Alex watched and swallowed hard. Every once in awhile he’d seen her do that and each time it struck him how much she looked like Grace Kelly. Funny, when he was young, he’d seen Rear Window and developed a tremendous crush on Grace Kelly. He’d forgotten that until just now.
“Do you agree?” he asked, after a silence that he knew had gone on too long.
“Yes.” Her chest rose with a deep breath and the buttons of her blouse strained slightly. “So how do you want to do it?”
His heart skipped a beat. “Do…?”
“The marriage,” she answered quickly. “The actual ceremony or what have you.”
“Ah, well.” He straightened in his chair and shuffled some papers on his desk. “I suppose we’ll go to the courthouse.”
“The courthouse. Fine.” Maggie swallowed. “When?”
He tapped his fingertips on the desk, then steepled his fingers in front of his face. For some reason he didn’t want to appear too anxious. “I’ll have to check my schedule and get back to you on that.”
Some expression flitted across her features, but too quickly for Alex to identify it. She heaved a sigh and regarded him for a moment. There was such a look of intelligence in her eyes. Alex found it disconcerting. As if she could see right through him.
“Fine,” she said, breaking his thoughts. “But I don’t suppose we should wait too long.” She nodded toward the paper listing her visa expiration.
“No,” he agreed. “I just have to make a few calls and then I’ll have my secretary make the arrangements.” He added, “You do realize that an immigration review board will want to set up a time to interview us.”
She blinked. “Why?”
“To make sure our marriage is real. This is an eleventh hour move, after all.”
“How are they going to confirm that?”
“It’s my understanding that they’ll ask us a series of questions about each other and our life together. We’ll have to spend some time together preparing.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I don’t think so. It’s like any other test. We’ll just make sure we’re prepared.” He hesitated. “Do you have any other points to clear up?” He nodded toward the paper she’d brought along.
She glanced at it. “How do we handle…the end? In three years.”
“At the end of three years, I propose to give you a lump sum, again for your personal use. I imagine that you’ll use it to establish yourself as single again.” He pulled the pad over, wrote, then passed the paper to her.
She took it and gasped. “Are you sure you wrote this correctly?” She held it up for him to see.
He didn’t bother to look. “It’s not enough?” He poised his pen. “I’ll only go up another ten thousand.”
“Another ten thousand?” She shook her head. “It looks like you’ll be eager to be rid of me.”
He couldn’t imagine it. “I only want to be fair. That’s the way I do all my business.”
“Then it’s no wonder you’re so successful.” There was a hard edge to her voice. “But this—” she looked at the paper “—isn’t necessary. Not for me.”
Alex looked at her sharply, hating the clutch in his gut. “You don’t like me, do you?”
“Do you care whether I do or not?”
He couldn’t care. But how could he explain that to her? “It’s not imperative.”
She eyed him in silence, then asked, “What if one of us wants to get out of the marriage early?”
He went cold. “Is that a possibility?” he asked in a tone more sharp than he’d intended.
She met his eyes. “I don’t know, is it? What if you fall in love and want to marry someone else?”
He grimaced. “That’s not going to happen. For me. And if we make this deal and you want to marry someone else, you’re going to have to wait until the end of this term. Kate must be settled in a new situation before you leave.”
“Naturally.”
“Furthermore, you must agree to stay in touch with her afterward. I know it’s a big commitment, but otherwise, there’s no deal.” He watched Maggie’s eyes. “Can you agree to that?”
“Of course.” She straightened her shoulders. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s even on my list.” She held it out halfheartedly.
“Good. Then I’ll have my lawyer draw up a contract and bring it to you for a signature.”
“A contract?” She looked astonished. “Don’t you trust me?”
Trust. That wasn’t a word he wanted to discuss with a woman. “It’s just good business,” he hedged. “It helps everyone remember their objectives.”
She nodded stiffly. “Very well. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to see to Kate.”
“Right.” He watched her turn to go, then had another thought. “Maggie?”
She turned around. “Yes?”
Their eyes locked for just a moment. “Since you’re going up to Kate,” Alex said slowly, “maybe you ought to tell her about our plans now.”
A moment passed. “You want me to tell her?”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Is that a problem?”
“You want me to tell her alone?”
He shrugged. “That’s what I hired you for.”
“You can’t mean that.”
Lord, he’d set her off again. He didn’t have time to wade through her inventory of synonyms for I-don’tapprove-of-what-you’re-doing. “Let’s cut to the chase, here. Do you have a problem with telling her?”
Maggie crossed her arms in front of her and regarded him with a look of incredulity that made him extremely uncomfortable. “Surely you intend to tell her this news.”
So that was it. “You’re the one who is with her all the time.”
“You’re her father!” Maggie returned, seeming exasperated for having to point out something so obvious.
“I know that,” he answered, impatient over having to acknowledge something so obvious. He picked up a pen and tipped it back and forth between his fingers. “Am I to gather that you think I should speak with Kate myself?”
She
