesitated, then gripped her hand firmly, as though he needed her strength for what came next.
“Grandmother?” Connor said in a warm, soothing voice as they stopped beside the bed. “I’d like you to meet my wife.”
They waited breathlessly for her to open her eyes.
At first she didn’t respond, she just lay there, breathing. Ellie lifted her gaze to the cardiac monitor. A green line danced across the screen, its peaks and dips in a regular rhythm. She didn’t know much about hearts or heart surgery, but the line looked steady and normal.
Two beeps later, Viola’s eyelashes fluttered, and she opened her eyes. The older woman turned toward the sound of Connor’s voice. “Your . . . wife?” The words were soft, strained, yet a hint of joy hung in her tone.
Ellie and Connor were here to urge the older woman to fight harder, to live for the future. Tears spilled down Ellie’s cheeks, not because Viola had responded in a positive way but at the relief she could feel in Connor’s grip on her hand. He lifted Ellie’s fingers to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. A tingle of sensation rippled down her arm.
“She’s going to be fine,” Connor said, turning to face Ellie, giving her a dazzling smile. The smile was all part of the show they were performing for his grandmother’s sake, yet it still did strange things to her insides.
The emotion of the moment made her feel light-headed and nauseated at the same time. Ellie took a breath, clearing the sensations, then turned to the woman on the bed. She must play her part.
Ellie didn’t remember much about Viola from her high school days except that the woman always seemed to rule everyone around her with an iron fist in a velvet glove. “Hello, Viola. It’s nice to see you again.” What an inane and ordinary thing to say to a dying woman who was now technically her grandmother-in-law.
Viola didn’t seem to care as she looked up at both her and Connor. “Did I hear you right?” she asked in a weak voice. “Are you married?”
“We are,” Ellie said at the same time as Connor.
“It’s all I’ve ever wanted for my grandson,” Viola said, her voice growing stronger. Tears rolled down the sides of her cheeks. “Weren’t you in Las Vegas this week, Connor?”
Connor nodded. “Ellie was in Vegas as well, looking for clients for her event-planning company. Our paths crossed.” He sent Ellie a heated look before turning back to his grandmother. “And we were so swept away with emotion, we couldn’t wait to marry.”
Joy filled her expression as she stared up at them. “It’s like my prayers have been answered.”
Connor patted his grandmother’s hand. “Don’t you worry about anything other than getting better. Ellie and I will be here to help.”
Viola’s eyes drifted closed, as though talking was taking everything out of her. “You’re newlyweds. You need time to yourselves.”
“We’re going to let you sleep, Grandmother.”
The older woman’s eyes snapped open. “Not yet. Please. Where will you live? Surely not at that small condominium of yours, Connor.”
Connor bent over and touched her face, gently stroking her velvety wrinkles. “We haven’t discussed our living arrangements yet. We were in a hurry to get home to see you.”
Disrupting the perfection of the sheets, Viola brought her frail, age-spotted hand to cover his. “It’s settled then. You’ll move into my house.”
“No, Grandmother,” Connor said. “We couldn’t do that. It’s your house.”
“I haven’t lived at Grayson House for years. The old house is in need of a few repairs that are well beyond my ability to oversee.”
“What kind of repairs?” Connor asked. “Why didn’t you ask for help?”
“I didn’t want to bother anyone.” Suddenly seeming too tired to hold her hand up, she dropped it at her side.
Connor’s face paled, visibly shaken by the woman’s weakness. “I’ll do anything to help you, Grandmother.”
“Good. Then move into the house.”
Connor frowned. “My condo might be small, but your old Victorian is too big for the two of us.”
“You said Ellie needed clients for her event-planning business.” Viola might be weak, but her voice remained firm.
“Oh, it’s fine, really. I’ll find something soon,” Ellie said past the lump that lodged in her throat. The woman was very ill, yet Ellie could see that iron fist coming out.
Viola’s watery gaze passed between the two of them. “I was contacted last week about getting Grayson House ready for a holiday event—the Historical Society’s Holiday Street of Dreams. I was going to turn it down. Getting the house ready would have been too much work for me to oversee. Now it all seems the perfect solution. Grayson House will be a place for you both to live, and the event will help Ellie until she finds more work.”
Viola paused as she searched their faces. Her gaze narrowed. “Consider it helping to fulfill a dying woman’s last wish.”
