“You deserve that, but I’m not sure what you’re getting at.” My father looked at me again like he wanted me to clarify.
“I offered to marry him,” I said.
My father’s brows drew together. Mo watched him carefully like he was ready to run out if my father got his shotgun.
“That sounds a little crazy,” my father finally responded.
Mo nodded. “That’s what I said.”
Again, I tried to act like it was no big deal. “It was an impulse. Just trying to do my part to help here.”
I wondered if either of them could see through me.
“It would be too much to ask of both of you,” my father said. “Especially you, Mo. There’s nothing in it for you.”
Funny how my father wasn’t saying anything about our age difference, or that I was his daughter and Mo was his friend.
“Except, Mo doesn’t want Stark as a neighbor,” I said.
“He said he’d put in a landfill or waste management system.” Mo shook his head.
My father’s face scrunched up. “Jesus. That would reduce your land value.”
“And possibly hurt my cattle.”
“So, there would be some benefit for him,” I said, feeling like I had an opening to convince them of this crazy deal.
“I told her no, Frank,” Mo jumped in.
“It could work, though,” my father said.
Both Mo’s and my eyebrows shot up.
“What?” Mo asked with a quick shake of his head like he hadn’t heard right.
My father shrugged.
“Jesus, Frank. We’re friends. I’m old enough to be her father.”
“It wouldn’t be a real marriage, though, right? I mean, it would just be on paper.”
Mo sat back and looked at my father like he’d grown a third eye. Frankly, I was a bit surprised myself.
“I’d have to live with him,” I said.
“You have extra bedrooms, right? We’re all friends here. I trust you with my baby.”
Oh God. I closed my eyes as my father treated me like a child. When I opened them, Mo was looking at me, and I knew he was thinking back to four years ago when I tried to seduce him.
“I don’t know, Frank,” he said, returning his attention to my father. “I can’t believe you’re okay with this.”
My father scrapped his hands over his face. “It’s crazy. And you’d have to be okay with it, too, Brooke.”
“It was my idea,” I said.
“I’d like to keep my farm. It’s been in my family for over a century. It’s all I know. I’m embarrassed that it’s come to this. But if not this idea, then I have to sell to Stark. I’ll learn to live with that, but if you’re motivated enough to stop him by marrying Brooke, I’d be okay with that. I trust you with her, Mo.”
Mo’s jaw tightened. He didn’t say it, but I could see in his eyes that he was telling my father that he couldn’t be trusted. Interesting.