Her Guy Next Door Fake Fiancé

by Rachelle J. Christensen

  “Something like country living or small-town communities. I can’t think of the title right now, but I’ll look it up.”

  “Are you serious? I could totally write for a magazine like that.” Liza felt the stirrings of hope in her chest. Maybe Jaime was right. “If I started now, then maybe I could get enough built up to last through the holiday season. I’m sure I can find a way to put off Mark and Rick at least that long.”

  “Yes, I’ll get you her contact info and anything else I can think of.”

  “Thanks, Jaime. You always have a way of making me feel better.”

  “Ah, it’s just the hot cocoa today.” He winked.

  They lingered over their hot cocoa and ended up having eggs and toast for dinner. It was nine thirty by the time she left his place, and even then, she wished she didn’t have to go.

  “Thanks so much for dinner,” she said, “and especially the good advice.”

  “My pleasure.” Jaime put his hand on her back as they walked slowly to the front door.

  “Let’s pray that Mark hasn’t already contacted Rick. I hope I can make it through the holidays with my job.”

  Jaime pulled her close and nuzzled her neck. “It’s okay. I promise that it’s going to be okay.”

  “How?”

  “I guess if we have to fake a marriage, then we will,” he said, but he sounded like he was only half joking.

  “No, I’ve put you through enough with a fake engagement, but thank you.” Liza hugged him. “Your strength has helped me so much.”

  As soon as the door closed, Jaime felt Liza’s absence and wished that he could open the door and call her back inside. He loved being with her. He felt like he’d only been half living until he’d met Liza. He hadn’t craved a drink or felt depressed since she’d run into him. Things were going so well with his business that he had hired another part-time position with plans to bring that employee on full-time. He was saving up a nice nest egg for an expensive court battle if it came to that.

  Kori had blown up his phone with all kinds of incriminating texts, and he continued to collect the information needed. He seemed to be winning on that front, but he was losing with his son. Alex hadn’t responded to his invitations to visit during Christmas break. He was supposed to see him this coming weekend, and he thought about inviting Liza to travel to Alex’s school on Saturday. He was planning to invite her tonight, but when she’d arrived, he’d seen the distress in her eyes. He made yet another excuse not to tell her the truth, but he didn’t feel as guilty as he had in the past. Liza had really needed him, and they had come up with some great possible solutions for her.

  He thought again of the words they’d exchanged when she’d said goodbye. She’d mentioned the fake engagement. He smiled when he thought of all that had come because of the pretend relationship. In that moment, he was struck with a thought: Why did this have to be a fake engagement? And then he remembered Alex and Kori, and he shivered. Would Liza forgive him when he finally told her the truth?

  26

  Liza felt so much better the next morning that she sang Christmas carols all the way to work. She happily typed up details for upcoming projects and sped through the copy edits needed on the next batch of web advertisements.

  It was a few minutes before ten when she received a message from Rick requesting her presence in his office. The wheels of her chair squeaked as she scooted out from her desk. Her nerves felt squeaky too as she recalled the way she’d ended the call with Mark the day before. She wasn’t naïve enough to believe that he would let things lie. She rolled her shoulders back and prepared for the coming onslaught.

  Rick motioned for her to come in when she rapped on the side of his door. He finished typing and then leaned back, folding his arms over his beefy middle. “Liza, I’m very concerned about what’s happening with you and Mark Pratt. There seems to be some sort of miscommunication.”

  Rick’s terse voice pricked at the edges of a headache threatening to take over her frontal lobe. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Mark really wants to meet with you, and I’m getting mixed messages. He said he thinks that you will be the best candidate for the job that he needs done. Do you have a problem working with him?”

  Liza rolled her shoulders back. “Rick, I told you before that I don’t want to work with Mark. He is manipulative, and the only reason he’s interested in our company is because he wants to ingratiate himself into my life.”

  “Well, I’m not seeing that,” Rick said. “Can you do this job or not, Liza?”

