The Billionaire's Marriage Contract

by Avery James

  There was a part of her that didn’t want to trust Ethan. It was the part of her that told her the whole marriage was a bad idea, the part that helped her keep her guard up, the part that had made her successful. It was the part of herself she had turned off over the course of the weekend, little by little letting herself believe the fairy tale that somehow she and Ethan could be together, that he just wanted to make her happy. It was the part of her that made her reach for the phone when all she wanted was to return to bed and pull herself close to Ethan again.

  But there was another part of her that couldn’t stop thinking about kissing him, that couldn’t stop thinking about the way they just seemed to work together, that couldn’t stop thinking about the way he made her feel. Now, as she sat in the plane, halfway back to DC, it all seemed like some stupid fantasy. It was like Ethan awakened some ache deep in her heart that she had long forgotten, and now as she headed back to reality, the ache felt like a dull pain throughout her entire body.

  Soon, she’d be back in her real life, and all of that silliness, all of that flirting and joking and pretending would be gone. It would be a nice memory, something for Amy to think back on after all of this had passed, when she was alone again, doing what she knew best: fixing other people’s messes. If fixing her own problems were as straightforward as her job, she’d know what to do.

  Realizing that she wasn’t going to get any rest, Amy got up from her seat and walked back to the bathroom. She ran the cold water and splashed it on her face as she tried to prepare herself for the landing. She looked at herself in the mirror and tried to smile. She stood up straight and stared at herself. “You’ll be fine, Amy” she whispered. “You’ll make it through this. If Vi can handle a heart attack, you can handle falling for Ethan.”

  ***

  A few hours later, after a private car brought her from the airfield to the city, Amy made her way to Violet’s hospital room. It was still dark outside when she reached the low-slung modern building where Vi was being treated. As Amy made her way to the elevator, she wondered what time it was back out west. As she rode up the three stories to Vi’s wing, she wondered if Ethan was asleep, or if he had stayed up, after her departure. She imagined him driving the SUV down the deserted predawn streets of Jackson Hole as he processed everything that had just happened. What did all of it mean to him? Amy wondered. Was he just having fun or was there something more between them?

  Before Amy could fully consider the question, the elevator doors, opened, and Amy could see clear down to the end of the hall. A moment later, she was looking in through the door to Vi’s room. Amy felt a wave of emotion as she saw her aunt, lying in a hospital bed, an IV in her arm and an oxygen tube in her nose. Her eyes were closed, and she looked so much older than Amy remembered, paler and smaller than she had seemed just a few days ago. As Amy walked into the room, she saw Callie sitting by the bedside. Callie raised a finger to her lips to keep Amy from talking, but the sound of footsteps in the room woke Vi.

  Amy watched as Vi opened her eyes slightly. “Amy, is that you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Amy said softly, trying to hold back tears, “you gave us quite the scare.”

  “You came back from your honeymoon? I must be in worse shape than they’re letting on.”

  Amy walked over to the bedside and placed her hand next to Vi’s. She wanted to lean in and wrap her arms around her and never let go. “It wasn’t a honeymoon. It was just a trip.”

  “It’s ok, dear. You don’t have to pretend with me. I know what happens on honeymoons.” She gave Amy a wink, and Amy could see that familiar spark in her eyes. “So was he any good?”

  “Vi!” Amy said as she raised both hands over her face in embarrassment. “I don’t even know what to say.”

  “If you can’t tell,” Callie said, “it was a minor heart attack, and Vi is feeling much better this morning.”

  “How do you know?”

  “She kept asking the male nurse for a sponge bath.”

  “What?” Vi said. “He’s cute. Can’t I derive any benefit from my condition?”

  Amy and Callie both shook their heads. “I think she’ll be fine,” Callie said.

  “What did the doctors say?” Amy asked.

  “Bed rest. No stairs. Limited physical activity for a while. They say she can go home or to a rehab facility today or tomorrow if she holds steady. Oh, no more alcohol and no fatty foods.”

