Again he kissed her palm. “Why can’t I marry someone like you?”
“I have no idea,” Hallie said seriously. “In my opinion, that’s one of the great mysteries of the universe.”
Braden pulled back to look at her, blinking to clear his eyes. “You’re different. Something’s happened. You’ve changed.”
“Maybe getting out of the house where I grew up has let me see some things differently.”
He was staring at her. “You look really good. I mean really really good.”
Hallie could feel herself blushing. “Everybody and everything looks good when you’re drunk. So what happened that would make me hate you?”
Braden turned away. “I used Shelly, just plain used her.”
“Sex?” Hallie was trying to sound coolly sophisticated, but her nails were biting into her palms.
“Lord, no! What do you take me for? I used Shelly to make me look less like a failure. I put her in a pair of four-inch heels, a Chanel suit, and took her to work with me to show her off. I wanted Zara to see that I wasn’t suffering because she threw me over for a bigger diamond, a bigger house, a bigger life.” He let out his breath. “But it all backfired on me. Shelly came on to one of the partners. When he told me what she’d done, he said that if I wanted to make partner I needed to get another kind of woman for a wife. He said I should get someone to run a home for me, to entertain clients. Someone I could have kids with.” He looked at her. “He meant someone like you, Hallie.”
She laughed. “I’m the girl next door. Only men from elsewhere marry us. We’re exotic to them.”
He took her hands in his. “I’ve thought about you these last few days. You’re perfect. You always have been. And I’ve always loved you. You know that, don’t you? And you’re a saint. You took care of your whole family without one complaint.”
“I never stopped complaining. Ask your mother. She dried my tears.” Hallie started to get off the bed, but Braden held on to her hand.
“You have the ring?”
She handed it to him and he slipped it onto the ring finger of her left hand. “Think about it, will you?”
“I think this is the best drunken marriage proposal I’ve ever had.”
His eyes were beginning to close. “Have you had many proposals? I ask because I pass them out like party invitations. Marry me, have my kids, live in a four-bedroom three-bath, have date night on Fridays, come watch me coach Little League. Why are women today so repulsed by that?”
“I have no idea,” Hallie said honestly as she got up, took the washcloth off his head, and tucked him in.
“Let me hear you say yes,” he murmured. “I’ve had too many nos lately.”
“Yes,” she said. “You won’t remember any of this in the morning, so I accept. Now, sleep well and you can go to the wedding with me tomorrow.”
“Shelly said her wedding colors would be purple and green. Does that sound good or not?”
“Why were you and Shelly discussing her wedding plans?” Hallie asked, but Braden was asleep.
“What the hell do you have on?” Jamie said through clenched teeth when Hallie walked into the kitchen the next morning.
She glanced down at her jeans and T-shirt, not understanding what he meant. “I’ll change before the wedding. I hope you will too.” He had on sweats and a long-sleeved T-shirt that, as usual, covered most of his body.
Jamie pivoted on his foot, took her left hand in his, and held it up. “What is this?”
The big engagement ring sparkled in the early morning light. “Oh. That. I couldn’t get it off. Are there any more of those cranberry muffins? I think Braden might like them.”
She tried to step around Jamie, but he wouldn’t move, just stood there staring at her.
“Are you planning to marry him?”
Hallie gave a little laugh as she sidestepped and went to the refrigerator. “Maybe. He asked me and I said yes, so that could mean I will. But on the other hand, he was drunk. If you’d stayed longer he might have asked you.”
Jamie stood in the middle of the room, glowering. “If you think this is all a joke, why do you have that ring on?”
Hallie was rummaging in the fridge. She needed to buy groceries. Now that she had two men to feed, she should buy a lot. When she closed the door, Jamie was standing there.