A Marriage of Anything but Convenience

by Victorine E. Lieske

  This marriage that, ironically, she didn’t mind so much anymore.

  “He might not.” Derek’s voice was low. Kind.

  “It could just be an infection.” An infection that made her father fall and break his wrist. Did she just get stupider in the last ten minutes?

  “Could be.”

  She combed a hand through her long hair, trying to untangle it from the rain. It wasn’t going to do any good to fret about her father. She was miles and miles away. And he wasn’t even telling her anything. If he knew he had cancer, he should have told her before now.

  Wait, was that why he wanted her to marry Derek? So the company would pass to him if he died?

  The thought gave her a chill, and she pressed her lips together. Things were starting to make sense. Her father was sick, and he needed to pressure her into this marriage right now, before the stockholders found out.

  She swallowed, her insides feeling weak. She wasn’t ready for this. For the possibilities. Even if her father was going to be fine, she wasn’t ready to face anything like this.

  Derek leaned against a wooden beam. “Do you want to leave?” he asked, softly.

  She nodded and stepped in the direction of the resort. “The rain has lightened up. Now is a good time to go.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant.” Derek ran his hand down her arm and grasped her hand. The warmth of it surprised her. “Do you want to go home?”

  Chapter 19

  Having access to a private jet was one perk to being Richard Claymore’s successor. It didn’t take long to change their travel plans. By the next morning they were on the flight back to L.A. Derek leaned back in the leather seat as Nara stared out the window, her twisted fingers belying her calm exterior.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  She answered too quickly, and he stared at her, trying to get her to admit she wasn’t fine. Nara let out a breath and shook her head. “I really am fine. There’s nothing to be worried about. I don’t even know why you’re making us leave early. Seems like a huge over-reaction to me.”

  He broke eye contact. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was over-reacting. But his gut told him otherwise. Something was going on with Richard Claymore, and he wanted to get Nara there so she could deal with it.

  The flight attendant approached them. “Would you like—”

  “Diet Coke,” Nara said, cutting her off. A sheepish smile spread across her face. “Please?”

  “Yes. I have Diet Coke.” She turned to Derek. “Anything for you?”

  “No, I’m fine, thanks.”

  The flight attendant nodded. “I’ll be right back with your Coke.”

  “Thank you,” Nara said.

  It didn’t take the attendant long to come back with a can of soda and a cup of ice. Nara waved away the cup, and took the can. “This is fine, thanks. I like my carbonation straight.”

  The woman handed her the silver can, and Nara grabbed onto it like it was a lifeline. “Bless you. You’re a saint.” Nara popped the top and it hissed. She chugged half the soda.

  “Better save some of that. It’s a three-hour flight.”

  The flight attendant grinned. “We have more.”

  Nara nudged him. “See? She has more. Because she’s a saint.”

  The attendant chuckled as she walked away. Nara set her can down and fished around in her bag until she produced her leather diary and a pen. He tried not to stare at it while she furiously scribbled down notes. Her private thoughts. Things he really had no right to wonder about.

  He pulled out a magazine and flipped through it. The words and the pictures blurred together. He didn’t care about cosmetics, or hair extensions. He needed something to get his mind off the foreboding feeling in his stomach. Finally, after watching Nara writing for more than ten minutes, he leaned closer to her and nudged her arm. “Saying anything good about me in there?”

  Her lips pulled down. Dang, even when she frowned she looked cute. “This isn’t really the kind of diary where I put good things.”

  What did that mean? “It’s not?”

  “No.”

  He tried to process what she was saying. “So, you only write down bad things in there?”

  She closed her leather book and pressed her pen on top, her cheeks coloring. “It’s difficult to explain.”

  He gazed down at her. Why would she have a diary where she only writes bad things? He didn’t quite understand. Wouldn’t she want to put in there all the good things that were happening as well, so when she looked back on her life, she could remember the happy times? But he really wanted to understand. “Try me.”

  She stared down at her lap, her fingers turning white as she gripped her diary. At first no words came out. Then, she took in a breath. “I had a very difficult summer after my mother left.”

  He softened. He’d only been eight years old at the time, but he remembered that summer. “I know.”

  “No, you probably don’t.” Nara’s face deepened in color and she shifted in her seat. “I grew so angry, I was uncontrollable.”

  Sympathy surged in him. “You were just a kid.”

  “I know. But I didn’t handle things well. One day, when my father was trying to get me to go to bed, I got so angry I threw a chair through the living room window.”

  Derek didn’t know what to say. No words came out. But luckily, she kept going so it wasn’t so obvious. “My father freaked out and left the house. My grandmother was the one who calmed me down. She just cleaned up the broken glass without saying a word, then took me into the kitchen and sat me down at the table. She made me hot chocolate with marshmallows, and poured it into this tiny teacup with an equally tiny saucer. It was the last remaining cup from a children’s tea set she’d had in childhood. Even though it didn’t match any of the other dishes, and it had a chip in it, I adored drinking out of that cup.

