“I know most people don’t have a very high opinion of me,” he said, his voice gruff, a pain behind it that made her want to wrap her arms around him. “But I’m a man of my word. I said I’d help you. Josiah is still out there. So, I’m not done yet. And I said if it came down to it, I’d marry you for real. Well, it looks like it’s come down to it.”
“And if it all goes horribly wrong and we loathe the sight of each other within a month?”
He shrugged. “Then I hop on that lazy horse of mine, and we ride out of here. You stay a respectable married woman with the freedom to do whatever the hell she wants without everyone in town naggin’ her to get a husband.”
“And if I ever want to remarry?”
He shrugged again. “Tell people I died. It’ll probably be the truth.”
Mercy’s stomach sank at the thought of anything happening to Gray, but she didn’t have time to analyze the feeling to death just yet. First, she needed to figure out if she was getting married or not. She kept coming up with another dozen reasons why this was a bad idea. Though, getting out of it would cause a stir she really didn’t want to deal with. Not that that was a reason to get married.
“The only real question is,” Gray said, “do you agree to this?”
“Me?”
“Yes. You. If you don’t want this, it doesn’t happen. People will talk, but people will always talk. I don’t care about them. You, however, are more than capable of killin’ me in my sleep.”
She gasped. “I would never.”
He chuckled. “Don’t be so sure. We don’t know each other all that well yet, and I have no doubt that what you do know of me vexes you to no end.”
“That’s a fair point.”
He gave her that crooked grin she couldn’t help but return. Vexing, yes. But he could be kind of adorable when he wanted to be.
“All I’m sayin’ is marriage lasts a long time even when you go into it willing,” he said. “So. If you object, we tell them to mind their own business and go about ours as planned. If you don’t object…” He shrugged. “Then I guess we go out there and get hitched.”
