Page 52 of Earned Husband

He shrugged. “I’m still not getting it.”

“The Thayers seem much, much quieter. Colin currently lives alone in a big old townhouse and he has all the privacy he could ever need. He does not, at all, say what’s on his mind without a lot of needling, and even then, he’s always cautious about how he phrases things. He’s just…”

I trailed off for a beat. “He seems like an extremely private person and he won’t get to be that here.”

Rami shrugged. “The Thayer family is almost as big as ours. Who cares if he lives alone now? He lived with them for a long time, and once you guys are married, you’ll be in your own place anyway.”

I frowned. “You really don’t get it.”

“You’re right. I really don’t.”

“They’re a big family, and sure, I haven’t even met all of them yet, but they’re just not the same as us. It’s not only about the number of people, it’s also about the volume of living. I’m not sure Colin will ever want to fit in with us.”

Rami chuckled. “The volume of living. I love that. It’s the most accurate thing anyone has ever said about us, but look, if you’ve got cold feet, it’s not like you’ll see him much over the next couple of weeks anyway.”

“I know. The engagement events will be keeping us busy, but that’s part of what I’m worried about. Colin will barely have time to recover from meeting one branch of the family before another descends on him. Throwing a quiet, serious, utterly kind man into the fire that is this family seems wholly unfair.”

Rami waited until I looked up at him again before he smiled at me. “I think he’ll survive. Give the man a little bit of credit. He comes from a big family of his own and maybe they’re quieter, but he’ll adapt.”

He started back toward the doors, but his eyes remained locked on mine. “Besides, all this worrying might be too little, too late. He’s already met Dad and Khaled. If he didn’t want to have to deal with them, he should’ve told them he wasn’t doing it. Now go home, Deja. Take a break and for the love of God, stop stressing so much about a man who, from the sounds of things, coped just fine with the worst members of our family back in Chicago.”

With that, he spun on his heels and left my office, and I begrudgingly headed home. His whole attitude about all this hadgiven me a lot to think about, and I planned on doing just that until I walked into the house to find my sister practically flying down the stairs.

“Deja!” Jasmine came thundering toward me with a letter in her hand. “This just came for you. Don’t worry. I haven’t opened it yet.”

For one, irrationally terrifying moment, I thought that maybe he’d changed his mind. I hadn’t been expecting another letter before his visit and the fact that he’d sent one could be either good or very, very bad.

My heart skipped, then started pounding. The possibility that he might decide not to come at all truly hadn’t occurred to me until this very moment and it stole all the air from my lungs when I realized that if he’d decided against our marriage, I might not ever see him again.

Jasmine skidded to a stop in front of me, grinning from ear to ear as she held the envelope out to me. “For you, but read it out loud.”

I broke the seal carefully, my head suddenly spinning.Oh, God. I don’t want to lose him. I mean, I know I don’t even have him yet, but?—

“Open it already,” Jasmine said impatiently when I paused with my finger only halfway along the seam. “What did he say?”

“I don’t know yet. Just give me a minute.” I finally just tore the envelope open and pulled out the letter, unfolding it with my heart bouncing in my throat and dread forming a pit at the base of my stomach. “It says…”

I stopped speaking as I read it silently to myself before I looked back up at her. “It says that he can’t wait for his visit and that he’s been thinking about me.”

Dizzying relief spiraled through me as I read what turned out to be a letter that was just a little bit more romantic than all the others so far. Colin wasn’t pulling out of the deal. He was comingto Cairo and the way I’d felt when I’d thought he might not be had told me everything I needed to know.

CHAPTER 23

COLIN

Our letters this month hadn’t been what I’d describe as love letters. They weren’t filled with declarations or promises of undying devotion.

If anything, they’d been friendly, sometimes teasing and sometimes thoughtful, but somehow, in the process, we’d ended up letting the other into all the ordinary little corners of our lives. I knew her on a much deeper level now, and because of that, I’d kept every single letter she’d sent.

One stack sat neatly on the corner of my nightstand, accumulating there because I’d been rereading them before bed like a teenager, and another stack was in my office, occupying the easiest drawer to reach. Both spaces now smelled like her as a result and I found it oddly comforting.

My sinuses were a wreck but it was worth every sniffle.

After sneezing my way through yet another week, I’d finally surrendered and made an appointment with my doctor to get medication for what I hoped were seasonal allergies. The poor man had listened patiently while I’d attempted to explain that I appeared to be allergic to the woman I was planning to marry. Then he’d prescribed some tablets and sent me packing, probably relieved to see me go.

Either way, the pills had helped. I hadn’t sprayed her perfume directly into my face to test the theory, but at least I wasn’t sneezing every time I picked up one of her letters anymore. I folded another dress shirt into my suitcase and glanced at the latest letter lying open on my bed.

It had been the last one, arriving just less than a week ago. This time, the package had contained only a letter, but it was lengthy, detailed, and very helpful, listing out the names of her entire nuclear family, complete with little notes about each of them.