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“We’re arguing like a real couple about you fake-proposing to me.”
He brings the plates to the island counter and sets them down, then opens the drawer and pulls out two forks. “I’m just trying to help.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. He draws me in with his arms around my waist. God, it feels so good. Too good.
“Please, Sadie. Marry me so I can help you. We’re going to make that farm the most successful chicken farm in the state. But you have to marry me to make that happen.”
I close my eyes, burying my head in his neck. There’s another reason I don’t want to do this besides putting his own farm in jeopardy. What if the line blurs, and I fall even harder for Jude? Or if at some point, the lie comes out… I’m not sure I can handle the fallout.
“Jude…”
He draws back, taking my left hand. Sliding the ring off the counter, he holds it over the tip of my left ring finger. “What do you say?”
I blow out a breath, unsure of what to do. I’m not sure if it’s because he’s so close, the smell of the soap and shampoo he uses, the fact that he was offended by me saying no, or the meal he prepared for me. I have no rational reason to accept his proposal, but I still find myself saying, “Yes.”
The metal slides onto my finger, and we both stare at it. It’s a symbol of love, but that has nothing to do with the reason it’s on my finger. My heart pinches at that, but it does look beautiful on my hand.
“Thank you. I can never thank you enough.”
He shakes his head. “You don’t have to thank me, especially since I had to convince you.”
I laugh, secretly loving that I’m going to marry Jude Noughton, who’s had my heart for decades.
“Now let’s talk logistics,” he says.
And that right there is what I have to remember every time butterflies fill my stomach—this ring came with an agenda.
We sit at the island, and Jude tells me the plan he’s come up with for us to pull this off.
The next morning, I walk into The Harvest Depot before it’s open for the day. Lottie is in the back, labeling the stock that Jensen brought over from the kitchen at The Getaway Lodge. He makes all the salads they sell and does quick sandwiches for people to buy for lunch.
“Hey,” I say, unsure how to start this conversation.
Jude and I agreed that telling Lottie the truth so she could help us pull this off was priority one. She’s too close to both of us, and Jude said he knew she’d be the first one to be skeptical. We need her to help us sell this.
She looks up from what she’s doing. “Whoa, this is an early morning for you.” Her blonde hair is pulled into a high bun, and she’s wearing the apron with the logo for The Harvest Depot she had me create last year.
“Are you alone?”
Her head draws back. “What’s going on? You’ve never come to see me before the store opens.”
“Are you?”
She nods. “Jensen just left. What’s up?”
She stops what she’s doing and sits on a stool, patting the one across from her.
I slide onto it, tucking my left hand under my leg. “I need to talk to you. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you.”
“Oh my god,” she says. “Did you go over to Jude’s in a whipped cream bikini and he turned you down? I’m gonna kill the bastard. Blood or not, he’s dead to me.”
“Lottie, why would you think I’d do that?”
“Well, you look so upset, and I figured you finally told him. If he’d have licked the whipped cream off your nipples, you wouldn’t look sad.”
I can’t help but laugh at Lottie’s thoughts that go haywire every once in a while. “First of all, that’s not how I would go about telling Jude.”
“It’s hard for any guy to say no to that, though.” She smiles at me like I know she’s right.
