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I’m open to exploring it.

Sorry I panicked.

Nick

Understandable. It’s not exactly a normal business idea.

I hope you know what you’re doing.

I do. If you do.

Chapter 10

Nick

A bell chimes above my head as I step into the diner. It’s before sunrise and I’m running on no sleep and no coffee. I haven’t felt this wired since I was cooking at my first restaurant gig ten years ago.

Turns out that working behind the line has nothing on asking Sienna Hayes to enter a marriage of convenience with you.

Sienna and I texted ideas back and forth all night. How a marriage might work, what we should tell our family and friends, if we would stay in the same place. After a few hours of brainstorming, she decided texting wasn’t sufficient and that we needed to meet before she went to work—and, because she’s Sienna, that means it’s 6 AM.

“You’re here on time,” she says with a small, tired smile as I hover over the table she chose, a booth near the window.

“Do you not understand I’m famous?” I gesture at the window. At some point an early-morning passerby is going to spot me, snap a photo, and sell it to tabloid-of-the-day.

“Actually, I was counting on that. Please sit.”

I pull off my scarf and slide into the booth across from her. She’s looking fearsome this morning. Clear-eyed, sharp-nailed. Not rested, exactly—there’re shadows under her brown eyes, and her hair is frizzy in her ponytail—but that only adds to the quiet power she carries.

Knowing that she was up all night going over my proposal has my pulse kicking up. I can’t figure out why, but the more time I spend with Sienna, the more I want her to think about me. I want to be on her mind. It’s selfish. It’sweird.I can’t remember ever wanting that with anyone, even when I was fifteen with my first girlfriend.

I’m working hard not to make an ass of myself.

“I ordered us coffee,” she says, voice cool. “It’s still early, so I don’t think you’ll get a lot of attention from strangers, but whatever little you get is good. We need it.”

“Why?”

“I’ll get to that.” Sienna folds her hands in front of her, leaning forward across the table. “First, I need to know if your dad will agree to this.”

“He suggested it.”

She raises an eyebrow, that expression I like. “He suggested me?”

“No.” I shrug. “But I think he likes you. He called you a principled young lady.”

Sienna’s gaze shifts out the window. If she’s pleased by the compliment, she doesn’t show it. “That makes this a lot easier. We can’t just pop up married out of the blue. People are going to have questions.”

As if on cue, there’s a startled yelp from outside. A group of people trudging by the diner halts, staring into the window. From the corner of my eye, I see one of them pull out their phone and snap a picture of us.

Sienna doesn’t flinch, but the corner of her mouth quirks.I like that expression, too—the one she makes when she gets her way.

“It makes sense that there should be some history between us,” I say after the strangers leave. “A paper trail.”

“Exactly. Rumors are good sometimes. We want to give the people watching something to talk about.”

She stretches her neck, ponytail falling to one side.

Something to talk about.