Page 4 of The Mountain Man's Unexpected Bride
"I don't think I can help you, Archie."
He puts the phone in his shirt pocket and sits back on my chair. He takes a long sip, and if we weren't this close together, I might have thought he hadn't heard me.
"The lawyers pointed something out to me and I think it's a game changer."
"If I have to get married, the game hasn't changed."
"That's the thing, you only need to be engaged for six months in order to claim the inheritance and let the other heirs get theirs too."
"I'm not even dating anyone."
He sets the glass of bourbon down a bit more energetically than is necessary, making me flinch.
"I found an agency that can get you a temporary fiancé. I've gone ahead and created a profile for you, and all you need to do is go meet the matches they have for you. The family is called Ivanov, and you get to choose one of the daughters to be engaged to. After the six months, you both go your separate ways."
"I don't understand, why would they even go for an arrangement like that?"
"You've been hiding yourself in this mountain for the past few years, but you are an eligible bachelor now that your father has passed."
"That means, they expect me to wine and dine them, and I'm not going to do that."
"I talked to the agency owners, and they've worded the contract so that the lady in question has to spend the engagement time where you currently live."
"Wait, what? She'd have to live here with me?"
"Please, Brock, I'm begging you. This company means everything to me."
"They might leave when they see where I live."
"I'm hoping the amount of zeroes behind your name will entice them to stay for the six months at least."
I get up and start pacing the living room. I'll have to allow someone into my inner sanctum. I cringe inside. Right now, it’s normal for me to go days without talking to anyone. Can I handle having this fiancé running around my cabin and my mountain?
"Brock…"
"I'm thinking…"
"Brock…"
"Why was my father so adamant about this? I don't get it, he never married."
"That's exactly why. Your father was a philanderer, and he just didn't want you to make the same mistakes he did, so he went the opposite way and avoided all entanglements. Until it was too late."
"What about my mother?"
"I think he cared about her, but not enough to start a proper family."
"If that business didn't mean so much to you, I'd have dismantled it by now."
My words cause him pain, and his face shows it vividly.
"I know."
"What do you know about these women?"
My uncle gets out his phone and starts scrolling. He shows me a few blurry pictures of the Ivanov sisters, and some oftheir hobbies and interests are outrageous. I mean, who listscollecting expensive thingsas a hobby?
After a while, I click on the contract Archie shows me and start scrolling through it. It is a temporary arrangement for companionship, masquerading as an engagement. Honestly, I don't think either of these women is going to want to come here to my mountain.
