“Do you have a picture of him?” Julie wanted to know.
“No. But there’s lots of stuff online.”
“Dammit! Why’d they make us leave our phones in the changing room?”
“It’s a spa. You’re not supposed to be ogling handsome men,” Dan said.
“But it’s okay for you to ogle Lindsey?”
“Yes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Um, guys? Could we get back to my fake engagement?”
“What do you mean fake engagement? Is that even a thing?”
“It is now.” With a sigh, I told them that I’d agreed to pose as Ethan’s wife.
“What? For how long?” Julie demanded.
“A few months.”
“Months?” Dan echoed. “What about our trip?”
“Wait, first, what does it mean to be his fake fiancée?”
“I don’t really know. Just show up with him around his family, I guess. There’s going to be an engagement party in a month. You’re both invited.”
“Do we have to bring a gift if it’s fake?” Dan asked.
“No,” I said at the same time Julie said yes.
“But you’re not actually going to get married, right? I mean, he’s not that hot, right? God, I wish I had my phone so I could look him up.”
“He is pretty damn good-looking. But no, we won’t get married. We’ll break up sometime after the engagement party but before the wedding.”
“So you’ll actually be planning a wedding? Or pretending to?”
“I guess so.” I was uneasy at the thought. I didn’t want the Grants to spend a lot of money on something that wasn’t going to happen. But I supposed Ethan and I would have to at least appear to be preparing for a wedding. This was getting complicated.
The door to the little room opened and Lindsey poked her head in. “Are you doing all right in here? Do you need anything?”
“My phone! It’s in my bag in the changing room—could you please get it for me?”
Julie’s plea was met with a frown. “Phones aren’t allowed in here. This is a place of peace and tranquility—”
“Please, our grandmother died. You have to get my phone.”
The masseuse frowned. “You’re siblings?”
“No, we each lost a grandmother.”
“It was a tragic bingo accident,” Dan said solemnly.
“Please, can you just bring me my phone?”
Lindsey raised an eyebrow suspiciously, but she nodded and closed the door.
“Thank you,” Julie called after her.
“But what does it matter what he looks like? We had plans, Kate. How can you ask us to change them like this?” Dan’s tone was a lot different than when Lindsey had been at the door. “This is our dream.”
Julie rushed to my defense again. “She’s not the one asking us to postpone our trip—Ethan is.”
“But Kate’s the one who agreed to this crazy plan. That’s the part I don’t get. Okay, he’s rich, he’s hot—but was that really enough to make you bail on your friends? What if we decide that we don’t want to wait? Julie and I can just go together, you know.”
Suddenly, I was near tears. “I know I should’ve asked you first, but it all happened so fast. I’m sorry.”
“Stop it,” Julie said, but she was talking to Dan, not me. “This trip means as much to Kate as to you and me. She wouldn’t ask us to change it without a good reason. Let her finish.”
“Sorry, Kate. I was just surprised.” Despite his earlier words, the look he gave me now reminded me that these two people would always have my back, no matter what. “Just tell us why you agreed to do this. Do you like him?”
“No,” I said. “Well, yeah, I guess I kind of do. Maybe a little.” Or a lot. At least I certainly liked what I knew of him so far. But that hadn’t factored into my decision much. “He made me an offer. At first, he said he’d pay for our trip. First class airline tickets, hotels, hired drivers, the works.”
“Oh my god, really?” Julie’s mouth hung open, a rather strange look given the drying mud on her face.
“What’d you say?”
“I said no.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s not the trip we planned. The one we’ve been figuring out for years.”
“I don’t get it. If we have to postpone the trip, it’s not going to be the same anyway,” Dan said.
“I know. But that just seemed too… different. I want our trip, and we can still do it – just two or three months from now.”
“And in return?” Julie prompted.
I took a deep breath. “And in return, Ethan is going to quadruple the money we’ve saved.”
“Quadruple?” Julie echoed while Dan swore in amazement.
“Yes. We’ll have four times as much cash. That means we can travel for—”
“A whole year. I’ll be damned.” Dan shook his head in amazement.
“Yeah. Think about it. If we just wait a few months, then we can have our European trip and then go wherever we want after that. India. Japan. Kenya. Brazil. Anywhere in the world.
“Really? He’s adding $150,000 to the travel fund?” Dan still sounded shocked.
“He is.”
“Marry that man!” Julie squealed, and I couldn’t help laughing. A moment later, Dan joined us.
“An entire year,” he said, still shaking his head. “Seems too good to be true.”
“Oh, there’s a catch,” I said to my best friends in the world. My relief at their reaction had me smiling from ear to ear.
“What’s that?” Julie asked.
“You have to be my fake bridesmaid.”
“I’d love to.”
“And Dan, you can be one of Ethan’s groomsmen.”
“But I don’t even know the guy,” Dan protested.
“That’s okay, neither do I.”
There was a beat or two of silence and then we all burst into laughter so loud I was amazed the staff of the spa didn’t come back in to lecture us about the importance of tranquility.
