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He had to think quickly and find that solution if he was going to persuade her to cooperate though “I can’t marry Brenda She’s like a sister to me, and I’m sure she found the idea equally reprehensible My dad’s health is failing, and I’m afraid the stress of oes through with signing over the coht kill him It’s clear Brenda ca with the insanity to calm my father That’s basically what I did too, so I told hiirlfriend”
If possible, her expression closed further “Fro papers froirlfriends from which to choose, so that still doesn’t explain why I’m here”
He winced at the bite in her tone, along with the faint hint of judg her words She all but called hiree with her, noasn’t the time—and, to be honest, he couldn’t really defend that accusation, because it bordered on true
“My lady friends aren’t the kind of ladies my father wants to see me settled with, and so I had to invent someone else I ran out of creativity when he expected to ht, and you were the first person who popped into my mind You’re in the city and always do an excellent job of acco any task”
She rolled her eyes “This is quite a bit different fro your favorite bottled water is ikok, Mr Blackwell”
“I know, but I have a plan” She looked surprised, but it could only match his own surprise as he said the words, because he had no plan and no clue He opened hiswords to spill from it that he hoped
“I just need you to go along with it for a little bit Once Dad calument and a spectacular breakup You’ll be off the hook, and he’ll be content for a while that I’m not a complete reprobate incapable of commitment” He didn’t think there was a chance that would actually work, but for the reement “It’s just for a feeeks Will you do it?”
She frowned at hi our wedding date for a month from now, Connor, so how is that supposed to work?”
“Easy We just go along with everything We’ll pretend we’re setting up a wedding, and then you can dump me at the last ive it a rest for a while Anyone would need time to recover from devastation like that” Enthusiastically, he added, “If you jilted me, he’d really feel sorry forthe company for my sister”
She let out a sound of outrage “Not only do you expect ratiate uy who ends the relationship too?”
He gave her a puzzled look “It wouldn’t do anything to soothe ht away, if I’m the one who ruins the relationship, would it?” At the shake of her head, he continued on “It’s rate by your choice I’ll give you a huge bonus, and when this is all over, we can go back to the way things were”
She snorted “I doubt that, but I don’t think there’s any going back to the way things were after tonight either way, so I guess I’ll help you”
He beaelina Just keep the ring on for now, and we’ll figure out all the details of our iht?”
She seenation about her when she waved to the door “Fine, now if you’ll excuse e day, and I don’t even want to think about what I just agreed to”
It was unusual for a woman to rush hi him in the opposite direction, toward her bedrooelina They were business associates, and perhaps theytheir shared trial, but it wasn’t anything more to it than that
There couldn’t possibly be, could there? Of course not He was nowhere near ready to settle down, and she had the kind of responsibilities he didn’t want to think about This was a short-terh he hoped to retain her as assistant when it ended, he would sacrifice that relationship if necessary to keep his father’s health stable
He was feeling considerably lighter—though he kneasn’t as close to a solution as he had presented to her—as he left Angelina’s house a few ot behind the wheel of his car to drive away He’d ing a relationship that didn’t exist and turning it into a breakup fro to his father easing up on the dee