“What?” she asked, and he realized he had been sitting there staring at her.
“You’re an amazing woman, Danielle Kelly. And if no one’s ever told you that, it’s about time someone did.”
She was so bright, so beautiful, so fearless.
All this time she had been a burning flame no one had taken the time to look at. But she had come to him, answered his ad and started a wildfire in his life.
It didn’t seem fair, the way the world saw each of them. He was a celebrated businessman, and she... Well, hadn’t he chosen her because he knew his family would simply see her as a poor, unwed mother?
She was worth ten of him.
She blinked rapidly and wasn’t quite able to stop a tear from tracking down her cheek. “Why...why do you think that?”
“Not very many people would have done what you did. Taking your brother. Not after everything your mother already put you through. Not after spending your whole life taking care of the one person who should have been taking care of you. And then you came here and answered my ad.”
“Some people might argue that the last part was taking the easy way out.”
“Right. Except that I could have been a serial killer.”
“Or made me dress like a teddy bear,” she said, keeping her tone completely serious. “I actually feel like that last one is more likely.”
“Do you?”
“There are more furries than there are serial killers, thank God.”
“I guess, lucky for you, I’m neither one.” He wasn’t sure he was the great hope she seemed to think he was. But right now, he wanted to be.
“Very lucky for me,” she said. “Oh...Joshua, imagine if someone were both.”
“I’d rather not.”
She went to the changing table and quickly set about getting Riley a new diaper before placing him back in the crib. Then she straightened and hesitated. “I guess I could... I can just stay in here. Or...”
“Get the baby monitor,” he said. “You’re coming back to my bed.”
She smiled, and she did just that.
* * *
The next day there were wedding dresses in Danielle’s room. Not just a couple of wedding dresses. At least ten, all in her size.
She turned in a circle, looking at all of the garment bags with heavy white satin, beads and chiffon showing through.
Joshua walked into the room behind her, his arms folded over his chest. She raised her eyebrows, gesturing wildly at the dresses. “What is this?”
“We are getting married in less than two weeks. You need a dress.”
“A fancy dress to eat my Pop-Tart cake in,” she said, moving to a joke because if she didn’t she might cry. Because the man had ordered wedding dresses and brought them into the house.
And because if she were normal, she might have friends to share this occasion with her. Or her mother. Instead, she was standing in her bedroom, where her baby was napping, and her fiancé was the only potential spectator.
“You aren’t supposed to see the dresses, though,” she said.
“I promise you I cannot make any sense out of them based on how they look stuffed into those bags. I called the bridal store in town and described your figure and had her send dresses accordingly.”
Her eyes flew wide, her mouth dropping open. “You described my figure?”
“To give her an idea of what would suit you.”
“I’m going to need a play-by-play of this description. How did you describe my figure, Joshua? This is very important.”
“Elfin,” he said, surprising her because he didn’t seem to be joking. And that was a downright fanciful description coming from him.
“Elfin?”
A smile tipped his lips upward. “Yes. You’re like an elf. Or a nymph.”
“Nympho, maybe. And I blame you for that.”
He reached out then, hooking his arm around her waist and drawing her toward him. “Danielle, I am serious.”
She swallowed hard. “Okay,” she said, because she didn’t really know what else to say.
“You’re beautiful.”
Hearing him say that made her throat feel all dry and scratchy, made her eyes feel like they were burning. “You don’t have to do that,” she said.
“You think I’m lying? Why would I lie about that? Also, men can’t fake this.” He grabbed her hand and pressed it up against the front of his jeans, against the hardness there.
“You’re asking me to believe your penis? Because penises are notoriously indiscriminate.”
“You have a point. Plus, mine is pretty damn famously indiscriminate. By my own admission. But the one good thing about that is you can trust I know the difference between generalized lust and when a woman has reached down inside of me and grabbed hold of something I didn’t even know was there. I told you, I like it easy. I told you...I don’t deal with difficult situations or difficult people. That was my past failing. A huge failing, and I don’t know if I’m ever going to forgive myself for it. But what we have here makes me feel like maybe I can make up for it.”
There were a lot of nice words in there. A lot of beautiful sentiments tangled up in something that made her feel, well, kind of gross.
But he was looking at her with all that intensity, and there were wedding dresses hung up all around her, his ring glittering on her finger. And she just didn’t want to examine the bad feelings. She was so tired of bad feelings.
Joshua—all of this—was like a fantasy. She wanted to live in the fantasy for as long as she could.
Was that wrong? After everything she had been through, she couldn’t believe that it was.
“Well, get your penis out of here. The rest of you too. I’m going to try on dresses.”
“I don’t get to watch?”
“I grant you nothing about our relationship has been typical so far, but I would like to surprise you with my dress choice.”
“That’s fair. Why don’t you let me take Riley for a while?”
“Janine is going to
