Last Chance Proposal (4 page)

Fleur wiped her hands on her apron, pulled out a chair, and sat down. “It is a horrible situation and I feel for that poor little boy, but this is Cy’s problem, not yours, Ellie.” Her tone became softer. “The only reason he’s asked you to do this is because he knows what a kind heart you have. But he’s taken your heart for granted once before and I’m not having him trample all over it again. If it was anyone else, it wouldn’t be so bad, but Cy…”

Ellie reached out and touched her sister’s slim wrist. Fleur knew she and Cy had slept together, that Ellie had told him she loved him and that he’d run. But not the rest of it. Through the years she’d been so tempted to unburden herself on Fleur, tell her what had really happened the day William died, but that seemed selfish now somehow. Nothing good could come from dragging all that up again. “No one’s going to be trampling on anyone’s heart,” she said with a small smile.

“And how did he think it could possibly work? Imagine being with him day in, day out for a whole year, touching him, pretending you’re in love.” Her eyes widened. “God, can you imagine looking at
that
body when it got out of the shower every morning and not being able to do anything with it? That could seriously screw with anyone’s head.”

Ellie could feel the heat rush to her cheeks and she chuckled. She might have had that thought once or twice in the last few hours.

Fleur’s voice dropped further. “Especially if you were still in love with him.”

Ellie moistened her lips and stared at the cheery cupcake. “Well, I’m not going to marry him, so it’s not an issue.” She lifted her gaze to her sister again. “Besides, what makes you think I’d be in love when I haven’t seen him in nearly a decade, anyway?”

Fleur stilled. “Maybe it’s in the way you’ve still talked about him over the years, that faded photo of the two of you that’s hiding on your bookcase.” She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “Ellie, look me in the face and tell me you’re not considering this.”

Ellie just smiled. Of course Fleur wasn’t saying anything she hadn’t thought herself in the hours she’d been turning Cy’s proposal over in her mind. If she did agree, she’d have to pretend they were in love, have to touch him, be close. Maybe even share a bed together so people believed they were husband and wife. Oh, God, that was a new thought.

She shifted on her chair as her whole body hummed at the prospect of being that close to him. But there was so much else to consider, the fact that she had projects lined up for the next year, the fact that being responsible for a child would require a skill set she just didn’t have.

She twisted the plate in front of her. “I don’t know how I can face him and say I’m not going to do the only thing that will help win his son back.”

“Mmm hmmm.” Fleur made the noise their mother always made when she didn’t really believe what someone was saying and Ellie chuckled. “You don’t think you’re just hoping for a last little opportunity to have Cy jump your bones again? You’re not secretly imagining you could turn him on to loving you in the time you were together? That would be a hell of a long time to be living so closely with someone as gorgeous as Cy.”

Ellie shook her head. “No, he’d never love me. He’s always made that clear, and he wouldn’t have asked if he thought I still had feelings for him, would he? That’d just be cruel.”

“Seen my skim board?” Louis, Ellie’s nine-year-old nephew stood in the doorway in his boardshorts. He wore a baseball cap backward and flip-flops.

Fleur turned her head. “No, I haven’t, sweetie. Hey, guess what? Ellie’s invited our old friend Cy and his little boy, Jonty, over for Christmas dinner. Jonty’s from the States. Won’t that be fun?”

“Cool,” Louis said. He moved to the counter and picked up a spoon with frosting on it and raised his eyebrows at Fleur.

She winked at him and he grinned as he slipped the spoon between his lips.

Ellie’s breath froze in her chest. That slow look of unspoken love between mother and son, the little gestures of devotion that only came from spending a lifetime with someone. Would Cy lose that with Jonty if she said no?

“Can I make strawberry ice cream for Christmas dinner like Nana taught me?” Louis asked as he gave the spoon another giant lick.

“Sure.” His mother chuckled. “We can do a practice run tomorrow. I wonder if we should have a more traditional Christmas dinner or do some New Zealand favorites.”

