Except the fact that it wouldn’t be a real marriage. That it would be as faux as the wood paneling that still flanked his grandmother’s fireplace, forty years after the house had been built, the same house she lived in because it was the one she’d bought with her late husband, even though she could now afford ten times the house.
A hummingbird flitted by, heading for a bright swath of flowers. Finn watched it for a while, as the world hustled by behind him.
“There’s this bird in Africa,” Finn said, watching the tiny hummingbird dart from bloom to bloom, “called a honey guide. Its whole job is to find beehives and lead the honey badger to them. When he does, the badger gets in there and gets the honey, clearing the way for the honey guide to eat the bee larvae.” He turned to Ellie. “I guess that’s sort of what this will be. Us working together to serve a mutually beneficial purpose.”
“Not exactly the same as swans mating for life, but yes.”
“Definitely not a partnership for life,” Finn said. But even as he clarified, he felt a twinge of something like regret. He shrugged it off. Be smart, he reminded himself, like the badger and the bird. In the end, everyone wins.
“I don’t want to rush you,” she said. “But we need to make a decision. If you don’t want to do this … I need to think of something else.”
“Fine,” he said, turning to her. “Let’s go.”
She blinked. “What … now?”
“Why wait?” he said, parroting her words back. “I have a friend at the courthouse. He’ll take care of it. You can be my wife by the end of the day, Miss Winston.”
“Today? Right now?”
“Yes, of course.” He watched her closely, and wondered if, despite the contract she’d given him, she was as committed to this partnership as she had sounded. Only one way to find out, he decided. “You weren’t expecting me to get down on one knee with some flowers or a ring, were you?”
“No, no, of course not.” She swallowed. “Business only.”
“My favorite kind of relationship.” He gave her a smile, then turned to go back across the grass. He paused, turned back, waiting for her to join him. He had called Ellie Winston’s bluff. The only problem …
He wasn’t so sure she’d been bluffing.
“Are you ready?”
Was she ready? Ellie had no idea if she was or wasn’t. The events of the last hours seemed surreal, as if it was some other Ellie Winston who had proposed to Finn McKenna, then hopped in his Town Car and headed to Rhode Island in the middle of the day.
Had she really just proposed to him? And had he really accepted?
She’d gone to his office right after leaving the adoption agency and then her lawyer’s office, her mind filled with only one thing. She needed a husband and she needed one now. She’d do whatever it took to get that. She’d seen Jiao’s trusting, hopeful face in her mind and thought of nothing else. Jiao needed a mother. Needed Ellie.
Linda had made it clear—marriage was the only sure route to bringing Jiao home. There was no one else that Ellie knew—not well enough in her short time living here in Boston—who would marry her on such short notice. No one who would go along with such a crazy plan, and not expect a real marriage out of the deal. So she’d gone to Finn, the only man she knew who needed her as much as she needed him.
A part of her had never expected him to say yes. But say yes, he had, and now they were on their way to get married.
Married.
To Finn McKenna.
A man she knew about as well as she knew her dry cleaner.
This was insane. Think of Jiao, she told herself. Just think of Jiao. And as the miles ticked by, that became her mantra.
Massachusetts had a three-day waiting period for a marriage license, Finn had told her, as he got on I-95S and made the hour-long journey to Providence, Rhode Island, where there was no waiting period. The car’s smooth, nearly silent ride and comfortable interior made the whole drive seem almost … romantic, even though it was broad daylight and the highway was filled with other cars. It was something about the cozy, dark leather of the car that wrapped around her, insulated them, drew them into a world of just the two of them, like lovers making an afternoon getaway. Which was crazy, because what they were doing was far from romantic. And they were definitely not lovers.
“How did you know there was a three-day waiting period in Massachusetts?” she asked.
“My brother.” A grin slid across Finn’s face. “Riley is a little … impetuous. We’ve had to talk him out of more than one crazy decision.”
“We?”
“My younger brother Brody and me. We’re the ones who received all the common-sense genes.”
“Inherited from generations of common-sense McKenna men?”
He chuckled. “Exactly. Though my grandmother might quibble with how much common sense is in our DNA.”
“So there are three of you altogether?” Ellie asked.
“Yep. All boys. Made for a busy life. Hell, it still does.”
She tried to picture that environment, with three rambunctious, noisy siblings, and couldn’t. The camaraderie. The joking. The warmth. “I’m an only child. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to grow up with two sisters, or a bunch of brothers.”
“It’s loud. And sometimes things get broken.” Finn put up a hand and pressed three fingers together. “Scouts’ Honor, I had nothing to do with that antique vase or the missing coffee table.”
Ellie heard the laughter buried in Finn’s voice and craved those same kinds of memories for Jiao. She bit back a sigh. Adopting just one child as a single mother was proving to be difficult enough. Adopting multiple children seemed impossible. But maybe someday—
She’d have the warm, crazy, boisterous family Finn was describing.
Except that would mean taking a risk and falling in love. Ellie didn’t need to complicate her life with a relationship that could end up hurting her—and in the process her daughter—down the road. This marriage, based on a legal contract and nothing else, was the best choice.
“Remind me to tell you the tree story sometime,” Finn said. “And every year at Thanksgiving, we revisit the Ferris wheel one. That one was all Riley’s fault. There’s always an interesting story where Riley is concerned, and Brody and I try to exploit that at every opportunity.”
Her gaze went to the city passing by outside the window, streaks of color in the bright sunshine. Thanksgivings and Christmases with a whole brood of McKenna men sounded like heaven, Ellie thought. Her childhood had been so quiet, so empty, with her mother gone all the time and her father working sunup to sundown. She envied Finn and for a moment, wondered if they would be married long enough for her to sit around the Thanksgiving dinner table with a trio of McKennas, sharing raucous stories and building memories over the turkey.
She pictured that very thing for a moment, then pulled away from the images. They were a bird and a badger, as he’d pointed out, not two swans in love. Besides, she knew better than to pin her hopes on some romantic notion of love. That happened for other people, not her.
“My parents weren’t around much when I was a kid. Now my mother lives in California, so it’s really just my dad and me.” She shifted in her seat to look at him. “I guess you could say my life has always been pretty … quiet and predictable.” Now that she said it, she wondered if that was such a good thing. For one, she wanted to