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her to marry me.
    Veronica nodded her head in approval. “Cassandra, you did good with this one.”
    She looked pissed. “I love Mike for who he is, not his money.”
    “Sure.” Lana winked.
    “He’s the sweetest, most caring man in the world,” Cassandra said. “Even when I feel hideous on my worst days, he makes me feel beautiful. When I talk, he listens. He makes me feel loved every single day. And I trust him implicitly. I never wonder what he’s doing when I’m not around. He could be dirt poor and I would still love him forever.”
    I moved my hand to her waist. “I know, baby. You don’t need to convince me.” I gave her a gentle kiss over her ear.
    “Whatever you say,” Veronica said.
    “You shouldn’t like Mike because he’s rich,” Cassandra said firmly. “There’s more to him than you’ll ever know.”
    Lana eyed me. “Your brother still married…?”
    “Happily,” I said quickly. I turn ed to Zeal and gave her the eye, pressuring her to reach the topic I was interested in discussing.
    “You should totally get married,” Zeal said in a rush. She made it pretty obvious that it was a forced comment.
    Cassandra’s eyes widened.
    “I’d marry him,” Zeal said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
    Veronica clapped her hands. “For your wedding gift to the guests, you could give them money.”
    “And jewel ry from Tiffany’s,” Lana added.
    Wow. These girls were materialistic.
    “We aren’t getting married,” Cassandra said quickly. “We’ve only been dating for a few months.”
    “Then you should do it eventually,” Zeal said. “I think it’s a good idea.”
    God, she was a horrible actress.
    Cassandra got uncomfortable. “Let’s talk about something else.”
    Judging the pissed look on her face, I knew this subject really got under her skin. And that broke my heart. How could she defend me to her friends and say I was the most wonderful man in the world but not want to marry me? Why was she so scared? I hoped she would understand I would never hurt her by now. She was the most important thing in the world to me. I did everything to prove that to her. What more could I do?

9
    Sean
    “Why are you being such a bitch today?” I asked when I dropped the papers on Mike’s desk.
    “Why are you a bitch every day?” he countered.
    I gave him a firm look. “Seriously, what’s going on? You’ve had a thong up your ass all day.”
    “It’s nothing,” he said dismissively.
    I was annoyed he told my wife everything without hesitation, and he only filled me in on certain topics. It wasn’t because I was jealous he spent time with my wife. Actually, it was because he spent more time with her than me. “Come on, man. What is it?”
    “It’s the same thing I said before. Cassandra doesn’t want to get married.” He sighed. “And that’s never going to change.”
    Pity rose in my heart while I watched his shoulders sag. He spun his pen in his fingers while he stared at it. My brother worked his ass off to get Cassandra in his life, but it was just a dead end. “What are you going to do?”
    “Nothing.”
    “You’re going to stay with her?”
    “I love her. What else would I do?”
    I knew this was going to be a difficult conversation. “You have to weigh your options, Mike. What’s important to you?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “If marriage wasn’t important to you, then this wouldn’t be an issue. But I know it is. Can you really be with someone for the rest of your life and not be married to them?”
    “I don’t know. It’s really not that different.”
    “But what about kids? You want kids, right?”
    He nodded. “Yeah…a lot.”
    “Do you think Cassandra will ever change her mind? Honestly?”
    Mike sighed as he twirled his pen. The depression came into his eyes. “No.”
    I felt so bad for my brother. “You can stay with her, but you’ll probably resent her later down the road. If you really want a marriage and kids, you should break it off before