  “A fate worse than death,” Vi chimed in. “They want to ship me off to some room where I’ll have to eat cardboard for the rest of my life. Maybe I can put in to have my nurse transferred with me.”

  “I don’t know if the hospital would look too kindly on that,” Callie said.

  Vi cleared her throat and continued. “Speaking of handsome men, where is yours?”

  “Wyoming,” Amy replied. “He’s finishing up some business.”

  “Wyoming, what a funny place for a honeymoon.”

  “Vi, It wasn’t a honeymoon, but it was lovely.” Though if it made Vi feel better to call it a honeymoon, Amy wasn’t about to argue with her.

  “Oh yeah?” Callie asked. “Remember, Vi’s heart can’t handle too much excitement. You might want to tell me the rest later.”

  “Callie! Nothing happened.”

  Callie gave Vi a look. “Sure, Amy,” she said. “We both believe you.”

  “Don’t you have a job to get to?” Amy replied.

  “I assumed you’d want to come into the office with me,” Callie replied.

  “I had thought about it, but I’m sure you have everything under control. I’ll stay here with Vi for a while.”

  Callie placed her hand on Amy’s forehead. “Are you sure you’re feeling alright?”

  “I’m fine,” Amy said, “just go before I change my mind.”

  After Callie said goodbye, Amy sat down in the chair next to the bed and closed her eyes. Even though she wished that it had been under different circumstances, it was good to see how much Callie had taken control of the situation and handled everything so well. In the same way Vi had seemed older and frailer when Amy first saw her that morning, Callie now seemed more confident and in control. Maybe Ethan did have a point about letting go a bit and letting Callie take on a bigger role in the business. Then again, Amy didn’t want to admit that he was right.

  Amy closed her eyes and tried to relax, but Vi asked her a question, “Why don’t you tell me more about that man of yours?”

  Amy smiled as she thought about everything she and Ethan had done together over the weekend: the snowshoeing, the skiing, the extra-curricular activities in the hot tub and the bedroom. “He’s really something special,” Amy replied. “Charming and sweet and handsome.” She laughed as she started to recount the story of their hike with Hank. She told Vi about how Ethan had gotten too full of himself and how she had put him right back in his place. As she told her PG version of the weekend’s events, she began to wonder about something. She had spent the whole time worried that she might be falling for him. She hadn’t taken the time to consider the other side of the situation. What if Ethan were falling for her?

  Chapter 15

  After he returned from driving Amy to the plane, Ethan couldn’t fall back asleep. He just kept running everything through his head. The past few days had been incredible. Whenever he had been around Amy, he felt like all of his senses and emotions were heightened. Now that she was gone, he felt a hollow pit in his stomach.

  He kept imagining her walking into the room and making some smart-ass remark before crawling back into bed and wrapping her arms around him. He wanted to feel her heat; he wanted to feel her reassuring touch. He wondered if she felt the same way. Things had really started to come together between them, and now she was gone. Had he missed his opportunity? Ethan wondered what would happen when he returned to DC. Would Amy pretend nothing had happened? He had to figure out some way to convince her that whatever they had between them was real.

  After tossing in bed for a f
ew hours, Ethan gave up on sleep. He pulled on some clothes and went down to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. He sat in the darkness and watched as dawn began to reach up from behind the mountains in the distance. As he sat in the darkness, he watched the headlights of an approaching car shine down the driveway. For a moment, he held half a hope that it was Amy, coming back with news that everything was fine, and she was staying for the remainder of the trip.

  As the car stopped, Ethan watched the dark figure of the driver walk across the driveway toward the back door. The sky above was getting even lighter, and Ethan had no doubt who was approaching the door. He watched as the man unlocked the door and stepped inside.

  “Ethan,” Logan said, walking across the kitchen, “you look like hell, man. Is there already trouble in paradise?”

