Meaghan smiled and drank her coffee. It was true; her mother was never late for anything. She must look worse than she’d imagined if her mother was willing to be late for work to hear what she had to say…
“So Courtney Vance showed me a picture of you in a magazine. You were the ‘mystery gal’ with Dean Wesson at some gala or other,” her mother said with a dry smile. Meaghan huffed a laugh.
“Yeah, they haven’t found out who I am yet,” she said and shuddered gently. “That’s definitely the downside of this whole, dating a billionaire thing.”
“Well you didn’t think it’d be all sunshine and roses did you?”
Meaghan shrugged but said nothing. She really couldn’t be bothered by some picture in a magazine right now.
“Anyway…” she said with a deep sigh.
“Yes?” her mother encouraged.
Meaghan looked down at her cup, trying to think how to frame this. “I lost a patient today,” she said at last in a small voice. Amanda leaned in to cover Meaghan’s hand with hers.
“I’m sorry darling,” she said.
Meaghan tried to smile. “It was…I did everything I could,” she choked and the tears started to fall. Amanda stood up quickly and hurried around the table to put her arms around her daughter and sway with her slowly, comforting her the only way she could. Meaghan leaned into her, burying her head in her mother’s chest and just bawled like a new born. She hiccuped apologies into her mother’s jacket for getting snot everywhere but her mother just shushed her, rubbing her back and murmuring nonsensical words as if she was a baby with her first boo boo. Meaghan leaned into her mother’s bosom, feeling comforted in spite of also feeling foolish for crying like a baby.
“Your dad broke down like that too, his first time.”
Meaghan lifted her head. “Yeah?” she asked hopefully encouragingly. Her mother rarely spoke about her father, especially their early days before Meaghan came along so she treasured every memory she could get.
“Yes. He was…he was doing his residency at the military hospital; you know they paid for his schooling – so anyway there was this one soldier. Came back from the war with shrapnel in his chest. Too close to his heart to extract but he was getting better every day, stronger. He and your father became friends because Charlie was there every day, encouraging him, treating him. Well one day, Charlie comes in to work and finds that the patient had a heart attack during the night. They were fighting to save him but it wasn’t looking good. Charlie went in there, opened him up – it was past time to think about risks vs. benefits. He just went in there and got the shrapnel out and closed the guy up and willed him to live. And he did, for twenty four hours. But then he had another cardiac arrest and this time he would not be revived. It wasn’t Charlie’s first time to see a man die God knows. But it was his first patient that he lost; and that patient also happened to be a friend. I remember he came home, looked at me so bleakly. Then he just collapsed in my arms in tears. It was my first time to see your father c-cry…” Amanda paused swallowing hard and Meaghan carefully avoided looking at her mother’s face.
“I almost cried myself but I knew that he needed me to be strong for him,” she finished at last.
Meaghan pulled her closer, wrapping her arms tightly around her mother’s shoulders.
“He was lucky to have you,” she said into her mother’s shoulder.
Amanda laughed wryly. “We were lucky to have each other,” she said wistfully.
They were quiet for a while, just holding each other close.
“I still miss him,” Meaghan said softly. “And I barely remember him. I can’t imagine how it must be for you; especially now that I know what it is to love a man.”
Amanda sighed. “He’s a part of me; he always will be. And I hope your man loves you as much as your father loved me.”
Meaghan took a breath ready to tell her mother all about Dean asking her to move in with him. But then she closed it again. That was not a discussion for now. It wouldn’t be fair to broach it when her mother would want to sit down and discuss it in detail. Either she’d go to work distracted or she’d be even later than she already was. Meaghan disentangled herself from her mother’s arms.
“I’ve taken up enough of your time,” she told her. “Go to work – we’ll discuss Dean another time.”
Maybe she was also stalling.
“Okay honey. You’ll be alright?” Amanda asked, her hands on Meaghan’s arms. Her daughter nodded her head just the same way she’d done in first grade when her mother had dropped her off at the new school and asked her the same question.