Ellie pressed her lips together, holding back a gasp at the emotional blackmail. Viola might be sick, even dying, but she wanted their cooperation. Would Connor hold his ground or let Viola get her way?
“Grandmother,” Connor said, his spine stiffening, “Ellie can’t do that job alone. You said yourself that the house needs repairs. It’s unfair to ask her to do such a thing.”
“I’ll hire you both.”
Connor shook his head. “I already have a job that keeps me insanely busy. Besides, you need to focus on getting better. Not fixing up Grayson House.”
“I want the house fixed up,” she countered with a lift of her chin. Her cardiac monitor beeped a little faster. The green line spiked higher than it had before. “Knowing you both are doing the work will help me get better faster. Besides, you won’t have to do that work by yourselves. Your grandfather left me oodles of money. You can hire whoever you want to help you.”
Connor’s gaze shifted from the monitor to his grandmother. His posture relaxed, and Ellie knew he was buckling. “When is this event supposed to take place?”
“The day after Thanksgiving.”
“That’s five weeks from now. I’d have to see the job to know if that schedule is workable,” Ellie interjected, unable to keep silent a moment longer.
“I’m confident you can handle the challenge and the time frame,” Viola said. “I’ll pay each of you a salary. And, Connor, I’ll make a sizable donation to the development of your self-driving car. That should allow you to hire others to assist you at the university and give you time to help Ellie with the house.”
“That’s very generous, Grandmother.”
“You’re my only grandson. I want to see you happy and successful.” Viola started to say more, but then a phlegmy cough rattled through her chest.
Connor took his grandmother’s hand, so slim and fragile, and squeezed it gently until the coughing subsided. The erratic beep of the machine beside her settled into a more stable pattern.
“I’m getting tired,” Viola managed after a moment. “No more arguments. You know where the spare key is, Connor. Let yourselves in.”
“We will,” Connor agreed as he pulled up the sheets beneath her chin once more.
“Thank you,” Viola said as she shut her eyes, sinking into the mattress.
“It’s time for us to go and let you rest.” Connor placed a final kiss on her forehead. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
While Ellie was relieved to have a new job, she didn’t like the fact that Viola had manipulated her and Connor into living together for the next five weeks. The two of them would discuss a way around that situation as soon as they were out of earshot of Viola’s room. Ellie followed after Connor to the edge of the nurse’s station. She turned to face him only to meet Jordan Krane’s quizzical gaze behind his shoulder.
Jordan had been Ellie’s friend since high school. She knew, better than anyone, how the breakup with Connor had affected every relationship Ellie had had sin
ce. She also knew Ellie had vowed never to allow herself to be hurt by the man again . . .
They’d been high school sweethearts and each other’s first love. She’d opened her heart and soul to him. Couldn’t imagine a life without him. But he’d abandoned the dreams they’d forged at the first opportunity, thinking only of himself. He’d killed a part of her that year—a part he’d claimed to love. A part she’d never gotten back.
What are you doing with Connor Grayson? Jordan mouthed silently, her green eyes wide.
Jordan usually worked in the emergency room at Swedish Hospital as a physician’s assistant. What was she doing in the ICU today?
“I’m sorry about my grandmother’s insistence that we move in together,” Connor said, unaware of Jordan behind him. “It only makes sense now that we’re married.”
“Move in together?” Jordan asked, no longer silent. She spun Connor around. “Married?” A tangled mix of horror and hysteria flashed through her eyes as she looked past him to Ellie. “What the hell? You don’t even like him.”
Surprise flickered across his features before he shuttered his gaze. “That’s not how I interpreted things in Vegas.”
“You were in Vegas together?” Jordan asked.
“Yes. No.” Ellie stumbled over the words. “We bumped into each other there.”
Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “And got married?”
Ellie cast another glance at Connor. He searched her face as though he expected her to say something flippant. Instead, she calmly said, “Yes.” Their marriage was between the two of them. No one else.
“Damn, girl. Don’t you learn from your mistakes?” Jordan asked.
“He’s not a mistake.” The words erupted from her before she could stop them. What had happened between them was unfortunate, but she still wouldn’t call Connor a mistake. She knew what it felt like to be considered as such. She wouldn’t put that sense of worthlessness on another human being no matter how much he might have hurt her in the past.
Silence fell among them, punctuated only by the rhythmic whirring and beeping of medical monitors from the ICU rooms just beyond.
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