It reminded me of Autumn for some reason. “Thanks for stopping by to tell me in person. I’ll hunt for my swim trunks after you leave.”
“There’s one other thing.” Titan stepped away from Diesel and came toward me, and judging by the affection in her eyes, she had something to ask me. Her look was full of emotion before she even said anything. “Thorn…you know what I’m going to ask you.”
Yeah, I did. “And you know what my answer is going to be.”
“You’ll give me away?” she asked. “There’s no one else I want more.”
The media wouldn’t be able to comprehend why we would do such a thing. Would I really give away my ex-fiancée to her new lover? It didn’t sound plausible. But I knew this was important to her because our relationship was so much deeper than anyone realized. “I’d be honored.”
“Thank you.” She moved into my chest and hugged me. “You’re the closest thing to family that I have.”
“I know.” I held her back. “You’re my family too.”
She stayed there for a while, holding me longer than she ever had before.
When Diesel watched us, there was a hint of jealousy there. I was the last man he should be jealous of, considering she backed out of marrying me. The love between us was purely familial. Just because it wasn’t romantic didn’t mean it wasn’t deep.
She pulled away and regarded me with the same emotional eyes. “You’ve always been so good to me. Even when I broke our arrangement because I fell in love, you still came back to me.”
I hoped Autumn didn’t hear that. “It’ll always be you and me. The only difference now is we also have Diesel…so there’s three of us.”
“Yeah…we’re a family. You’ve been my best friend for ten years. And I know we’ll be best friends forever.”
I didn’t say anything because I was scared to egg her on. I needed to tell Autumn the truth, but I wanted to be the one to tell her. And I needed to talk to Titan about it first. “Of course.”
She moved back to Diesel. “I’m going to get my dress tomorrow. You want to come along and help me out?”
Dress shopping wasn’t my thing, but I couldn’t say no. “Sure.”
“Make sure she picks out a good once,” Diesel said. “The more skin, the better.”
“I’ll try,” I said with a chuckle.
They said their goodbyes and then left my penthouse. When the elevator doors were closed and they were finally gone, I headed to my bedroom and hoped I’d find Autumn in a better mood than when I left her.
When I saw her face, I realized my wish hadn’t come true.
“She wants you to give her away?” she asked incredulously.
I knew this was going to be bad. “Her father passed away when she was young.”
“I know that, but I think that’s strange… You don’t?” She cocked an eyebrow.
No, she was right. It was strange. “I—”
“I wondered if she was still in love with you, and then when I heard that, it makes me think she must be… I can’t think of any other explanation for that.”
She was so far off she was in an entirely different galaxy.
“I’ve always admired Titan because of the smart and savvy businesswoman she is. She wouldn’t be where she is today unless she was a genius. But all of this confuses me. She either still has feelings for you, or she’s totally insensitive by asking you to give her away. I mean, that’s just rude. To even expect you to be at the wedding…is cold.”
Now that Titan’s image was taking a hit, I couldn’t let this go on any longer. I didn’t want Autumn to question her business relationship with Titan. If she pulled out of the deal, it would hurt Titan considerably. “We need to talk…” I sat on the edge on the edge of my bed and patted the seat beside me.
She eyed it warily before she sat. “What is it, Thorn?”
“What I’m about to say is going to confuse you…but I’m telling the truth. I don’t want you thinking Titan is some kind of emotional psychopath, so I need to come clean. But I really hope you keep this between us.”
“Okay…” She crossed her legs on the bed and rested her hands in her lap.
Something in my chest told me I could trust Autumn. She wouldn’t betray Titan’s secret to the world. It would hurt Titan as well as me. We’d look like the biggest liars on the planet. “Titan and I never had a real relationship. She and I have been friends for over a decade now, and she’d come to the realization that she didn’t want to have a relationship with anyone. I didn’t either. But she wanted to have a family, as did I. So we thought we would get married and have a family. Our relationship wouldn’t be based on romance. It was an arrangement based on trust, loyalty, and honesty. She would be free to have her physical relationships, and I would have mine. But at the end of the day, we were committed to each other. I’d love her and protect her like any husband should, but I would never be in love with her.” I stared across the room at the floor-to-ceiling windows that showed the city. Looking at Autumn’s face didn’t seem appealing, not when I dropped this heavy truth on her.
Judging by her silence, she didn’t know what to say.
“She met Diesel before we got engaged. She fell in love with him, but they broke up over a misunderstanding. When they got back together, I had already proposed to her. She said she had to break it off. I was angry about it because she made me look like an idiot, but we managed to get through it. Now here we are…still friends.” I turned to her to watch Autumn’s reaction.
Her expression hadn’t changed at all, but she opened
