into the room, I had a moment of panic at the sheer number of people attending the meeting. Parrish reached for my hand under the table and held it steady.
The whitest-haired man of the group took the lead. “You must be Edwin. I’m Ian Merchant.”
Before I could react to being called a name I’d barely heard in the years since my parents died, Parrish leaned forward. “He goes by Diesel. It should be in your paperwork.”
Instead of the sneer or judgment I was expecting, he looked truly sorry for the misstep. “Oh, I apologize, Diesel. I remember Antonia telling me that, and I completely let it slip out of my head. I do know we are here to talk about sweet Marigold. First of all, I’d like to tell you how truly sorry we are for the loss of your sister, Beth. According to everything we’ve discovered in preparing for your case, she was a wonderful woman with a big heart. Please accept our condolences, Diesel.”
I nodded and swallowed. I hadn’t been expecting that sincerity, but then again, Beau was a kind, sincere man himself. It stood to reason he’d select good people to give his business to.
They began with a summary of the situation to make sure they understood the case the way I understood it. Parrish helped clarify some details when my nervous grunts didn’t seem to do the job.
“We understand you’re engaged to be married,” Ian said. “Congratulations. Having a solid, two-parent household will go a long way toward convincing the judge you can provide Marigold the family security she needs. In fact, we think this is such an important factor in your case, we’ve taken the liberty of drawing up some papers to get the ball rolling in the right direction, purely from a legal standpoint. Why delay, when acting quickly could save so many headaches down the line, right?”
I frowned but nodded again. Acting quickly sounded good.
“You’ll also see we’ve drawn up preliminary last wills and testaments for both of you—well, Parrish, you already have one, but this will replace it, of course—as well as an education trust Beau directed us to initiate. He feels that having financial security already set aside in Marigold’s name would help…”
The words began to get lost behind the loud rushing sound of blood in my ears. I felt light-headed and wrong-footed. While I knew intellectually this was the right move to help secure Marigold’s future, I felt completely turned around, that all of this was not of my own making and was a complicated set of gears spinning out of my control.
Parrish’s calm voice cut through all the noise. “Would you mind if we had a moment alone?”
I felt all of the eyes on me while I kept my gaze focused on a tiny scratch on the wooden conference table. That simple imperfection and Parrish’s warm palm in mine were the only things anchoring me here while everything else spun around us.
“Of course. Take all the time you need.”
After a minute, I felt Parrish’s hands on my face. “Hey. Hey, look at me.” I blinked up at him. “We can leave right now. We don’t have to do any of this.”
“I’m okay.”
“You’re most definitely not okay. Diesel… talk to me. You’ve been in your head about this for days, and I feel like… I feel like I don’t know what you’re thinking. Am I doing something wrong? Am I pressuring you? Because that’s the last thing I want.”
I swiveled our chairs toward each other so I could pull him in for a tight hug. “You’re doing everything right. I don’t know where I’d be without you right now. I’m just so scared of losing her, of letting Beth down. And I… I’ve never had anyone fighting this hard for me before. What if it’s the wrong thing? What if I’m the wrong choice for her? And I don’t want handouts, Parrish. I’ve worked really hard my whole life to not wind up beholden to someone else, and I can’t imagine how much all of this is costing. I can’t… I can’t…” I wanted to say I couldn’t thank his family enough, but the words failed me.
Parrish pressed a kiss into my neck. “We love Marigold. And we think you’re the best choice, even if you don’t. When you’re not feeling strong enough to be the right choice for her, we’ll be standing behind you making you stronger.”
It was the first time he’d implied this wasn’t just temporary—that he’d still