Her Fill-In Fiancé

by Stacy Connelly

  “What no one knew—” at least, Sophia had always hoped Amy hadn’t known “—was that Hope was having work done on her house and had spent the night in the small apartment above the store. When she heard the noise, she came down to investigate.”

  “That does seem like something she would do.”

  “One of the guys pushed her out of the way as he ran for the door. When she fell and didn’t get up…” Until that moment, Sophia had felt like she was sleepwalking through a nightmare. Reality shocked her awake with a cold hard slap when she realized Hope was hurt. “I called the sheriff and waited with Hope.”

  “Waited to get caught.”

  “I couldn’t leave her. I wouldn’t, so yeah, even after Amy and her friends took off, I stayed. Besides, it was my fault. I deserved to get caught.”

  “You didn’t know what Amy planned.”

  “I knew opening the store was wrong, so everything that happened after that pretty much falls on me no matter what I did or didn’t know.”

  “Is that what the sheriff told you?” Jake asked, seeming to have heard the echo of the other man’s voice in her words.

  “He had a point.”

  “But he didn’t have the whole story.”

  Sophia shoved away from the settee, needing to walk off the anger and hurt she still felt after all this time. “Oh, I told him the whole story.”

  “He didn’t believe you?”

  “I think he wanted to, but he also thought I knew who the guys were, that I was trying to protect them. But I wasn’t.”

  “And what about Amy?”

  “Amy didn’t need my protection. She had her parents.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “According to the Learys, at the time of the break-in, they were all watching a movie together. Family night, you know.”

  And the more Sophia protested her innocence, the more the town’s opinion turned against her. It was her word versus the Learys’, and Sophia had come across as a liar who tried to blame Amy for her own mistakes.

  “So they all got away with it.”

  “That’s the one good thing. They didn’t get away with much. The one guy never did get the register open, and the other dropped the bag of jewelry he’d taken from the display cases. Amy’s the only one who caused any real damage.”

  Irreparable damage…and not limited to the vintage dresses.

  “Did you ever ask her why she did it?”

  Sophia sank back down beside Jake, her hands twisted together as she spun her silver ring between her thumb and middle finger. “We never talked after that night. I don’t know if her parents tried keeping her away from me. Or maybe I’d served my purpose, and that was it. After graduation, she went to college in Washington. She has a job at a radio station in Seattle. Like she’d always wanted.

  “The truth is, I still don’t know why she would use me like that. Why go after Hope’s shop? Just for kicks?” Sophia gave a sharp laugh that felt like it cut holes in her chest. “My father quit his job after that! And my mom… She used to be on dozens of these local committees, along with Marlene Leary, but that all changed. I think even my brothers’ businesses suffered for a while, although they never said anything.”

  Reaching over, Jake took Sophia’s hand, brushing his thumb against the ring on her middle finger. “Your dad, your mom, your brothers,” he recounted thoughtfully. “You know, I have to say, it seems like they’re doing okay now.”

  “I think so. But—”

  “And they all seem happy,” Jake added. “Well, except for Nick,” he conceded. “But the others?”

  “Yes, I think the rest of my family is very happy.”

  “So when is it your turn?”

  “What?”

  “When is it okay for you to forget about the past? When is it your turn to be happy?”

  “I’ve been happy,” Sophia protested only to realize the happiest she’d been in years were the weeks they’d spent together in St. Louis.

  “When you moved to Chicago, why didn’t you get another job in retail?”

  Sophia mentally recoiled at the idea. After what happened at The Hope Chest…was Jake right? Had she refused to go after what she really wanted because she couldn’t let go of the past?

  “When I moved to Chicago to live with Theresa, she introduced me to a friend who got me an interview with a domestic service. It was close to the holidays, and they had a dozen or so corporate parties where bartenders and servers were needed, and half their staff was either on vacation or had come down with the flu.”