  “She told me that night that it was okay to get angry. It was okay to yell. But it wasn’t okay to throw chairs. Then she went into her room and came out with this book. She said she’d bought it for herself, but she was going to give it to me instead because I needed it more than she did. It was fancier than anything I’d ever had. Leather-bound with deckled edges. I remember feeling the smooth cover and thinking she was giving me a real treasure. She told me to write in it. To keep it always. She said the things I would write would be private, not seen by anyone else, so I could write whatever I wanted.” Nara swallowed. “So, that’s what I did.”

  Derek’s chest tightened. “You wrote down all the hurt you were feeling from your mother leaving.”

  “Yes. And I didn’t stop. I wrote in it when my father left on a business trip and wasn’t there for my seventh birthday. I wrote in it when my mother never responded to my calls. I wrote in it when my grandmother was the one who came to my school for Parent’s Day, because my father was too busy to bother. I wrote in it when my first crush broke my heart, and I couldn’t bear to tell anyone else about it.” She hugged her diary to her chest. “I wrote it all down. And it helped me cope.”

  Derek wanted to pull Nara into his arms, but this wasn’t the right place for it. The bucket seats were not very conducive to that kind of thing. Instead, he put his hand on her forearm. “Where do you write your happy times?”

  “I don’t.”

  How depressing. “So, all you write are the painful things?”

  She snorted. “Yeah, and I even call it my ‘book of pain.’ Isn’t that dumb?”

  He shook his head. “Not dumb at all. It’s how you get through the tough times.” He just wished she would get another journal. One where she could write down the good things. The happy times. Maybe, some of the times they’d shared. Because after the two years were up, she would divorce him and there would be nothing of them left. The thought made him ache inside.

  Turbulence shook the plane, and Nara gripped his hand. Then, she smiled. “Sorry. That startled me.”

  Without thinking, he threa
ded his fingers through hers. It was a simple thing, but the second he did it, he regretted it. What if she hadn’t meant to hold his hand? Would she think it odd that he wanted to hold hers? But, now that he was, should he just leave it there, or remove it? It might be more awkward to let go of her hand, now that they were sitting there holding hands. And why was he overthinking things, now?

  Nara didn’t seem to mind, though, so he didn’t move.

  “Do you keep a journal?” Her deep brown eyes stared, questioning.

  “No.” But he was seriously thinking about starting one.

  “It’s therapeutic.”

  “I’m sure it is.”

  The plane lurched, and Nara squeezed his hand, and then laughed. “It’s like we’re on that Ferris wheel again.”

  “Let’s make a pact.”

  “What?”

  He ran his thumb over the skin on her hand. It was so soft. He leaned closer to her. “Let’s not mention the Ferris wheel. Ever.”

  She poked him in the side with her free hand, her eyes smiling. “You liked it. Admit it.”

  He hid a smile. She was right. He did like it. Not the part about being embarrassed that he was on a kiddy ride, but the part about being pressed up against Nara, so close he could smell her shampoo, and the part where they joked around with each other. He loved that part. “Never.”

  She pointed at him. “You’re so totally smiling right now.”

  “Am not.” He had to bite his cheek to stop himself from totally proving himself a liar.

  “Oh, my gosh. You can barely hold it in. I see it. Right there.” She touched the corner of his mouth.

  He pushed her finger away. “You don’t.”

  She giggled. “I do, too. And now you’re not even doing a good job of hiding it anymore.”

  He knew he wasn’t. But he liked this flirty side of Nara. “Where?”

  Her finger gently touched his lips, causing his heart rate to speed up. “There. And there.”

  He grabbed her finger and pressed his lips to it, in an impulsive gamble. He kissed the tip of her finger, and then the back of her hand. Nara stared at him, the mood shifting.

  Could she feel the same thing he was? An electric current ran between them. It hummed and made his hair stand on end. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from hers.

  She reached out, slowly, and cupped his cheek. Her thumb grazed over his lips. “It’s gone,” she whispered.

  Her words made no sense to him. All he could think about was how warm her fingers were, and how much he wanted to capture her lips with his. But the way things had gone last time deterred him, and he broke eye contact.

  Nara pulled back and cleared her throat. “Well, what time will we land in L.A.?”

  “Four o’clock.”

  “Oh.”

  He looked at her. “Why? Did you want to do something?”

  “Yeah,” she said, quietly. “But I can’t have it.”

  His heart jumped. Was she implying what he thought she was? Could it be that Nara felt something as well? He shifted to hear her better. “What do you want?”

  For a split second, he thought she was going to say him. But then she smiled and a laugh came out of her. “I want a really great steak. I haven’t eaten beef in over a week.”

  He shrugged to cover his disappointment. “You can have that. Let’s go visit your father in the hospital, then I’ll take you out to eat.”

  She nodded, the mention of the hospital turning the edges of her mouth down. “Okay.”

  Chapter 20

  It was a chilly afternoon, and Nara pulled her jacket tighter around herself. She entered the hospital with Derek, her stomach turning and twisting. The smell of antiseptic stung her nose. Apprehension curled through her. What would she find when she walked into her father’s room?

  Part of her was still angry at him for calling Derek. The other part felt like her past self, hanging on to the image of her father when she was a little girl. How could that strong man be sick? He couldn’t. It didn’t compute.

