Page 34 of Accidentally Marrying the Billionaire

"It was," she confirms. "Terrifyingly so. The day I moved in, he opened the door holding a screaming toddler with a mysterious stain on his shirt, and I just knew. The crush started then and things just snowballed from there.”

"That's different," I protest. "You dated. You got to know each other. You didn't accidentally marry him in a Vegas chapel because of a clerical mix-up."

“We actually didn’t date,” she says. “He was way in over his head with his sister’s kids, which was why I was hired. Then one day, shortly after I started, a social worker showed up for a spontaneous check. He pulled me into his lap and told me to just go with it, and then proceeded to tell the social worker we were engaged.”

“How did I not know any of this?” I ask.

She shrugs. “I don’t know. Everything between us happened at lightning speed, so I didn’t break down the actual details.”

“So fake engagement? Then what?”

“I told him I didn’t think people would believe we were together since we didn’t match. He basically put me on the counter and told me how he’d been jacking off to me in the shower and he didn’t give any fucks about what other people thought.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Then I ended up in his bed, and well, the rest is history. We officially adopted the kids and then had two more of our own.”

“So you just knew how you felt about him?”

“Yes and no. I was twenty-two. I was a virgin. So I fell hard and fast for him. I spent the next six months terrified I was wrong. About how I felt. About how he felt.”

"Were you? Wrong?"

She laughs softly. "I've been married to that man for more than five years now. He still looks at me like I'm the best thing that ever happened to him. He still brings me coffee in bed. He still calls me during away games just to hear my voice." She shrugs. "So no. I wasn't wrong. I was just scared. And the fear felt so much like truth that I almost let it make my decisions for me."

I stare at her, something cracking open in my chest.

"I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop," I admit quietly. "For him to realize I'm not who he thinks I am. For the fantasy version of me to dissolve and the real version to disappoint him."

“He might be feeling exactly the same way, babe. Y’all need to talk about all of this. Take things one day at a time. Communicate. Have more orgasms.”

I chuckle.

“This could be your happy ending,” Finley says.

“But what if it isn’t?” I whisper.

"Then you'll survive it," she says simply. "You survived Kurt and his nonsense. You survived that asshat from high school you told me about. You survived all of that, and you're still here. Still funny. Still warm. Still amazing, wonderful you."

My eyes are definitely stinging now.

"If Mike turns out to be another disappointment, you'll survive that too," she continues. "But what if he isn't? What if he's exactly what he seems to be? What if that little voice telling you this can't be real is just the same one that kept settling for Kurt?"

I swallow hard. "That voice is very loud."

"I know." She squeezes my hand again. "But you don't have to listen to it anymore. You get to choose which voice matters. And I think—" She pauses, smiling. "I think you should choose the one that says you deserve good things. Even if it's scary. Especially if it's scary."

I nod slowly, trying to let her words sink in.

"For what it's worth," she adds, "Maddox and I have run into Mike at events over the years. He's always been... different. Genuine, in a way that most people with his amount of money aren't. He actually listens when you talk to him. He remembers details. He once spent twenty minutes at a charity gala talking to Maddox about youth literacy programs instead of schmoozing with the other donors."

That makes me smile. “Sounds like him," I admit.

“He's one of the good ones, Evelyn. And y’all ended up married.” She grins. “Accidentally. Which is honestly even more romantic. It's like the universe said, ‘these two idiots are never going to figure it out on their own, so I'm going to intervene.’”

“Wow, the universe is kinda salty.”

“That could have been just my interpretation. All I’m saying is that sometimes you’ve got to just go all in. Take a leap of faith.”