She stood, and my grandfather and I both got to our feet as well. I put my hand on her shoulder. “Kate—”
She turned to me, shaking my hand off. “You have to take care of this. Right now. And I have to get back to work.”
Kate stormed out of the room, her hips swishing enticingly in her A-line skirt as she left. It was a view I’d admired almost daily for the last few weeks, but right now I was in no position to appreciate it. Because her walking away meant that I wouldn’t become the president of the company. I couldn’t let that happen.
“She’s just nervous,” I said, as Grandpa sat back down. “This was a lot to throw at her at one time. Talk of an engagement party before we’re officially engaged? That is pretty presumptuous.” Grandma flushed at my words, and in the back of my mind I knew what a hypocrite I was being. I was the one who wasn’t being truthful—they should be scolding me, not the other way around.
“I don’t understand the problem. You two love each other, don’t you?” To my grandfather, it was a simple issue. And it made me stop short. Lying to my grandparents about seeing someone was one thing. Lying about being in love was a new low, and one I wasn’t willing to engage in.
“It’s just—she just… it’s a little overwhelming for her to be considering an engagement party in just a month. I’ll go talk to her.”
Not that I knew a lot about the road to matrimony, but I was pretty sure that protocol dictated an actual engagement before an engagement party. And that you had known the other person for longer than fifteen minutes.
Or at least it did in other families.
Six
Kate
I paced back and forth in the hallway outside of the executive dining room. That had been the strangest luncheon of my entire life. Me, the CEO’s fiancée? I’d never even met him! And even if I had, the man looked like a Greek god. Handsome billionaires didn’t end up with low-level employees. How on earth could the Grants have thought that? I was confused, embarrassed, and quite frankly, a little hungry. The food had smelled delicious—too bad I hadn’t gotten to eat any of it.
Maybe I could sneak back in and request a to-go box?
That thought made me grin in spite of the situation. Now that I was a step removed, a little bit of the humor was shining through. Being told by my boss to report to the executive dining room had been a surprise, but that was nothing compared to Mrs. Grant referring to me as Ethan’s fiancée. And he’d been just as shocked as I was. Maybe that’s why he didn’t immediately come clean. No one goes to lunch expecting their family to think they’re engaged to a total stranger.
That begged the question of who he actually was engaged to. Or almost engaged to. Mrs. Grant had said that he’d described his girlfriend—she must look at least a little like me in order for the Grants to get us mixed up. If she did look like me, that felt a little weird. Was I Ethan Grant’s type? He was so out of my league that it was hard to believe he’d fall for anyone who looked even remotely like me.
It really had been an insane situation—not that I should’ve called it that. My amusement vanished as I remembered my words to the president of the company. To the CEO. To sweet Mrs. Grant. Of course, it had been insane, but I shouldn’t have said that, and I shouldn’t have left. I should’ve stayed until Ethan could sort things out.
I glanced back at the door to the dining room. Should I go back in there? Or go back to my desk, do my work, and try to avoid any member of the Grant family for the rest of my time here? That would mean giving up my daily trips to the coffee cart. For some reason, the thought of not seeing Ethan down in the lobby was an unpleasant one.
Stay or go? I stared so hard at the door to the dining room that I took a step back in surprise when it opened. Ethan spotted me and shut the door behind him. He strode toward me, took my arm, and gestured down the hall.
Silently, he led me along. His strides were long and purposeful, and I had to take two hurried steps for every one of his. His hand was strong on my arm, and heat radiated from his touch. He was so close I could smell his sandalwood aftershave.
Opening a door off to the right, he flipped on the lights. Inside was a small, plain room that had extra A/V equipment stacked up along one wall. The only furniture was a round table with three chairs.
Ethan gestured for me to go inside. As I brushed past him, he was so tall that I had to look up to see his face. His piercing blue eyes currently showed concern and something else. Frustration? Disappointment? I didn’t know him well enough to identify the other emotion. I didn’t know him at all, actually. That was probably the place to start.
“I’m Kate Barnes,” I said, holding out my hand. “And I have no idea why they thought I was your fiancée, Mr. Grant.”
He looked taken aback for a moment, and then he shook my hand, his long fingers dwarfing mine. “Call me Ethan. After all, those two people back there were planning our future—we might as well be on a first name basis.” He shut the door and then held out a chair for me, a move that reminded me of his grandfather’s courtly charm. I sat down and he scooted the chair in.
“Right… Ethan.” The name felt strange on my tongue. It was a nice name, but somehow a little ordinary for a man who looked like that. With his broad shoulders and that dark suit, he could be a head honcho on Wall Street. Or a movie star making a movie about Wall Street. “I’m so sorry, Ethan.”
He took a chair across from me—though the table was so small we were still close enough to touch. “Sorry for what?”
“For somehow letting your grandparents think that we were engaged. I just went over to get some papers signed, and they treated me so nice and fed me—I should’ve known they thought I was someone else.”
Ethan’s expression was inscrutable for a moment, but then he smiled. “They probably would’ve done that whether they thought you were my fiancée or from the IRS. Or there to rob them, for that matter. They’re like that.”
