Mitch stirred when she kissed him awake. “How are you always in such a good mood in the morning?” He groaned as he sat up and stretched, then pulled her close for another kiss.
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, I’ll take a dose of that any day.”
She laughed as she got up, grabbing some clothes from her closet before she went to hop in the shower. She’d just closed the door and was about to turn on music on her cell when it beeped. She glanced down at the number and frowned.
“Who are you?”
She opened the message. At first she thought someone had texted her by mistake, but then she realized who it was and her heart pounded in her chest. Her legs suddenly felt weak and she had to sit down, taking deep breaths to calm herself as she read the message again: It’s Ben. Riley won’t admit it, but he misses you, Phoebe. Whatever he said to you, I’m sorry, but he’s an idiot. He’s not himself, and he’s just getting worse. I know this is a lot to ask, but please, call him. Talk to him. He’s talking crazy and I don’t think I can make him change his mind.
“Change his mind about what?” she wondered.
“What?”
Phoebe jumped at Mitch’s voice on the other side of the door. “Oh nothing, sorry. Stubbed my toe.”
He muttered something else, but she didn’t hear it, the thudding of her heart too loud in her ears. So Riley missed her, did he? Served him right for what he said to her. Why should she be the one to go and talk to him? Nope, he could suffer all he liked. Phoebe wasn’t going to care. She was going to hop in the shower and pretend she never even saw the text. She pulled up her calendar. He was supposed to be getting married soon, anyway. Soon, he would no longer be her problem.
***
Riley scratched his stubble as he yawned and went to pour himself a cup of coffee. A loud knocking at his door made him jump. “Shit, damn it…just a second!” He grabbed a towel to sop up the burning hot coffee from the counter and his hand, then hurried to answer the door. “Diane. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I think you know what,” she said, pushing past him and heading into his kitchen.
“I didn’t say you could come in,” he said, still holding the front door open.
She didn’t reply except to grab his cup of coffee and start drinking it. She grinned over the rim of the mug as he closed the door. “You have exactly two weeks until the deadline.”
“Yes, and your point is what?”
“My point is that if you ask me nicely right now, I will gladly accept your marriage proposal and can get the plans underway.” She took another long sip, then coughed. “Make this pot strong enough? Where’s your sugar?”
“Diane, please get the hell out of my apartment before I call the cops.” Riley didn’t move even as his head started to spin. She was right, horribly and absolutely right. He was running out of time fast. Ben was pushing him to do something, anything, to save his company, Linda was still acting strange, and every night when he went to bed in a drunken stupor, he saw only one face leaving his life forever. “Please, just leave.”
Diane set the mug down and placed her hands on her hips. “Oh, please, you aren’t still sulking over that pathetic woman, are you? She’s so beneath you.”
Riley gritted his teeth and took a threatening step forward, but then stopped himself. He didn’t care about Phoebe. He couldn’t. “I am not marrying you.”
“Then you are going to lose everything. You think I’ll let you stay on when I take over?”
“There’s no reason for you not to.”
“Yes, actually, there are—quite a few,” she argued sweetly. “However, if you marry me, we don’t have to deal with any of that messy business.”
Riley opened his mouth to tell her no again, but stopped. What choice did he have really? At least marrying Diane, he knew what she was like, could find ways to keep her hands out of the money and the company. But if he lost it all to her, he would watch everything his grandfather made disappear in a shot. He couldn’t let the old man down like that. Already feeling sick to his stomach, Riley forced the question out of this mouth before he could take any more time to think it over.
Diane’s face froze in a look of sheer disbelief. “What?”
“I said, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”
She nodded slowly, then went to him and reached for his hands. “You are making the right choice, Riley. Really.”