Louis chewed his lip. “That boy. Does he know how to skim?”

Ellie shrugged. “I don’t know, hon. I don’t think he’s been on the beach much, so maybe not. He’s a bit shy, but perhaps you can teach him when he gets to know you better.”

“Don’t they have beaches in America?”

“They do, but he doesn’t live near one.” She reached over for the teapot and poured more in her cup and then Fleur’s. “He found a pukeko chick yesterday. I’ll take you over to have a look at it if you like. They’re going to release it when its sore foot’s better.” What would the timid Jonty be like on Christmas day and on all the days to follow? If she said yes to Cy, the challenge of developing a relationship with his little boy would be enormous.

If
she said yes?
Her subconscious had blindsided her and her heart started to skip double time. What was really holding her back? Being in the States for a year would be a big financial strain on her business and would mean her dream of having a permanent base in New Zealand would be put back years, but losing that dream was nothing compared to Cy losing his son. She blinked and put the brakes on her runaway brain.

Louis nodded. “Can we take him out back to see the glowworms when it’s dark?”

She passed the milk jug to Fleur. “I’m not sure, love. Jonty’s never been here before and he might be a bit tired from his big trip but I’ll ask his dad.”

Louis stuck his bottom lip out. “We never have boys ’round here, ’cept for Grandad. It’d be cool to go to the glowworms with him. Can you ask his dad?” He turned around. “I’m gonna look for my board in the shed.”

Fleur sat back in her chair. “Your face could double as a movie screen you’re so transparent, Ellie Jacobs.”

Ellie blinked. “What on Earth do you mean?”

Her sister held her with a challenging stare. “I mean that I can tell you’re seriously considering saying yes to Cy.”

Ellie drew a circle in the confectioner’s sugar on the table and blew out a soft breath. “How do you think Louis would react if I said yes? He’s so used to having me around that he’d think it was strange if I got married and moved away.”

Fleur pushed the plate of cupcakes toward Ellie, then took one herself. “Ell, he’s nine; the only things he cares about are surfing and basketball. The minute he discovered Cy’s a surfer he’d be his friend for life. If you were to tell him you’re going to live with Cy, he’d think it was ‘primo.’ But…” She paused. “I think you should stop considering how this will affect other people and think about yourself.”

Ellie nodded. “And then there’s Mum and Dad. They won’t be back from Europe till mid-February. By that time, we’d be in Colorado. I’d have to tell them something.”

Fleur moved her mouth from side to side. “That’s a tough one. On one hand, Mum would totally believe you’d get into a relationship with Cy, but she’d be pretty disappointed if you got married and she wasn’t there.”

Ellie held her sister’s gaze. “So you’d support me in this? If I talked things through with Cy and we found a way to make it work, you wouldn’t try to stop me?”

Fleur reached out a hand and squeezed her fingers. “Of course I’d support you. I don’t think I could do it, but I understand that it’d bring some closure to all you went through with Cy. And everyone in the world knows what a big heart you have.” She smiled softly. “I just want you to promise me one thing.”

Relieved that her sister understood why she was considering this, Ellie grinned back. “What’s that?”

“Don’t let Cy break your heart all over again.”

As Ellie squeezed her sister’s hand back, she told herself the exact same thing.

Ellie knocked on Cy’s door the following morning and waited. It seemed odd to be so formal. In the old days she’d have just bowled right on in, calling his name with her snorkel set swinging from her fingertips. But odd didn’t begin to describe what she was about to do.

She’d lain awake most of the night, running through everything he’d told her, everything he’d asked of her, all of the obstacles Fleur had reminded her of. The story of how Jonty’s mom had died, how Cy had been prevented from seeing his son broke her heart, but she had to know more. Thinking about how a sham marriage between her and Cy would affect people—their families, each other, and most of all Jonty, made her brain ache.

Fostering dogs, running meals on wheels, babysitting for friends, she couldn’t stop doing things to help. But now she did it all with an eye on her own happiness, too. And she
was
happy now. Her life was full. She had great friends, a loving family, and the best job in the world. She was confident, strong, and in charge of her own dreams. But would all that change if she spent the next year living with Cy and his little boy?

