“Blindfold me,” she replies in a low voice. “I won’t know who it is. That way, when I choose a husband, I won’t feel particularly obligated to any of you.”
“But you won’t know.”
She nods slowly. “That’s the point, Parker. I don’t want to know. Because I don’t really care to know.”
“Somehow I don’t believe that.”
She levels her gaze with mine, a wise power seated behind those pupils. A grin crosses her lips, and she lifts her right shoulder in the kind of shrug that a shy schoolgirl might do while flirting with the star quarterback. It’s such an innocent look that for a split second, I can pretend she’s my girlfriend. I can play the role of the doting boyfriend who spoils her, treats her right, and brings her home to dinner with a normal fucking family and not the one I currently have.
Her eyelids shudder briefly and then the smile is gone, swept away by the sound of voices carrying from the hallway. “Do you have a place where we can do that?”
“I have an idea.”
“Set it up with the others.”
I shake my head. “Pick me right now and it won’t hurt, Alex. It’ll be better than those other idiots. Then you can just marry me and you’ll know. You won’t have to worry about any of us keeping secrets from you.”
Her eyebrows dip together. Is that hope in her eyes? She draws a breath and then sighs it out. “No, Parker. I just don’t want to know.”
“All right,” I relent while releasing her hand. “I’ll set it up.”