“Thanks Olivia.” He swallowed a huge lump. “Your family has been really great to me. And the Gherrings, as well. But I hate to be a burden.”
“But that’s just it. You’re family. You’re not a burden.”
“So you’re finally agreeing to marry me?” He bit back a grin, and she sent a pleading look to the heavens.
“Seriously, I want to help you, but I don’t want to get married. Could we just pretend to be married until after you get custody?”
“No, it has to be legal. I could risk losing them for good if someone found out we lied.”
“Then Josh, do me a favor. Go home and be honest with yourself—really honest. I saw how you looked at Charlie tonight. And how she looked at you.”
“She wasn’t looking at me like that—she doesn’t have any feelings for me.”
“So you aren’t denying you’re still in love with her?”
“It doesn’t matter how I feel about her. The kids are all that matter. I can’t waste time chasing after Charlie. I’ve pined over her for two years, and I’m totally out of time.” He sat forward and took her hand between his. “I promise I will be totally faithful to you the whole time we’re married. You don’t have to worry about me having feelings for Charlie or any other woman.”
She pulled her hand away. “Josh. You’re missing my point. You’re right. You really are running out of time. What did you do to pursue Charlie for the past two years?”
“Nothing! She wanted me to leave her alone, so I did.” He collapsed back in his chair. “You don’t understand. I hurt her when I was pushing her to give me a chance. I even made her cry. So I left her alone and waited to see if she’d come to me. But she never came. I told her I’d be waiting, but she never came.”
“And what if she loved you, but she didn’t know how to tell you?”
“She could have said something any time. She had two years.”
“Maybe she was afraid.”
He shook his head. Somewhere during the two year hiatus he’d given up making excuses for Charlie’s lack of communication. “No way. Charlie’s not afraid of anything.”
“Except opening herself up to being hurt. That’s the one thing she’s afraid of. You can’t understand it, because you’ve never been rejected. You just walked right up to her and proclaimed your feelings. But she’s not like that.”
“But I did get rejected. Charlie rejected me.”
“And how did it feel? Did it hurt? Now that you’ve been rejected once, aren’t you a little bit afraid of being rejected again?”
“It’ll never happen again. I don’t intend to let myself fall in love again.”
“There, you see... You do understand her. She’d been hurt before and made the same promise to herself, before she ever met you. But I talked to her last night, and I think she’s in love with you.”
Josh’s chest compressed at her words. No. He couldn’t get his hopes up again. “Look, Olivia. Even if you were right—and I’m not saying you are—Charlie is so skittish. I haven’t got another two years to talk her into marrying me. I need to get married next month. That’s why it needs to be you.”
“But you’re admitting you’d like to marry her? And not just for a year?”
He scowled. How had he let Olivia twist his words around? “I’m not admitting anything.”
“Oh, yes you are.” Olivia laughed.
“I am not!”
“You could just ask her,” Olivia suggested. “I mean, just ask her to get married to help you out. The same way you asked me.”
&nbs
p; “She wouldn’t do it.”
“How do you know? Granted, it isn’t a very flattering proposal. But she might say yes. What do you have to lose? Then you’d have a year to convince her to stay married.”
It was true Charlie still responded to him physically. He’d sensed it holding her in his arms on the dance floor. But it was only a physical reaction. If there were emotions behind it, she would have said something long ago. After all, he’d told her he’d be waiting for her. And he had waited. And waited. The time for waiting had passed.