They filed out of the room, leaving the door open to reveal Josh. He was gorgeous. He wore the black tux he’d tried on the day before, but today he looked different. Nervous, but there was something else she couldn’t put her finger on. He stood at the threshold, hesitating.
“Can I come in?” he asked in a hoarse rasp.
She nodded, not trusting her voice.
He entered the room and shut the door behind him. He openly stared at her, his eyes wide in awe. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
She smiled softly, feeling shy in the spotlight of his unabashed wonderment. “You saw me wearing this yesterday.”
He shook his head. “Not like this.” He moved closer, stopping several feet in front of her. “You didn’t tell me to go to hell. I’m going to take that as a good sign.”
“I have some questions.”
He pressed his lips together. “Okay. Anything. Total honesty.”
She took a deep breath. “Did you know I’d be on that plane?”
He shook his head, his eyes pleading. “No. I had no idea . . . I didn’t have much of a plan either; I just knew Bart Vandemeer’s daughter was getting married. But I freely admit that I boarded the plane with the intention of finding evidence that your father’s firm stole my design.”
“Your design?”
His gaze held hers. “I came up with it, and Noah and I were working on funding and paperwork for the patent. Noah had a spare set of plans with him at a convention, and he . . . lost them.”
“Lost them?”
He grimaced. “He slept with some woman, and when he woke up the next morning, the bag and the plans were gone.”
She couldn’t believe her father would involve himself in such a thing, but two hours ago, she would have sworn an oath that her father wasn’t capable of cheating on her mother. “How do you know this isn’t some big coincidence?”
“Because when Noah was at your father’s firm yesterday, he saw a photo of the woman.” He paused. “She’s Drew Peterman’s fiancé.”
“Miriam?” Megan gasped. “I knew Drew was underhanded, but to have his girlfriend sleep with your brother . . .”
“So you believe me?”
“Of course I believe you, but I still don’t understand how you ended up as my substitute fiancé.”
“Everything I told you is true. I carried you out of the plane, and your mother heard me telling people you were my fiancée. I did try to correct her, but then your father introduced himself, and . . . I figured I was being given the chance to help us both out. I really did leave this trip up to fate, and it seemed like this giant gift had been delivered to me, wrapped up in a bow.” He took her hand in his. “I never meant to hurt or humiliate you. You have to believe me.”
She nodded. “So the reason you didn’t want to break up with me in the beginning was because you hadn’t found what you needed?”
“Yes, at first.”
“And then Noah came to help.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“And then yesterday? When you used my father’s computer . . . ?”
“I was ready to let the business die. After our night together, I knew I couldn’t lose you.”
“But something changed.”
“When I checked my email, I got a note from our business manager, Angie. She told me that an employee who’s been with the firm for over thirty years had a heart attack.” He swallowed and reached forward to squeeze her hand. “He’s counting on me, Megan. How will he survive if my business fails? I felt like I had to make a choice between saving him and the other people in my firm and my own happiness. I’ve sacrificed so much for this business, but I didn’t want to give you up. It ripped my heart out to even consider it—”
She closed the distance between them and kissed him. “You’re not giving me up.”
He squeezed his eyes shut and pulled her into a hug, kissing her softly for several seconds before releasing her.
“Do you have any hard evidence against my father’s company yet?”
Guilt flickered in his eyes. “No. Just circumstantial.”
She hesitated, not knowing if she wanted the answer to her next question. But she was tired of hiding from the truth. “Is my father involved?”
He didn’t answer and she pushed out a breath, trying not to cry.
“We don’t know, Megan. That’s circumstantial, too.”
But there was a good chance he was involved somehow, and the thought nearly killed her. “How’d he pay for this wedding, Josh? My parents don’t have that kind of money.”
“I don’t know.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded, taking in a deep breath. “So we need to get the evidence to save your business, right?”
“You want to help me?”
“You have people depending on you, don’t you?”
“Well . . . yes . . . but . . .”
“Do you have a plan?”
He shook his head, as though letting the realization that Megan was there for him, that she wanted to help him, sink in. “Drew Peterman and his fiancée are supposedly coming to the wedding. Noah is going to pull her away and try to get her to confess to stealing the plans and capture it with a video recording. If we can get her confession, the rest falls into place.”
“And how does Noah plan to get her to confess?”
His face reddened. “He has his . . . methods.”
“Oh.” She was sure he did.
“Libby’s agreed to help him, too. She’s going to record it all.” When her eyes widened in surprise, he added, “Noah stayed with her last night. Supposedly they’re BFFs now.”
“I heard. And what about you and Noah?”
He grimaced. “We’re working it out. He’s making an effort.”
“So if Libby and Noah are trying to get a confession, what is there for me to do? I want to help you.”
His eyes were soft as he smiled at her. “Your job is easy. You just be you.”
“And what’s your job in this?”
“To stand next to you and be the luckiest man in the world.”
Her face flushed. Were Libby and Blair right? Did he actually love her?
Did she love him?
She glanced down at her dress. “Thank you for this.”
“If we’re going through with this, I wanted today to be as wonderful for you as possible.” He started pacing, then stopped in front of her and said, “I have another gift, if you’ll accept it.”
Why was he so nervous? “Okay.”
He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a silver ring. The band was engraved with an intricate pattern. Two smaller but still good-sized diamonds flanked a large round diamond. “I don’t want to stand in front of all your mother’s friends and go through this ceremony with Jay Connors’ ring on your finger. Noah called our mother on the way to the rehearsal dinner last night—after he’d realized what a screw-up it was to sign that damned paper—and asked her to overnight this.” He held it in front of her. “This was part of my grandmother’s wedding set. I figured we could swap out his engagement ring for mine. There’s a wedding band, too.” He searched her eyes. “And maybe when the ceremony is over, you’ll keep wearing the engagement ring.”