  This was the moment she’d hoped to avoid for another month or two. Liza thought about the discussion she’d had with Jaime the night before. She’d been so sure of herself then, especially when they discussed the many options she had. Right now, staring at Rick the Prick, she couldn’t see those options clearly—what she could see was her job hanging by a thread.

  “Liza?” The impatience in Rick’s voice was barely veiled.

  He was really no different from Mark. That was the point that she’d been missing all along. She didn’t have to work with Mark, and she didn’t have to work with Rick either. “No. I guess I can’t.” Liza’s tone was even, belying a strength that was tenuous at best. She took in a breath and blurted out, “So do whatever you need to, but I’m not working with Mark Pratt.”

  There were two beats of silence, and then Rick cleared his throat. “You’re fired. Clean out your desk and go home.”

  “Thank you,” Liza said. She was rewarded with a stunned look before she turned and walked quickly from his office. Liza bit her lip as she walked back to her desk. She grabbed a box from the copy center, and within five minutes she had deposited all her belongings inside.

  She was just about to pick up the box when Nita rushed into her cubicle. “What are you doing? You are not leaving!”

  Liza turned to her friend, and she could feel the tears stinging the edges of her eyes. “Don’t,” she whispered. “I have to keep it together. We can talk later. I’ll be okay.”

  Nita stepped closer and pulled Liza into a fierce hug. “This isn’t the end.”

  With a nod, Liza picked up her purse, slung it on her shoulder, and hefted the box. She walked out of the office without glancing to the left or the right and set the box on top of her car. She clenched her jaw as she unlocked the door and put the box into the back seat.

  She waited until she pulled away from the building and was on Main Street before allowing the tears to fall. But even then, she couldn’t let them come full force or she’d get in another wreck. That made her think of Jaime. He would know what to do. Would he think she was a basket case, showing up at his door every day with her problems?

  Liza was headed home anyway, and she would have to pass by his house. Even though the situation she was in wasn’t likely to change, she still yearned for his wisdom, his comfort, and his love. Yes, his love, because that was the only way she could describe the feelings they shared. Losing her job had forced clarity to her perspective, and she was going to tell Jaime how she really felt about him today. If he rejected her, she had nothing left to lose and could go home and have the pity party to end all pity parties.

  Liza maneuvered carefully through the icy roads and pulled into Jaime’s driveway. She leaned forward and rested her head against the steering wheel. The sob she’d been holding in found its way out. She wasn’t necessarily even crying for the loss of her job. She was crying because she’d finally taken a stand and she was … relieved.

  She took in a shaky breath and opened her car door. That was when she noticed the other car in the driveway. Noodles! Jaime was probably meeting with a client. She was debating whether to wait in her car or slip into his kitchen and wait there when the front door opened. A gorgeous woman with golden tresses glided down the steps. When she saw Liza, she looked like a tiger about to pounce. Liza didn’t have time to react before the woman was standing in front of her. The woman didn’t look beautiful close up; she looked angry and wor
n. Liza stood, holding onto the doorframe for support.

  “You think you have some prize, huh?” the woman spat. “Jaime is a great actor, and you’re dumb enough to fall for him.”

  “Oh, wait. You must be Kori.” Liza spoke into the frigid air and wondered if this woman was related to the ice queen.

  Kori narrowed her eyes. “Jaime is engaged to you so he’ll look good in front of the judge. He wants more time with Alex so he won’t have to pay as much in child support. Being engaged to Miss Goody Two-Shoes makes it appear as if his bad-boy drinking days are over. But I’m smarter than that.” She pointed at Liza. “You don’t know what you’re doing. I was a good wife, and he didn’t want me. When he’s through using you, he’ll throw you away too.”

  Liza opened her mouth, but there were no words. Her mind was under attack as she tried to process all the words spewing from Kori’s mouth. None of it made sense, but she couldn’t ask this crazy woman questions. Instead, she pushed past Kori and hurried up the steps to Jaime’s front door. She opened it and went inside without knocking.

