A Wife by Accident by Victoria Ashe

happened?”
    “The cagey old buzzard asked to see a wedding picture, and I didn’t have one in my wallet. Most husbands would.”
    “I see.”
    “ Hayely , this isn’t going to work. With our current arrangement, he’s never going to believe we’ve created a home together. I can’t ask any more of you than you’ve already given.”
    “I know what I said. But I was angry and a little stunned that night.” Hayely rested her hand briefly on his arm. “You should let me be the one who decides what I’m willing to give.”
    Gary looked at her with no little surprise on his face. “Alright then. We would have to spend a lot of time together to make it convincing. We’d have to get photos taken together. We’d have to be seen around town and leak the news of our nuptials. And in five or so more months, we’d have to face the music when the gossip about our divorce spreads like wildfire. Does that sound like any fun to you?”
    Hayely returned Gary’s gaze thoughtfully and began to fold the blanket. She already told him she planned to resign from her job and would have to move out after the arrangement was over anyway. If she moved out of state, which she’d considered, she wouldn’t have to deal with any of the fallout—not the way he would.
    “I think I could consider doing all those things. But, what happens when your Mr. Bellmark comes to visit and I haven’t a clue as to why he’s visiting?”
    Gary tapped his fingertip against his bottom lip. Telling her about his promise would take one of the greatest leaps of faith he’d ever made. There wasn’t another soul who knew of his past other than Charlie and the Bellmarks . As a man who had used words sparingly up until now, he wasn’t even sure he was capable of let such critical ones flow.
    “You’re right,” he acknowledged slowly. “But I have to believe you’ll take what I say to the grave. I’m—very private.”
    She made the sign of a cross over her heart with her finger. “Your secret is my secret.”
    Gary drew in a breath and continued in a voice that sounded more like a rumble. “I met Charlie about twenty years ago at a small, privately run orphanage in Maine. We grew up together there.”
    “What happened to your parents?”
    “I was told they’d drowned in a boating accident, but I never knew for sure. I just remember getting tossed from place to place until I landed there with Mr. and Mrs. Bellmark . They were absolutely incredible. Those two treated all of us—all forty-five of us—as if we were their own natural children. They never even forgot a birthday.”
    “I wish you’d told me some of this earlier. You’ve come a long way, Gary Tarleton. I can’t imagine most people achieving what you have.”
    “They just haven’t been given the proper chance, which is where my promise comes in. When I was about ten, I got dressed up in my best Sunday clothes and marched into Mr. Bellmark’s office. I told him that I was never going to let his home for boys end up like the others. I promised that I’d do whatever it took to make sure the orphans who lived there always had it the best, always learned what a family was the way he and his wife had taught us.”
    “So where do I figure into all of this?”
    “Mr. Bellmark made a promise to me, too. He said he would see the place bulldozed when he died rather than let some typical state-trained social worker touch a hand to it. He told me that if I grew up honorably, made a strong marriage, and could pass the right values on to the children, then he’d consider letting me try to live up to my promise.”
    Hayely thought for a moment. “But isn’t it dishonest tricking him into thinking something about you that isn’t true?”
    Gary’s gaze felt steadily more intense. “But, I have the value system, Hayely . And someday I’ll have the family I want for real. It just hasn’t happened for me yet.” He hung his head for a moment and ran his hand over his chin. “And I know