  They entered the elevator and she pressed the button. Derek put his arm around her shoulders. It was a simple thing, but it warmed her insides. She needed that right now. She took in a deep breath. This was going to be fine, right? It was all just Derek’s imagination. They hurried back for nothing.

  The elevator doors opened, and they stepped out. She scanned the sign looking for where room 350 would be found. Derek pointed. “That way.”

  Nara held her breath as she entered the room. A white curtain hung down, closing off the part of the room that had the bed, so she couldn’t tell if her father was awake or not. “Dad?” she said, quietly.

  “Nara?”

  He sounded sleepy, but since he answered she moved the curtain and stepped over to him. He had the thin blanket up to his chin, as if he was cold. His wrist was in a cast, stark fingers poking out from the end. Had his grey hair taken over his head in the last few days? His skin was a pasty white. His eyes widened. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on your honeymoon.”

  “We came home early.” Nara swallowed and tried not to look at the IV drip hooked into her father’s hand. It made him look so weak.

  “Why did you do that?” His gruff voice cut through her thoughts. Even though she was a grown adult, when he spoke like that it made her feel like a child.

  Derek stepped closer. The warmth of his body gave her comfort. “We wanted to check on you.”

  He grunted. “I’m fine. Just a little break, that’s all.” He held up his wrist. “You shouldn’t have come.”

  Nara wanted to toss something at him. She didn’t like being scolded.

  “What about the white blood cell count?” Derek asked.

  “It’s nothing. They want to run some tests.” Her father frowned. “You didn’t come all the way here for that, did you?”

  Nara exchanged a look with Derek. He rubbed the back of his neck. “We just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

  Her father’s face finally got some color. Unfortunately, that color was purple. “You two get out of here. I don’t want to see you in here again. I’m fine. And I can’t believe you cut your trip short because of this. It’s nothing. I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. Git.” He waved his hands toward the door. “Go now. And don’t come back here.”

  A flash of heat assaulted her face. “Fine. We’ll leave, Pops.” She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.

  Derek rushed to catch up to her as she walked down the hallway. “Hey, you okay?”

  “No.” She seethed as she rushed past a nurse helping an elderly man walk down the hallway. That was so like her father, getting mad at her for caring. Why did she even bother? What good did it do? He was right. She should have stayed in Grand Cayman.

  She got to the elevator and punched the button with her index finger. She didn’t feel like standing still, so she paced the small area. “I can’t believe him. Getting mad at us for coming? What a heartless pig.”

  “Nara…” Derek’s quiet voice made her stop and look up at him. “He’s scared.”

  “What do you mean, he’s scared?” She pointed toward his room. “You heard him. He just yelled at us and threw us out of his room. That’s not scared. That’s…that’s just mean.”

  The elevator dinged and a set of doors opened. Luckily, no one was in there. Nara huffed and walked into the small space. Derek pushed the ground floor button, then turned to her. “Couldn’t you see his fingers trembling?”

  She hadn’t noticed, to be honest. “No.”

  “He gets angry when he’s upset. It’s not personal. It’s how he reacts to things.” Derek lowered his head. “I’m sorry he yelled. He’s probably trying to cope with the unknown right now.”

  “Well, I’m trying not to smack him.”

  Derek sighed and rubbed between his eyes. “I think he’s very frightened. He’s been acting odd lately.”

  Nara held up her ring. “Really?”

 
Derek took her hand, and her heart started doing its crazy beat thing. “This is proof, especially. Did you stop to wonder why he’s insisting on this marriage, now of all times?”

  The thought had crossed her mind, and she didn’t like it. She yanked her hand away from him. “This sham of a marriage isn’t proof that my father has cancer.”

  Derek stepped back like she’d slapped him. The elevator doors opened and he turned and walked out. Guilt swept through her and she chased after him. “Wait.” She tugged on his arm until he stopped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

  He turned to her, his gaze traveling over her face. “I know.”

  “I’m just upset at him. That’s all.”

  His jaw tightened. “I know.”

  “Let’s go home and take care of our luggage. I think I need a little breather before we do dinner.”

  Derek nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”

  She sat silent in the car on the way to Derek’s house. She regretted what she’d said in the elevator, but didn’t know how to make it better. The worst part was looking at Derek’s stony face and not seeing that small hint of a smile she’s grown used to. It tore at her insides.

  He turned and drove down a street she didn’t recognize. “Where are you going?”

  He gave her a weird look. “Home.”

  “Did you move?” She was so used to Derek’s house being the one he grew up in, she couldn’t imagine him in any other place.

  “Four years ago.”

  Dang, why didn’t she know that? She watched as the houses grew larger in size the further he drove, until he turned into a circular driveway. The home that came into view startled her. It was made of brick and looked like a castle. Not that it was massive in size, it wasn’t. But it had a huge corner turret on one side, a smaller one on the other, and decoration in the brick that mimicked the notches you see in historic castles. Even the front archway had a castle-like appearance.

  Nara blinked, unable to believe the home. She’d always said she was going to live in a castle someday. “This is where you live?”