Bargaining with the Bride (Honeybrook Love, Inc. 1)

"That's really admirable."

"It's stupid. I know that now. But, ugh, it was awful. The proposal, I mean. I cooked Lance his favorite dinner and we talked about it the night after I'd spent the last of my savings fund. I don't really know why he said yes. Probably because he had it so good." She shrugged.

"How would you have liked to have been proposed to?" His voice was soft, thoughtful. Still, the fact that his pen was poised over that stupid notebook did something to dampen the spirit behind what he was asking.

"Oh, I don't know. I always like the guys who stage proposals where they first met their wives, you know? Parks and stuff. Proposals where people went on their first date.”

"Interesting," Garret's pen was scribbling away, and it took all of Rachael's effort not to roll her eyes into the back of her head.

“I guess so.” She swirled her straw in her empty glass and smiled at the waitress who motioned to offer her another. Hell, if they were going to talk about Lance much longer, she should just keep those suckers coming.

After a moment, Garret looked up from his scrawling and asked, “I was wondering on the way here. What are you going to do about Lance's family?"

"He doesn't have family. His parents disowned him after they cut him off. No brothers or sisters. Plus, he didn't really want to be involved in the wedding much. He thought of it as more of a favor to me than a commitment."

"Wow, I can't believe I never got to meet your big catch."

"Yeah. He was...he was something."

“A piece of shit from the sounds of it.” The words were clipped, the same way Garret sounded when someone cut him off in a meeting. In this context, though, she found herself taken aback by the command in his voice. And there was something else there, too. Something she couldn’t quite name.

“I think you were right. Talking about him is a waste of our time,” he sipped on his whiskey, then cleared his throat. “Tomorrow, you’ll call your mother and tell her that you’ve fallen madly in love and you’re marrying someone else.”

“Who would believe that?”

“Trust me, once your family meets me, they’ll understand how someone could fall in love so easily.” He grinned at her over the rim of his cup and she fought the urge to smile back at him.

“I’m glad you’re confident,” Rachael rolled her eyes.

“You’re not?” He said lazily, and then flipped to the first page of his Nancy Drew journal. “I find your lack of faith disturbing. Regardless, I spent the afternoon devising these questions in order to ensure our believability as a couple. They’re designed to prepare us for a lifetime of knowing each other.”

“And you set us up for this lifetime of love in one afternoon?” Fat chance. Still, he looked so earnest. She didn’t have it in her to tell him no. “Well, shoot.” She held in her sigh as she spun her engagement ring around her finger, staring down at her cocktail as if willing it to be magically refilled.

“What was your reputation in college?” he asked.

“Studious.”

“What is your favorite meal?”

“Meatloaf,” she answered again.

“I refuse to believe that,” he said dryly.

“It’s true.”

“A likely story. Anyway, who is your celebrity crush?”

“Stephen Colbert.”

He paused for a moment, staring at her, “The fake newscaster?”

“I think smart is sexy,” she shrugged.

He scanned the paper, and then continued, “When is your birthday?”

“You don’t know my birthday?”

“I’m your boss, not your party planner.”