at Nick.
âI think your brain has stopped functioning.â
âIâve thought about it. A marriage of convenienceâI legally adopt my nephew. We end the sham marriage after Dadâs gone. The marriage puts a crimp in my life for only a little while.â
âSuppose your dad recovers fully and is here another twenty years? Youâd be married to a woman you donât love and vice versa, raising your brotherâs child. The last wouldnât be bad, but the other terrible. Donât do it.â
âWe could divorce. Sheâd get the benefits of the Rafford money because she would be part of the family.â
âYouâd have to share the fortune.â
Nick shrugged. âNot really. Iâll be Dadâs heir because Iâll agree to make Michael and Grace my beneficiaries. Sheâs not a gold digger or she would have gone after Dadâs money when she had the chance. If something happens to Dad and then to meâI donât have heirs anyway.â
Jake tilted his head, his deep blue-eyed gaze intent. âI guessyou have a point there. Michael is Bartâs child, so that would be good. Youâll make your dad happy.â
âYes. If I can talk Grace into this.â
âSheâd be crazy to turn you down.â
âSheâs independent as hell and fighting to keep us from latching on to Michael. Sheâs scared of losing him.â
âSheâs his mother and heâs actually been her baby from the start from what youâve told me,â Jake said. âI guess I can see how you came up with the idea, but a loveless marriage is scary as hell. Marriage is scary as hell. Look at our dads and their failed marriages and the misery it gave everyone.â
âItâll be a cut-and-dried business deal,â Nick said, thinking about Graceâs kisses. âSort of.â
âNot exactly cut-and-dried,â Jake replied in a sarcastic tone. âI saw her. Sparks were flying between the two of you when you didnât know each other. There wonât be anything cut-and-dried about a marriage to her. Sheâs hot,â Jake said. âYouâll sink like youâre in a tar pit.â
Nick grinned as he shook his head. âI donât think you can compare her to a tar pit, and youâre right about hot. No, I guess it might turn out to be exciting.â
âWatch out, Nick. Youâre going to complicate your life terribly. Youâll also lose a million dollars in that bet we made.â
âI can stand the million. I donât want to lose my dadâs fortune.â
âI donât blame you. No matter how old they get, our dads canât stop trying to manipulate everyone around them. Thatâs one reason you and Tony and I got to be close friendsâshoved together first by our dads and then sticking together because we all had the same kind of dadâdriven, controlling.â
âIf you stop and think about it, weâre probably somewhat that way ourselves now.â
âI hope to hell not,â Jake said, with a dark look at Nick. âAre you telling Tony this harebrained scheme of yours?â
âIf I see him, I will.â
âWell, I donât think any of us, you included, can say a marriage of convenience would work. Even to a woman like you have in mind. We three know firsthand the likelihood of a successful marriage. At least in the circles weâve moved in. I suppose if you go into it with low expectations, you wonât be disappointed.â
âI have high expectations of getting back in Dadâs will. Thatâs my prime goal. Grace and I should be able to develop a workable arrangement and she wonât be hanging on me, falling in love with me.â
âSuppose you fall in loveâI donât need to ask that one. You wonât. I know you as well as I know myself. No such thing will happen. We were disillusioned long
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