He backed away from her, his hands up. "I don't need you to propose, lady. I'm not walking down the aisle. Not with you, not with any woman."

"And I have no intention of calling off my wedding. Now, as I see it, this is entirely your fault. You're the one responsible for Edward getting arrested and-"

"He was a damn bigamist!" Sean shouted. "He was breaking the law. And you should be grateful I saved you from him."

"I would be, if there wasn't so much riding on this wedding. There are guests and gifts and a huge reception planned. The embarrassment would be…" She let her words drift off. She felt a bit guilty for manipulating him, but the wedding was important. Once she got married, she'd get her inheritance. Once she got her inheritance, she could rent her building. She had it all picked out, an old brick storefront with lots of light and high ceilings.

The idea had come to her several years ago when she'd started teaching music at a grade school in Dorchester. After college, she'd bounced around from job to job, trying to find her place in the world. She'd joined the Peace Corps on a whim, only to find herself with a chronic case of dysentery. They'd sent her home after four months. A few months later she'd taken a job teaching dance on a cruise ship. But the exotic locales didn't make up for the cramped quarters and the seasickness. Her career as a flight attendant ended when she'd realized she had a paralyzing fear of flying.

But this time she'd found something she might actually be good at. There were plenty of after-school programs for kids who were interested in academics or athletics, but very few available for children with talent in the arts. So she had decided that once she got her hands on her five-million-dollar trust fund, she'd open an after-school center that focused on theater and dance and music, and maybe even the visual arts. She already had a picture of it in her mind. And she would call it the Louise Carpenter Rand Center for the Arts, after her mother, who had passed down her love of the arts to Laurel.