He shakes his head. “Unless you have a better idea, I don’t see?—”
“Marry me,” I blurt.
Bridger goes stone-faced, and the color drains from his cheeks.
“Yes.” I reach for his shoulder, and he flinches a little. But I know this is a lot, so I won’t take that as an insult. “Just think about it for a minute,” I say. “The solution makes perfect sense.”
His jaw ticks. “Does it, though?”
“You can’t marry Rosalind if you already have a wife. And we don’t have toliterallyget married. We’ll justtellyour mom we eloped.”
“Yeah, right.” He blows out a breath. “That might work if my mother were anyone but Margaret Adams. But she’ll insist on proof. Actual paperwork for confirmation.”
“She doesn’t trust you?”
“She doesn’t trust anyone.”
“Hmm.” My leg bounces in a staccato rhythm while I think. I wish my body would stop twitching. I’m already exhausted. “Who do we know who can forge documents?”
“Nobody.” He furrows his brow. “And that kind of fraud would land us in worse trouble. If my marriage turns into a legal battle, everyone loses.”
His marriage.
My stomach gets even queasier. “So … what’s our next move, then?”
“There is no move.”
“Except for the fact that there is.” My pulse careens through my body, and I feel a bit breathless. “We just get married,” I say. “To each other. Like for real.”
“Loren.”
“Mrs. Loren Cane Adams.”
Bridger’s teeth clench. “That idea is a thousand times worse than me marrying Rosalind.”
“A thousand times?” I press a hand to my heart in mock pain. “That’s dangerously close to math, and mildly insulting, my friend.”
A vein pops out on his forehead. “Exactly. We’re friends.”
“Which is why I’ll pretend you didn’t just claim being my husband would be a fate more horrible than having Rosalind for a wife.”
Let’s also ignore the fact that Bridger would be the second man to reject marrying me in under a year.
“That’s not the problem,” he says.
“There is no problem,” I insist. “This wouldn’t be a marriage in the emotional sense. Just a legal contract. And that’s way safer than committing to that … that Barrington Barbie.”
“Safer how?”
“Because I won’t expect any of the romantic baggage she might eventually want from you.” Man, my brain’s firing on all cylinders now. The extra caffeine is really working for me. “Think about it. You have to admit, I’m making an excellent point.”
“You know what I think?” Bridger rests a palm on my bouncing knee. “I think you need a nap.”
“I’m not done yet, though.” I put a hand over his hand. His big, warm, steadying hand. “Nothing would have tochange between us,” I say. “I could still live here, and you’d stay at your place, and we could just keep working together at Stony Peak, like the colleagues we already are. No one even has to find out!”
“That we gotmarried.” He pulls his hand free. “To each other.” His voice sounds awfully robotic, given the brilliance of my plan.
“This is a lot to take in. I get that.” I nod. Bounce. Nod. “I mean, the whole revelation of your trust, not to mention the fact that you’re the anonymous donor, literally made mefaintyesterday. But I’m pretty sure this plan could work to everyone’s advantage.”