Page 24 of Finding Hayes
I’d lost my job and my ability to help my father.
I was at a loss, and this offer from Abe felt cruel at the moment. But he wasn’t a cruel man. There must be a reason he was doing this, but right now, I couldn’t see it.
Hayes whipped his head in my direction, gaze narrowed and laced with question.
He knew about my father. I’d told him. Could he have possibly forgotten something so devastating? Was he that cold of a man?
“I didn’t know your father had cancer,” Hayes said, and it only made me angrier.
“I’m sorry to hear about your father,” River said, as the man beside me just sat there gaping at me like he was in shock by the news.
“Thank you. Me, too.” I pushed to my feet. “I think we’re done here. Do you have someone who can help me negotiate the land and the house with the city?”
River looked between me and Hayes before he held his hands up. “Hear me out. I have an idea.”
“Are you going to rewrite the will and take out the ridiculous stipulation and let her inherit that money?” Hayes asked, pushing to his feet and crossing his arms over his chest.
“That would be illegal,” he said. “But what if you found a husband and just agreed to be married for three months? It’s a short time in the big picture of your life, and everybody wins.”
“What am I going to do? Offer a stranger money to marry me?” I shook my head at the ridiculous idea.
“No. That would look suspicious.” River chuckled, like this was a perfectly normal conversation. “And they could blackmail you and turn you in. It can’t be a stranger.”
“What are you suggesting?” Hayes asked.
“What I’m about to say never leaves this office.”
Nothing good ever came from a statement like that.
seven
. . .
Hayes
I dropped back downin my seat because we may as well hear him out. River was a smart fucking dude, and I knew he’d do what he could to help Savannah. Whether or not she believed me, she meant a lot to me.
There were very few people that fell into that category, but she’d always been one of them. Even though her leaving hurt like hell, I’d still walk through fire for her.
“Sit.” I looked over at her, and she huffed back to her seat.
“What’s this grand idea?” she asked.
“If you marry a stranger, it’s going to look suspicious. You aren’t dating anyone at the moment, right? Were there any recent serious relationships?” River asked.
“Nope. I just found out that my last boyfriend, who I broke up with over a year ago, is currently serving time for stealing a car,” she said.
“That’s a dumbshit thing to do.” I leaned back in my chair.
“I haven’t even told you the best part. It was a cop car. And there was a suspect handcuffed in the back seat.”
Savannah had always enjoyed fixing broken things. Nothing about this surprised me. But she was too smart for her own damn good, and once she got people on their feet, she moved on.
That’s what she’d done with me. But I hadn’t been standing on my own two feet at the time. I’d been at my lowest point.
“So, he’s not going to be a possibility,” River said as he barked out a laugh.
“Definitely not. But he wrote to me and told me that he passed the bar exam from prison, so if you need an assistant when he gets out, I’m sure he’d love the opportunity.” She smirked. The beauty of Savannah Abbott was her heart. She wasn’t kidding. She’d probably call River the minute the dude was released and try to help him out.
