Melinda nodded. Reluctantly, but he was relieved to see he had her grudging attention.

“So…maybe we ought to think about this marriage business.”

Melinda looked at him warily. “Wait a minute! Let me understand this. You’re suggesting we actually go through with a wedding ceremony?”

He shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I can’t believe this!” She let loose. “Either you do or you don’t. First you blow your stack and then you come back here to tell me that you’ve changed your mind. Let’s get this straight—do you want to get married or don’t you?”

“Sort of,” he murmured, caught between a rock and a hard place. “Something changed my mind and brought me back here. I’m just not sure what it was.”

How could he tell her what had turned him back when he hadn’t had a logical answer to account for it?

He tried to concentrate on the happy smile on Bertie’s face. And the way she’d waved at him before she disappeared through the kitchen door. A blessing?

All the more reason he had to go on record about the conditions of the forthcoming wedding—provided they ultimately decided to go through with it.

“There is one thing I’d like to put on the table.” Melinda stared at him silently. Good. After what he had to say, he wasn’t sure she wasn’t going to take things so quietly. “This so-called marriage thing—you didn’t intend it to be real. It was only a fantasy. Right?”

Melinda’s face turned pink. She nodded hesitantly.

“I hate to get personal,” he insisted, “but under the circumstances, I have to be sure you do understand what I’m talking about.”

Melinda’s face turned a deeper pink. “If you’re saying this is going to be a marriage of convenience, I never intended anything else. In fact,” she frowned, “the more I think of it, the more I know this would never work. We’d have to be crazy.”

Ben had the feeling he should have his head examined. Two hours ago he’d gone on record as being against a wedding of any kind and here he was trying to convince Melinda they should go for it. Strangely enough, even though she was giving him a chance to back out, he actually felt disappointed. “The truth is,” he blurted, “I might need a wife.”

“Might need a wife?”

If ever there was a time to admit the whole truth, this was it. “Yes. This might sound crazy, but my uncle has been after me to get married. For that matter,” he muttered darkly, “so have a lot of women.”

“Lucky you.” The look she gave him would have frozen an Eskimo. “Why pick me?”

How could he tell her mistake was opportune? That he sensed she could be trusted to “dissolve” the marriage when the right time came. That it might be convenient to have her as his “wife” for the duration. He managed a grin. “Maybe your timing was right. Or maybe your aunt was right about your ‘mistake.’ Maybe it was fate.”

Melinda considered Ben’s answer. Her aunt had talked about fate and destiny for so long, she was conditioned to believe it herself. At any rate, a mock-marriage, without a license, to a socially prominent man with connections might just be the ultimate answer to the lack of prospective brides. She didn’t have to feel she was using him. From what he’d said, the marriage would be to his advantage, too. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good, I’m glad we finally agree on something.” Ben settled back in his chair. “I think we should also settle a few important details while we’re at it. Okay?”

Melinda shrugged. “After the story you just told me, I can’t imagine what else is left to talk about. But go ahead.”

“I’ll supply the minister.”

She hesitated. “Actually, if I decide to go through with the wedding I was going to ask the Reverend Charles Good to conduct the ceremony. Charles is a good friend of Aunt Bertie’s.”

“A real minister?”

“Of course.”

“No way!” Ben rose and paced the kitchen floor. He counted off the squares in the brown and white linoleum until his frustration cooled. “I’m not going to take a chance on anything going wrong. I have a friend back in Boston who is a drama professor. Dex will fly out to do the honors if I ask him to. He’ll not only look and act like a real minister, there’s a plus.”

“What’s that,” she asked cautiously. “No one will ever see him again.”

“We can’t,” she protested. “It would break my aunt’s heart, and I’d feel like a fraud!”

His eyebrows rose. “Would you feel any differently if this friend of your aunt’s performed a mock-ceremony without a license?”

Melinda glanced down at her clenched hands. Her heart was breaking into little pieces. The dream she’d woven into her fantasy wedding was crumbling fast, and she didn’t know how to stop it. A platonic, temporary marriage with a man she’d yearned over for half of her life was the last thing she’d expected. How could she have gotten in so deep?