Marry Me, Right Now : (Marriage of Convenience Romance, Toronto) Read online

  Marry Me, Right Now

  By Haley Travis

  Copyright 2019 Haley Travis. All rights reserved. Cover design by Lexie Renard.

  This book is intended for sale to adults only. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people or specific locations is completely coincidental, or intended fictitiously. All characters are over 19, no sex partners are related, all sex is consensual. This is fantasy. In the real world, everyone practices safe sex at all times. Right? Right.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted or duplicated in any form whatsoever without express written permission of the author.

  Upcoming novels posted at http://haleytravisromance.blogspot.com

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  1 Mia - Patio Desperation

  2 Jacob - The Weird Uncle

  3 Mia - Potential New Job

  4 Jacob - So Far, So Good

  5 Mia - Middle of the Night

  6 Jacob - Morning Light

  7 Mia - The Lawyer

  8 Jacob - Planning

  9 Jacob - The Ring

  10 Mia - Changing Jobs

  11 Jacob - Moving In

  12 Mia - Girls Night

  13 Jacob - Mother

  14 Mia - Pink

  15 Mia - Cocktail Party Prep

  16 Jacob - Cocktail Party

  17 Mia - Wedding Planner

  18 Jacob - Not The Boss

  19 Mia - The Big Dress

  20 Jacob - Last Details

  21 Jacob - Show Time

  22 Mia - The Wedding

  23 Jacob - For The Photos

  24 Mia - Huge Party

  25 Jacob - Wedding Night

  26 Mia - First Morning Married

  27 Jacob - Flying

  28 Jacob - Honeymoon Night

  29 Mia - Sweetest Dreams

  30 Mia - Ocean

  31 Mia - Practice

  32 Jacob - Dinner

  33 Mia - That Night

  34 Mia - Coming Home

  35 Jacob - Back to work

  36 Mia - New Mrs. Stoneburrowes

  37 Jacob - Mia’s Visit

  38 Mia - Cheap Date Night

  39 Jacob - Gallery

  40 Mia - Big Questions

  41 Jacob - Workaholic Wife

  42 Jacob - Mia’s Birthday

  43 Mia - Click Click

  44 Jacob - Dinner Chat

  45 Mia - Stress Relief

  46 Mia - Visitor

  47 Jacob - Family Stress

  48 Mia - Bedroom

  49 Jacob - Interruption

  50 Mia - Fake But Real

  Other Books by Haley Travis

  M I A

  <<< 1 >>>

  PATIO DESPERATION

  My hands were shaking as hard as the windy leaves in the slim tree beside me while I flipped through the rental listings, taking notes in my ladybug notebook. To anyone passing by the cafe patio, I hoped that I looked like someone doing research, or checking the local music news. The fear rolling off me in waves was invisible, so I hoped I wasn’t disturbing the others enjoying the sunshine. My fancy cup of coffee was a tiny attempt to cheer myself up, but it wasn’t working very well so far.

  There was a very real chance that I’d be homeless within the week.

  It was such a lovely day. The heat of August was beginning to wane, the breeze picking up occasionally to ruffle someone’s hair, or partially turn the page of the newspaper in front of me, where there were absolutely no decent apartments listed.

  The housing crisis in Toronto had reached epic proportions, and my resources were completely drained. I had spent every waking moment scouring listings, looking at the worst moldy little basements, and still being refused.

  Apparently I wasn’t a desirable candidate, since I was a single woman without a professional job, and I wasn’t a student anymore. I had been working at the same cafe for a year and had excellent references. But my budget was so low I couldn’t find anything that didn’t smell like rats.

  I had poured through every website where people search for roommates, coming up with all manner of creepy men but no relatively sane women. There was no way in hell I wanted to room with a strange man, obviously, and even shacking up with a strange woman freaked me out. But I was completely out of options.

  I was ahead of the minimalist trend, having sold or given away all but fifteen boxes of my belongings, and putting them in storage. I lived out of two huge rolling suitcases, and had been parked on my friend Stacy’s couch for the past month. But her boyfriend was moving in next Friday, and I had to leave.

  With no family at all, no money, and no other friends who could put me up any more than they already had, I was on the verge of looking up the woman’s homeless shelters. It had even crossed my mind to check in my ex-boyfriend and see if there was any chance of rekindling something for a few weeks, but that was a level I wasn’t prepared to stoop to. Also, he really didn’t treat me well last year, and I couldn’t bear to shovel that on top of everything else right now.

  It was horrific to realize my life had hit this point so easily. I’d always worked, I’d always saved. I was extremely frugal. But it only took a handful of things to go sideways, and with no other resources, I’d actually be homeless in a week.

