Silence descended once again, the darkness enveloping them, moonlight splashing across the yard while shadows danced in the faint breeze. Crickets were chirping their night song, but Juliana barely heard them. “If you give me your word, I expect you to keep it. Trust is important to me.”
“I’ll remember that,” he answered quietly, and she stared at him, unable to see the expression in his eyes in the dark- ness. He hadn’t answered that he would keep his word or that she could trust him—merely that he would remember that’s what she expected. His answer disturbed her, and then she brushed it aside as she went back to considering his proposal. What did she have to lose? Surely she could resist falling in love with him. All that money—the boys would be completely cared for. She could afford to send them to col- lege. All she had to do was live one year under the same roof with Caleb Duncan.
Marriage to Caleb Duncan. Her stomach fluttered, her pulse raced and she felt dazed at the prospect. She sat down at the patio table, determined to try to look at everything objectively.
Cal sat across from her, waiting.
“Cal,” Juliana said finally, aware that calling him by his given name sounded intensely personal, even though he probably had not given it a thought. “There’s something that’s worrying me. You said that if we marry, that after a year we can dissolve this whole thing. But suppose by that time, the boys think of you as a father?” she asked.
Cal felt torn between relief and anxiety because it sounded as if she was sincerely considering accepting his proposal. For the first time, he thought about her nephews actually getting attached to him—something that hadn’t occurred to him.
“Quin is in counseling now because of losing his par- ents,” she continued when Cal didn’t answer her. “I don’t want him to lose someone he loves again.”
Cal rubbed his jaw while he tried to come up with an an- swer. “It’s difficult to imagine that they would really think of me as a father. I don’t see myself that way.”
“It could happen.”
“All I can do is promise to do my best to avoid hurting them.”
Juliana felt torn between wanting to accept and wanting to say no, unable to say the words because they would be ir- revocable.
“Who knows—after a year we might like the arrange- ment,” he said quietly.
“That’s hard to imagine now.”
“People have married for dumber reasons, and then the marriage has worked out.”
“But we’re not going into this with forever in mind. I have to think about the feelings of my nephews.”
“I know you do.” Reaching into his jacket pocket, he handed her a sheet of paper. Maybe if they talked about numbers, she would see reason. “Here’s a suggested budget.” He looked up to find her studying him with a searching look and he wondered if she had listened to any- thing he had just said. “What is it? Have I suddenly turned purple?”
“No, I just don’t know you at all. What do you really enjoy doing?”
“Something quiet. I fish, I hunt, I ride. I like to read. What do you like to do?”
“I don’t have time for anything except caring for the boys and running my preschool.”
“If you had time?”
She shrugged. “I like books, movies, ball games, party games, parties, dancing…”
“Only one of those things is a solitary endeavor, while all of mine are. As I said, Green Oaks is a large house. We should be able to stay out of each other’s way. You can have the big bedroom.”
“Thanks,” she answered dryly, wondering if he had been to the house and looked it over. “Have you gone out there?”
“No, and I think we should. How about tomorrow after- noon?”
“Fine,” she said, thinking things were moving too fast. She locked her fingers together and felt as if she were standing in a cold northern wind. “I have to answer for the boys as well as myself, because whatever I do will change their lives.”
He nodded solemnly, and she picked up the papers he had handed her and, leaning toward the light, she studied the figures, looking up in surprise. “This is very generous.”
“Good. We can afford to be generous.”
Juliana studied his proposed budget again and knew she could live with it easily, probably even save money from it. She ran her hand across her forehead. “I just can’t imagine not having to worry constantly about taking care of the boys.”
“Well, you won’t have to. If you’d like, it’s fine with me if your grandmother lives with us.”
“That’s nice, but it won’t be likely,” she answered, again surprised by his generosity and suspecting he would hate for her relatives to live with them. “I’ll ask Mimi, but I think she’ll prefer to stay in my small house, she has lots of friends in the neighborhood.”
“We could work it out to buy that house for her.”
Another shock. She couldn’t understand him. On one hand, he was driven by greed, yet at the same time there were moments he was surprisingly generous. Maybe his magnanimity was a ploy to inveigle her into the marriage.
Silence stretched between them. “Elnora put us in a real predicament,” she said after a while. She closed her eyes, feeling as if she were jumping off the edge of the world into endless space.
“Juliana,” he said quietly. “If you’re terrified of the proposal, you can just say no.”
“I want to say no. I want to go on with my life, but there’s so much more I can do for the boys if I say yes.” She paused to study the handsome man seated across from her. And he was handsome enough to set her pulse racing every time she was around him. He looked relaxed, sexy, appealing, so what was causing the butterflies in the pit of her stomach?
His dark eyes were unfathomable as he watched her, and she had no idea
