According to her, my nerdy ass would probably choose something ghastly. I swallowed the insult and all the others she threw at my head, which I knew only came about because I refused to show her which one I was getting. I listened to her rants on a daily basis for the last few weeks before she came home, in which time she called me everything under the sun. When I couldn’t get her to shut up and get off my back, I fucked her to silence… oh boy, not the time to be thinking about that.
I reached into my pocket and removed the ring before passing it over the table to him. “I would love to have your daughter’s hand in marriage.” He picked the box up but didn’t open it right away.
“I thought you two were already engaged.” From the slick look on his face, I’m sure he didn’t know what I knew.
“I told her that I wanted to marry her, yes, but from her description of you, I figured this was the correct way to go about things.”
“Damn right, you’re marrying her since you have her shacking up with you.” And there you have it.
“Yes, I know that you know, but she doesn’t know that you do, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want her to feel guilty about disappointing you.”
“How did you find out? Who told you? One of those million and one guards you have following her around?”
“Yes, they made your guys about a week in. They have to be very good for my boys not to have noticed them right away.” I was and still am impressed that the man has the foresight to keep an eye on his kid, who’s hundreds of miles away from home. I know I’ll be doing the same when it comes time to send mine and Sam’s kids off to school. Especially the one daughter she’s allowed, just to be fair.
You love her, don’t you!” He finally opened the box after asking the obvious. “Holy… What’re the specs on this thing? I knew your name sounded familiar. No wonder Sam said it was a surprise. So you’re him, the Jared Macalister. Your billions won’t save you if you hurt her, you know that right. I’d hunt you down like a rabid dog if you do.”
“I won’t expect any less, sir.”
“There’s something else you need to know. I was once engaged to Tessa. It was a long time ago, back when we were in college. I broke things off when I realized that she wasn’t the one for me. I hope that does not pose a problem for you.” He didn’t say anything for the longest, just stared me down as he tapped his finger on the ring box.
“Is she the reason you two met?” I filled him in on how and why Samantha and I met, leaving out the more prurient details, of course, and he seemed to accept it for now. “I trust my kid, so if she sees you as worthy, I’ll follow her lead. Just remember what I said.” He slid the ring back over to me, and I pocketed it.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take Samantha away for the night.”
“We have a guest room that you can use.” His look said that I’d better not leave it in the middle of the night to visit his daughter.
“I’ll probably take you up on that tomorrow. But tonight, there’s someplace I need her to see.”
“Okay!”
We left the room, and he led me to the great room where everyone else was gathered. There was a tall ass Xmas tree in front of the windows with what had to be every decoration known to man on it. I was already making up my mind to bring her home every year for the holidays. The place looked like what you’d expect Xmas to be. I can imagine our sons and daughter playing under that tree or one like it since the thing was real.
Samantha introduced me to her mom and brother, who spent the first few seconds trying to place my name before putting his foot in his mouth, it seemed. “You’re Jared Macalister? Didn’t you used to date Tessa?”
“How do you know about that? I never told you that.” Tessa jumped up from her seat, and Tom looked like he’d swallowed something bad. The plot thickens.
Tom
I knew something was wrong the second I came downstairs and joined the women in the great room. Tessa seemed jumpy and nervous while Sam was all but bursting at the seams. It’s her look of extreme excitement, one where it looks like she’s about to jump out of her skin. I was even more convinced that Sam had something to do with Tessa’s uneasiness when she tried to convince me to leave.