“They seem very nice,” I said automatically, but when I thought about it, it was true. Especially Mrs. Grant—she was a sweetheart. It was a shame our second meeting had been a mass of confusion. “But I’m also sorry for your fiancée.” For a moment, I wondered about her. Wondered how it must feel to capture the love of a man like Ethan. Whoever she was, she was a lucky woman. She didn’t deserve to have her future in-laws confuse her with another woman.
Ethan leaned back in his chair and raised an eyebrow at me. “Am I that bad of a catch?”
“No!” The word came out stronger than I meant it to, but how could he even think that? “I mean, your grandparents mistook me for your real fiancée. I’m sure she wouldn’t be thrilled to know that.”
“I’m sure the future Mrs. Ethan Grant won’t be too upset about it… given that she doesn’t exist.”
“What?” That didn’t make any sense. “But they said you said you were almost engaged.”
Ethan leaned forward and put his hand on the table next to mine. “Are you close to your parents, Kate?”
Wow… when he was this near, it was almost impossible to look directly at him. It was like looking into a bright flame. “Yes.”
“Do they ever nag you? Pressure you?”
That was easy to answer. “Yes.”
“My grandparents raised me, and they’ve been terrific. But for the last four or five years, they’ve been bugging me nonstop about getting married. Do your parents ever do that?”
“No.” Briefly, I wondered what had happened to his parents. I’m sure if I looked it up online, I could find out. But that seemed like a violation of his privacy somehow.
“Well, you’re still young yet. What are you, twenty-two?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Hopefully they’ll give you a few more years before they start in on you.”
His eyes were so earnest, but I couldn’t imagine those two kind, elderly people in the other room nagging him about anything. “Don’t families usually put pressure on unmarried daughters, not sons, to find someone and sta
rt a family?”
Ethan shrugged, and I was momentarily distracted by the sight of his broad shoulders in his dark gray suit coat. His red tie contrasted nicely with his white shirt. “There aren’t any unmarried women in my family. There’s just me. And my grandparents have quite a bit of leverage and they aren’t afraid to use it.”
“Like what?” What on earth could this confident man need? “You’re CEO and your grandfather just said he’s naming you the president of the company.”
“He said that because of you.”
“Me?” Ethan’s simple words couldn’t have been more surprising.
“You,” he repeated. “For years, my grandfather’s been telling me he’ll turn over the company to me when I get married.”
I gasped at him. “But… but what difference does that make to how you run the company?”
“That’s a point I’ve made many times—in vain. My grandfather’s old-fashioned. No matter what I do, he won’t see me as successful until I have a wife.” For a moment, Ethan’s pleasant expression slipped, and I saw the pain and frustration underneath. From all accounts, he was an excellent CEO. How dumb that his grandfather only measured him by this one aspect.
Suddenly, I felt guilty. “I’m so sorry. You must be so disappointed—to have them offer you the position of president and then take it back.” The poor man. This was obviously a life-long dream.
Ethan looked at the table for a minute before turning his blue eyes back on me. “They haven’t taken it back.”
“Really? You mean they’re still going to let you be the president even after you told them the truth?”
“No, they’d never do that.”
I was confused. “So you mean that… wait, what do you mean?”
“I mean, I didn’t tell them the truth.”
“How could you do that, Ethan?” I stopped abruptly, suddenly aware that I was yelling at the CEO of the company. “Sorry, I meant Mr. Grant.”
He looked amused. “You’re definitely allowed to call me by my first name—especially when I’m planning to do something stupid.”
“I just don’t get it. It’s not like your grandfather is going to sign the company over to you today, is it? So why delay telling them?” His words caught up with me. “And what do you mean you’re planning to do something stupid?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “I mean… would you, Kate Barnes, do me the honor of being my pretend fiancée?”
My jaw dropped—I could actually feel my mouth fall open as I stared at him. He couldn’t be serious. It had been a misunderstanding before. One that should be easily cleared up. Did he actually want to go through with it? There was no way that would ever work.
Ethan seemed to have read the expression on my face. “Just pretend. Just for a little while. After the engagement party, I’ll be named president of the company, and my grandfather will see that I belong in that office. He’ll be so impressed with the results that he won’t care at all whether I’m married or not.”
I put my head in my hands and rubbed at my forehead. This was crazy. “It’ll never work. They’d never believe that we’re engaged.”
“They already believe it. We just have to go along with it for a while.”
Opening my eyes, I peeked at him from under the hand on my forehead. “Would you really want to get control of the company this way? Through a lie?”
“Through any damn way I can,” he said forcefully. “This is what I’m supposed to do. What I’m meant to do. And if it takes having a fake fiancée to get there, then that’s what I’m prepared to do.”
“Well, I’m not.” I straightened up and put my palms on the table, ready to leave.
He grabbed my hand before I could stand. He squeezed my fingers and looked into my eyes. “Please, Kate. Could you please do this for me?”
There were so many things wrong with his request that I didn’t know where to start. “I don’t even know you. Don’t you think that’s kind of a big ask for a stranger? And besides, it’ll never work. Your grandparents aren’t dumb. They’ll see right through us. And even if they don’t, I think they might notice that there’s no wedding. No kids. No happily ever after.”
