Tempting Fate (43 page)

“And what about you?”

“Well, Michael is correct.  Catherine's change of heart poses an enormous problem for me.”

“I would think so.  It's not every day the woman you love walks out on you.  And on your wedding day.”

Jonah snapped his gaze to her with a look of surprise.  “Catherine and I weren't in love.”

Maggie clamped her mouth shut when she realized it had dropped open, and then cleared her throat before going on.  “Now I'm really confused.  You were going to be married and you didn’t love each other?  Even...a little?”

“I respect Catherine very much.  Like I said, she’s a good person.  But it was strictly a business arrangement.  My grandfather has a very…old fashioned way of looking at things and required I take a wife.  Since things had gone sour with Catherine and her fiancé months ago, she agreed to help me out.”

“In strictly a business way?”

“Exactly.  It seemed to solve a lot of problems for both of us.  However, her fiancé decided he didn't quite like the arrangement.”

“You mean ex-fiancé.”

“Well, at the time of our arrangement that's what he was.  I never would have proposed the arrangement otherwise.  I think it's safe to say he's back in rank.”

“And you're really happy that she...jilted you?”

He cocked his head to one side.  Laugh lines creased across the corners of his eyes as he shined an amused grin.  “I'm not going to go drown my sorrows in a bottle of Jack Daniels if that's what you're asking.  I’m upset, but not to the point of doing anything rash.”

Maggie shook her head.  “This is the weirdest thing I've ever heard in my life. I didn’t think people did things like that anymore. A business arrangement for a marriage?”

Jonah laughed, rich and deep.  “I agree that it does sound a bit odd.  But necessary, I'm afraid.”

“To each his own.”  Maggie leaned forward so that Michael could hear.  “Turn down this next road, please.”

The driver made the turn.  Maggie wasn't sure if she was thrilled to have this ride over or sad that her time with Jonah, however strange, was coming to an end.

Maggie couldn’t imagine marrying a man for any other reason than for love.  Like every young girl, she’d had her fantasies of a beautiful church wedding, declaring her undying love to her husband in front of God and the church, her family and friends assembled to witness. 

A pain stabbed her heart just thinking about it.  Her grandmother was now gone and like her mother, her impulsiveness had left her with nothing but a girlish fantasy.  

As the limousine turned down a side road, she glanced over at her driving companion.  Jonah Wallace was an enigma.  And yet something, call it gut instinct, told her she'd been in good hands with him from the start.

The limousine slowly rolled to a stop in front of the tenement house she'd lived in her whole life.  From the time she was a child, all Maggie's dreams had been imagined in the same room overlooking the car-lined street.  

A handful of neighborhood children danced under the sprinkler in the front yard next door, the chewed up lawns turning to nothing more than a mud puddle under their feet.  They stopped, their inquisitive eyes drawn to the fancy car. As Maggie climbed out of the back seat into the heat, the children waved and stared.  It wasn't often a limo drove down her street.  She wondered how many of her neighbors were peeking behind their drapes to see who would emerge.

“Did you get married or somethin', Maggie?” the eight-year-old girl who lived on the first floor asked, standing by the fence.

Jonah glanced at her, his smile was sincere and apologetic as heat crept up Maggie’s cheeks.

“No, Karen,” she called out.

Jonah stepped out of the back seat onto the pavement beside her.  Maggie watched as, one by one, the other children drew their gaze to this stranger.

Ever the curious child, Karen asked, “Then who's this guy?”

She glanced at Jonah and saw that he was clearly amused.  He was much less tense now than he'd been at the coffee shop.

“This
guy
is a friend,” he called out, answering for her.  “Sir Jonah Wallace, Karen.  Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Karen stared at his outstretched hand.  “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”

“Ah.  Good rule.”

The interchange seemed to satisfy the young girl.  She quickly turned and joined the other children for another romp under the sprinkler.

“There's a lot of that going around,” Maggie said when she turned around to face Jonah again.

“Sorry?”

She motioned with her head toward the front seat of the limousine.  “The misconception that we'd gotten married.”

“Crazy, isn't it?” 