  “Family emergency,” Ethan replied. “Amy is back in DC. I’m tying things up before heading back to be with her.”

  “Hey, man, whatever you say.” Logan shrugged his shoulders and grabbed keys off of the table. “You have a minute to help me with something? I brought your wife out snowmobiling when you were MIA a few days back. Hers ran out of gas on the way. I need a second to help me get it.”

  “Sure,” Ethan replied. The sun had barely risen above the horizon, and he didn’t look forward to the cold, but he wanted to get away for a while to hash things out with Logan. There were a few words that he didn’t particularly want Hank to hear. “Let’s go.”

  After Ethan pulled on a jacket and boots, he followed Logan outside and jumped on his snowmobile with him. As they rode out, Ethan held on to the back of the seat behind himself, and he wondered how Amy had sat when riding with Logan. Had she wrapped her arms around him? Had he wrapped his arms around her? Either way, he wanted to rip Logan off of the sled and tackle him to the ground. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

  Ethan was glad for the cold morning air. It helped distract him from how angry he was getting. He closed his eyes and listened to the dull hum of the engine. He focused in on the cold air stinging his face, but he couldn’t help thinking about Amy. What in hell did she see in this jerk? Was it the attention? Was it the carefree attitude? He half wondered if Amy had been doing it just to get at him. Since he had proposed to her, it was like she had gone to every length possible to get under his skin.

  Ethan opened his eyes and looked ahead. He could see the abandoned snowmobile in a drift just off the path. He imagined Amy hopping off of it and onto the back of Logan’s sled. He wasn’t even mad at Logan anymore. He was mad at Amy. Why couldn’t she see that he was trying to make this more than a business deal? He thought back to her taunt before she had picked up the phone. What if it’s Logan? she had teased, like she needed him to know that she had options, that she had leverage in the relationship.

  He wondered if Amy really saw him and Logan as equal options. He couldn’t blame her. After all, he had told her to enjoy herself, not to take things seriously. And, how could someone get less serious than Logan? Ethan thought back to all his talk about living in the moment. Sure, it had been fun, but he wanted more. He just didn’t know how to tell her without scaring her away, but first things were first. He needed to deal with Logan before he told Amy how he felt.

  As they got off of the snowmobile, Ethan said, “Why don’t you just go ahead and say whatever you dragged me out here to say?”

  “Do you think I don’t know what you’re up to?” Logan asked.

  “Cut the shit, Logan. She’s my wife and this deal is going through.” Ethan took the gas can and walked over to the snowmobile. He opened the tank and started to pour. “A word of advice, don’t piss me off.”

  “What are you going to do, beat me up?”

  “No, I’ll see to it that you never bother me or my family again.”

  Logan leaned back against his sled. “Sure is convenient though, isn’t it, you getting married in time to come out here and convince my father that you’re a family man, that you’re the kind of person he wants running his business.”

  Ethan topped off the gas tank and screwed the cap back on. He tossed the gas can over to Logan. “Is that what this is all about? Did you even like her? Again, Logan, she’s my wife, but even if she wasn’t, she’d deserve a thousand times better than you.”

  “Ha,” Logan replied, “you think everyone else here is an idiot, don’t you?”

  “I love my wife. I could give a damn what you think about me.”

  “But she doesn’t love you, does she? Ooh, yeah, you’re right, I should be afraid of you. A big, self-made man. You can’t even convince your wife to like you. It took me all of four hours to have her wrapped around my finger. It makes me wonder how you got her to marry you. Did you buy her the same way you’re trying to buy off my father? You think he’s going to slap you on the back and tell you ‘good job’?”

  Ethan stepped onto the snowmobile and turned it on, opening the throttle and revving the engine. “Just don’t blame me when things don’t go your way. You deserve everything you have coming, Logan. I’m sure you’ll see that soon enough.” Then he sped back toward the house, leaving Logan sitting on his snowmobile. There was something he needed to tell Hank.