  My mother would have been worried sick. My father would be demanding to know why I didn’t move back out to a smaller town. But they died in an accident while on vacation when I was just eighteen, and I’ve been on my own ever since.

  But I had to have hope. Letting the desperation take me over was not productive. Positivity was crucial. I had to be the sort of person who would say yes to every single opportunity.

  There was no apartment I couldn’t clean, and brighten with a little yellow fabric. I was a hard worker, a creative person, and could always find resources. There was no place that would truly be worse than a homeless shelter. And the horrible roommate stories were likely exaggerated for dramatic effect.

  Taking a deep breath, I realized that I had run out of listings. Before I started calling the few that were within walking distance to my work, I sipped my coffee and turned back to the crossword. Puzzles almost always cheered me up.

  “May I share your table?”

  I looked up to see a man smiling at me. He was startlingly attractive, as if ripped from the pages of a men’s fashion magazine where the models were buff with sculpted cheekbones, rugged jawlines, but sweet eyes. His irises were the color of the sea an hour before sunset. So beautiful it made me think of poetry instead of why the hell this guy was smiling at me.

  I glanced around, realizing that the patio was packed, and I was taking up a large table. “Sorry, of course,” I said, pulling my things out of the way.

  “I only need space for this, thank you,” he said, setting down his steaming coffee and settling into the chair across from me. His eyes were remarkable, but his entire face was oddly beautiful. He had that upper class, almost regal look about him.

  He glanced down at my newspaper. “Wow,” he said. “I haven’t seen anyone do the crossword on paper in ages. People are always on their phones these days.”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “But I find it calming when I’m stressed out of my mind.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, then instantly shook his head. “Sorry, instinct. That may or may no
t be my business.”

  He was so easy going, so casually charming, that I found it refreshing. Holding out my hand, I said, “Mia. Desperate apartment hunter.”

  “Ah,” he nodded, shaking my hand firmly. “Lovely to meet you, Mia. Jacob, number-crunching financial guy.”

  I felt myself grinning – the sunshine, great coffee, and random company brightening my grim mood. “Is there a magical number-crunching configuration for making Toronto’s rent more reasonable?”

  He shook his head. “Sorry, Mia. I’ve read that it’s rough out there. It must be stressful.”

  I nodded, trying to seem hopeful. “There has to be something. I can make do with a tiny basement if need be. I’m sure that the rats and cockroaches will make room for my books. I just have to make sure it’s close enough to walk to work.”

  “Where do you work?” The fact that he seemed genuinely interested was surprising. The way he was looking into my eyes so precisely was also strange.

  “Lucille’s Cafe near Queen and Strachan.”

  “Is it a nice place?”

  I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

  “And why do you need to walk to work? That’s on the streetcar line, right?”

  “Yeah, but that’s three bucks each way. That’s almost half an hour of pay just to get to and from work. So if I can possibly avoid it, I will.”

  His lips pressed together strangely as if he were processing. Then I noticed his lovely shirt, and the incredibly expensive looking watch.

  I laughed suddenly. “You had no idea how much transit costs these days, did you?”

  Jacob looked properly sheepish. “No, actually.”

  “When is the last time you took the subway?”

  He stared at the brick wall behind me for a moment. “I was on my way to a party at New Year’s a while back, and we couldn’t get a car.” His grin was positively gorgeous. “I assume it’s not always full of people in glitter hats, openly drinking beer?”

  “Only on Thursdays,” I said smoothly.

  Jacob chuckled, then asked, “Is moving back in with your parents an option?”

  I shook my head. “Gone.”

  Across the table, his hand twitched slightly, as if he wanted to reach for mine. “I’m sorry,” he said gently. “I lost my dad a few years ago. It’s rough.”

  It was sweet that his impulse was to comfort a stranger. He was too handsome to be real, and I had to wonder why he wasn’t somewhere far fancier than this little Italy nook.

  “Opportunity,” he said, and I wondered if I had zoned out and missed something for a moment before I saw him pointing to my crossword.

  “Oh, thanks.”

  “May I help you finish the rest?”

  “Sure.” Why a guy like this would want to interact with me at all was a mystery, but I had to keep my mood light and positive, so spending a bit of time with someone new might be good for me.

  “Do you hang out with strangers on patios in this area often?” I teased.

  “Only when I see a positively gorgeous girl hoarding the last table to herself,” he chuckled.

  A tiny tingle was stirring in my spinal column and I couldn’t meet his eyes for several moments. I had no idea what to say to that, so I tried to get down to business. “Six letter word for coffee shop computer.”

  “Laptop.”

  I filled it in quickly, turning the page toward him a bit more. “Six letter word for tea, that ends in a G.”

