Free Sweet Texas Fire by Nicole Flockton Page B

remember when you were looking at the house and I told you I wanted to walk the perimeter again?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, the reason I wanted to do it, is because Dad had the land surveyed years ago and found a pocket of oil.”
    As irrational as it seemed, considering her expertise in the business, emotion overtook her sensibilities and all Charlotte could see in her mind was the quaint little house being demolished to make way for rod pumps and storage tanks. The woodland surrounding the property would no doubt be cleared, as well. How many animals would be left without a home? How many plants destroyed?
    “You do realize you’ve taken a big risk in telling me this, don’t you? I don’t have to sell the land to you. Or I could sell the land to you and keep the mineral rights. Because those are what you’re really after, aren’t they? You don’t care about the house or the land, just what’s buried deep below.”
    “Yes, I knew coming here to let you know my real reasons for wanting the land would probably not work in my favor. But I need to be honest with you.”
    “I don’t understand this, Gage. You’ve basically killed any hope of you getting the land by telling me your plans. You know what I do for a living. You know I’ve been fighting with your company to at least try to protect the environment around your rigs. To work on plans to rehabilitate the land after you’ve finished drilling.”
    “Yes, I understand all of that, and while it doesn’t make sense, maybe it will if I tell you the other reason why I’m here.”
    This meeting had turned into something surreal. The man in front of her wasn’t acting like the astute businessman she knew him to be. Why would he all but shoot himself in the foot with his declaration?
    “Lay it on me. I’m sure it can’t be any stranger than what you’ve already told me.”
    Gage leaned over the table and picked up the cat, the little animal mewling in disgust at being woken from its comfortable perch on her desk. “I think we should get married.”
    Now Charlotte knew for sure she’d misheard Gage, even though her heart rate increased at the idea. “I’m sorry, you did not just say that we should get married. That’s the most absurd idea I’ve ever heard. We hardly know each other. We haven’t even been on a proper date. And I don’t count our lunch over the weekend as a date.”
    “I know it seems a bit out of left field, but think about it. Marrying would solve all of our problems.”
    Charlotte couldn’t sit still; she pushed back from her desk and paced the small distance from her chair to the wall and back again. She glanced over at Gage; his eyes were a clear blue. No hint of anything to suggest his brain function might be impaired. Oil Slick looked up from her cozy position in Gage’s arms, telling Charlotte she, too, could spend time in his warm embrace.
    As if she’d want to do that. Perhaps
her
brain function was impaired if she imagined a cat encouraging her to take Gage up on his absurd suggestion.
    “How on earth would marrying solve our problems?”
    “You know how you talked about that show where couples have ninety days to decide if they want to get married?”
    She looked at him cautiously. “Yes.”
    “Well, the idea hit me Saturday afternoon when we were together that this could be an option for you to stay in the States. I tried to ignore it, but I kept thinking about it. I went and looked on the federal immigration website. It looks like a really easy process to get a green card through marriage. So I decided to run with it.”
    “You decided to run with an idea that could—no wait,
will
—change our lives. Marriage isn’t a game, you know. When I marry it will be for love and once only.”
    “Just hear me out, okay? If you say no that’s fine, but you have to admit the idea is intriguing.” He flashed a sexy smile and Charlotte’s gaze was drawn back to where the cat still sat.
    “Intriguing? No. A stupid idea? Yes.