I felt her muscles go lax. “Okay. Okay. So, now what?”
Even though she had her back to me, I could feel her smiling. I brought my mouth to her ear, enjoying the way she leaned into me, as if she didn’t want to risk missing any word. I trailed my fingers from her shoulder down to her elbow, drinking in her reaction. She sucked in a breath, shimmying against me.
“Now, I’m going to spend the evening proving what a good husband I am, wife.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hunter
The week after returning from our honeymoon, the immigration services asked me to come in for an interview for my green card. I was relieved they hadn’t asked Josie to come in too. Still, I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was nervous as hell when the case worker asked me to come to her office.
“Mr. Caldwell, we’ve received your green card application, and I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
“Sure.”
“You’ve lived in the United States since you were four years old. Why haven’t you applied for a green card before?”
“Honestly, I didn’t have time and didn’t think it was too important. My parents were British citizens, and they’d never had issues with their visa.”
She looked down at my file, drawing check marks.
“But yours wasn’t renewed.”
“Hence why I decided to go directly for the green card.”
“And you got married in the meantime.”
I stood still, watching her carefully. “I did.”
“Thought you’d kill two birds with one stone, eh?”
“Josie and I have been friends for a long time.” I was still calm, but I wouldn’t be able to keep so for too long.
“A large percentage of sham marriages happen between friends. People rarely trust strangers with something like this.”
I could feel myself losing my composure. I had to force myself to keep my voice even.
“This is not a sham marriage.”
“That’s for us to determine. You have a good track record—a successful business, charity work. But we still have to investigate.”
“Any other questions?”
“No.”
That unsettled me for some reason. Usually, the less questions the better. But they’d asked me here for an interview, and we’d only covered a few things.
What had been the purpose? Catch me off guard?
By the time I arrived at the office, I was in a worse mood than when I’d gone in for the interview, but there was a small light at the end of the tunnel: Skye and Tess were dropping in at lunch so we could look at their business plan.
To my surprise, when I entered the meeting room, Ryker was there too. On second thought, it made perfect sense. As a Wall Street guru, he knew what investors were looking for. Besides, we all met about once or twice a week for lunch anyway. Before a Ballroom Gala, we sometimes had to discuss details, but mostly it was an opportunity to catch up. Everyone worked in the Manhattan area, so it was easiest to meet for an impromptu lunch than schedule dinners.
Skye and Tess were all smiles, pointing to
the take-out bags they’d brought.
“Ladies, this is enough food for ten people.”