“A whole year. Hot damn,” Dan said. Then he looked at us. “Group hug?”
Looking around at our mud-splattered, towel-covered bodies, I started giggling again. We were roommates who had shared a lot over the years, but this was going a bit too far. “Maybe later.”
“Definitely later, “Julie said. “We’ll have a toast. To the trip of a lifetime. And to a fake engagement of the greatest friend and roommate ever.”
“Aww, you guys,” I said, my eyes getting a little moist in spite of the giggles. “That sounds perfect.”
“Yeah, it does,” Dan said. “Can I invite Lindsey?”
Julie and I threw our cucumber slices at him as we all laughed again.
Nine
Kate
“I’ve never had real fondue before.”
“You’ll love it—unless you’re lactose intolerant,” Ethan said.
“I’m not. Guess that’s the kind of thing we’re supposed to be learning about each other.”
“Exactly.” Ethan nodded, but he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get started. He’d lingered over the wine menu, and now we were sipping a Riesling that tasted incredible. And incredibly expensive.
“Have you been here before?” It wasn’t the best get-to-know-you question, but I was curious. I hadn’t even known there were any Swiss restaurants in town.
“A time or two. I fell in love with fondue in Switzerland. And raclette. That’s similar, but you don’t have to dip anything. It’s more like melted cheese slices on boiled potatoes.”
“So, basically, it’s Swiss comfort food?”
“Pretty much. Seems like it would be a good winter-time lunch.”
It sounded good. I hoped they’d have it in the late summer when we’d be going on our trip. But for right now, there was work to do. “Where should we get started?”
Ethan took a sip of his wine and set it down. “I’m not quite sure. I’ve never been engaged—fake or otherwise
.”
“Me either. But shouldn’t we ask each other questions? Try to learn as much as we can about the other person?”
“Yeah, I guess. But there are other things, too. Like picking a date for the wedding.”
The sip of wine I’d just tried to swallow went down wrong and I coughed. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. Ethan reached around and patted me on the back, gentle at first but I still couldn’t stop coughing.
Finally, I gasped, “I’m okay.” My voice sounded like a frog and tears filled my eyes as I took a sip of water. That helped. I wiped my eyes as the coughing subsided.
“Are you sure?” His hand was still on my back. I was wearing a lilac-covered dress that dipped down to just above my bra. His hand on the bare skin above that felt warm and intimate.
“Yes,” I said, taking another sip of water. “Thank you.” He removed his hand, and I suddenly felt colder.
“So, now I’ve learned one thing about you—you have a drinking problem.”
I laughed. “Not usually. It just went down wrong just about when you said we had to actually set a wedding date, by a strange coincidence.”
He nodded, conceding my point. “I know it sounds strange since we’re not going through with it, but we still have to do it. We can’t have an engagement party without letting people know when we’re getting married. We’ll have to send out those Save the Date cards or whatever you call them.”
“I guess you’re right. I just hadn’t thought about this part of things.”
“So, when do you want to get married?” He paused a moment and then chuckled. “Now there’s a sentence that’s never passed my lips before.”
“Guess there’s a first time for everything. Could we maybe, I don’t know, set the date for a long time from now? Lots of people have long engagements. That way we wouldn’t have to do much planning for a wedding that’s not going to happen.”
Ethan leaned back in his seat now that I was done coughing. He was wearing a charcoal gray suit that fit him perfectly. His shirt was light gray, and talk about a coincidence, his tie was a deep purple that looked good with my lilac dress. I thought about it for a minute and then shook my head. This wasn’t a real wedding—I shouldn’t be planning its colors.
“What?”
“Nothing. What do you think about a long engagement?”
“I think people might wonder why my fiancée left the country and was gone for a year in the middle of it.”
“Oh, right.” I hadn’t thought of that. That wouldn’t make a lot of sense. “So we have to pretend the wedding’s going to be soon?”
“I think we have to. The engagement party is the twenty-seventh. Let’s aim to have the wedding a month after that. Then we break up before then and you can leave on your trip. Only two months late, how does that sound?”
“Umm… great.”
Ethan scoffed and took a bite of the delicious bread the restaurant had served. “Are all fake brides this unenthusiastic?”
“Sorry,” I said, declining the bread basket as he held it up to me. “I just—I hate to waste everyone’s time and money planning something that’s not going to happen.”
“Don’t worry about that, Kate. Our family has plenty of money. Not a modest thing to say, but a true one. Planning this event is not going to break the bank. Besides, when we have to call off the wedding at the last minute, we can donate the food to a homeless shelter. Didn’t some woman do that recently when her fiancé broke things off with her at the last minute? I think it was in the news.”
“Yeah, I guess.” That made me feel a little less guilty. “But won’t your grandparents be upset?”
“Not if you’re a jerk to them.”
“What?” He really expected me to treat those kind people badly? “No, I could never do that.”
“Relax,” Ethan said, placing his hand on top of mine. “I was kidding—but I forgot you don’t know me well enough to know that. Sorry.”
