He shrugged. “Next week?”
Her eyes widened.
“What?”
“I don’t know...it’s just so soon. Is that even possible?”
“I looked into it a little this afternoon, just in case you...you know. Decided you wanted to go for it. We just have to go together to purchase the marriage license, and there’s no waiting period in the state of Colorado. We could get the license and get married that day, if we wanted.”
“Oh.” Her eyes darted around the room before meeting his again. “Are we, um. Telling anyone? The truth?”
He’d thought about that, too. “Claire’s gonna know something’s up. She’s the only one I think we should be honest with. Graham’s great and all, but...”
“He can’t keep his mouth shut.”
“Exactly.” He paused. “Do you want to tell your parents the truth?”
“No,” she said. “I’m still worried about your dad, though.”
“I said I’d handle him, didn’t I?”
“You did. But I’ve worked for him for a long time, and I know he pays attention to every little detail. I don’t think he’ll believe it.”
“I’ll convince him it’s real,” Noah said. His parents knew him pretty well, and he had a hunch it wouldn’t take much for them to believe he was in love with Mia. “Don’t you trust me?”
“You know I do,” she said, almost grudgingly. “What about the other principals at work? Will they be suspicious? What about Julia? David? Especially him—I never got the impression he liked me much.”
“What? Why do you say that?”
She shrugged and looked down. “I don’t know. I just don’t get a good vibe from him.”
“Mia.” He heard the hard edge in his voice, but couldn’t stop it.
She sighed. “It’s not a big deal.”
Why was this the first he was hearing of this? He attempted to soften his tone. “It is to me.”
“When I was first hired on, I messed up some of his appointments. I felt terrible and apologized—but not before he said your dad hired me out of pity and that I didn’t deserve the job. It’s always stuck with me, and I get nervous around him. Any time I mess something up, it feels like it always involves him. A few years ago, I failed to get an important message to him and he’s never let me forget it. Last week I misplaced a client contract, and naturally it was his client. I get all flustered and just mess stuff up, and he makes sure I know it.”
Noah’s short fingernails dug into the skin of his palms. David had been at the firm a few years before Noah started his internship, and Mia was already a fixture at the front desk. He’d had no idea she’d felt that way. And for so long. “You’re great at your job. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.”
“According to him it’s more than that.”
Noah had never cared much for David, and now he really didn’t like the guy. “Why haven’t you said something before?”
She arched an eyebrow. “What would you do? Defend my honor?”
Hell yes.“Maybe.”
She gave a rueful smile. “It’s not that big of a deal. But I guess he’s the one I’m most worried about finding out. If he knew I was committing insurance fraud through the company...”
“Stop saying that,” Noah said, firming his tone again. He lowered his chin and looked at her pointedly. “We’ve been secretly dating for months, and tonight I popped the question. We don’t see any point in waiting for a fancy ceremony, and we decided to get married next week. Now that you’ll be a kept woman, you decided to go back to school like you’ve always wanted. I don’t mean this to come out wrong, but I don’t think anyone at the office cares enough about you or me to think otherwise. People are concerned about their own business. They’ll believe what we want them to believe.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if convincing herself his words were true. Slowly, she nodded. “Right. Okay.”
“Want me to get down on one knee?”
Her eyes went wide. “No!”