Free Sleeping With the Enemy by Laurie Breton Page A

white.  “The reason I asked to see you was to discuss your marriage proposal.”
    His throat had gone dry, and his glass was empty, but he couldn’t figure out a graceful way to get up and refill it.  “That was my assumption.”
    “I’ve given this quite a bit of thought.  And in light of certain recent events--”
    “What events?”
    She looked at him, opened her mouth, then closed it hard.  “Last Sunday,” she said, “I caught my seventeen-year-old daughter in bed with her boyfriend.”
    He’d never had a daughter, but as a parent, he knew how crushed she must have been.  Trying to soften the blow, he said, “And she’s still among the living?”
    Her green eyes went appreciably warmer.  With a wry smile, she said, “All bodies alive and accounted for.”
    “I know it hurts, but it’s pretty normal behavior.”
    “That’s what my sister told me.  She reminded me of how randy we were at that age.  But I have to tell you, it threw me.  I’ve been thinking hard about what you said, about the city being a crummy place to raise kids.  The world isn’t what it was when my folks were raising us.  And there were two of them.  I’m all by myself, and I’m scared.  My kids are growing up too fast.  They both need some grounding.” She paused and took a deep breath.  “So I’ve decided to make you a counter offer.”
    He leaned back in his chair.  “I see.”
    “I typed this out in a hurry.” She unzipped her purse and took out a piece of paper.  Handing it to him, she said, “Of course, this is just a draft.  I’d want it drawn up legally.  And you may want to add a few items.  Which I’d agree to as long as they’re reasonable.”
    He took it from her.  At the top, neatly typed, were the words Prenuptial Agreement .  Below that, ordered and numbered, were her marital expectations.  He glanced at her quickly to gauge her seriousness.  Her grim expression gave him his answer.  Jesse quickly scanned the agreement, then returned to the top and began reading more slowly.
    “It’s a simple business arrangement,” she explained.  “We agree to stay married for twelve months.  At the end of that time, we reassess.  If the marriage isn’t working out to our mutual satisfaction, we split, neatly and painlessly.”
    “Let me be sure I understand,” he said, still reading.  “If you want out, for whatever reason, I won’t be able to stand in your way.”
    “I won’t be able to stand in your way, either.  The agreement is reciprocal.  We simply agree, here and now, that if either of us decides not to continue the marriage, we’ll get a simple, no-fault divorce.  And each of us will leave the marriage with the financial assets and obligations we entered it with.”
    “What about the baby?”
    “It’s all spelled out under number three.  If we split up, the baby lives with me.  But you’d be allowed liberal visitation rights.  And of course, you’d be expected to pay child support.”
    “Of course,” he said dryly.
    Sounding defensive, she said, “It’s not as cold-blooded as it sounds.  It’s not as though we’re a couple of starry-eyed teenagers looking for romance.  We’re two adults trying to make a rational adult decision.  I’ve already been through one messy divorce, and I don’t intend to go through another one.  I figure a year will give us both time to see if we’ve made some monumental mistake.”
    He hadn’t expected this.  After five years as a bachelor, Jesse Lindstrom was ready for a real marriage.  But while he’d been lighting candles and arranging flowers, Rose had been working on an arrangement of her own, one that sounded more like a corporate merger than a marriage.  Obviously, they weren’t on the same wavelength.  Hell, they weren’t even in the same ballpark. 
    Jesse rested both elbows on the tabletop and leaned forward.  Coolly, he said, “And if we decide the marriage was a mistake? What happens then? You pack up