A Pretend Proposal: The Fiancée Fiasco / Faking It to Making It / The Wedding Must Go On

“Okay, what exactly is going on? He looked like he was really into you. Not that I was spying or anything. I mean, the door to the main meeting room has a glass panel in it after all.”

“Nothing is going on.” Elizabeth wasn’t trying to lie or be evasive with her friend. The truth was, she was having a hard time processing the events of the past twenty-four hours.

“He caressed your cheek.”

A simple touch to which Elizabeth’s entire body had overreacted foolishly. Indeed, just recalling it caused gooseflesh to prick her arms now.

For her benefit even more than Mel’s she said flatly, “It’s not what it seems. Nothing about it is.”

“Really? It seemed pretty romantic to me.” Mel crossed her arms. “Men don’t touch women like that unless they’re interested in more than making some sort of charitable contribution, worthy cause notwithstanding, sweetie. If you don’t get that you’ve been off the dating circuit for far too long.”

“They do in this instance,” Elizabeth noted wryly. She glanced at her wrist again.

“Your watch still isn’t there,” Mel pointed out. “Now you’ve got me really curious. You’re acting all air-headed. That’s not like you at all.”

“It’s a long story, one you’ll want to dissect, and we have clients coming in a few minutes.” Besides, Elizabeth wanted to dissect it first.

“Fine.” Mel sighed. “We’ll talk about this at length over lunch, but for now, give me the abridged version.”

Elizabeth sucked in a breath. “Thomas has agreed to make a personal donation to our campaign, a large one that will match the one coming from Waverly Enterprises.”

Mel’s expression barely flickered. “And?”

“You could at least act excited about that. We’ll be meeting our goal.”

“I am glad. Yay, us.” Mel flashed a grin that was gone almost as fast as it appeared. Then she cocked her head to one side. “And?”

“He needs a favor. Yes, that’s all it is. He needs a favor.”

“You do realize that when I said to give me the abridged version, I didn’t mean for you to speak in some sort of code,” Mel replied dryly.

Elizabeth took another deep breath. “Okay, here’s the long and the short of it. He needs a fiancée. More precisely, he needs a woman to act as his fiancée, just for this weekend when he goes to visit his grandmother.”

Her friend’s eyes widened. “Did you say fiancée?”

“Act is the key word here,” Elizabeth stressed. “He’s asked me to act as his fiancée. He’s not interested in me in that way at all.”

Despite that bit of clarification, her friend grabbed her wrist none too gently and pulled her toward the office. “Our clients can wait. I need you to start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

The closer it came to the time to meet Elizabeth, the more unsettled Thomas became. It didn’t make sense, yet it did. While he never was nervous before a date, when it came to an important business deal? Yes, occasionally. So that part fit. But he didn’t slap on cologne before business meetings, no matter how vital they were. Nor did he change his clothes—twice—and even then worry about his appearance and what signals it might send to the other party. Too casual? Too formal? In the end, he wound up back in the same herringbone jacket, shirt and pants he’d worn to her office.

In the right front pocket, he’d tucked the box holding the engagement ring his father had given his mother more than three decades before. It was a pretty ring, more old-fashioned than timeless because of its carved white-gold setting. The diamond was a half-carat, round brilliant cut. It had come to be in Thomas’s possession only after his father had pawned it to buy more liquor during one of his mad binges when Thomas was a child. He’d saved up his pennies and bought it back, able to afford it only because the shopkeeper’s wife was sentimental. He’d kept it all these years, not to give to his own glowing bride-to-be someday, but as a reminder of the pain that kind of love and commitment carried.

On the way to her house he picked up the Chinese food he’d ordered ahead of time. Since he hadn’t thought to ask Elizabeth her preference, he’d gone with a few options: one sweet and sour, a basic chicken stir-fry and, since he was fond of a little bite, something off the Szechwan side of the menu. Coming out of the restaurant, he spied the florist shop next door. A cart full of bundled fresh flowers was parked out front.

Women liked flowers. In Thomas’s experience, they were especially fond of roses, attaching all sorts of meaning to them, especially when they were red and long-stemmed and came in a ribbon-tied box. With that in mind, he picked out a simple bouquet of white daisies in a cone of cellophane. They made a suitable hostess gift.

He drove slowly to Elizabeth’s house, taking a mental inventory of all that he hoped to learn during the evening ahead. How her skin felt and what her hair smelled like were off the list. Instead, he needed to find out basic things, such as her date of birth and family background. Were her parents still alive? Were they together? Where did they live and was she on good terms with them? Did she have any siblings? If so, their names and ages, etc.

Should he ask about ex-boyfriends? He swallowed. Or … ex-husbands? No, he didn’t want to go there. Her romantic history was of no importance to him, at least where Nana Jo was concerned, which made it difficult to explain the odd twist in his gut whenever he thought about Elizabeth sharing a bed with someone else.

