The Wedding Pact Box Set - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,84

he prodded. “What would she say then?”

She shuddered. “It wouldn’t be good.”

“Yes, I guessed as much. But what exactly would she do?”

“She would disown me and ban my father and brother and Gram from ever speaking to me again.”

“She would really do that?”

“She’s done that exact same thing for lesser offenses. She has a sister. When I was in middle school, they had a stupid fight. Mom said it was over which toilet paper was better, of all things, but they haven’t spoken since. Gram doesn’t even mention her around my mother. And whenever I asked Gram about it, she would just say it wasn’t her story to tell. That it was up to my mom if she wanted to tell me about it someday.” She shook her head “Who could disown their own sister over something so ridiculous?”

Josh stared at her in shock.

“I know what you’re thinking.” She propped up on one elbow. “Why would I care what she thinks? But I don’t want to lose my entire family. I love my dad and my brother. And while I know Gram would still call me, I’d never see her now that she’s living with my parents. My father . . . he loves me, but I’m not sure he loves me enough.” She sat up, anxiety forming a ball in the pit of her stomach. “To tell her everything would make me an orphan in every sense of the word.”

He sat up next to her, taking her hand between both of his. “And what’s the very best-case outcome from all of this?”

“Best-case? That we would get married tomorrow with them still thinking you’re Jay.” She shook her head and pushed out her frustration with a heavy breath. “But since I don’t see you changing your last name in the near future, the far more likely best-case scenario is that you break up with me tonight and my mother spends the rest of her life shaming me. Every Thanksgiving I come home, I’ll still hear that I single-handedly lost them fifty thousand dollars.” She shrugged. “But at least I’ll still have somewhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner.”

No, Megan would have to find another solution to this problem, but as she stared into Josh’s worried face, she wasn’t sure there was one. And she only had herself to blame.

Chapter Twenty

Josh had to admit that the odds were stacked against them. Megan would have to throw her entire family away simply to take a chance on him. They hardly knew each other, but he knew enough to think she might be the one.

He thought back to something his father told him back when he was a sophomore in high school. His longtime crush had just broken his heart by refusing his invitation to the homecoming dance, so his father had brought him out for pizza. They’d talked about anything and everything else until they were halfway through their pie, and then all his father had said was, “There are lots of girls out there, Joshy. You’ll probably date a bunch of them. Or maybe you’ll only date a few. But one day, you’ll find the one.” He’d given Josh an all-knowing smile and wiped his hands on a napkin. “It will probably knock you over when you least expect it. At least that’s what happened with me. Your mother walked into my Biology 101 lab in college, and there was something about her that made me take notice. We were lab partners, and I could hardly focus on what we needed to do. I asked her out before we left the room. We were engaged a year later, but I knew right away I’d marry her someday. And every day I spent with her only made me more certain. She’d look at me in this special way . . . and my heart would melt. I wanted to make all her dreams come true, and you know what? I’ve spent my life trying. I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love your mother, and I never will.” And with that, his father had picked up another slice of pizza. “Someday you’ll find the one. And I can’t wait to meet her once you do.”

Josh had blown off his father’s words, thinking his father couldn’t possibly understand what he was going through. But now he knew . . . and it saddened him that his father would never meet Megan.

But the memory of his father’s words gave him renewed determination. “So you’re