  “Kori, I told you to leave.” Jaime’s voice was gruff as he approached the entryway.

  “It’s me,” Liza whispered.

  “Oh gosh, I’m sorry.” Jaime stopped when he saw her face. “Hey, are you all right? It looks like you’ve been crying. What’s wrong?”

  Liza lifted a hand to her eyes and felt a smudge of mascara. She’d already forgotten about Rick and how upset she’d been to lose her job. That was a minor event compared to what was happening right now.

  “How can I help?” Jaime put his arms around her and hugged her. He moved to kiss her.

  Liza held up her hand. There was no way she could kiss him now. “Wait. Who is Alex?”

  Jaime’s eyes widened and he stepped back. “Alex? How did you —”

  “Kori was just leaving when I arrived. From what she said, it sounds like Alex is your son.”

  Jaime looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. “This isn’t how I wanted to tell you.”

  “Oh, so you were going to wait, what, another month, another year before telling me that you had a son?” The sting of betrayal took Liza’s breath away. A sob welled up in her throat, and when she spoke, her voice was strained. “You lied to me.”

  Jaime held his hands out in front of him with a pleading expression on his face. “No, I never intended to keep Alex a secret, but things were complicated and then I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  “What kind of a father pretends he doesn’t have a son? I have seen you nearly every day since we met, and there’s no sign of Alex in your life.”

  A pained expression crossed Jaime’s face. “Alex is away at boarding school. You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to get him there. But I was willing to do anything to save him from Kori.”

  “Boarding school?” Liza studied Jaime. He sounded sincere, but it still didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand why you couldn’t tell me that you have a son.”

  “Don’t you remember the conversation we had about boarding school? In your opinion, I’m some kind of monster for sending my son there and he’ll turn out to be a snob.”

  Liza paused. She had said those things about Chrissy at work, but that had been on their way home from Florida. “Jaime, you’d already spent an entire weekend with me by that point and never mentioned your son. Don’t try to pin this on me.”

  “I’m sorry. I just—”

  “How old is he?” Liza demanded.

  “He’s fourteen.” Jaime stuffed his hands in his pockets. “He’s a great kid and is doing so much better since he’s been away at school.”

  Liza’s ears were ringing as she tried to sort out what Jaime was telling her. He had a teenager! He had deceived her again, and this was much more serious than hiding the fact that he had a DUI. She tried to slow things down in her mind, but there were too many pieces scattering every which way. “Jaime, I don’t know what game you’re playing here, but I do know one thing. We agreed that we would be honest with each other. That was back when we were just friends. I thought we were more than that, and this really hurts.”

  Jaime stepped forward. “Let me try to help you understand.”

  “No, I understand that I made a mistake. We started this relationship on false pretenses, so I don’t know why I thought it could change to something real. I have to go.” She turned and hurried out the door.

  His feet pounded down the steps behind her. “Liza, wait! Please don’t leave like this.”

  But Liza had to leave. She had to run. She got in her car and sped away as quickly as she could. When she arrived home, she drove around back and sat in her car and sobbed. Her phone rang and Jaime’s handsome face showed up on her screen, but she rejected the call. When her phone started chiming with incoming texts, she silenced it and shoved it down in her purse.

  When Liza couldn’t cry anymore, she made her way into the house, where her mom was working in the kitchen, baking homemade bread.

  “Liza, honey, what’s wrong?”

  She burst into tears again and told her mom everything.

  “A fake engagement, Liza?” Her mom gathered her into her arms. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry it came to this.”

  “I made a mess of my life. I’ve been so stupid,” Liza cried.

  “You’re right—it is a mess. Pretending to be engaged is not a game, but I can see why you felt like it was a good option, even if it wasn’t the best choice.” Mom patted her shoulder and stepped back to look her in the eye. “But as far as Jaime, I’m not sure you have all the pieces to this puzzle. The behavior you’re describing just doesn’t add up to what I see in him.”