  Sophia swallowed. “During the interview, when they asked about past work experience, I told them I didn’t have any. It wasn’t a lie, exactly, since I never had done that kind of work before, and I was afraid no one would want to hire me after what happened here. But they were desperate enough that I don’t know if it would have made a difference. I had one if not two jobs a night that first month, and before long, the only work history that mattered was what I’d done in Chicago.”

  Just the way she’d wanted it.

  “By the time the position opened at the Dunworthys, I had plenty of references, from the agency where I’d worked for two years and from their clients, too. Maybe it wasn’t the job of my dreams, but it let me forget.”

  “To forget that you had dreams?” he asked softly.

  “Jake—”

  “Close your eyes, Sophia. Go on, close them.” When she’d reluctantly complied, he said, “When you picture yourself happy, what do you see?”

  Staying in Clearville…working with Hope at the shop… Jake at her side…the two of them raising her child together.…

  With each image, the ache in her heart grew until it hurt to draw breath. Sophia snapped her eyes open, banishing the longing. She pushed away from the sofa and ignored the knowing look in Jake’s eyes. “Some dreams are impossible.”

  Maybe it was all Jake’s talk of dreams, but by the time Sophia closed up the shop and headed home, she needed a dose of reality. She needed some concrete steps laid out before her so she could make sure she kept her feet on the ground right where they belonged.

  Her mother was in the kitchen, preparing a late supper, but Sophia had slipped away to her room to make a phone call. She hadn’t heard from Christine since leaving St. Louis, and she needed an update on how the plans were coming for her friend’s business. Had she made an offer on the space she’d found? And what about the van she’d seen online, the one Christine thought might work for transporting food to all the events they’d soon be catering?

  That was where Sophia needed to focus her attention, not on impossible dreams that didn’t have a chance of coming true. But almost as soon as she reached her friend, Sophia realized her dreams weren’t the only ones to go up in smoke.

  “I’m so sorry, Sophia.” Regret and disappointment dragged at her friend’s words, making her normally upbeat and sunny voice almost unrecognizable. “I’ve be meaning to call, but I just didn’t know how to tell you. I know you were counting on this job—counting on me.”

  “Christine, stop!” The last thing Sophia wanted was for her friend to add guilt to the load of heartache she was carrying. “I don’t want you worrying about me. You have enough on your mind already.”

  Christine’s father had been injured in a car accident and, while he expected to make a full recovery, he would be out of work for some time, a serious financial blow since he was self-employed. Not working meant not bringing home a paycheck, and Christine’s mother couldn’t take the risk of quitting her own job to be a part-time bookkeeper and babysitter now.

  With everything going on, Christine had decided to put her own plans on hold while she helped out her parents as much as she could. “I’m not giving up,” she vowed. “I still want to run my own business more than anything. This isn’t going to stop me.”

  That sounded more like the Christine Sophia knew—positive and determined—but as she hung up the phone, Sophia couldn’t help feeling more than a little
depressed. Okay, a catering company wasn’t her dream, but the job had been a step forward, a move in the right direction toward her goal of a finding a small place for herself and her baby in Chicago.

  When you picture yourself happy, what do you see?

  Funny how a tiny apartment in Chicago hadn’t shown up in that picture at all.

  “How was your first day back at the store?” Vanessa asked as Sophia stepped into the kitchen to give her mother a hand with dinner.

  “How was my day…” Sophia mused.

  On one hand, she’d had a decent sales tally based on what she recalled from five years ago. And she’d spent her free time sketching out a new layout to include Hope’s latest finds into the already crowded store. On the other hand…

  “Pretty good considering I’d only been there three hours before the cops showed up.”

  Vanessa rolled her eyes as she handed Sophia a cucumber and a celery stalk for the salad to go with the spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. The scent of oregano and garlic filled the kitchen and started Sophia’s stomach growling.

  “A simple misunderstanding,” her mother insisted.

  Sophia opened her mouth, ready to argue that Marlene Leary hadn’t misunderstood anything when Jake’s voice rang in her thoughts.

