It was cooking sherry, Casey recognised with a grimace as she took the glass from him, used to flavour a trifle she had made for Christmas, several months ago. And not a very good cooking sherry, either. But he was right. She needed something to dispel some of the numbed shock she was feeling.
Xander Fraser was the type of man who was always right, she decided, thoroughly disgruntled. She gulped down the sherry, finding it as disgusting as she’d thought it would be, but nonetheless reviving for all that.
Great, Xander muttered inwardly when he saw those green eyes begin to sparkle unnaturally and the flush that suddenly coloured Casey’s previously pale cheeks; one glass of bloody awful sherry and the woman was drunk. No doubt the fact that she obviously didn’t eat properly hadn’t helped.
‘That’s enough of that,’ he said firmly. He took the empty glass away from her and placed it on the coffee table, straightening as he did so to move slightly away from her. His deliberately bland expression showed none of the concern he had felt a few minutes ago, as he’d carried her limp body from the kitchen to place her in the chair in the sitting room.
The woman had been like gossamer in his arms—so light she’d felt as though she didn’t weigh much more than Lauren. As he had looked down at her he’d wondered what difference a few good meals and some TLC would bring to the hollows of her cheeks and the slender curves of her body. How she would look if the worry and stress she was obviously suffering were to be removed and she could actually start to enjoy life again.
Then he had chastised himself for even thinking along those lines. His idea that the two of them marry was a business proposition. Nothing more, nothing less. Far better that he didn’t even think of Casey Bridges’ undoubted beauty, or the possible allure of her with a fuller, more curvaceous body…
No, thinking about her like that certainly wasn’t a good idea. Not if she agreed to marry him.
And he had every intention, now he had actually voiced the idea, of making sure that she did!
Casey looked up at Xander from beneath long golden lashes, easily recognising his leashed strength as he paced the room restlessly. He was a man who wielded power along with supreme self-confidence. A man, she was sure, who never took no for an answer. A man who had just suggested, with the offer of a financial incentive, that she marry him!
She moistened stiff, unyielding lips before speaking. ‘I think you had better leave now.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t do that, Casey. You and I have a lot more to say to each other before I agree to go anywhere.’
‘But you can’t have seriously just suggested the two of us get married?’
‘Oh, I’m serious,’ he replied grimly. ‘Very much so.’
‘But you don’t even know me—’
‘I know all I need to know,’ he declared. ‘You’re hardworking. Independent. A good mother—’
‘My teeth are sound, too,’ she put in sarcastically.
Xander gave an appreciative grin. ‘There—you have a sense of humour as well!’
‘It’s hysteria, Mr Fraser, not humour,’ Casey pointed out, sitting up straighter in the armchair to look at him searchingly. ‘Why?’ she finally voiced in a guarded tone.
‘Add astute to your list of attributes!’ he teased, not unkindly.
‘Well, I certainly know you aren’t suggesting I marry you because you’ve suddenly decided you’ve fallen madly in love with me!’ she retorted.
‘No,’ he acknowledged seriously. ‘Do you want to know why you? Or why I need to get married at all?’
‘Both,’ Casey snapped.
‘Does Josh have any paternal grandparents?’ he asked, instead of answering either of those questions.
Casey looked surprised. ‘Yes.’
‘And have they ever considered trying to take Josh from you?’
‘After the way their son behaved? They wouldn’t dare!’ she assured him, wings of angry colour appearing in those pale cheeks.
‘Well, Brad feels no such scruples where his granddaughter is concerned,’ Xander said coldly.
‘Your father-in-law wants to take Lauren away from you?’ Casey gasped. ‘But why?’
Xander raised an eyebrow. ‘Why does he want Lauren? Or why does he think he has reason to take Lauren from me?’
‘Either. Both!’ Casey frowned her agitation at his habit of answering her questions with more questions, at the same time wondering how she would have felt if Sam’s parents had ever threatened to try and take Josh from her.
As desperate as Xander Fraser obviously did, if his marriage proposal to her was anything to go by!
He sighed. ‘Brad is hurting very badly at the moment. His daughter—his only child—died four months ago, and now that his initial shock has receded I believe he sees Lauren as a replacement in his life for Chloe. He informed me on Sunday that he intends applying for custody of Lauren. I tried reasoning with him, and pointed out that he isn’t thinking rationally at the moment. He isn’t listening,’ Xander concluded darkly.
Casey gave him a searching look, knowing by the grimness of his expression that he took his father-in-law’s threat seriously. But surely Brad Henderson, no matter how rich and influential, could never succeed in such a threat?
‘You didn’t answer my other why,’ she prompted.
Xander Fraser’s eyes flashed. ‘Why does he think he might succeed in such a claim?’ His lips briefly compressed into a tight line before he continued. ‘Whether you believe me or not, I consider myself a good father. But there have been—problems since Chloe and I separated. I’m away on business a lot, obviously. Lauren has been—difficult at school. She has also managed to dispatch the four nannies I’ve employed in as many months. Brad intends using all of the above as a way of proving he would be a better guardian for Lauren than I am.’
‘But those things don’t mean anything.’ Casey shook her head. ‘Josh has been a little—troubled at school, too. But with his father leaving, the strangeness of having another woman in his father’s life, and then their sudden deaths—it’s only natural that there should be some sort of reaction. I’m sure that’s all that’s happening with Lauren, too.’
He shrugged. ‘You know that. I know that. Brad obviously sees things differently. He’s angry, upset, and he’s blaming everything and everyone, including me, for Chloe’s death. At the moment he simply doesn’t see that he helped form Chloe into the selfish person she undoubtedly was. And no doubt he would make Lauren equally selfish if he were to get his hands on her.’
It wasn’t too difficult for Casey to imagine the scenario Xander described.
It was difficult, however, to understand how proposing marriage to her was going to solve his dilemma!
‘So you think marrying a complete stranger is going to stop him from going ahead with a custody battle?’ she said with a frown.
‘I think marrying a woman whose young son is already friends with my daughter—she’s talked about Josh incessantly the last four months!—and providing Lauren with a stepmother and the stability of a proper family life, is going to stop him from even trying, yes!’
‘One big happy family, hmm?’ Casey grimaced.
‘Can you come up with a better idea?’ Xander snapped.
‘How about marrying someone you actually love?’
He gave her a pitying