After scanning the menu, they gave their orders to their waiter. As soon as he was gone, Daniel spoke up.
“So how was—”
“Did you—”
They both stopped, and an edgy silence hung between them. “Go ahead,” he said.
“No, you go.”
“No, ladies first,” he urged.
“Do people still say that?” she chuckled.
“I’ve been told I’m old-fashioned.” He grinned at her. “But I think old-fashioned is good, especially these days.”
“Is that so?” She smirked at him. “No wonder you proposed right away.”
“Hey now.” He put his hands up. “How do you know you weren’t the one to ask me to marry you?”
She cackled. “Ha! As if.”
Seeing her laugh and smile made his insides turn to mush. “I’ll have you know; I don’t marry on the first date. I have a three-date rule before matrimony.”
“Then it must have been me,” she conceded. “I have been known to propose to any man I come across.”
The tension in the air broke, but before Daniel could say anything else, the waiter came back with their drinks and a basket of bread with Giorgio’s signature strawberry balsamic dip. He was thinking of a way to get back to their banter when she spoke up.
“So,” she began as she put her glass down after taking a sip of her sparkling water. “We should probably talk about our arrangement.”
“Yeah.” His heart plummeted but he continued. “What did you have in mind?”
“So, I was thinking about our backstory.”
“Backstory?”
“Yeah. About how we met and stuff. And how we wound up married.”
“And?”
“It sounds cliched, but the most logical explanation would be that we met on the Internet. A dating site or app or something.”
“Ah, that makes sense,” he said. “We could say we started chatting over a year ago, and then I came to visit you.”
“Exactly. And we were doing the long-distance thing,” she added.
“My job ties me here,” he said. “I can’t exactly be a ranger out on The Strip.”
“And mine keeps me in Vegas. But we see each other every few weeks.”
“And the wedding?”
Her nose wrinkled. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”
“Hmm.” He scratched at his head. “How about … I was in Vegas for Damon’s bachelor party, and I was so overwhelmed with emotion and tired of the long distance that I impulsively asked you to marry me, and you said yes.”
“Hmm.” She tapped a finger on her chin. “I guess that could work. And we’ve been keeping it secret because …”
“Because I didn’t want to overshadow Damon’s wedding,” he said. “And it’s not really a secret. We just … didn’t tell anyone until we figured out who was going to move where.”
“Right.” She worried at her lip. “Okay, now we should figure out how long this arrangement will last. I can’t stay here in Blackstone forever.”
His bear chuffed, but he told it to pipe down. “Of course. How about two weeks?”
“I was thinking more of three days. I can go home on the weekend.”
“Oh.” His heart plummeted. “Why just three days?”
“First of all, I can’t really afford to stay in that motel for too long, plus, I have to get back to Vegas to take care of my business. Three more days should be enough to convince reporters and your ‘fans’ that our marriage is real and this is how our relationship works. Then when I leave, we could just … let it die a natural death. If anyone asks, we should just tell them it didn’t work out. Maybe we could say this was the week we were working on our marriage, and we decided to split up.”
Just the thought of her leaving made his stomach clench. “Sounds like a good plan,” he forced himself to say. “But there’s one flaw there.”
Her gaze narrowed. “And what’s that?”
“You can’t stay at the motel the entire time,” he pointed out. “That doesn’t make sense, if we’re really married.”
“I—” Her mouth closed shut and she slumped back. “Then what do you suggest?”
“Move in with me.”
Her brows snapped together. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he said. “Stay with me, and then you don’t have to worry about paying for the motel.”
“Stay with you? At your place?” she asked incredulously. “Where would I sleep?”
“Er … I’m renovating my parents’ house. I’m still working on it but it’s got five bedrooms, so take your pick.” It would only take him a couple of hours to get the place livable again. “It’s not like anyone will know if we don’t sleep in the same room.”
She shook her head. “No, I can’t,” she said. “We’ll just have to be careful. It’s not like those reporters follow you around day and night, right? And it’s been days since you rescued the VP. Once we make a statement to the press, they’ll leave us alone. In fact, that’s probably what we should do first thing. We can write it up tonight and read it out to the press tomorrow.”
Unfortunately, he couldn’t think of anything else to counter her argument. Fuck. He had three days to convince her to stay, and they wouldn’t even be spending a lot of time together. But before he could even say anything, their waiter came back with their food.
“This looks delicious,” Sarah said.
“Yeah.” But with the churning in his stomach, food was the last thing he needed right now.
“Enjoy your meal,” the waiter said before he left.
As they ate, they made small talk about the food and the weather, but they avoided any more talk about their arrangement. When the check came, he grabbed the black folder from the waiter before he put it down.
“How much is my half?” she asked.
“Half?” He frowned. “I told you, I owe you dinner.”
“Nonsense,” she made a grab for the folder, but he held it away from her. “C’mon Daniel, just give me the damned thing.”
An idea popped into his head. “I will,” he began. “If you
