A Family for Christmas Read Free

blue they almost looked violet, and they were sympathetic
at the moment as they gazed at her. “No wonder Daniel said we should talk.”
    “Yeah.
If only we could somehow pool resources.” She gave a huff. “I need financial
support, which you have more than enough of. And you need…”
    “A
wife.” The one word was drawled, as if in jest.
    But,
after a pregnant pause, both of them stiffened. Their eyes flew up to meet in
an odd moment of complete understanding.
    They
were basically strangers, but she knew—without doubt—that they’d both had the
same bizarre idea at the exact same time.
    After
a minute, Gabe put down his coffee, which he’d been holding frozen halfway to
his mouth. “No, it’s crazy.”
    “Yeah,”
she said, letting out a breath and feeling ridiculously deflated. For a moment,
it was like all of her prayers had been miraculously answered. “I guess so.”
    His
shoulders slumped slightly too, as if he were feeling some of her
disappointment. “I mean, it might work in the short run, but what would happen
when you wanted to get married for real?”
    “Oh,
I don’t. I don’t want to get married. All I’ve ever wanted to do is go to India
and do this. It actually would work perfectly for me.”
    “Seriously?
You don’t want to get married?”
    “It’s
not that I’m anti-marriage or anything. I’ve just never felt like I was called
to be married. Some people aren’t, you know.”
    “I
know. I’m not married now either, of course. And, if it wasn’t for Ellie, I’d
be absolutely convinced my first marriage was a mistake.”
    There
was that faint bitterness in his voice again and, this time, it prompted a
spark of hope. “Don’t you want to get married again?”
    “No.”
He met her eyes evenly.
    “Why
not?” It was too pushy, too intimate a question to ask a man she barely knew,
but they were having this conversation, and she needed to know. Some people
found her forthrightness surprising, but it was the way she lived her life. She
just didn’t have patience to fiddle around with a lot of niceties.
    “I
don’t know if I can trust a woman again. Enough to be married to her. For real,
I mean.”
    She
sucked in a sharp breath, the hope rising even more. “So, just to get it all on
the table, we’re talking about a marriage of convenience here, right?”
    He
turned his head away briefly. “This is crazy.”
    “I
know it’s crazy, but why shouldn’t it work? If you have a wife, you could take
on the co-director job. And if I had a husband who was called to missions work
in India too, then everyone wouldn’t balk at giving me money for support.”
    “You
wouldn’t even need to raise as much,” he murmured. “They have an apartment in
Bangalore for me.”
    “Wow,”
she breathed. “It’s like it’s meant to be.”
    “Let’s
not get ahead of ourselves, though. Right now, you might be sure that you don’t
want to get married for real, but what happens if that changes?”
    “Why
would you assume it’s going to change?”
    “How
old are you?”
    She
straightened her spine. “Twenty-seven. What does that have to do with
anything?”
    “I’m
thirty-eight. I’ve already been married and have a daughter. We’re at different
places in life. I’d feel like I was taking advantage of you.”
    She
bit back a surge of anger and made herself say calmly, “That’s condescending
and a little offensive. I’m an adult. I’m not your eighteen-year-old babysitter
anymore, and this is never going to work if you think about me as if I am. I
know what I want. I’m capable of making mature, reasoned decisions. And this is
the work I was put on this earth to do.”
    “I’m
not trying to question your commitment or your certainty. But it feels like the
perfect solution to my life just fell in my lap with you, and I don’t want to
be selfish and jump at the chance if it’s not the right thing for you too.”
    “It is the right thing for me.” She leaned forward and tried