His eyes never left hers.  If the circumstances were different, she’d almost think what she saw was interest there.  But that was crazy. 

It had to be some kind of delayed shock on his part.  No matter what Jonah had said in the car about his plans to marry being a business arrangement, he had to have some feelings for this Catherine woman.  He’d been so despondent earlier at the coffee shop.  

“Well, thanks for the ride, Jonah.”  She turned and took a few steps up the porch.

“Maggie?”

“Hmm?”

“How about it?”

“How about what?”

Jonah took a step closer and peered up at her.  It was there again.  That look in his eyes that she could only call interest.  The cobalt blue seemed liquid and made his eyes mystical.  His dark hair shined jet-black under the glare of the sun.   

“Will you marry me?”  

* * *

Jonah, ol' boy, you've really come undone this time, he thought as he looked at Maggie's shocked expression.  For a moment, he wasn't sure she was still breathing.

“Don't you think you're rushing things just a tad?”  She lifted her hand and pinched her index finger and thumb together for emphasis.

“I'll admit my proposal is a bit abrupt,” he stammered.

“A bit?”

“We've only known each other--”

“Forty-five minutes tops,” she blurted out.  “Are you out of your mind?”

Her tone was incredulous.  And he really didn't blame Maggie if she thought he was nuts.  He felt nuts.  Desperate, too.  But he found himself defending his proposal.

“Quite possibly.  But you see, that’s exactly my point.  I'm have a bit of a time-crunch here, and it seems as though--”

Maggie folded her arms across her chest.  “How silly of me.  Here I thought you were sweeping me off my feet.”

He shook his head with a chuckle.  “I do sound mad, don’t I?”

“Recognition is the first step toward recovery.”

Something rumbled up from deep inside him.  Jonah laughed at himself, this disastrous day, and the absurd situation he'd been forced into by his grandfather.  It felt good to laugh.  That in itself was incredibly surprising, considering he hadn't managed to do much laughing at all since he'd learned of the impending plans for Wiltshire.

He peered at Maggie through moisture filled eyes.  She wasn't laughing.  But she was incredibly beautiful.  Her sapphire eyes sparkled when she teased him.  There were small freckles sprinkled across her nose that looked adorable with the sun shining on her creamy skin. 

When she looked at him the way she was right now, it didn't seem like such a crazy idea to marry her.  At least not for the reasons he was proposing.  He hadn't given it a second thought.  And yet, now he realized just how ridiculous he looked from her eyes.

“I'm not making a pass at you.  Truly, I'm not.”

“You just asked me to marry you.”

  “I'm asking for your help.”

“Again?”

His lips tilted up to one side.  “Again.”

Maggie took two steps down the stairs until they were both standing at eye level.  “Forget the phone call, the nice air conditioned ride in the limo, the coffee, the pie—”

“Which by the way was truly inspiring,” he interjected.  “If I didn’t already tell you that.”

“You did.  You don't even know me.  You’re asking a total stranger to marry you.”

He shrugged.  “I know that.  But I know you make me laugh.”

“So that's all it takes for a happy marriage?  Bet we could make a killing with that book.”

“I sound delusional,” he said.  “Even to my own ears, which is pretty scary.”

He was delusional.  He'd just asked a woman he didn't even know to marry him!  And the fact that he was truly considering it was entirely grandfather's doing. 

Maggie was laughing now.  So much so that tears formed in her eyes and began spilling down her cheek.  He decided her laughter was something he could get very use to hearing every day.  It was just one more thing that surged him on.

He threw open the back door of the limo and rummaged through the console, plucking out a business card.  Then he strode back to the porch where Maggie still stood, watching him.  Her laughter had subsided, and she'd resumed her position, standing with her arms crossed over her chest like a shield.

“Think about it.  And call me, if at some point you decide I'm not completely bonkers.”

She took the card, but locked her gaze with his for a long moment.  “You really are serious, aren't you?”

“Marriage is not something to be taken lightly.”

“I totally agree, which is why I can't believe you're asking a woman you don't even know anything about, who doesn't know anything about you, to marry you.”

He glanced down the narrow street, at all the cars parked tightly in a row against the sidewalk and then back at Maggie.