Amanda smiled wetly at her, leaned forward and planted a kiss on Meaghan’s forehead. “Your father would be proud of you, you know?” she said wiping stray tears off Meaghan’s face.
“Yeah, I know,” Meaghan replied shakily trying to smile back. It was an epic fail but her mother appreciated the thought behind it.
“I have to go but I’ll see you later okay doll?” she asked smoothing Meaghan’s hair back.
“Okay mom,” she said reaching out to clasp her mother’s hand.
“Are you going to be here the rest of the day?” she asked.
“Nah, um Bain is coming to take me shopping because Dean got tickets to a movie premiere.”
Amanda shook her head at her. “Seems dating this man is pretty expensive,” she said.
“True, but worth it,” Meaghan replied.
Amanda squeezed her hand and picked up her bag, pausing at the door to look back at Meaghan. “If you need to talk I am literally a phone call away.”
“I know mom. Love you.”
“Love you to muffin cake,” she said as she left. Her mother hadn’t called her muffin cake since third grade; she really must look a hot mess. Meaghan put her ring tone to its highest volume so she would hear when Bain called and then flopped down onto her mother’s bed to get some shut eye.
*****
She was dreaming that she was in a dystopian post apocalyptic world with nothing to be seen for miles around except sand. She walked and walked and walked, worried about getting thirsty and not having anything to drink, maybe perishing from dehydration…she didn’t know how long she’d been walking when she saw a man in the distance, seemingly walking in the same direction she was. He was quite far away from her, very nearly a dot in the horizon but she tried to call out to him anyway. He didn’t respond in any way so she hurried her footsteps to get closer to him but the distance between them remained the same. Suddenly, there was a jarring claxon sound renting the atmosphere. She crouched down over herself, hands over her ears, trying to keep the sound out. It just seemed to get louder and more insistent.
Meaghan started awake; her phone ringing insistently on the pillow beside her. Bain was calling.
Chapter 2
Bain picked her up at noon from her mother’s in his work SUV. It was dark gray, had tinted windows and was good for any terrain. In spite of his extremely effeminate ways, he was a well respected architect who was invited to head up projects all over the country and beyond. It was not just because of his connections either. Apparently he felt that this called for the big guns so he’d roped in his personal shopper to get them appropriate attire. She was waiting for them at Bain’s house with a selection of clothes.
“Bain, you know I can’t afford personal shopper type clothes. And before you say it, no you don’t get to pay for my shit.”
“Ha! As if. You’re doing Judy a favor trust me. Designers pay her to get their clothes on people like you.” Bain said.
“What do you mean, people like me? I’m nobody.”
“Oh no honey, you’re the mystery girl everyone wants to know about on the arm of New York’s latest ‘youngest CEO ever’ or whatever they’re calling Dean this week.”
“Oh,” Meaghan said, “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Yes, well, that’s why you have uncle Bain to do your thinking for you,” he said patting her on the knee, eyes still on the road. They traveled the re
st of the way in silence, Meaghan taking advantage of the traffic to nap. She was relieved that she didn’t have to traipse from shop to shop looking for clothes in her unslept state. Besides she was still kind of disoriented from the weird dream she’d had.
“I love you Bain,” she mumbled gratefully into her hand as she burrowed deeper into the comfortable leather.
“Love you too baby girl,” Bain replied as he concentrated on his driving. They arrived at his house to find Danny waiting with Judy, practically jumping up and down with excitement.
“I can’t believe you scored tickets to the Furious 7 premiere!” he exclaimed. “Those things are like gold right now.”
Meaghan smiled, “Yeah, well I’d like to take the credit but it was all Dean.”
“Oh my Gawd you have the best boyfriend in the world,” Danny said and Bain gave him a look.
“The best straight boyfriend,” Danny amended.
Bain snorted and went into the house to greet Judy. Danny and Meaghan linked arms and followed him, talking a mile a minute about brushing up against celebrities and other things their significant others took for granted.
“Meaghan come here and meet Judy,” Bain called cutting them off. Meaghan went to greet the personal shopper who gushed excitedly as well over her premiere.
“You must be so excited!” she exclaimed rubbing at Meaghan’s arms.
