Can't Tie Me Down! (Sinclair Sisters 1)

Keir wasn’t sure he was the right man for the job. Sense would mean Mairi never giving him a second chance, because which sensible woman would do that after a guy took her virginity, then walked out on her and straight into prison?

“Rusty, this can be over in ten minutes. All you need to do is marry me.”

“I’d rather spend my life as Donald Trump’s hairdresser.” She glared at him.

“You are deeply disturbed,” Keir said.

“That doesn’t help!” Agnes threw up her hands in disgust as the front door opened and Donna rushed in.

“I’m going to be on TV.” She seemed shocked at the prospect.

Both sisters groaned.

“What did you do?” Agnes demanded as Donna fell onto the couch.

“Nothing.” Donna brushed her strawberry blonde hair out of her face. Unlike her sisters, she was dressed in work clothes—gray trousers, black shirt, black shoes. “I just answered the questions they asked me.”

“You gave them an interview?” Agnes strode to the sofa to loom over Donna.

Donna’s cheeks went red. “They asked me, and I couldn’t say no. Honestly, I tried, but the word wouldn’t come out of my mouth.”

Seeing as Donna was famous for her inability to say no, this was not a surprise to anyone in the room.

“What did they ask you?” Agnes said through clenched teeth.

Donna wet her lips and gave Mairi a nervous glance. “They asked me what Mairi was looking for in a husband.”

“And you told them?” Mairi was on her feet. “Couldn’t you have said I wasn’t looking for one at all and this was one huge, chaotic misunderstanding?”

“Well, yeah.” Donna bit her bottom lip. “I suppose I could have.”

Keir held up a hand. “Wait. I want to know what you think Mairi is looking for in a husband.”

“I, um, was nervous,” Donna said, her cheeks even redder now. “I don’t know what you want in a husband now. All I could do was tell them what I did know.”

Mairi paled and sat back down with a thump. “You didn’t.”

“What?” Keir and Agnes said in unison.

“I’m sorry, Mairi, I don’t deal well with pressure, and there was a camera pointed at me. That made it worse,” Donna said.

“What?” Keir and Agnes said, again at the same time, only louder.

Mairi groaned and put her head in her hands. “When we were kids, we wrote lists of all the attributes our perfect husbands would have, and this freak with the perfect memory never bloody forgets these things.”

“I am so sorry,” Donna said again. “It was the first thing that came to mind.”

“I wrote that list when I was thirteen,” Mairi wailed.

“Oh, this I’ve got to hear,” Keir said as he folded his arms. He’d given up trying not to grin. This was just too funny.

“Okay,” Agnes said. “Everybody get a grip. This can’t be too bad. Other than making Mairi look stupid on national TV, there can’t be anything on a list written by a thirteen-year-old that will make this situation worse. Right?”

Mairi groaned and rested her forehead on the table.

“What’s on the list, Donna?” Keir said through a wide grin.

Donna looked a bit worried about answering, but when Agnes started to tap her toe, she got right to it.