“Hey.” Cy smiled as he stood at his opened door, a plain white tee hugging his torso, his hair mussed. Aviator sunglasses hung at his neck and he was barefoot in boardshorts. Good God, he was gorgeous, just as he’d always been. If she agreed to his plan she was going to have to look at him like this—have him within touching distance—for three hundred and sixty-five days, and the thought was torture.

“Do you have a minute?”

He looked back into the house and dropped his voice. “Jonty’s watching cartoons. Is it okay if we talk out here?”

“Sure.”

He called back to Jonty that he’d be on the deck, then closed the door behind him. Padding down the steps, he looked so much more relaxed than he had yesterday.

“Great day.” They sat at a picnic table, and she flicked sunglasses down onto her face, desperate to make this feel normal.

“Amazing.” He tilted his head and looked out at the breaking waves. “Wish I could go out for a surf sometime, but I don’t think I’ll leave Jonty with anyone again. Yesterday didn’t go so well.”

She ran her tongue over dry lips. “I’ve seen your Uncle Pete on your old yacht. Maybe you could take it out sometime with Jonty.”

He nodded but she could tell small talk was the last thing on his mind.

“I’ve come to discuss your proposal.”

He put his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “I was hoping you had. And before you say anything, I want you to know that no matter what you decide, it won’t affect our friendship. Now that we’re back in touch, I’m not going to lose our connection again.”

Their friendship. That precious thing that’d been destroyed by telling him she loved him and by him leaving without a backward glance. She couldn’t do much more damage than that today. But once they’d had this conversation, their relationship would never be the same again, she was sure of that.

“Cy, I want you to know that I’ve agonized over this. And the big question I have is, are you sure that marrying me is your only option?”

He scrubbed a hand across the stubble on his chin and nodded. “I’ve worked through every possible solution before getting to this point. I’ve tried to communicate with Susan’s parents, tried to appeal to them on every level I could, but they’ll only speak through lawyers. They’ve only agreed to me bringing Jonty back here for two weeks before the hearing, and that’s only because they think it’ll be too much for me and I’ll give Jonty up. They couldn’t be more wrong.”

“Then how did you come up with the plan to marry me?”

His mouth lifted. “The minute I saw that letter from you, I remembered the friendship we’d had, what we’d been through together, and I knew it was something I could ask you to do.”

She’d asked something pretty huge of him once and now he was calling that favor in. He hooked her with those ocean-blue eyes and she couldn’t look away, her heart clenching in her chest.

“I trust you, Ellie. Like no one else in my world, I trust that you won’t judge me, that you’ll understand that I can’t lose my son.”

She played with a splinter of wood on the table as her stomach looped. “How would it work? I have this project to oversee, a restoration in Greece in March, but I’d need to be with you in the States. And I know nothing about children.”

“That’s right. We’d get married in Auckland before you came back with me. You’d only need to stay for a year at the most.”

“How do you think it would affect Jonty? Wouldn’t it create a whole new set of problems, having me come into his life and then leave again?”

He shrugged. “If you did leave after the year, I guess it would depend on how we dealt with it. Whenever you did decide to come back we’d still see you at the cove in holidays, Christmas at least. The whole beauty of doing this with a friend means you can always be in our lives.”

She chewed her lip. Of course that was true. He’d only ever see her as a friend, nothing more. “And our families, what would we tell them?”

“No one can know the truth. For this to be one hundred percent watertight we need everyone believing it’s a real relationship, that what you and I have is a stable, committed marriage that will be the best environment for Jonty to be brought up in. Mum’s still in her first job out of law school. She finished her study when she split from Dad. It wouldn’t be fair to tell her something that could jeopardize her job if anyone found out that she’d known. How about your family?”

The thought of lying to her family again made bile sting the back of the throat. “I’ve already mentioned it to Fleur. I had to tell her.”