The Mckennas: Finn, Riley and Brody: One Day to Find a Husband

“What happens now?” Ellie asked. “What happens to Jiao?”

“Well, it would be handy if you had a boyfriend who was looking to commit in the very near future. But if not …” Linda put out her hands again. “I’m sorry. Maybe this one isn’t meant to be.” Linda didn’t have to say anything more. Ellie knew, without hearing the words, that her child would go back into the orphanage system and maybe languish there for years.

Ellie couldn’t believe that this wasn’t meant to be. Not for a second. The entire serendipitous way she had met Sun, the way the two of them had become instant friends, despite the cultural and language barriers.

And Jiao …

She already loved the little girl. Ellie had held Jiao. Laughed with her. Bonded. During her trips to China, Ellie had become a part of Jiao’s little family. A second mother, in a way, to Jiao, who had curled into Ellie and clung to her when they had buried Sun. It had broken Ellie’s heart to have to go back to the United States without the little girl. She’d only done it because she’d been assured the next few steps of the adoption were merely a formality.

And now Jiao was all alone in the world, living in a crowded, understaffed orphanage, probably scared and lonely and wondering why she had no family anymore. Ellie thought of Jiao’s pixie face, her inquisitive eyes and her contagious smile. Desperation clawed at Ellie. Oh, God, Jiao. What am I going to do?

Ellie took a deep breath. Another. She needed to be calm. To think.

Damn it. Ellie had made a promise. Jiao deserved to be raised with security and love, and Ellie would find some way to make that happen. “Let me think about this,” she said. “Can I call you later?”

Linda nodded, her warm brown eyes pooling with sympathy. “Sure. I have a day or two to get back to the orphanage.”

The unspoken message, though, was that after that, Jiao would slip out of Ellie’s grasp like wind through the trees. Off to another family or worse, stuck in the system. Ellie needed a miracle.

And she needed it now.

CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_5508d239-fc9f-5834-83bf-97522dc3ef89)

FINN MCKENNA was not a man easily surprised. He’d heard and seen a great deal in the past ten years of running his own company. But this … offer, if that was what he could call it, from Ellie Winston was a total shock.

“Marriage? As in a church and a minister?” he said. The words choked past his throat.

“Well, I was thinking more like city hall and a judge, but if you insist …” She grinned.

“But … w-we don’t even know each other.” The words sputtered out of him. He, a man who never sputtered.

Ever since she’d walked into his office five minutes ago and announced she had a counteroffer to his, that was what he had done—sputtered. And stammered. And parroted her words back at her. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Shocked wasn’t an adequate adjective.

Marriage?

He had expected her to ask for more autonomy with the project or a larger cut of the fee. Something … practical.

Instead she’d said she would allow him to be an equal partner in the Piedmont hospital project, if he married her.

Marriage.

“I think I need a little more time to … think about this.” Or find a counteroffer that could possibly overrule her insane request. “Perhaps we could table this—”

“I’d rather not.” She was perched on the edge of one of the visitor’s chairs in his office. The late morning sun danced gold in her hair. She had on another dress, this one in a pale yellow that made him think of daffodils.

For Pete’s sake. Every time he got close to Ellie Winston he turned into a damned greeting card.

“If you’re free for a little while,” she added, “how about we go someplace and talk?”

He considered saying no, but then realized this was his best opportunity to get what he needed from Ellie Winston. In the long run, that would serve him better than staying at his desk. It wasn’t the fact that he wanted to see more of her. Not at all. He glanced out his window. “We could do lunch, and be stuck in some restaurant or … the weather is gorgeous. How about a stroll on the Esplanade?”

“Sure. I can’t remember the last time I walked along the river.” She reached into her purse and pulled out a small bag. “I even have flats with me.”

“Practical woman.”

She laughed. “Sometimes, not so much, but today, yes.” She slipped off her heels, tucked them in her bag, then slid on the other shoes.

Finn told Miss Marstein that he was leaving, then shut down his computer and grabbed his phone. A few minutes later, they were out the door and heading down a side street toward the Esplanade. Finn drew in a deep breath of sweet salty air. “I definitely don’t get outside enough.”

Ellie sighed. “Me, either. When I was younger, I used to be a real outdoorsy girl. Hiking, canoeing, bike riding. I tried to keep up with that after college, but the job takes up way too much time.”

He arched a brow at her dress and the spiky heels poking out of her purse. “You hiked?”

Ellie put a fist on her hip. “Do I look too girly for that?”

His gaze raked over her curves, and his thoughts strayed from business to something far more personal. Damn. “Uh, no. Not at all.”

“What about you?” she asked. “Do you hike or bike or anything like that?”

“I used to. I ran track in high school, was on the swim team, you name it. And during college, I biked everywhere. Now I think my bike’s tires are flat and there are spiders making webs in the frame.”

She laughed. “All the more reason to get it out of storage.”

They crossed to the Esplanade, joining the hundreds of other people outside. A few on bikes whizzed past them, as if adding an exclamation point to the conversation. “Maybe someday I will,” Finn said, watching a man on a carbon fiber racing bike zip past him. “I do miss it.”

“Someday might never come,” Ellie said quietly. “It’s too easy to let the To Do list get in the way. And then before you know it, another year has passed, and another, and you’re still sitting behind the desk instead of doing what you love.”

He heard something more in her voice. Some kind of longing. Just for more outdoor time? Or to fill another hole in her life? He wanted to ask, wanted to tell her he knew all about using work to plug those empty spots.

But he didn’t.

The bike rider disappeared among a sea of power walkers. Finn returned his attention to Ellie. She looked radiant in the sunshine. Tempting. Too tempting. He cleared his throat. “It’s hard to keep up with the personal To Do list when the business one is so much longer.”

“Isn’t part of your business taking care of you? After all, if the CEO ain’t happy …” She let the words trail off and shot him a grin.

For a second, Finn wanted to fall into that engaging smile of Ellie Winston’s. Every one of her smiles seemed to hit him deep in the gut. They were the kind of smiles that Finn suspected—no, knew—would linger in his mind long after they were done. And her voice … her years of living in the South gave her just enough of a Southern tinge to coat her words with a sweet but sassy spin. It was … intoxicating.

Hell, everything about her was intoxicating. It wasn’t just the dress or the smile or the curves. It was everything put together, in one unique, intriguing package.

She had him thinking about what it would be like to take a hike through Blue Hills with her, to crest the mountain and watch the busy world go by far beneath them. He imagined them picnicking on a rock outcropping, while the sun warmed their backs and the breeze danced along their skin.

Damn. What was it about her that kept getting him distracted? He needed to focus on business, and more importantly, on why she had proposed marriage a few minutes ago. No wild, heady anything with her.

Finn cleared his throat. “About your … proposal earlier. No pun intended. Were you serious?”

Her features went from teasing to flat, and he almost regretted steering the conversation back. “Yes. Very.” She let out a long breath, and for a while, watched the people sitting on the grass across from them. It was a family of four, with a small dog nipping at the heels of the children as they ran a circle around their parents. “I need something from you and you need something from me. Marriage is the best solution all around.”

“We could always do a legal agreement for the businesses. This is just one project, you know.”