Friday. Clear my schedule and yours for the following two weeks.”
Wendy was used to having Jonathon rattle off a to-do list like this. Even trying to juggle Peyton, she kept up pretty well. Until he got to the last item on the list.
“Wait a second. Clear our schedules? What are we going to be doing? And what about the government contract?”
“We’ll work on that this week. And we’ll have another couple of weeks after we get back. It’ll be tight, but I have no doubt we’ll get it done.”
“Get back? Get back from where?”
He paused by his desk and looked up at her, that cocky smile still on his face. “From our honeymoon.”
“Our honeymoon?” Surprise pitched her voice high.
“Don’t get too excited. We’re just going to Texas. If we’re going to win this battle with your family, we need to go on the offensive. That means taking the fight to them.”
When Jonathon called her into the conference room the next morning, she was surprised to see Randy Zwack there. Randy had gone to college with Jonathon, Matt and Ford before going on to law school. He’d occasionally done work for FMJ, before they’d hired an intellectual property legal department, but that had been long before her time. She was more confused than surprised when she walked into the conference room and saw him there—looking more harried than usual.
Jonathon stood at the far end of the room, back to the door, staring out at the view of Palo Alto sprawling below. Randy sat dead in the center of the table, stacks of paper spread out before him. The lawyer looked up when she entered. He half stood and offered her a strained smile.
“Oh, good. You’re here,” he said as if he’d been waiting for her. “We can get started.”
“Hi, Randy.” She looked past him to Jonathon. When he turned around, she raised her eyebrows in question.
“What’s up?”
He frowned and with unusual hesitancy said, “I asked Randy here to draw up a prenuptial agreement for us.” He held out a hand to ward off some protest he imagined she might make. “Don’t worry. I trust his discretion.”
“I’m not worried.” In fact, delighted was more like it. “Calm down. I think a prenup is a fantastic idea.”
“You do?” Randy looked surprised.
“Why wouldn’t I?” She sat down in the chair opposite Randy. “I assume Jonathon told you why he’s helping me?”
Randy gave a little nod, still looking suspicious.
“This is a marriage custom-made for a prenup.”
“In the interest of full disclosure…” Randy ran a hand over his hair, which today looked disheveled, though it was normally meticulously styled to hide his growing bald spot. “This is not my area of expertise. I told Jonathon he should hire a good family lawyer, but—” Randy winced.
“But Jonathon can be very pig-headed.”
“I was going to say determined.”
No wonder the poor guy looked so disconcerted. Jonathon had obviously browbeat him into drawing up the prenup. And doing it on a very tight schedule, since Jonathon had proposed less than twenty-four hours ago.
“Don’t worry.” Wendy reached across the table and patted Randy’s hand. “I’m sure you did great. It’s all pretty cut-and-dry.”
Jonathon took a few steps closer to loom over them from the end of the table. He’d shoved his hands into his pockets in that way she found so distracting.
This was the man who was going to be her husband. In less than a week. Her stomach tightened at the thought.
“Okay, let’s see this puppy. It’s just your standard prenup, right?”
Reaching for the stack of papers in front of Randy, she clapped her hands in a way that was overly cheerful, as if this was a big fake check from Publishers Clearinghouse. But neither man noticed. Randy was too busy sending Jonathon a pointed glance and Jonathon was too busy glaring Randy into intimidated silence. She looked from one man to the other.
“This is a standard prenup? Right?”
Jonathon cleared his throat and loomed some more.
“You have nothing to worry about. Any assets you bring to the marriage or inherit while married revert to you upon the absolution of the union.” Randy flushed bright as he spoke. Just in case she’d seen through his obfuscation.
Ignoring Jonathon, she looked pointedly at Randy, waiting for him to cave. “That’s not what I asked, now, is it?”
He cleared his throat. “You… urn… have nothing to worry about.”
“Yes, you said that already. What about him?” She nodded in Jonathon’s direction.
“The prenup was written to my specification,” Jonathon said tightly. “I’m satisfied.”
Which was not the same thing at all.
Randy blushed all the way to his receding hairline, but refused to look at her. Jonathon, on the other hand, met her gaze without even flinching, which actually made her more nervous.
“Give me a minute.” Neither man budged. “Alone. With the prenup.” Still no movement from the united front. “Either you give me time to read it or you—” she pointed at Randy “—tell me what it is he doesn’t want me to see.”
Randy looked to Jonathon, who glowered at her for a second before granting a tight nod. Randy pulled her copy closer and flipped to a page midway through.
She scanned the paragraph, then read it aloud to give voice to her exasperation. “In the event of separation, annulment or divorce, the following premarital assets belonging to Jonathon Bagdon shall transfer to Gwendolyn Leland—the monetary value of twenty percent of all real property, tangible property, securities and cash owed by—”
She broke off in frustration, too stunned to continue. She glared at them both. “Whose idea was this ridiculous clause?”
Randy held up his hands. “Not mine.” He sounded as offended as she was.
“But you let him include this? Are you insane?” She clenched and unclenched her fingers around the pen Randy had handed her as he gave a what-could-I-do shrug. She smiled tightly at him and said through clenched teeth, “Will you please give me a minute alone with my future husband?”
Randy skittered away like a death-row inmate given a pardon. She didn’t blame him. Someone was going down. She wouldn’t want to get caught in the crossfire either.
The second they were alone she asked, “Twenty percent? Twenty? Are you crazy?”
Jonathon at least
