The Dating Plan(25)

“Daisy . . .” His voice cracked. Was it possible to screw this up any more? What the fuck had he been thinking? If he’d seriously wanted to convince her to be his wife, he’d just blown it all to hell.

“I have free sex all the time,” she mumbled, half to herself. “I don’t pay them. They don’t pay me. You missed out at the prom. Big time.”

“I shouldn’t have offered to pay you,” he said contritely. He shouldn’t have done a lot of things, starting with pulling her braids when she was ten and encouraging her obvious crush with smiles and winks behind Sanjay’s back. By the time he had realized she had real feelings for him, it was too late. He’d fallen for her, too. But she was his best friend’s little sister, and worthy of a man far better than him.

She gave an indignant sniff. “Definitely not, but it just goes to show what a degenerate you are.”

Undeterred, he kept talking. “I thought the idea of a business arrangement would appeal to your logical nature, and since most business transactions involve money . . .”

Daisy held up a hand. “If you have that much money, why don’t you just buy the distillery yourself? Or finance it? Or get your company to invest? You are in the food business, after all.”

Of course she’d think of all the logical options. “Brendan would never sell it to me, nor would he allow my company to get involved. We have issues going way back. He’s the kind of guy who would take a hit just to spite me.”

“Fancy that.”

“But you and I have a history together,” he continued. “It would be entirely plausible that we reconnected, fell in love, and I proposed when my grandfather was ill because it made me realize that life is short.”

“Let me stop you right there.” She held up a warning hand. “You are clearly not understanding how things work in my world. Marriage isn’t just about two people; it’s about family. There’s no possible way we could get married without them being involved. I would be disowned if I showed up at the next family dinner and announced I was married. And then, if I got divorced? No good desi boy would ever want me.”

“I thought that was the goal,” Liam said. “You said you wanted them to leave you alone.”

She hesitated for a heartbeat. “That’s true. If I were almost thirty and divorced, my aunties wouldn’t even try to find a husband for me. I would be a lost cause.”

Hope bloomed in his chest. “Just say the word and I will happily ruin you.”

“It’s not just up to me,” Daisy said. “My family would have to approve of the engagement. Imagine sitting in front of twenty or thirty of my relatives and being grilled about every aspect of your life, your every word and every move analyzed to death. One wrong word, one misstep, and you would be deemed unworthy, and that would be the end of it for you.” She drew her finger across her neck.

His eyes widened. “They’d kill me?”

“Worse.”

Liam shuddered. “Torture?”

“That’s another word for Taara Auntie’s cooking.”

He had a vague memory of Sanjay warning him never to eat food from a plastic container he’d been given by one of his aunties. “So, what would happen if I didn’t get their approval?”

“You would walk away without a bride. There are no second chances.”

“Sounds harsh.”

She shrugged. “Patels have a very low divorce rate.”

“Are you ready for us, Mr. Murphy?” Tyler knocked on the door.

“One more minute,” Liam called out.

Daisy’s smile faded. “Tyler thinks you’re here to save the company. He’s going to be devastated to find out you only came here to find a wife.”

“I’m not sure why. I asked for you.”

“We’re in financial trouble, Liam.” She twisted her hands in front of her. “The former CEO cashed out after an ill-conceived decision to expand the product line. That’s why we were pitching at the con. It’s such a shame. Organicare is a great company with amazing people, good products, and wonderful outreach programs for young women in developing countries. It’s the first start-up I’ve worked at where I’ve really wanted to stay, but Tyler just told us we should start looking for new jobs. He thinks you’re a miracle, come to save us.”

Damn. He hadn’t even considered how his presence could be misconstrued. “Most start-ups fail. It’s the nature of the business.”

“Well, it shouldn’t have happened to this one,” she said vehemently.

“Clearly I miscalculated,” Liam said. “I’ll do him the courtesy of listening to his pitch.”

“But you won’t give him the funding, will you?”

He made the mistake then of looking at her. Between them lay memories of a time when he would have done anything she asked. “I don’t think—”

“What if I agreed to marry you?” She blurted out. “Would you save Organicare?”

Even now, he couldn’t deny her. “I can put together a proposal, but the partners have the final say. I’ll be honest, though, personal care isn’t really our thing, and from what you’ve told me, it sounds like the company has been mismanaged.” Not only that, a proposal to finance a dud company might make the partners question his judgment and destroy his chances of joining the partnership.