wide eyes that made him momentarily forget baby furniture. “I won’t go shopping,” he said. “I’ll hire someone to buy everything. You can earn some money on the side if you want to do it.”
“I’ll get it but you don’t have to pay me. Just pay for the furniture. Where do you want it delivered? Here or the ranch?”
“I’ll need it at both places. I live here and I live there. She’s so little and yet she needs enough things to fill a big truck.” He let out a deep sigh. “I need a wife.”
“I’m sure you can find a wife easily enough,” she said. “But please get one who really likes Hattie and means what she says.”
He meant his comment as a joke, but he saw the sincerity in Talia’s eyes. They were filled with worry and he was part of the problem. He stepped close, placing his hands on her shoulders, feeling her warm, smooth skin where her dress was sleeveless.
“I can’t tell you to stop worrying because I know this hurts, but you’ll always get to see Hattie. You’ll get to be with her. She isn’t going out of your life. Hang on to that. I’d give anything if I could see Artie.”
She blinked and her eyebrows arched. “Oh, Nick. I’m sorry. I’ve probably been making things worse for you.”
“We both hurt.”
“Just love Hattie. She’s going to need your love. She lost her mother, never knew her grandparents and now she’s losing me. She’ll need your love.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Sorry, Nick, sometimes I just can’t avoid crying. I love her so much.”
“I understand. I’ll love her because she’s my child. I only knew Artie two months, but I loved him beyond measure,” he said so quietly, he didn’t know whether she heard, but it didn’t matter.
“There’s just no way I can be her mother in the eyes of the state,” Talia said, looking at Hattie. “Love doesn’t even fit into their equation.” Talia looked up to find Nick studying her intently.
He gazed at her in silence so long that she focused on him, frowning when she studied him. “What, Nick? What’s wrong?”
Lost in his thoughts, he blinked. “I’m thinking. There’s one way you can become her mother as far as the state is concerned. It would be legal and binding.”
Frowning, she shook her head. “I don’t think so. We don’t have any—” She broke off to stare at him while her frown deepened.
“We can marry,” he said.
“Excuse me—did I hear you propose marriage?” she asked, her heart thumping wildly. “Did you just propose to me?” Shocked, she stared at him and he gazed steadily back.
“Yes, I did,” he replied, sounding surprised, as if he were telling himself as well as her.
“Oh, my heavens.” Her head swam and she gulped for breath while she stared at him. “I may faint. I’m not going to,” she added hastily. “I’ve never fainted.”
“Hattie needs someone with her who loves her. I’m a stranger and so is my whole family. Anyone I’d hire would be even less concerned with her welfare. You love her and shower her with love and she loves you. Hattie needs someone to love her. You and I can have a marriage of convenience.”
Talia couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She would get to be with Hattie. She turned to look at the baby playing on the floor. She would get to be Hattie’s real mother. “Nick, if we married, I could adopt Hattie. She would really be my baby, my daughter. Actually, our baby.” Her hands flew to her chest. “I feel as if I’m in a dream. A dream come true. Do you really mean that? You’re actually proposing marriage?”
“A marriage of convenience. We’ll both benefit. I know we’re not in love. I can’t love again and we don’t even know each other. But it’d be a legal marriage to keep Hattie happy and help us both out.” He grasped her hands and asked her again. “Will you marry me in a marriage of convenience?”
“I don’t think you know what you’re doing, Nick. How happy I am.” Excitement made her shake. “I can adopt her legally and Hattie would really be my little girl.”
“That’s right. You could adopt her.”
She held back a gasp when it finally all sank in. “But you’re right, Nick. We don’t even know each other. Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am,” he said quietly, looking as if he was still giving it thought.
“Nick,” she gushed and stepped closer to throw her arms around him.
He caught her, slipping one strong arm around her waist while he laughed softly.
Smiling at him, she felt light-headed and giddy. “Oh, my. You just made my biggest, deepest wish come true—to get to be Hattie’s legal mother. I get to watch her grow up. You just gave me the world.” She leaned back to look at him, gazing into green eyes that hid whatever he was thinking or feeling. Then she hugged him tightly.
“So... I take it your answer is—”
She stepped back to laugh. “Yes. My answer is yes. I’ll marry you, Nick Duncan.”
“You do realize I mean a legal marriage, but not a real marriage. That wasn’t what I had in mind,” he said. “You’ve heard of a marriage of convenience, right?” He didn’t wait for her response. “We can marry and work out how we’ll live. If we marry legally, the state can’t touch us and you can legally adopt Hattie.”
“I understand, Nick. Your proposal is still a dream come true. I love Hattie more than anyone or anything else and you are enabling me to keep her, to raise her, to love her and be with her. You have my forever thanks.”
“There’s no need to thank me,” he said. “We’ll be helping each other out.” He gestured to the sofa and they both sat. “You’ll have to get me up-to-date about your life and your history. You seem to know mine sufficiently.”
That part was true, she silently acknowledged. She stared at him. She could easily see that Nick Duncan was a sexy, good-looking man, but her research had told her a lot about him. He was a billionaire oilman, rancher, widower with three brothers. He had a father he rarely saw and a grandmother living on his ranch. The Duncans were part of Texas history because it was a generations-old ranching family with immense wealth and political influence partially because his great-grandfather had been in the Texas Senate.
And here he was, offering her a marriage of convenience.
She looked at Hattie and couldn’t get her breath. She hadn’t imagined there was any way on earth to get to keep Hattie, and yet Nick was holding one out to her. While she couldn’t imagine marrying a man she didn’t know, that was what she was going to do. But she wasn’t worried. The PI hadn’t turned up anything bad about Nick. If she married him, she would always have Hattie. She could barely think beyond that point. She would become Hattie’s legal mother, and as long as they both lived, Hattie would be part of her life.
Her
