“It’s not crazy, and I didn’t put it the right way. You’ll have to forgive me. I’ve never proposed marriage before.” And that was part of the problem. He’d had many a girlfriend, but none of them had been the “one.” After a while he’d started to think there was no mystical one person in the world for him, and if he waited for a woman to knock him on his ass, he would be alone for the rest of his life. He would miss out on something he considered important.
She stared at him like he’d grown two heads. “Rene, we’ve barely talked since I got back.”
“That is not my fault,” he pointed out. She’d been frustratingly hard to get close to the last few months. “You’ve been good at walking away anytime I show up.”
“That’s not true.” But her shoulders had straightened, a tell she’d had for many years. When Sylvie Martine decided to lie, she got a superhero posture, as though she could sell it through sheer will.
Luckily the only things she lied about were minor fibs to cover her vulnerabilities.
“I have to wonder if you’re embarrassed by the fact that we almost went to bed together back in college.”
He would have sworn she gained an inch in height. That chin of hers came up and there was fire in her eyes. “We did not.”
She didn’t remember that moment the way he did. He could still feel how soft she’d been, how she’d thrown herself into that kiss with every bit of passion she had. It was one of the things he’d always found fascinating about her. She cared about so many things. It made him wonder what it would be like to be someone Sylvie Martine cared for. “Oh, we did. We came close.”
“Well, I don’t think about it.”
“I do. I think about it a lot.” That one night had been haunting him lately. It had been the last time he’d been deeply moved by a woman.
She seemed to deflate. “Rene, what is this about?”
“I’m thirty-three and I feel like time’s running out on me.” He knew it was running out for his mother, and it was definitely running out for the business his father had worked hard to push into the future. “I want to be totally honest with you. I’m going to propose what is basically a business arrangement, but it goes beyond that. I’m lonely and I want to start a family.”
She was still for a moment. “So you picked me? Out of all the women you know?”
He didn’t know all that many. Not in a dating sense. She’d obviously listened to old gossip about him. “If it helps, I didn’t consider anyone else. We make sense.”
“You’re not in love with me.”
But he was attracted to her. He liked her. “Plenty of marriages have started that way.”
She moved around the big desk, leaning against it, her arms over her chest. “What is this really about? Because you didn’t wake up and decide to start a family. What’s happening?”
She was wrong about that. He’d thought about her for years, but it had been the accident he’d been in that had made him seriously consider his future. He had woken up in the hospital and realized how fragile life could be, how little time anyone truly had. But she was right about the reason he was pushing her. “There is a potential that I’m going to lose control of the company my father ran for fifty years if I don’t get married, and soon. Or at least have the prospect of marriage.”
Her eyes widened and then she frowned as though she’d figured something out. “It’s Charles, isn’t it? He’s always hated you.”
This was another reason Sylvie was the perfect solution to all of his problems. She understood his family in a way few others did. “Charles recently inherited his mother’s shares. That wouldn’t give him a real shot at going up against me for the CEO position, but he’s got a plan. He’s started a campaign against me.”
“You’ve been an excellent CEO.”
There was the outrage he’d hoped for. “I’m afraid I’m boring to some of the younger shareholders, and too exciting for the older ones. Charles is telling our cousins that if he’s the CEO, he’ll bring in tons of new money and he’ll hand it out like candy.”
“Which will put the company under.”
“He’s promised to fund some of their business ideas, ideas I said no to.”