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 add the chaos of a child. Would she be ready for it? She, who had never so much as babysat a neighbor’s kid? Save for a few vacations spent in China with Jiao and Sun, she had no experience with children … what made her think she could do this? Heck, Finn, with all those younger brothers, was probably better suited to parenting than she was.
All Ellie had was a deep rooted conviction that she would love her child and be there for her. She wouldn’t leave Jiao with an endless stream of babysitters or miss her third-grade recital or pay a tutor to help her with her homework so Ellie could work a few more hours. She would be there.
Somehow, she’d find a way to run WW Designs and be the mother that Jiao needed, the kind of parent Ellie had never had. Even though she knew it would be easier to do that if she had a real husband, one who was a plugged-in father, she vowed to make this work on her own. One attentive, loving parent was better than two inattentive, unavailable parents. And she had no intentions of forcing this marriage to limp along after the adoption was final. The worst thing for Jiao would be to have a distant parent, one who left her wondering if she was truly loved.
Finn turned on his blinker, then exited the highway. “Your life might have been quiet and predictable up until now, but I’d say getting married on the spur of the moment is pretty far from either of those adjectives.”
She laughed. “You’re right. No one would ever think I’d elope.”
“That goes double for me.” Finn paused at the end of the off-ramp. He turned to face her, his blue eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. “Still sure you want to do this?”
She thought of what he had just told her. About his brothers and his noisy childhood. Then thought of the quiet, empty life she led. She had her father, yes, but other than that, all she had was work.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said.
“Okay.” Then he made the turn, following the signs that led to the downtown area. “Me, too.”
He said it so softly, she wondered if there was more behind the words than a simple agreement. Was he missing something in his life, too? Was he looking to fill the empty spaces, add life to those quiet rooms? Or was this solely a business merger for him?
He said nothing more, just drove, and she let the silence fill the space between them in the cavernous Town Car. A little while later, they pulled in front of the courthouse, a massive brick building with dozens of tall windows and a spire reaching toward the clouds. The stately building resembled a church as much as it did a place for justice.
They parked in one of the many parking garages nearby, then walked the short distance to the court. Ellie noticed that Finn opened her car door, opened the garage’s door, lightly took her elbow when they crossed a street. Such small gestures, but ones that Ellie appreciated. After all, this was a business deal. He didn’t have to play the chivalrous man.
They went up the few stone steps to the entrance, with Finn stepping in front of her to open and hold the heavy courthouse door for her, too. “Thank you.”
“It’s the least I can do for my future wife.”
She faltered at the word. She’d heard it twice already today, and still couldn’t believe it was happening. “Are you planning on carrying me over the threshold, too?”
He paused. “We hadn’t talked about that detail.”
“Which one?”
“Where we’re going to live after this.”
The mirth left her. Oh, yeah.
She hadn’t thought that far ahead. In fact, she’d just gone with this insane plan, clearly not thinking it through. The adoption agency would undoubtedly do its due diligence before signing off on Ellie’s adoption. At the very least, they’d want a report from Linda on the living conditions.
It wouldn’t take a genius to realize her marriage was a sham if she and new “husband” were living in separate homes. Ellie had never been much of an impetuous woman. Until today and now, she could lose it all by not thinking this through.
“We should live together,” she said, all the while watching for his reaction, “or no one will believe it’s real. We’ll need people to believe we’re together for more than just a business deal.”
“We’ll have to make it seem … real,” he said.
“Yeah. We will.”
Finn turned to her in the bright, expansive lobby. People rushed around them, hurrying to courtrooms and offices, their shoes echoing on the marble floors, their voices carrying in the vast space.
But Ellie barely noticed. She stood in a world of only two, herself and the man who had agreed to marry her and in the process, change her life. And Jiao’s, too.
“Maybe if people find out I eloped, it’ll change their image of me as the Hawk.”
She laughed. “And what, turn you into the Dove?”
“I don’t think so.” He chuckled. “I could get married at a drive-thru chapel in Vegas with Elvis as my best man and that still wouldn’t be enough to do that.”
“You never know. Marriage changes people. Relationships change them.” Her voice was soft, her mind on one person a world away.
“Yes, I think it does. And not always for the better.”
She
