She sat down and her chest rose and fell beneath the tailored dress. “I assume we’re talking about a very ostentatious ring?”

“Absolutely.” He eased down into his own chair. He’d been giving this some thought. In the event, of course, that one of them said yes. “Thing is, we don’t want them talking about if we’re engaged. We want them talking about how we got engaged.”

Emma paused. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“You a Yankees fan?”

She shook her head, and he could see the exact second she got his point.

Her brown eyes went round, and her complexion paled a shade. “No. Oh, no. Not the JumboTron.”

“It’d make a splash.”

“I’d have to kill you.”

“Bad plan. You wouldn’t be in my will yet.”

“You may not have noticed, but Katie does the McKinley publicity. She’s the extrovert.”

“If you’ll recall, I did try to marry Katie.”

Emma’s expression tightened for a split second, and he realized his words might have sounded like an insult.

“She’s taken,” Emma declared. “Deal with it.”

“I didn’t mean-”

“Sure you did. No JumboTron. Got it?”

Alex hadn’t meant he preferred Katie. He didn’t care one way or the other. But another denial would be overkill. And it would probably just tick Emma off.

“How about if I surprise you?” he asked instead. “Add a bit of realism to the situation.”

“This is silly,” said Emma, straightening in her chair and getting all prim and proper on him. “We should be talking about the business merger. Who cares how we get engaged?”

Had she missed his point entirely? This whole thing was all about his reputation and his image.

“I care,” he stated flatly. Sass was one thing, but she needed to understand his interests. “You’re getting one sweetheart of a monetary deal, and I’m getting some good PR. The how matters. The ruse matters.”