“Yeah, I am,” Meaghan said with slightly less enthusiasm. She did not know this woman; it was kind of awkward to have her fawning over Meaghan like this. Still she was slowly getting used to it. It was happening more and more every time she was seen out with Dean. Still…it disconcerted her every time.
“I have some excellent gowns here for you. They’ll look fabulous with your figure. Look at those Kardashian hips you got. My, it's right on trend.”Judy said as she led Meaghan to the clothes. She shot Bain a ‘rescue me’ look but he just smiled at her, wrapping his arms around Danny and giving every impression of having no intention of moving ever. Judy led her to the dresses, still talking a mile a minute and picked up three for Meaghan to try.
“I think these are absolutely your color. Go on, strip. Let’s see how they fit,” Judy encouraged. Meaghan stared at her in disbelief, then at the clothes then at Bain.
“Strip? Here?” she asked already putting a hand up protectively over her breasts.
“Oh don’t be shy. We’ve all seen it anyway. Come on, we need to see how these fit,” Judy said encouraging her with hand gestures to remove it all.
“Take everything off, even underwear. I have some of those for you to try as well,” Judy continued. Meaghan felt her knees go weak. What?
“Umm, Judy? Excuse me a minute,” she said grabbing Bain’s arm and pulling him to the corner.
“Why are you doing this to me?” she whispered desperately.
Bain laughed, “Doing what? Helping you get ready for your ball Cinderella?”
“Yeah that. What’s with the stripping and the being naked in front of people?”
Judy was looking over at them with an expression of inquiry on her face.
“I guess Judy is used to dressing models and celebrities and gays. They’re not shy about nudity. She must have figured since you hang with us you wouldn’t be a shrinking violet either,” Bain said.
“I’m not,” Meaghan protested on principle.
“Well then, get those clothes off and let’s get you dressed,” he said walking away from her and back to Judy. Meaghan reluctantly followed with a sigh. She slowly undressed, the process made worse by the sounds of rapture emanating from Judy’s mouth. She seemed extremely impressed with Meaghan’s physique. It wasn’t helping things at all. Finally Meaghan got all her clothes off, with Danny politely looking away and Bain discussing bra styles and corsets and other things Meaghan didn’t want to know about with Judy. Eventually they got her into underwear that met both their standards of which body parts needed to be emphasized and which didn’t. Finally it was time to pick a dress. All three dresses met Meaghan’s admittedly laissez faire standards for appropriate premiere wear and they all seemed comfortable but Judy and Bain debated for what seemed like hours before they decided that yes, the gray dress with yellow appliqué would do.
The next item on the agenda was hair, make up and jewelry. Judy was on the phone with one of her suppliers because apparently none of the pieces she had with her would do. Meaghan flopped on the chair in an untidy sprawl and Danny rubbed soothingly at her brow.
“You know I have to be at work by six right?” she called to Bain.
“Oh. Yeah, I forgot. Danny darling please pack Meaghan a hamper for dinner. She hardly ate anything today,” Bain said and Danny stood up at once to obey. Meaghan opened her mouth but then closed it again. It was none of her business and besides she was hungry.
“You guys are such darlings,” she said instead.
“We know how to take care of our friends, don’t we Danny?” Bain said. Meaghan couldn’t tell if he was being snarky or not but Danny just grinned and nodded then disappeared into the kitchen area. Judy came back and triumphantly announced that she’d found a tiara. She and Bain were jumping about in joy as Meaghan wondered how the hell she was supposed to pull off a tiara. Still, she didn’t want to offend Bain…any further…so she would work that tiara for all she was worth. Just as she was resigning herself to a faux princess existence and maybe not enjoying the premiere because she was too busy making sure that her jewelry wasn’t pilfered, her phone rang. Dean.
“Hey you!” she exclaimed in happy relief as she picked up. Someone sane to speak to at last.
“Hey. What’s up? You sound stressed,” Dean said.
“No. Nothing. I mean, I’m with Bain and his personal dresser…they’re dressing me,” Meaghan said faux brightly.