  ***

  When Ethan got back to the house, he found Hank waiting with breakfast in the kitchen. “I saw you heading out with Logan on the sled, and I figured you two would want some breakfast when you got back,” Hank said, motioning toward the food arranged on the counter. “Help yourself,” he added. “Is your wife up yet?”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan replied. “We had a family emergency last night, and she flew out late to make it back to the East Coast.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Me, too,” Ethan said, piling his plate with eggs and bacon, “but I know you and I have business to finish, and I wanted to get a final word in with you before heading out to be with her.” Then he sat down across from Hank and started to eat. He hadn’t realized how hungry he had gotten overnight.

  “You didn’t have to do that. A phone call or a note would have sufficed.”

  “That’s what I said, but Amy wouldn’t have it. She insisted that I stay, and, well, I can’t refuse her.”

  “That’s quite the woman you have there,” Hank said. “What you two have together is a rare thing.”

  “Love?” Ethan asked. He was wondering what Hank was getting at.

  Hank laughed. “No, not love. Any old fool can fall in love. Of course you have to love each other. That’s a given, but you two have true compatibility, that little bit of secret sauce that brings the whole meal together.”

  “I think I know what you mean,” Ethan replied. He took another bite of bacon.

  “Before sending this deal over to our lawyers, I wanted to know what kind of man I was handing over my company to, and now I do.”

  Ethan looked at Hank for a moment, and then he looked back out the window at the wide view of the fields and mountains off in the distance. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he wondered whether he was crazy for what he was about to say next. He had spent months building up to this point, and now he had a deal right in front of him. All he had to do was slap Hank on the back, shake his hand and then head out of town, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it, not yet anyway. “Before we finalize anything, there’s something I need to tell you, something about me and Amy.”

  “Oh?” Hank replied. He wondered what in the world Ethan was going to say to him.

  “Amy told me the story she told you about how we first became involved.”

  “A sweet story, I thought.”

  “Except, it’s not true,” Ethan said.

  “Really?”

  “Well, it is,” Ethan replied, “but it’s not the whole truth. If you give me a chance to tell my side of the story, I think you’ll understand what I’m going to ask you next.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “I want you to wait to sell me the company. I just need you to wait a few months,
long enough for my wife to fall in love with me.”

  Hank nearly fell over in his chair. “Long enough for what?”

  “Like I said, it will help if I start the story from the beginning.”

  Hank stood up from the table, walked over to the coffee maker and poured himself a fresh mug. Then he walked back over to the table and sat down directly across from Ethan. Looking him square in the eye, he said, “I’m all ears.”

  Chapter 16

  Amy spent the rest of the morning by Vi’s side, confident that in time she’d be able to help her aunt make a full recovery. In a strange way, this terrible incident had helped Amy regain her sense of control. It helped her feel more like herself. There, in the harsh light of the hospital room, she knew her place. There was no mistaking that this was a family crisis, and Amy knew what to do in a crisis. The happiness and excitement of the weekend, on the other hand, had left her disoriented and confused, but this, the anxiety and uncertainty, the lack of sleep, this she knew well. This was where she thrived.

  For the first time since she had gotten the news about Vi, Amy allowed herself to relax a bit. She rested her eyes, opening them only when she needed to respond to the nurses and doctors who came and went, checking on Vi and making sure everything was on track. Before long, Amy had stopped paying attention to the people entering and leaving the room, so much so that she failed to notice the man now standing in front of Vi’s bed, but as soon as he started to speak, Amy jolted up in her seat. She couldn’t believe her eyes. Ethan had flown across the country and was standing right in front of her. What the hell was he doing there?

  "You must be Vi," he said. He couldn’t help but notice that she looked to be in good spirits for someone who had just had a heart attack.

  Vi looked up and smiled. "Are you my new doctor?" she asked.

  "I'm afraid not," Ethan replied.

  "Would you like to be?"