He stopped for a traffic light, waited for it to turn green. When it did, he shifted more than the car’s gears. His focus was now on the very safe topic of her education. The problem was, he already knew which university she’d attended, what discipline she’d studied while there and what she’d opted to do with her life upon graduation. Okay, that left her spare time. What did she do when she wasn’t working? What were her hobbies and interests?

What were her vices?

On a groan, Thomas switched on the radio, flipped the station until he found some mind-emptying, bass-thumping rock and listened to music for the remainder of the drive.

Fifteen minutes later, he turned on Clement Avenue, going slow, not only out of deference to the children who were outside playing, but also so that he could read the address numbers.

Elizabeth lived in one of the city’s older neighborhoods. As such, the street was lined with mature trees and with homes that, while generally well-kept, were in need of a little updating. Hers was no exception, Thomas thought, as he pulled his car to a stop in front of a small bungalow. The faded green aluminum awnings that covered the porch and front windows harkened back a good half century. They reminded him of the awnings that had graced his parents’ house. The home he’d grown up in until the accident that had taken one life and irrevocably changed three others.

Nana Jo had moved into the house with Thomas during his father’s first unsuccessful stint in rehab, appalled to discover that her son had removed every last trace of his late wife from the rooms. Gone were the photos, the mementos, even some of the furniture that Lynn had purchased. Indeed, gone in some places was the plaster, where Hoyt had smashed his fist through the wall as he’d raged against God and fate, and drank himself into oblivion while his young son watched, frightened and baffled.

Four more stints in rehab followed before Thomas started middle school. At first, Hoyt came home between his stays at Brighter Futures Addiction Recovery. Sober, he was full of apologies and promises, but also weighted down with guilt and the dooming grief that he was never able to shake. Eventually, he stopped going to rehab and he stopped coming home. Thomas would have wound up a ward of the state, the house lost to back taxes, had it not been for Nana Jo.

She had been, and in many ways remained, Thomas’s rock.

Gradually, she’d brought more of her belongings over from her own house across town. Doilies appeared on the living room tables, knickknacks on the empty shelves that bracketed the kitchen window. A cheery, hand-crocheted afghan was draped over the back of the sofa, and new linens appeared on the beds. The walls were patched and repainted. The house became a home again and Thomas’s busted-up life was put back together, too.

Nana Jo sold the house after he left to attend college and then purchased her condo in Charlevoix, which had no yard work or outside maintenance for her to do. He still missed that little house sometimes, but only because of the good memories that Nana Jo had taken such care to preserve and later create.

Dated or not, Elizabeth’s house managed to be every bit as inviting as his boyhood abode thanks to a vivid assortment of flowers that spilled from a pair of large pots on either side of the front walk. From one side of the porch, a fern dripped from a hanging basket. The word Welcome was printed on the mat, but it didn’t need to be.

Home, he thought. And that word stayed in his mind, even after the woman appeared in the door.

CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_19819fbd-ff6f-5f6b-a3e2-99b0a32141f7)

AT HOWIE’S barking, Elizabeth peeked out the window and spied Thomas standing on the sidewalk. He was gazing at the house, a far-off expression on his face. She could only imagine what he was thinking.

He was fifteen minutes early. Again. At least this time she was ready for him. She’d left work early so that she could let Howie out to work off the worst of a day’s worth of pent-up energy, and so that she could tidy up her house. Of course, her small bungalow didn’t need much tidying.

She liked order. Growing up with her freewheeling parents, who’d eschewed home ownership for a more nomadic lifestyle, Elizabeth now thrived on the stability of knowing where she would be sleeping each night and that the bed would be made with fresh linens. Small things like having a well-stocked refrigerator and the appliances necessary to make a hot meal added a sense of security that her childhood had lacked. She wasn’t completely boring, but she had a clear plan for her future. Surprises were fine as long as she was prepared to deal with any consequences that came along with them. Her parents were no good at dealing with consequences.

She loved them dearly, but she didn’t want to be anything like them, except where their relationship with one another was concerned. Skeet and Delphine were quirky, oblivious and downright irresponsible, but they loved one another without reservation or condition.

So, she’d been looking for a man who was nothing like her father; but, at his core, very much like her father. That is to say, capable of deep love and lifelong commitment. What she hadn’t been looking for was a man like Thomas Waverly, but that was exactly who now stood on her doorstep holding a bag of Chinese food and a clutch of daisies, and wearing a forced smile as Howie growled menacingly at him from behind her.

“Howie!” she admonished. To Thomas, she said, “He’s really nothing but a big baby.”

Her “big baby” looked ready to jump through the screen door at her guest, which was odd. He’d never had this reaction to company in the past.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s gotten into him. He’s never acted like this before.”

“Apparently, I bring out the worst in him.” Thomas laughed tightly.

“It’s probably just that not many men come to my door … lately.”

Thomas eyed the dog and drew a different conclusion. “He’s protective of you. It’s a good quality in a dog.”