“I don't expect you to take my word that I'm not some deranged person.  Call the number.  Talk to a private investigator if you'd like.  Have him send me the bill.  You can never be too careful.”

Her eyes became impossibly wide as she glanced down at the card for the first time.  “Sir Jonah Wallace?  You're an English Knight?”

He shrugged, slightly abashed.  “Guilty.”

“I can't believe this woman stood you up at the altar and you're an honest to goodness knight?”

“Does that really make a difference one way or the other?”

A hint of a blush crept up her cheeks.  “I've just never met a real knight before.”

He just smiled at her.  “I'm still just a regular guy.”

Maggie shook her head.  “No, you're not.  The Queen of England doesn't just hand out knighthood like floss at the dentist office.”

“I suppose you're right.”

She drew in a shallow breath.  “Why are you doing this?  I mean, you could probably marry anyone.  Why ask some stranger?”

Jonah ran his hand over course dark hair until his hand rested at the nape of his neck where the ends had curled from the heat and humidity.  “It's rather complicated.”

She sat down on the splintered stair treads and patted the spot next to her where the stain had been faded by foot traffic and weather.  “Try me.”

Jonah took the seat next to her, resting his elbows on his knees. 

“My grandfather holds the deed to a piece of property that has been in my family for over three hundred years.  It was my childhood home, my father's and grandfather's before him.”

“And so on.  I get the picture.”

“Right.  The roots of my family run deep in this estate.  Unfortunately, my grandfather has decided to take out the garden sheers and cut it free.  He's selling it to the highest bidder.”

“What does that have to do with needing a wife?”

“You see, the only way he'll allow it to stay in the Wallace family is if I marry.”

Maggie croaked.  “You've got to be kidding.”

“I wish I were.”

“Isn't that blackmail?”

“Technically, yes.  But since he holds the deed, he can do with it what he wants.  His requirement for passing it on to me is that I marry for at least one year.”

Maggie shook her head and said almost under her breath.  “Nice man.”

“Actually, he is.  We've always been close.  He's more of a father to me than my own father ever was in many ways.  But grandfather has always been a bit of a joker.  Now he's playing one heck of a joke on me.”

“Can he really do this to you?”

“Unfortunately, yes.  It's still his since my father refused ownership of it some thirty years ago.  I have a choice to go against his wishes.  But I can't.  A home with three hundred years of roots deep in the ground is not something I'm willing to walk away from.”

“You're willing to get married...for a house?”

“An estate,” he corrected.  “One that has been in my family for three hundred years.  I know it may not make any sense to someone like you.”

Her smile faltered and her back became broomstick straight as she sat beside him.  Instantly, he realized he’d hit a raw nerve.

“Believe me, I know all about roots.  Before I was born, my grandmother started the
Coffee Drop
from nothing but a dream in her heart and sweat from her brow.  She was the very foundation of my family.”

“Was?”

“She passed away five months ago.”

Jonah wondered briefly if the picture he'd noticed on the wall of the coffee shop had been of Maggie and her grandmother.  His chest constricted, remembering the look of affection that had passed between the two women as the photograph was snapped.  He also wondered if the small gold cross he’d seen draped across the picture belonged to Maggie or her grandmother. 

“I'm sorry for your loss.  But you see, that's a very important thing we have in common then.  Roots. 

“What I'm proposing is a business arrangement.  You'll be compensated monetarily for the inconvenience.”

The gold flecks in her eyes were brilliant.  “You do realize you sound nuts.”

“I know,” he groaned.

“And this Catherine woman really didn't mind getting married for this reason?”

“She agreed.” 

Going over the events of the day in his head as they rode to Maggie's, Jonah came to a startling conclusion.  Perhaps Catherine's motives for agreeing to marry him were strictly mercenary.  How else could Derek have known where and when the wedding was to be held?  It all seemed so perfectly choreographed.  Catherine was good at that.  It's what made her an excellent secretary. 

He shook the thoughts from his mind and tried not to hold any ill feelings for Catherine.  After all, she was merely a woman in love, desperate to win her man.  And he had always known he wasn't that man.