The Manning Brides: Marriage of Inconvenience / Stand-In Wife. Debbie Macomber

be damaged by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.”

      That was all well and good, but it was her reputation and if she had no objections, then he needn’t be concerned. “But Rich—”

      “Furthermore,” he said, interrupting her. “I refuse to allow my son or daughter to be born a bastard.” He raised his hand. “Before you argue with me, I feel the same way about this as I do about the baby having my name. I don’t care if it’s important to anyone else. It is to me. Besides, why make a kid’s life any harder than it has to be?”

      “You’ve got a point,” she whispered.

      “Still, I can understand your hesitation.”

      Jamie lowered her eyes. “It’s just that I expect you’ll want to marry someday. Sooner or later a woman’s going to come into your life and this marriage is going to complicate everything for you. What are you going to tell her about me—and the child?”

      “The truth.”

      “But Rich—”

      “It’s not going to happen. If I believed I was eventually going to marry, I wouldn’t have agreed to this.”

      Any doubts Jamie entertained were wiped out with the certainty of his smile.

      “So you’ll marry me?” he asked.

      Jamie nodded. She still wasn’t convinced it was the right thing to do, but he’d insisted on it so she felt she had no choice.

      “One last thing,” Rich said, placing his foot back on the floor.

      There was more? Jamie’s head was still reeling from his last announcement. “Now what?”

      “You’re important to me. Our friendship’s important. For the sake of that friendship, I think we should have everything drawn up legally. I don’t want any misunderstandings later on.”

      This seemed logical to Jamie. “Okay, but most of the lawyers I know through work handle real estate and wills and business mergers. This isn’t their kind of contract.”

      “I know an attorney who’ll do it. One I trust.”

      “Who?”

      “James Wilkens, Christy’s ex-fiancé.”

      James Wilkens’s office reminded Rich of his youngest sister, Christy. She used to work here, and he’d stopped by a couple of times over the past year to take his sister to lunch. He half expected her to come around the corner at any moment.

      Christy was married to Cody, however, not James. Sheriff Cody Franklin. Rich wasn’t likely to forget how he’d interrupted their wedding night, nor was Cody going to let him forget it. Rich had arrived at her apartment soon after he’d found out about Pamela’s little fling. He’d been disgusted and disheartened, convinced women didn’t know the meaning of the word faithful. He hadn’t included Christy in that, though. Not his little sister; she’d always been so sweet and virtuous. Then, not knowing they were married, he’d stumbled upon her in bed with Cody, and his opinion of women had fallen to an all-time low.

      Sitting in the plushly decorated waiting room next to a five-foot potted philodendron brought back an abundance of memories. The plant was on one side of him, with a fidgeting Jamie on the other.

      He glanced at her. She was flipping through the pages of a magazine so fast she’d created a draft. She was on her third issue of Good Housekeeping and they hadn’t been seated for more than five minutes.

      She remained ambivalent about the idea of marriage, but she wanted the child enough to agree to his terms.

      Unlike Jamie, Rich felt comfortable with the plan, for all the reasons he’d given her. He wasn’t sure what anyone else would think, especially his family—if they ever found out—but frankly that was their problem. He was doing his best friend a favor.

      Rich had the almost overwhelming urge to laugh. Never had he thought he’d agree to anything like this. According to Jason, women gravitated naturally toward him. In some ways that was true, but they were usually the wrong women. What he wouldn’t give to have fallen in love with a woman as genuine and compassionate as Jamie.

      The need to touch her, to reassure her, even in the smallest of ways, was as strong as the urge to laugh had been a few minutes earlier. He reached for her hand, entwining her fingers with his own.

      She looked up at him. “I’m sorry.”

      “For what?”

      “I … I can’t seem to sit still.”

      “We aren’t at the courthouse, you know. This is a meeting with James. He’s a decent guy, and a darn good attorney. He isn’t going to laugh or make snide remarks.”

      “I know…. It’s just that …” She let the rest of the sentence fade.

      “You’re nervous.”

      “I’m nervous,” she said. “I don’t understand why, exactly, but my stomach’s in knots and I can’t seem to read, and I keep thinking of everything that could go wrong.”

      “Like what?”

      Jamie turned from him and stared down at the open magazine in her lap. “I … You wouldn’t understand.”

      “Try me.”

      “Marriage shouldn’t be taken lightly. I know I’ve said that before, but I can’t seem to explain it in a way that you’ll understand. Something happens to a couple when they marry—even when it’s only a marriage of convenience. Something … spiritual. I know you don’t agree with me, but we’re both going to be affected by this. I can’t shake the feeling that deep down we’ll regret it.”

      “We aren’t going to have a physical relationship.”

      “I know all that,” she said, “but it doesn’t change what I feel.”

      Her hand was trembling in his, and he could tell from the way her voice quavered that she was close to tears. “Do you want to call it off?” Rich would accede to Jamie’s wishes, but he hoped she wouldn’t back out now.

      “That’s the crazy part,” she said, her expression even more anguished than before. “I want this marriage and our child more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.”

      “So do I,” Rich admitted, realizing how true it was. “So do I.”

      “Rich,” James greeted him as he came into the waiting room. Rich stood and they exchanged handshakes. “It was a pleasant surprise to find your name on my appointment calendar this morning.” The attorney looked from Rich to Jamie, and he smiled warmly.

      “This is Jamie Warren,” Rich said.

      “Hello.”

      “We met briefly … a while back,” she said, suddenly biting off her words. She cast an embarrassed glance at Rich, as though she’d made a dreadful blunder. Fortunately James didn’t react at all. It wasn’t until they were inside James’s office that Rich remembered the two of them had been introduced at James and Christy’s engagement party.

      “Come on in and sit down,” James said, motioning toward the two upholstered chairs positioned on the other side of his desk. James, who was of medium height with broad shoulders and a hairline just beginning to recede, had a rather formal manner and a natural reserve.

      Rich knew from mutual acquaintances that he’d taken the broken engagement hard. He’d loved Christy and been deeply wounded when she’d married Cody instead. Rich had heard that James rarely dated. If so, that was a shame. James had a lot to offer a woman. He was a junior partner with the firm these days and his talents were in high demand. It would take one hell of a woman to replace Christy, and Rich could only hope that James would find someone just as special.

      “So,” James said, reaching for his pen and a yellow