“Aww you poor baby. Is it bad. Say mango if it is,” Dean said with faux sympathy. She could hear the amusement in his voice.
“Mango,” she said miserably.
Dean laughed, “I told you I was more fun than him. I’d never make you try on endless dresses…well, unless you wanted to, in which case I’d be totally into it.”
Meaghan sighed deeply, apparently the Dean/Bain feud continued.
“Anyway, I was calling to find out when I can see you. This drought is too much for my poor hormones. I’m getting depressed.”
“That’s such a sad story. Hold on while I find some tissues,” Meaghan said pretending to dab at her eyes even though Dean couldn’t see her. “I’ll probably see you on Thursday. Night shift is over and I have a whole day. I’ll come sleep at your place.”
“Or…you could just bring all your stuff and move in already,” Dean said.
“Yeah, or I could do that,” Meaghan agreed as she rolled her eyes. “I’ll get right on that packing – after my shift today promise.”
“I’ll be sending sexy thoughts from my bed tonight,” Dean said.
“Yeah, sure. I’m sure that is what will be happening. Tell Smith I said hi.”
“Ha! That’s all you know. Smith has been in Argentina for three days now. There are no best friends to mislead me into a night of debauchery in your absence.”
“Okay, cool. Sexy thoughts from your bed it is,” Meaghan glanced over at Bain and Judy who were both looking at her proverbially tapping their feet. “I gotta go. Tiaras to try on and what not.”
“Tiaras? What are you Cinderella?” Dean asked in disbelief. Meaghan closed her eyes thanking her lucky stars for bringing her the right man who knew she was not some tiara wearing wannabe socialite. She opened her eyes to glare at Bain. He used to know that too. This must be punishment for the Danny thing. Meaghan could think of no other reason why Bain was doing this to her.
“Yeah, I know. Anyway gotta go. Bye,” she said to Dean and hung up. She turned with a wide smile to face her stylists and they swooped down on her rearranging her hair to fit a tiara, soon there was a knock on the door and the package delivered.
Meaghan examined herself in th
e mirror, really surprised at how well the tiara suited her. She did not look awkward at all. In fact if she was honest, she looked pretty regal.
“Princess Meaghan,” Bain intoned smugly.
“Shh,” Meaghan said, “I’m marveling.”
Bain just sat back smugly grinning as she turned this way and that, examining herself in the mirror.
“And you’re sure this isn’t over the top?” she asked.
“Absolutely not. It's perfect,” Bain assured her and because he was her best friend in the world, she believed him.
*****
Walking the red carpet was outside of any experience Meaghan had ever had. The cameras flashing in her face was downright scary and the random scary questions thrown at her didn’t help.
“Who are you?”
“How long have you two been together?”
“What about Samantha Crawford?”
Pretty soon the questions began to gel together into an unintelligible whole. Dean got her through the line as fast as he could and then they were inside the theater, popcorn was in her lap and a smoothie in the holder.
“Sorry about that,” Dean whispered in her ear.
“Nah, it's fine. I’m just like Vin Diesel you know? We're in the same movie theater as him watching one of his movies. Huh?”
Dean smiled, “Yeah I guess it's pretty exciting.”
“No ‘I guess’ about it. This is pretty fucking awesome,” Meaghan hit him on the arm to emphasize how awesome it was. Dean smiled and leaned forward, pursing his lips for a kiss. Meaghan obliged, leaning in and going to town on his lips. He smiled into the kiss and pulled her closer, hand in her hair. They kissed for a while before they realized her tiara was no longer on her head.
*****
Meaghan was freaking out! They’d left the movie theater after searching thoroughly around their seats and were currently on a search of the lobby, Dean’s driver and security guard helping with the search. The manager of the movie theater was busy questioning all staff to see if they’d seen the tiara anywhere, threatening death and dismemberment if any of them had stolen or in any was withholding information. Meaghan picked up her phone reluctantly to call Bain and let him know what had happened. She had known that tiara was a mistake. Now not only was it gone but she was missing Furious 7 because of it!
Undercover Lover (BWWM Romance Book 1) Page 13