  When is it okay for you to forget about the past? When is it your turn to be happy?

  Was Jake right? Was she holding onto a past everyone—aside from Amy’s parents—had already let go?

  She’d left Clearville thinking it was best for everyone, and she’d carried those last memories of hurt, guilt and betrayal to Chicago. But the truth was, life in Clearville had gone on without her. The town had witnessed other scandals, weathered newer storms of gossip. Not that anyone had forgotten, but maybe those dark days loomed larger in her mind than they did anywhere else.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she finally told her mother as she pulled a knife from the drawer and started chopping vegetables on the built-in cutting board. “And for a first day, it was a good one.”

  She would need more good days before she could completely wipe all the negative memories from her mind or feel like she’d repaid Hope for the damage she’d done…but time was running out. Her parents’ party was only a few days away, and her plan had always been to leave as soon as she spilled the whole truth about her job, Todd, the baby…and Jake.

  “Sophia, is everything all right?”

  Dragging her thoughts away from Jake, she briefly met her mother’s concerned gaze before giving the vegetables all the attention of a surgeon performing a life-saving procedure. “What do you mean?”

  “You and Jake.” Vanessa finished washing the lettuce and dried her hands with slow, deliberate movements, her too-sharp gaze focused on Sophia.

  Speculation filled her mother’s voice, and Sophia froze. She should have realized she couldn’t pull this off. She could fool her father, her brothers—sometimes she feared she was on her way to fooling herself—but her mother had always read her so well.

  “I know you both have only been here for a few days,” Vanessa began, “but it’s easy to see how he feels.”

  Sophia leaned against the counter in a mix of relief and confusion. “You think Jake’s easy to read?” She’d thought so, too, when he was the Jake Cameron she met in St. Louis. But the Jake she knew now had her tiptoeing on the rugged coastline, unsure of her step along the slippery rocks, cautiously anticipating the next surprise wave ready to knock her off her feet.

  “I think it’s obvious he’s crazy about you.”

  Worried nerves suddenly transformed into hopeful butterflies. It was frightening how much she wanted to believe that, but she’d believed in and been fooled by Jake before. She’d fallen for his sexy charm, and even though she’d gotten to know the real Jake Cameron over the past few days, his actions—his rejection—spoke louder than her mother’s words.

  And yet, Vanessa had raised three boys. Sam, most of all, had tried to get away with anything and everything. Somehow, though, she had always been two steps ahead of her sons at every turn.

  Would Jake be able to fool her mother, or was Vanessa seeing a truth Sophia was afraid to trust?

  “What isn’t so obvious,” her mother added, “is how you feel about him.”

  Vanessa set the towel aside, her hands completely still as she waited for Sophia’s response. In an emotional rush, Sophia realized how much she’d missed sitting in this very kitchen, surrounded by her mother’s mouthwatering cooking, pouring her heart out. She’s missed her mother’s sage advice as much as she’d missed her homemade meals.

  In her teenage years, she’d made the mistake of letting her friends like Amy become a bigger influence. Like replacing a home-cooked dinner with fast food, Sophia thought. Quick and easy solutions that lacked any substance.

  Hungry for her mother’s point of view, Sophia confessed, “I want to trust Jake. I want to trust how I feel about him, but—I’m afraid.”

  “Love is one of the scariest emotions around, and people who find and hold on to true love are some of the bravest.” Vanessa smiled. “But you’re my adventurous girl, so it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out you’ve taken up the challenge.”

  Brave. Adventurous. Sophia wished she still lived up to those descriptions. “I’m not sure I want to where Jake is concerned.”

  “Why would you say that, Sophia?”

  The truth she’d been hiding for so long pressed against her chest, and she simply couldn’t keep it inside any longer. At least, not all of it.

  “He says he’s not a family man,” Sophia confessed. Worse things could be said about a man, but to the Pirellis, family meant everything.