“Oh,” I said, feeling foolish. “It’s just that they’re so nice.”
“Except when they’re using Grant Industries as a way to control my behavior, I agree with you. They’re not exactly blameless in all of this, Kate.”
“I know. But I just feel guilty at the thought of lying to them.”
“Pretending. Not lying.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Well… engaged couples spend time together. We’re doing that. They enjoy each other’s company. We’re doing that, too. Or at least I am.” He winked at me, and I flushed. Of course I enjoyed his company. “So we’re not out and out lying—we’re just exaggerating our feelings for each other. And it’s not like no one’s ever broken off an engagement before. It happens all the time. Like with that woman you mentioned.”
“Yeah.” Everything he was saying was true, but I still felt bad. “I just hate lying to your grandmother especially.”
“She wants to meet with you, you know. As soon as possible. To make plans.”
“What? One on one? How on earth am I going to pull that off? I don’t know the first thing about you.” A new thought suddenly occurred to me. “I’m supposedly marrying you and I don’t know your age. Or your birthday.”
“February eleventh. And I’m thirty-one. But I see your point. I’ll try to keep the planning sessions to a minimum, and I’ll insist that we stick together.”
“Okay.” Suddenly, I giggled.
“What?”
“I was just picturing you coming with me while I tried on wedding dresses.”
He laughed. “Touché. There might be a few pre-wedding events we’ll need to do separately.” Then his eyes swept down to the neckline of my dress, and back to my face. “Though there might be some compensation for going along on that trip.”
My face flushed, and I looked down at the table.
Ethan laughed. “There’s the blushing bride. But seriously—I think you’d look amazing in a white dress. With your tan skin, and your hair up…” He studied me for a minute. “Or maybe down.”
“Ethan…” I wasn’t sure what exactly I was going to say next, but it didn’t matter, because a waiter arrived to set up the fondue pot. Once the cheese melted, we had fun dipping a variety of breads, meats, and vegetables into it. But later we returned to the subject of the wedding or lack thereof.
“What I’m really worried about is the breakup.”
“Me too,” Ethan admitted. “We have to appear to be a very happy couple at the engagement party. If my grandfather suspects we’re just pretending, I doubt he’ll still turn over the company to me at the board meeting. I don’t suppose we can claim that we fell out of love a few weeks later.”
“No, probably not.” I hesitated. I didn’t even like to think about something like this, but… “What if—maybe one of us could pretend to… cheat?”
Ethan frowned as he wiped his hands on the cloth napkin. “That would be a pretty clear reason to break up. Not that I care for the idea all that much.”
“Me neither.”
“Well, we’ll see if we can come up with something else then. We don’t have to decide right now.”
“Good.” That made me feel a little better.
“Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
He gestured at my hand. “Clutch your necklace like that.”
Surprised, I looked down. I hadn’t even realized that I’d been holding it. “Oh… I guess for luck. Or comfort. Or something.”
Ethan’s gaze was intense. “I’ve seen you reach for it dozens of times. It must mean something more than that.”
For a moment, I stared at him. We hadn’t known each other that long, but it was clear he was observant. And he was right, it did mean a lot to me. “It represents a dream. The dream. Our trip around the world.”
He leaned closer. “May I?” He gestured toward my necklace.
“Sure.” I let the heart-shaped pendant fall back onto my chest, and stilled as he reached toward me. His fingertips were warm o
n my skin, and a small shiver radiated through me. A shiver of excitement? Or longing? I wasn’t sure, but it definitely wasn’t unpleasant. The blue swirls in the pendant showed up nicely in his hand. There was some green and silver in there, too, but mostly blue.
“Is this Venetian glass?”
“Yes. It came from an island right off of Venice called—”
“Murano. I’ve been there.”
“You have?” Venice and Murano were two of the cities I was most excited about seeing.
“Yes. It’s beautiful there as long as it’s not the height of tourist season. Is that going to be part of your trip?”
“Definitely.” Though now I was a little worried. We’d be going later in the summer, and it probably would be more touristy. “We got those in a shop here. It was a couple of years ago. Even though we were saving everything we could for our trip, we got them as a promise to each other that we’d make this dream come true.”
“It’s a beautiful dream and a beautiful necklace. Did you all get the same one?”
“No.” It was a little disconcerting to be so close to Ethan. I could see his dark lashes as he looked down. The stubble on his jawline. His short, dark hair. Everything about him oozed masculinity yet he was holding the delicate little blue heart in his big hand quite gently. “We each picked out something for someone else. I choose a red and gold oval for Julie, and Dan chose this one for me.”
“Dan?” Ethan dropped my pendant and pulled his hand back. “Who’s Dan?”
“One of my two best friends. Julie picked out his—it’s a rectangular shape with gold, black, and white. He uses it as a keychain.”
“You said you were going on this trip with your roommates.”
“Dan is my roommate. The three of us have lived together since freshman year of college. It was funny, actually, see the school somehow thought his name was Jan—”
“How’s that going to look if you’re engaged to me and living with a man?”
Mr Right Stuff Page 6