Stand Aside, the Billionaire Is Here novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Marry Me
Joaquin proposes to Noelle at Fontaine's and is mocked for his jacket; Daphne stands up and offers him marriage, and he says yes.
The man at the next table at Fontaine's was kneeling, and nobody was looking at him kindly.
I had come to Fontaine's to eat alone and think.
My uncle Lionel had just called to tell me the board would vote on Monday.
If I did not have a husband by then, I would lose the company my grandfather built.
My grandmother Adelaide would have to watch it happen.
I put my phone face down and watched the stranger instead.
He wore a canvas work jacket with the cuffs gone white.
His watch was a cheap steel one with a scratched face.
He held up a plain gold ring in a box that had no velvet in it.
The woman in front of him wore a cream dress and had her hand over her mouth.
"Noelle," he said, "I've been gone twelve years, and I never stopped."
His voice was low and steady, and the whole room could hear it.
"Marry me."
She did not say yes.
She looked at his jacket first.
Then she laughed, one short laugh, and glanced at the next table over.
A man in a charcoal suit and a gold watch had risen from his chair there.
He was already walking toward them, smiling.
"Babe," the man said. "Is this the guy from the dock?"
"He's from my old neighborhood," Noelle said.
She was already pulling her left hand out of reach.
On it was a diamond the size of a grape.
"Joaquin, I'm engaged," she said. "To Grayson."
The man in the suit put an arm around her shoulders.
"Grayson Chastain," he said, like it was a title.
He looked Joaquin over from the boots up.
"Pal, I'll tell you what. Let me buy that ring from you."
Two tables laughed.
"Looks like it cost you a month," Grayson said. "Is that why you're wearing that jacket to Fontaine's?"
Joaquin closed the little box and slipped it into his jacket.
He did it slowly.
"I didn't come for your money," he said to Noelle.
"No, you came with none," she said.
She said it lightly, and that was the worst part.
"I was seventeen, Joaquin. I'm not that girl now."
"You're not," he said.
His voice did not shake.
A waiter touched his elbow and said something about the other guests.
Grayson laughed again and took out his phone to film it.
"This is going on my story," he said. "Poor guy proposes in a work jacket."
I put my napkin on the table.
I did not decide to stand up.
My legs did it while my head was still on Monday and the board vote.
I walked across the restaurant in my navy suit.
Nobody in that room had ever seen me do anything but sign things.
"Excuse me," I said.
Grayson turned, and the phone turned with him.
"Daphne Heyward," he said, and his smile changed.
Everyone in Houston shipping knew Chastain Capital wanted my company.
"Mr. Chastain," I said. "Put that away."
"Or what?"
"Or I'll call your father and tell him what his son films in restaurants."
Grayson lowered the phone.
I turned to the man in the work jacket.
Up close he was taller than I had thought, with a scar through his left eyebrow.
His eyes were dark and tired, and not one bit ashamed.
"What's your name?" I asked him.
"Joaquin."
"Joaquin, are you free right now?"
He blinked.
"Free for what?"
"To get married," I said.
The room went so quiet I could hear the ice settle in somebody's glass.
Noelle's mouth came open.
Grayson started to laugh and didn't finish.
"I need a husband by Monday morning," I said to Joaquin, plainly, like a business offer.
"I'm Daphne Heyward, and I'll explain in the car."
"If you say no, I'll sit back down and nobody here will mention it again."
Joaquin looked at me for a long moment.
Then he looked once at Noelle, who had not moved.
"Keep the laugh," he told her. "You earned it."
He turned back to me and held out his arm.
"Yes," he said.
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