  Vanessa frowned as Sophia expected she would, but her argument wasn’t one Sophia thought she would make. “I talked to Sam and Drew. They said Jake did a great job with the ramp at Hope’s house. He fit right in just like he has here. And Hope couldn’t stop singing his praises.”

  “I know Jake wanted to help.”

  “And isn’t that what family is all about? Supporting each other? Lending a hand when it’s needed? Being there for each other?”

  Jake had fit into her family easily enough that Sophia was tempted to believe he could be a permanent fixture instead of a temporary fix. But that wasn’t what Jake wanted. He’d given her fair warning, and how foolish would she have to be to hope for more?

  Almost as foolish as falling in love with him in the first place.

  “I can’t make him—” love me “—be someone he’s not.”

  “And Jake says he’s not a family man?” At Sophia’s miserable nod, Vanessa asked, “But what does your heart say?”

  Sophia thought of Jake as a young boy, losing his mother’s affection to his cold and distant stepfather, as a teenager, searching for a connection with his father only to find heartbreak instead. Was it any wonder, as an adult, he’d turned his back on the very idea of family? A word that meant love and caring and happiness in her life offered only rejection and disappointment in his.

  “My heart tells me Jake wants a family more than any man I’ve ever known.” Sophia crossed her arms over her stomach, cradling the tiny life growing inside. She swallowed hard. “But I don’t know.”

  She might not have loved Todd, but she’d believed he was someone she could trust, someone she could count on, and not the kind of person who would throw all the blame at her feet and walk away, the same way Amy had years earlier.

  And the stakes were so much higher now. What if she could convince Jake to give family life a try? What if they settled into that life together, and days, weeks or months from now Jake realized what he’d said all along was true. How devastated would she be if he walked away then?

  “I’ve been wrong before,” she confessed.

  “But what if you aren’t wrong?” her mother countered. “What if Jake is exactly the man your heart thinks he is and you don’t give him that chance? How much more will that loss hurt the both of you?”


  Chapter Ten

  As Jake walked into the living room the following evening, Vince Pirelli looked up from the book he was reading. Eyeing the younger man with amusement from above a pair of half glasses, he advised, “You might as well take a seat.” He waved at the couch facing his recliner. “Having a wife and daughter has taught me many things about women. First of all that they are never ready when they say they’ll be ready.”

  Jake fought a smile. Vince’s statement might not have been the most politically correct, but he could testify to its accuracy. Normally, that kind of tardiness would have driven him crazy.

  But with Sophia…the times while he waited for her to finish getting ready for a date were some of his favorite moments. Her slightly embarrassed apology while she rushed around her cousin’s apartment seeking out misplaced keys, missing shoes, the tickets for the game they were attending. She’d been adorably flustered, and Jake had been constantly tempted to reach for her and make her forget all about what she was looking for so they could both concentrate on what they found in each other’s arms.

  “One thing I’ve learned,” Jake told Vince, “is that your daughter is well worth the wait.”

  The older man nodded his approval. “I want you to make sure Sophia has a good time tonight.”

  “I will,” Jake vowed, having already made that promise to himself when Sophia asked if he wanted to go to a birthday party for a friend of her brothers’.

  The invitation had taken him completely by surprise, something that must have shown as he stopped in the middle of clearing the dinner dishes from the table. Giving a self-conscious laugh, she said, “Debbie invited us, and I thought it would be fun. I’d like to promise you that at no time will the sheriff be called, but I’m afraid I can’t.”

  The combination of doubt and determination in her brown eyes grabbed hold of something inside Jake. He’d asked Sophia earlier that day what she saw when she pictured herself happy, and Jake knew he had his own answer in the hint of her smile. Whatever made Sophia happy…

  “Maybe we should swing by Bonnie’s Bakery and get some doughnuts just in case,” he’d said, and Sophia’s laugh had washed over him. He hadn’t enjoyed the sound of someone else’s laughter so much since his time with Josh…