Chapter 27
As they sat down for lunch—chicken on salads for both of them and a side of rice pilaf for Bo—Windsor knew she was going to have to tell him the secret she’d been carrying since her parents’ deaths.
Things had moved so fast that she hadn’t really thought about the unexploded bombshell her father had left behind.
She’d only told her lawyers because she wasn’t sure what else to do. In the haze of grief following their plane crash, she’d stumbled upon it when she was going through their things before the estate sale.
In an old trunk in the attic that hadn’t been opened in decades, the damning truth had stared back at her in the form of a script from a very famous movie. Her father’s first massive blockbuster. The one that had solidified him as a luminary of a writer and director.
Windsor waited until the click of the side door indicated Marta had left the house.
“You going to eat?”
She caught Bo’s assessing gaze on her.
“I have to tell you something. Before … before we go any further.”
“Okay …” He lowered his fork to his plate.
“I have a potential liability issue that could impact us both, if we were to … you know … get married.”
“Potential liability issue?” he repeated. “What’s that mean?”
“That’s what the lawyers called it. It’s … about my parents’ estate. It’s kind of awkward.”
“Your folks left some debts? That’s no big deal.”
“No,” she breathed out, grateful he was so calm. “It’s more … I’ll just say it.”
He nodded.
“My dad stole someone’s script. And while the statute of limitations has long passed and Dad’s dead, the risk of it all coming out and blowing up still exists. I was warned about … the possibility that somebody could someday make a huge stink about it or even use it for blackmail.”
Bo’s expression didn’t change. “People steal scripts in Hollywood all the time. Nasty business. Surprised to hear your dad did though. I thought he was a creative genius.”
“Apparently not like everyone thought.”
“Okay.” Bo picked up his fork and took a bite.
Windsor was stunned. It didn’t seem to faze him at all.
“Okay?”
He glanced at her. “You didn’t do it. If someone makes a stink, then we deal with it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Why borrow trouble? The Bible specifically says we got enough for today, so let tomorrow worry about itself.”
“You read the Bible?”
That made him laugh. “Yeah. Haven’t you?”
She shook her head. “No, my parents weren’t … into that. My dad probably wouldn’t have been the script-stealing sort if he was.”
“Fair enough. Which movie, if you don’t mind me asking? You don’t have to tell me though. It doesn’t matter.”
“You amaze me. Like … water off a duck’s back. It doesn’t matter at all to you.”
“Nope. You should eat your lunch. It’s good. You’ll need it for this afternoon.”
Windsor just blinked at him. The heaviness of the secret she’d been carrying since she’d opened that trunk lifted completely at his non-reaction.
“You are quite the man—you know that, Silas Bohannon?”
That got his attention. “You’ve never said my whole name before. I like it.”
“Maybe not to you. Just … talking about you.”
His eyebrows went up. “What’d ya say?”
That he’s interested in. Not someone’s dirty secret that had been taken to the grave.
“That you were gorgeous. Probably great in bed.”
He grinned. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Who’d you tell that to?”
“My hairstylist. When I was wondering why you hadn’t tried to get me into bed at that last party you came to at my house.”
“You weren’t ready for me then.”
She smiled and shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. Not for all this. I was still living under the oppressive weight of my parents’ expectations of perfection and occasionally wishing I could run away to Timbuktu and leave it all behind.”
“How about New Zealand?”
“New Zealand?”
“For our honeymoon.”
“What?”
“I know a really nice Russian billionaire’s estate where we can stay. I’d love to show it to you.”
She swallowed, stunned once more. “You haven’t even proposed yet.”
He pulled something out of his pocket. A stone flashed in the noonday sun pouring through the giant windows.
“That’s not our prop ring.”
“I was planning on waiting until later today. Taking you out for a sunset ride. But I figure, might as well keep it real.” He pushed back from the kitchen island and dropped to one knee on the wood floor in front of her.
Windsor’s heart pounded as her chest rose and fell with massive breaths. She’d just told her family’s deepest, most scandalous secret, and now he was proposing.
“Windsor Reed—the kindest, sweetest, funniest, sexiest, and most amazing woman on God’s green earth—will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the universe?”
She sucked in a breath as her fork fell from her fingertips. “Here, now?”
He nodded with a smile that shone through his beautiful eyes.
“What do you say? Spend forever with me?”
She nodded uncontrollably as she fell to her knees in front of him and threw her arms around him.
“Yes. I say yes.”