  He shrugged, forcing me to notice his wide shoulders. The gym, the rock climbing wall, or mother nature had been very particular in sculpting his physique, and the casual way he carried himself without ego about it was refreshing. I always disliked it when a guy was full of himself.

  “I’m a coffee guy.”

  “Oolong,” I said, printing it into the spaces.

  “What’s an ‘oolong’?” he asked, testing out the word comically.

  “It’s a Chinese black tea.”

  His laugh was genuine. “It sounds like a cartoon word, like ‘kapow’.”

  “You’ll see when we get a five letter word that needs that O for the second letter. Token of value.”

  “Money.”

  I laughed as I filled it in. “I would have gotten that eventually. If only I could get some real money someday.”

  His head cocked to the side. “You said that you have a job.”

  “Yeah, but when rent is nearly eighty percent of your income, you’re permanently broke.”

  He blinked a few times. “Those financial planning books say that your rent is only supposed to be thirty percent of your income.”

  I laughed a little too loudly, accidentally releasing some frustration. “Maybe for people who can afford financial planning books. They’ve never worked a minimum wage job while trying to afford life in this crazy city.”

  A strange mixture of what I interpreted as concern, worry, and confusion crossed his face. “What happens if you don’t find an apartment? How long do you have?”

  My pen began tapping against the table, and it took me a few seconds to stop it, and try to control my shaking hand. It was one thing to acknowledge that my predicament was severe, but saying it aloud to a stranger… I just couldn’t.

  Shaking my head, I read out, “Six letter word that means ‘to support’. Ends in T.”

  “Assist.”

  “Thanks,” I said, filling it in. “You’re pretty good at these.” He seemed quite pleased with himself. “Venue for live entertainment – that’s theatre. How about the unit of ownership of a company?”

  “Share,” he said automatically, peering at the puzzle. “And institutional rank is CEO.”

  “Cool.” I looked up at him after printing in the letters. “You look like the kind of person who would know a few CEOs.”

  Jacob looked a bit uncomfortable. “Well, I am one, actually.”

  “Really? What corporation?”

  “Stoneburrowes Investments.”

  “What does an investment company CEO actually do all day?” He looked at me strangely. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy, I’m just a curious person.”

  He nodded, sipping his coffee. “I like that. Well, I sit in far too many meetings making sure that high strung people are listening to each other properly, and checking that absolutely all relevant information is in our hands before we throw money around.”

  I laughed harder than I had in a while, which seemed to please him. “You’re basically a daycare teacher for suit guys? And here I thought you’d say number crunching and data analysis.”

  “Oh, yeah. But I usually do that from home so that nobody bugs me.”

  Thinking about bugs in a home brought me down again, but I tried to continue. “The semicircular space in front of a stage. Ends with an A.” I stared into my coffee for a moment. “My theatre friends would likely slap me for not knowing this.”

  “Do you know a lot of theatre people?”

  “Sort of. Actors, musicians, artists. A lot of people with shaggy hair who wear black and make a lot of noise,” I giggled, surprising myself. The way he was looking at me was making me feel strangely girlish.

  “That’s wonderful,” he said. “You must hear about all of the best shows.”

  “Sometimes, yeah.”

  “Oh – Orchestra,” he said, pointing. “The orchestra pit in front of the stage, right?”

  “Yes! Thanks.”

  He finished his coffee, and I realized that I didn’t want him to leave. I was enjoying the little escape from my stress, and he had such positive energy.

  “Why are you in this neighborhood?” I asked suddenly. “Wouldn’t your office be right downtown?”

  He grinned. “Yes, but I had to pop by to see my lawyer just down the street.” His eyes tightened. “There’s a family issue that needs to be resolved, and I just found out that there might be more to it than I was aware of.”

  “Oh. That sounds stressful.”

  His dark hair was ruffled by the slight breeze as he
nodded. “Yeah, it’s awkward sometimes.” He quickly gave his head a shake. “Not nearly as stressful as searching for a home though. I really do hope that you find something quickly.” He stood up, extending his hand. “Lovely to meet you, Mia.”

  “You too,” I said. His handshake was warm, strong, and just a tiny bit too long. “Best of luck with babysitting the suit guys.”

  His eyes sparkled when he laughed, those smoky blue eyes glinting in the sun. “Thanks.”

  JACOB

  <<< 2 >>>

  THE WEIRD UNCLE

  Driving back to my condo by the lake, I realized it had been incredibly refreshing spending a little time with a beautiful girl in the sunshine. I certainly needed a break, and admiring her sweet heart shaped face, big doll eyes, and long spicy auburn hair reminded me that I needed more female company.