with Blaire?”
I follow her line of vision but don’t see anything unusual—Blaire on the phone, her red hair tumbling from the clip she tries to contain it in. “I don’t know what you mean.”
The scent of my sandwich wafts up to my nose, and I take a bite and revel in the flavors dancing against my tongue.
Christ, I didn’t realize how hungry I was.
Spending the morning designing the perfect wife will really take it out of you, apparently. But Blaire seems fine, so I don’t know what Athena is talking about.
Athena shrugs. “She was just kind of acting weird when I came in.”
I raise an eyebrow at her. “Weird how?”
She lifts one shoulder. “I don’t know. She was flipping through a huge stack of papers, and it sounded like her printer was running nonstop. She didn’t even get up to escort me in here, which she always does. She waved a hand to usher me back and grabbed the phone without a word. She just seemed…preoccupied. What’s going on?”
“Oh.” I swallow and nod. “She’s probably just printing out applications.”
Athena’s brow furrows, and she takes a bite of her pickle. “Applications for what?”
“My wife.”
She chokes on her food, and her eyes widen. Something resembling a mix of a cough and gasp slips from her lips, and she pounds on her chest until she can finally swallow. “Your wife? Please tell me I heard that wrong.”
I shrug as nonchalantly as possible when discussing my future matrimony and take another bite. Athena watches me chew with raised eyebrows and judgment in her matching blue gaze.
Sometimes, it’s unnerving how much she can see at such a young age.
I swallow and shift around the pile of chips to avoid her assessment. “She made a very good suggestion that perhaps calling all my exes wasn’t the best way to locate the person to spend the rest of my life with. So,” I shrug and pop a chip into my mouth, “I created an application.”
Athena shakes her head and takes a deep breath. “God, you two are idiots.”
“Who? Blaire and me?”
She shakes her head again. “No, you and Artemis.”
“Gee, thanks.” I shove the sandwich into my mouth to keep myself from saying something else to her that I might regret later.
“But it’s true. He gave up on the love of his life and let her walk away when he should’ve chased after her all those years ago. Because of that, he missed out on a huge chunk of his son’s life. Then he gave up the company to get the girl back. And now, here you are, wanting the company, and you’re willing to spend your life with someone you might hate just to get it.” She circles her hand. “Are you following me here?”
When she puts it that way…I can kind of see what she means.
I lean back in my chair and throw up my hands. “What the hell am I supposed to do? I have five weeks to get married, or I lose all this.”
She looks around and shrugs. “Maybe all this,” she waves her hand, “isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
I roll my eyes at her and shake my head. “I know you have zero interest in working for Warren Enterprises. But just because you and Artie don’t want it doesn’t mean I shouldn’t. You have your dream, so let me have mine.”
“And your dream is marrying someone you haven’t met yet five weeks prior to the wedding?”
I sigh and take a bite of my sandwich because I don’t have an answer to that. At least not one that will appease her.
Of course, I don’t want to marry someone I barely know. Everyone wants love in their life at some point, I just haven’t had the time to look for it, nor have I really been in the market. I thought I had all the time in the world. Now, with a ticking clock, I need to accept the reality of the situation, whether I like it or not.
Athena raises her eyebrow at me again. “What? No answer to that?”
“Shut up and eat your lunch.”
A very unladylike snort shoots out with her laugh, and she shakes her head. “Yeah, yeah, okay. What do I know? I’m just the only sane one in the family.”
I point a finger at her. “That’s debatable.”
She grins at me, picking at her bread. Hopefully, she’ll let me finish this lunch in peace. God knows I could use it after this day.
“You know who’s cute?”
So much for letting me