The Bride's Choice

Marriage to Caleb Duncan. Her stomach fluttered, her pulse raced and she felt dazed at the prospect. She sat down at the patio table, determined to try to look at everything objectively.

Cal sat across from her, waiting.

“Cal,” Juliana said finally, aware that calling him by his given name sounded intensely personal, even though he probably had not given it a thought. “There’s something that’s worrying me. You said that if we marry, that after a year we can dissolve this whole thing. But suppose by that time, the boys think of you as a father?” she asked.

Cal felt torn between relief and anxiety because it sounded as if she was sincerely considering accepting his proposal. For the first time, he thought about her nephews actually getting attached to him—something that hadn’t occurred to him.

“Quin is in counseling now because of losing his par- ents,” she continued when Cal didn’t answer her. “I don’t want him to lose someone he loves again.”

Cal rubbed his jaw while he tried to come up with an an- swer. “It’s difficult to imagine that they would really think of me as a father. I don’t see myself that way.”

“It could happen.”

“All I can do is promise to do my best to avoid hurting them.”

Juliana felt torn between wanting to accept and wanting to say no, unable to say the words because they would be ir- revocable.