A Week Till the Wedding Read Free

accepted the truth, but...” The matter still concerned him. “She’d forgotten. In just a few minutes’ time, she completely forgot what I’d told her about us.” He bit the bullet and dropped the bombshell. “She’s planning our wedding.”
    Daisy reached out to steady herself by grabbing the edge of the counter. Jacob considered stepping forward to take her arm, but he quickly thought better of it.
    “What do you expect me to do?” she asked, her voice rising sharply. “I can’t...we can’t...this is not my problem!”
    “I don’t expect you to marry me to keep my grandmother happy,” Jacob said sharply. “But if you would play along for a while, come to the family reunion if she keeps this up, maybe hang out at the house when you can. She might wake up one morning and have forgotten all about this fantasy of hers, but at the very least once I’m gone she’ll let it go.” Out of sight, out of mind. “She’s promised to see a new doctor, but not until after the reunion.”
    “Play. Along.” Ah, there was the difference in Daisy, that’s how she’d changed. Her eyes were harder, more cynical. They’d never looked at him like this before.
    “It would make an old woman very happy. She adores you.”
    “Give me a break. You aren’t doing this for her . No, you want me to get you off the hook so you won’t have to try again to tell her that we’re not getting married. Heaven forbid that Jacob Tasker should have to do anything that he finds unpleasant. Heaven forbid that anything that’s not in your precious plans...” She stopped, choking on her words.
    Jacob took a deep breath, he exhaled slowly. He wished—not for the first time—that he was back in San Francisco, where his days and the decisions he had to make made sense. This situation was maddening. “I’ve been home four days, and I’ve told Grandma Eunice ten times that we’re not engaged and never were. She’s upset by the news, and then a few minutes later she forgets. I’m getting damn tired of upsetting her again and again.”
    Daisy was already shaking her head.
    “I’ll pay you.”
    There were those daggers in her eyes again. Her posture changed, as if she were literally getting ready to attack. “You think you can buy me off? That I’ll do anything for money? Oh, poor Daisy Bell, she’ll do anything for a few bucks.”
    He’d be glad to pay her more than a “few bucks.” And it looked as if she could use the money. Jacob had put Daisy firmly in his rearview mirror years ago, but he hated the idea that she didn’t have more. She’d sacrificed a lot for her sisters; she’d given up her own education, the career she’d planned. She’d raised Lily and Mari, put them through college, and from all he could see she’d done nothing for herself. Why in hell was she still here? She should’ve moved on years ago.
    He snapped out a ridiculously high amount, a number large enough to make Daisy take a stutter-step back.
    “Are you insane?” she asked.
    No, he wasn’t insane; he was ridiculously rich. He worked eighty to ninety hours a week, and until now he hadn’t taken a real vacation since he’d gone to work for The Hudson-Dahlgren Corporation seven years ago. He’d become a workaholic who had no time for anything else. But all his hard work had paid off. Very well.
    “I’m afraid Grandma Eunice doesn’t have much time left. She’s deteriorated so much since I last saw her. Physically, mentally...the doctor says it’s manageable, but I don’t buy it.” He’d talked to her doctor—an old codger who wasn’t much younger than she was—and according to the doc there was nothing to be done. Eunice Tasker was simply growing old. Jacob had initially offered to bring in specialists, to fly his grandmother to a decent hospital for tests and treatment, but she’d refused both offers. After the reunion, she’d said, she’d see a new doctor. Maybe her mind was slipping, but she was as stubborn as ever.
    “You