“We’ll break up.” Ethan’s answer was quick. “We’ll wait until maybe a month or so after the engagement party and then stage a huge breakup. By that time, I’ll already be CEO. Please, Kate, it’s ten weeks out of your life.”
There was no way that would work. It was crazy. And wrong. “I can’t,” I said, twisting my hand in his grasp but he held tight. “I won’t.”
“Come on… would it really be that bad to pretend to be engaged to me?” His fingers were warm as they covered mine, and he ran his thumb lightly up and down my palm. He smiled at me in a way that made me wish I could give him what he wanted.
He was so close that I could see flecks of gray in his deep blue eyes. God, the way he was looking at me was really… really… “Shameless.”
Ethan looked startled. “What?”
“You’re shameless. You’re asking me to throw away my dreams, change my plans, lie to everyone in this building, and you think you can get me to agree by turning on the charm?”
“No, I—”
“It’s a terrible idea, and you know that, or at least you should. It doesn’t matter how you ask it or how hot you are.”
For a moment, embarrassment and anger battled it out inside me. Had I really just called him hot to his face? It was bad enough before that his grandmother had told him I’d said he was handsome. But before I could collapse into a little puddle of mortification, I caught the smug smile on Ethan’s face. “You think I’m hot?”
And just like that, anger won out over embarrassment.
Pulling my hand from his grasp, I stood up and pushed my chair back. Ethan sprang to his feet before I could even take a step. “Don’t go. Please. I’m sorry, I know I’m handling this wrong. It’s just—a half an hour ago, the only thing I ever truly wanted was offered to me. The thought of it being snatched away is just… it’s making me not think straight.”
In spite of myself, I hesitated. He looked so sincere.
“Please, Kate. Please sit down. Tell me why doing this for me would mean throwing away your dreams.” I must’ve had looked surprised, because he continued. “See? I know how to listen. Sometimes. Please sit down and talk with me.”
God, what was it about this man? I was supposed to be mad at him, but instead I wanted to give him a hug. He was infuriating, but at the moment he also seemed… lost. He really did want this badly. “All right.”
We sat back down, and he gave me his full attention. “Tell me why you can’t do this.”
A little laugh escaped my lips. “You mean besides the fact that it’s crazy and will never work?”
He didn’t even blink. “Yes. Besides that. What did you mean about your dreams?”
Should I tell him? Did he really want to know or was he just looking for an opportunity to change my mind? I looked at him, at his rapt gaze, and decided it was a little bit of both. I sighed. “You know how I said before that I was only going to be here for two more weeks?”
He nodded.
“Well, it was true. I gave my two weeks’ notice a few days ago.”
“Do you have another job? Tell me where, and I’ll talk to them. Explain that we need you to stay here for a few more months. And I’ll double your salary. Triple it. Whatever you want.”
“No, no, that’s not it.” It was difficult to break into his flood of words.
“Are you looking for work? I can get you an interview anywhere in this city. Anywhere in the country. What’s your dream job?”
I shook my head. “Ethan… I thought you said you knew how to listen.”
For a moment, he blinked at me in surprise. I was beginning to get the idea that people didn’t often contradict him. “Touché. I’ll shut up.”
“Thank you.” I took a deep breath. “In eighteen days, my two best friends and I are going on a trip. A t
hree-month trip to Europe. And before you can object, no, we can’t change it. We don’t want to change it. This is our dream. We’ve been friends since freshman year of college, and we’ve been talking about this trip ever since then. We’ve saved for it every single day for the last five years. We’ve roomed together to save money. Watched TV instead of going to movies. Cooked meals and hosted game nights instead of going out to bars and clubs. We have been working toward this for years, and it’s going to happen. This trip is more important to me than anything else.”
He was silent for a moment. Then, finally… “Why?”
His question seemed genuine, so it didn’t rankle me. “It’s something I’ve wanted to do pretty much since birth. A chance to see the world. To experience new things. To see the countries I’ve been researching and studying. And it’s a time to celebrate with my friends. We did this. We earned this. And now it’s finally happening. It’s my dream—can you understand that?”
“Of course I can. Being president of this company is my dream, so I can certainly understand how important it is for you to realize yours. And it’s a beautiful dream. What countries will you visit?” His gaze was still rapt on me, and I was relieved he wasn’t trying to argue with me about this—yet.
“As many as we can, but we don’t want to rush through each one. We’re going to spend at least a week each in Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Maybe longer. We have hotel rooms, hostels, and Airbnb rooms set up for most of the trip. We’ve done our homework and have figured out how to make it all work out.”
“Youth hostels? Those still exist?”
“Some,” I said, wishing I had my travel journal with me. It was back at my desk. “In some cities we’ll spring for hotel rooms, but in others, we’ll do some couch surfing. In Rome, we’re going to stay with the family of an exchange student Julie was friends with in college. Germany’s pretty expensive, so we’re going to wait and see what seems like the best option when we get there. Perhaps—”
Mr Right Stuff Page 4