Page 125 of Mended Hearts

He held up his left hand, the gold band gleaming. One dark brow arched pointedly.

“Don't act like hot shit—you coerced Alice into marrying you, jackass.”

“Semantics.”

“Besides, I already tried your tactic.”

He scowled before narrowing his eyes at me. “Ollie, tell me you didn't.” When I just grimaced, he blew out a haggard breath, unceremoniously standing from the desk and heading to the gold and crystal drink cart in the corner.

When media allegations targeted Grey over the summer, he'dcorrectlydeduced that publicly confirming years of speculation about him and Alice would divert attention. Miraculously—and due to Alice's self-destructive sense of justice—she agreed. Somewhere along the way, her brand of crazy matched his enough to make it real.

But his initial proposal likely hadn't been any smoother than mine.

Grey grabbed two glasses in one hand and a bottle of Macallan with the other. “You're an idiot,” he muttered, returning to set down the glasses before pouring a healthy finger of scotch into each.

“Tell me something I don't know,” I growled, accepting the offering.

“You're in love with that woman, so tell me why in the hell you'd do something so stupid?”

I blinked. “What?”

“Please, Ollie. You couldn't hide the way you feel about Leigh if I paid you to do it. You've been smitten since she first opened that ridiculous mouth.”

“Watch it,” I snarled. The asshole just smirked, brow flicking up again.

“Way to prove my point. Which brings me back to my question—why, on God's green earth, would you scare her off by going and doing something as impulsive asproposing?”

I knocked back my glass, welcoming the smooth heat with a heavy swallow before blowing out an agonized breath, my shoulders slumping. “I panicked.”

“You think?”

“It was bad, man.”

“The woman is embodied wildfire, and you tried to lock her to a ball and chain. When did she find out about the baby?”

I grimaced, rubbing at the back of my neck. “This morning.”

“Fuck you, man.” He palmed his face. “What the fuck?”

“That sums it up.”

“That's why she was so spacey at yoga?”

“You do sunrise yoga with the girls?” I asked skeptically.

“Not a chance,” he snorted. “Alice was worried about her.”

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack waiting to hear back from her, and when she said she needed me, I was terrified something was wrong.”

“Because of the mitral valve thing?”

I jerked my gaze to his, scowling. “Alice told you?”

“Please, the woman is a vault. She'll give me a run for my money by the time we're done training her.”

“Then how…”

“Ollie. It's my business to know things.”

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