style="font-size:15px;"> “Inorganic chemistry, but thanks for being interested.”
“Marina, come on. I told you as soon as you got home.”
“Yes, you did.” Her sister smiled at her. “So I still love you.”
“Great. Another conditional relationship. What happened to unconditional love forever?”
“We put it in the recycling bin,” Willow said helpfully. “It’s too late to get it back. They’ve already picked up.” She dumped the container of blueberries that had cost a fortune from the colander into a bowl. “Berry?”
“Thanks.” Julie grabbed a handful as she sank onto a stool by the center island.
“What’s wrong?” Marina asked. “You seem, I don’t know, not yourself.”
“I’m fine. Sort of.”
Willow wrinkled her nose. “That doesn’t sound good. Are you sick? Too much queasiness?”
“No. I can handle that. It’s just …” Julie hadn’t decided if she was going to mention Ryan’s stupid proposal, but suddenly she couldn’t keep it to herself.
“He came to see me yesterday,” she began.
“Ryan?” Marina asked helpfully.
Julie nodded. “He made an appointment. He’s dangling his company’s China business in front of me and I don’t like it. One of the partners met him and now sees flashing dollar signs. It would be a lot in billable hours.”
“Which sounds good,” Willow said cautiously. “So what’s the problem?”
“I don’t trust him. What if he’s just playing another sick, twisted game? What if he sets this all up and then disappears, taking his billable hours with him? I would look stupid in front of the partners. It wouldn’t be good for my career.”
Marina and Willow glanced at each other and then at her.
“Um, don’t take this wrong,” Willow said quietly, “but why would he do that? What does he have to gain?”
“I don’t know. Just to screw with me. Don’t forget this was a guy intent on teaching me a lesson, even though he’d never met me and knew nothing about me.”
“That was wrong,” Marina said. “But this is totally different. Julie, I can’t believe he wants to hurt your career. You’re having a baby together—why would he want to hurt the mother of his child?”
“To get control. That’s all he cares about.”
Julie knew she didn’t sound exactly rational, but she couldn’t seem to keep a grip on her emotions. “I just …” She swallowed and found herself fighting tears. “Okay, I’m weak. That’s it, the truth in all its ickiness. I know better than to expect a guy to be decent. I know better than to dream about someone who’s honest and caring. I know I should let the romantic dreams go and I try. I really try. But then when I least expect it, they pop back up and I’m hopeful and then the hopes get crushed and I want to slap myself for being so stupid in the first place.”
“I love you like a sister,” Willow said, which made Julie almost smile. “But what on earth are you talking about?”
“He asked me to marry him.”
“Okay, then,” Marina said, sliding on to the stool next to Julie’s. “Start at the beginning and talk slowly.”
Willow pushed aside the berries and leaned against the counter. “You have our full attention. I promise.”
“There’s not much to tell,” Julie said with a sigh. “He came to the office yesterday.”
She explained how Ryan had spoken about his three companies and how they needed help. “Then somehow we were talking about personal stuff, how he and Todd were close when they grew up and how women only wanted them for their money.”
“It could happen,” Marina said.
“Poor little rich boys,” Willow muttered sarcastically.
“That’s what I told him. Anyway, we were talking about that and then he said we should get married. That it was the best thing for the baby.” She paused, then shrugged. “I didn’t take it well.”
“Why?” Willow asked.
“Because … He really ticked me off. You don’t propose just like that. It’s wrong. We barely know each other. I don’t trust him and, based on how he treated me, he doesn’t trust me. It’s not exactly a basis for a successful marriage. I got angry.”
“I get it,” Willow told her. “He violated those secret dreams you’re not supposed to have. It wasn’t romantic and perfect and he doesn’t love you.”
“I refuse to have a weak side,” Julie said. “I’m tough.”
“You’re human,” Willow said.
“But it was romantic,” Marina said.
Julie rolled her eyes. “Here we go.”
“It’s true,” her baby sister insisted. “You get married because you have to, then you fall madly in love. It’s fabulous.”
“She’s insane,” Julie muttered.
“At least he was willing to do the right thing,” Willow said. “I know he was totally in the wrong on your date. Lying like that. But you know, I kind of don’t totally blame him. It’s really that Todd Aston’s fault. He’s the one who was too big a jerk to show up and talk to you himself.”
Julie thought they were both rats. “Ryan had his own agenda. Don’t make him into the hero of the night.”
“I won’t, but maybe there’s a chance he’s not all bad.”
“A tiny one.”
“So you won’t consider his proposal?” Marina asked.
“Not even on a bet. It would be dumb to marry a man I barely know just because I’m pregnant.”
There was a sound from the doorway. Julie looked up to find her mother standing there.
This was so not how she wanted to tell the news.
Willow and Marina disappeared into the back of the house. Julie stayed on her stool and watched her mother make coffee.
“It’s decaf,” Naomi Nelson said as she flipped on the switch.
“Thanks.”
Her mother turned to face her.
Naomi had run away with her one true love when she’d been just eighteen. She’d been pregnant and Julie’s birth had been followed by two more babies in the next two years. Naomi had been all of twenty-five the first time her husband had left.