  “But Mom, he pretended he didn’t have a son!”

  Her mom nodded. “And if it meant protecting you, I would do the same thing. What did you think when you met Jaime’s ex-wife? Is he making everything up?”

  Liza sniffed. “No, she seemed totally crazy, especially to come up to a complete stranger and say the things that she did. She looked so angry and … sad.”

  Mom went back to working on the mound of bread dough. “In my experience, people go through all sorts of hard trials in their lives, but it doesn’t have to break them. I’ve seen people mistreated, abused, and nearly broken, but they kept on going. And there’s something I have observed that’s really important.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Those folks who are angry and bitter often end up letting those feelings wreck their lives. The people who sink down into a swamp of negative emotions never come back. The ones who keep their chin up, try to smile despite the hardships, and keep working—those are the ones who make it.”

  An image of Kori’s angry face flashed through Liza’s mind. “That woman seemed unstable.”

  Mom arranged the bread into loaf pans. “Did she seem like someone who would do just about anything to hurt Jaime? To hurt the man she used to love?”

  Liza pushed down the cuticles around her fingertips. “Yeah, that’s probably how I would describe her.”

  “Is that how you would describe Jaime?”

  “No. I would describe Jaime as a man who is only honest when it suits him. A man who is willing to hide the truth and deceive when that suits him.”

  Mom washed her hands off in the sink, dried them on a dishcloth, and put her arm around Liza. “It’s okay to be angry at him for a little while. But then you have to sort out what’s really going on. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and don’t be too hard on him until you’re certain you understand. Find out why he lied—not to justify it, but to understand.”

  “But, Mom, he lied to me!”

  Her mom nodded slowly. “Yes, he did and you lied to us, to everyone about your engagement.”

  Liza opened her mouth, but there were no words to respond. Her mother was right. How was she any different than Jaime? “I’m going to go in my room and lie down.”

  Mom let her go, and Liza was grateful for a mother who understood when people
needed their space. She curled up to her body pillow and wiped at the tears that kept flowing.

  A little over an hour ago, she’d thought the worst thing that could happen to her today was losing her job, but now she knew that a broken heart was much worse. Her heart felt like it had shattered into jagged pieces that poked and dug at her soul.

  27

  Jaime paced back and forth in his living room. He was a fool! He had known he was taking a risk when he kept Alex a secret, but he’d convinced himself it was the right thing to do. He was an idiot! Liza was the best thing that had ever happened to him. She had run into his life in the very moment he needed her. In the days leading up to the car accident, Jaime had prayed for the first time in years. He had asked God to help him know what to do, and when his pleas seemed to be met with silence, he had asked God to show him that he was loved. Liza ran into him the next morning.

  Jaime had asked for evidence of God’s love, and he’d received it. Then he’d messed it all up. There had to be something he could do.

  That was when he noticed the time. It was only three o’clock in the afternoon. Why wasn’t Liza at work? Had she stopped by to surprise him? Would she have gone back to work now?

  Jaime wasn’t going to wait around to find out. He jogged out to his pickup and headed toward Main Street. Snow was still piled up along the roadways, and more snow was predicted in the ten-day forecast. Echo Ridge would definitely have a white Christmas, but if Jaime couldn’t fix things with Liza, then all he’d be getting was a lump of coal.

  Stellar Ads had the main windows frosted and decorated with Christmas stockings and snowmen. Jaime imagined that the tall, fat snowman in the middle was patterned after Rick. He pushed through the doors, ignored the secretary, and wound his way around the wall of cubicles, but he couldn’t see Liza anywhere. Finally, he turned a corner and found Nita. “Where’s Liza?”

  Nita looked up and her eyes filled with tears. “Oh dear. She hasn’t told you yet.”