Page 29 of SEAL's Resolve
CHAPTER EIGHT
Somewhere in the back of Rafe’s mind, he remembered Callie talking about Hugh Ward although he couldn’t remember her exact words. Regret welled inside him. Those memory lapses had been happening more frequently of late. A natural occurrence, he supposed. The woman he loved had been gone for more than three years.
Shoving his morbid thoughts aside to deal with later, he focused on what he did remember about Callie’s assessment of Ward. She hadn’t been impressed with the man which said something about him. Callie had looked for the best in everybody, even a street rat like Rafe. He could never understand what she saw in him, but had been grateful she’d loved him anyway.
Locking the past away for the moment, he focused on Kristi and noticed the color in her cheeks deepening. He frowned. Had he missed something? “Kristi?”
She sighed. “Hugh is a friend who wants to be more.”
His suspicions rose. “How much more?”
“He proposed last month.”
Shock reverberated through his system. “You’re getting married?”
She shook her head. “He proposed, but I haven’t accepted, and I won’t.”
“He seems to think you are. Even your father is anticipating a positive response to the proposal.”
“He wants me to be happy and thinks Hugh is the answer. He’s not.”
“Does Hugh suspect you’re going to turn him down?” Cal asked.
“He’s an idiot if he doesn’t,” Eli said. “She hasn’t given him an answer to his proposal for a month. My wife took about two seconds to say yes.”
“Same for mine,” Jon said.
“How will Ward react to the bad news?” Rafe asked. If the woman he’d been dating had turned him down after thinking about his proposal for a month, he wouldn’t be happy about it.
“He might be disappointed, but in the long run I don’t think he’ll care.”
Rafe and his teammates exchanged glances. Jackson raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure about that, Kristi? It’s a blow to a man’s ego for the woman he loves to reject him.”
“Hugh isn’t in love with me. We’re friends. That’s all.”
“You don’t love him.”
“No.”
“Why have you been dating him?” Jon asked.
“I haven’t, at least not in the traditional sense. I told you, we’re friends. We’ve gone to dinner together occasionally, and we attend many of the same fundraisers, but that’s all.”
Rafe scowled. “Then why does Ward want to tie himself to you in a loveless marriage?”
“Honestly, I think it has more to do with my father offering him a position as vice president of Stewart Group if he marries me.”
“You’re joking.” His words came out flat. This was unbelievable.
“I’m afraid not. Dad likes Hugh and thinks he’d be perfect for me. He’s not shy about telling me he wants grandchildren.”
“But you don’t love Ward.”
Her lips curved. “How do you know I don’t?”
“If you did, you would have accepted Ward’s proposal already.” He may not have spent much time in her company, but he remembered that Kristi wasn’t afraid to speak the truth. “Why didn’t you tell him right off that you wouldn’t marry him?”
Her smile slipped. “I didn’t want to disappoint my father. He is so sure Hugh is the perfect match for me. On paper, he looks perfect.”