He Asked for a Convenient Wife, I Taught Him to Say No novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Offer He Could Not Refuse

Becca rejects being another service then names her own mistaken reason to accept; they choose a real convenience marriage with time to reconsider.

I told Tate that marriage was a large answer to a Saturday invitation.

He carried the first four chairs toward his truck without disagreeing.

I followed with the washed potato dish and his rescued hat.

Della had found other volunteers for the folding tables.

Nobody's supper had ended when her son sat down to eat.

I wanted him to notice that before we discussed anything permanent.

"They will still ask you for favors," I warned him.

He set the chairs against the truck's side and faced me.

"They might stop asking me to dinner with somebody's niece," he said.

"You could say you do not want to go."

"I usually say I can fix a gate instead."

I looked at him until his mouth began to move.

"That sounded better before I said it aloud," he admitted.

I handed him his hat and made him put it on.

It gave me somewhere to look besides his hopeful face.

We were both old enough to know what a marriage cost.

He was thirty-three, with a home and a ranch he genuinely liked.

I was thirty-one, newly arrived, with money saved and nowhere I wanted to hurry back to.

The end of my last relationship had not left me penniless.

It had left me very good at finding reasons to be needed.

That made his offer less sensible than it already sounded.

"I will not become another service you provide," I told him.

He stopped arranging the chair legs and gave me his full attention.

"That is not what I meant," he said.

"Then tell me what you meant without mentioning the town."

A chair slid toward the open tailgate before he could answer.

He caught it, set it upright, and sat down on it himself.

I had to stand in front of him to keep listening.

"I like it when you come over," he said.

"I like that you tell me when I am making a mess."

"You could invite me over more often," I pointed out.

He looked at my hands, still wrapped around the casserole dish.

"Would you come without having to return something?" he asked.

That question landed somewhere I had been trying to keep unoccupied.

I put the dish down beside him before I could hide behind it.

"Probably," I said.

He smiled without treating the answer as an agreement to anything else.

A car horn sounded from the far side of the lot.

The first chair lender leaned through her open window.

"Before the bridge game," she reminded him.

Tate looked at her and then at me.

"After supper," he called back.

The woman nodded and drove away without ending their acquaintance.

I pointed after her before he could miss the result.

"There," I said.

"You have survived a delay."

He rose and started loading the four chairs properly.

I carried the other sets over, one chair at a time.

He did not ask why I helped after objecting to the entire arrangement.

That was probably kind, which made it harder to defend myself.

When the last chair was secure, he opened the passenger door.

"You can say no to the deliveries too," he told me.

I climbed in because I wanted to hear him talk without a crowd.

At the first house, the lender thanked him and invited me inside for pie.

At the second, we were offered leftover porch sandwiches.

At the third, the woman tried to give him her niece's number.

Tate took the potato dish from my hands before answering.

"I am having supper with Becca tomorrow," he said.

He looked at me then, allowing me to ruin that answer if I wanted.

"You are cooking," I told him.

"Gladly," he replied.

On the way home, he asked whether we could discuss the marriage after supper.

I watched the road beyond his headlights and said we could discuss it honestly.

For once, I could not hide my answer inside a favor.

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