by Regina Hart
Tasha shook her head, tossing her thin braids around her shoulders. “That’s probably the reason you’re not married.”
Rose scowled. “There’s no need for that, Tasha.”
“Don’t worry about it, Rose.” Maxine squeezed Rose’s forearm where it lay on the table. “I don’t take Tasha seriously.”
Tasha gasped. “Why not?”
“Tasha, I love you, but you’re jealous of everyone.” Maxine’s kind smile softened the chastisement. “Look at the way you’re interrogating Rose. She doesn’t have to tell us every personal detail of her life. She’s not a public figure. She’s entitled to her privacy.”
Tasha leaned into the table, splitting her attention between Rose and Maxine. “You have a man who’s successful and makes Ben Shippley look like SpongeBob. You should be bragging about him. Instead you’re keeping your relationship a secret. Why?”
“After Ben, you can understand my need to be cautious with my relationships, can’t you?” Rose wasn’t lying. She wasn’t answering the question, either.
“I understand.” Claudia nodded her agreement. “You were with Ben for more than two years. Then you found out he wasn’t the man he’d pretended to be.”
It hurt to have her failed relationship summed up so succinctly. But it was the truth. Benjamin had practically left her at the altar. She’d felt like a fool. Sometimes she still did.
Rose shifted her attention from her friends to the dark wood and jewel tones of the restaurant’s interior. But instead of the tables and booths arranged across the wood flooring, she saw images of her past, scenes that should have alerted her to Benjamin’s lies: late nights, missed appointments, abrupt phone calls. How could she have trusted him so blindly? How could she not have known he’d been cheating on her for years? She would never allow anyone to make her feel like a fool again.
“Will we meet him at the reunion?” Maxine’s voice still bounced with enthusiasm.
Rose snapped back from the past. “Yes, he’s coming with me.”
“Oh, great.” Maxine’s joyous tone made Rose smile. “I’m excited to meet someone who works for my favorite computer gaming company.”
“I can’t wait to see him in the flesh.” Claudia’s reaction drew Rose’s suspicion.
“Neither can I.” Tasha gave Rose a challenging look.
Rose returned Tasha’s gaze with equanimity, but inside she was unsure. How much more of a fool would she feel if people discovered her relationship with Donovan wasn’t real?
Chapter 6
Benjamin Shippley’s name didn’t appear on Rose’s ringing cell phone. That’s because she’d taken him out of her directory. But Rose still recognized her ex-fiancé’s personal phone number.
Temper raised its ugly head. She stabbed her cellular phone screen to accept the call, but then she stopped herself before she spoke. Rose closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Benjamin couldn’t know he could still get a reaction from her. She drew a deep breath and channeled her inner Lily.
“I told you to lose my number.” Rose was pleased with her cool, measured delivery.
“Is that the way you’re going to greet me?” Benjamin had the nerve to sound surprised by her tone. The snake. “It’s been almost two years, Rose.”
“And there still isn’t any reason for you to contact me.” A pulse pounded in Rose’s temple. Why was she allowing Benjamin to get to her? He didn’t mean anything to her anymore.
“Can’t we at least try to keep our relationship professional?” He sounded so reasonable even as he made his unreasonable request.
“We don’t have a relationship. And I’d prefer to keep it that way.” Rose stood from her mocha-brown sofa, setting aside the romantic suspense novel she’d been reading, and paced her family room.
“We’re adults, aren’t we?” Benjamin’s voice was smooth and unruffled.
Rose wanted to jump through the phone and tear him apart. His call had caught her off guard. The snake obviously had prepared himself for this conversation. How long had he been planning to ambush her? Rose pictured her ex-fiancé. In her mind, he was wearing a dark, tight T-shirt to show off his biceps and flat stomach. His shorts would be a size too small, drawing attention to his glutes and long legs.
“I’ve always been a responsible adult. The same can’t be said of you.” She clenched her fist and closed her eyes. That was more like angry Rose than reasonable Lily. She’d have to watch that.
Her footsteps carried her into her kitchen where she’d had a solitary lunch not long before. Had Benjamin and his new wife already eaten? Resentment burned her. Benjamin had given another woman the husband and family he’d promised her. He was about to become a father while Rose had become a hermit.
“I can tell you’re still upset over what happened.” Benjamin’s words shocked her out of her musings.
Had he lost his mind? Rose opened her mouth to scald him with her famous temper. Once again at the last minute, reason intruded. How would Lily respond to Benjamin? “No one likes being lied to. And you lied to me for two years.”
“I’ve already apologized. Do you expect me to do it again?” Benjamin was showing cracks in his calm. Rose smiled to herself.
“No, but I do expect you never to call me again. Goodbye.” Rose started to hang up, but Benjamin’s frantic shouts made her hesitate.
“Rose, wait. Wait. I need to speak with you.”
“What is it?” Not that she was interested in what he had to say.
“I called you to discuss the panel.” The agitation was clear in Benjamin’s voice. He paused, but when Rose didn’t speak, he continued. “We’re going to be presenting on the same panel.”
“I know.” That was the extent of Rose’s interest in this discussion. “I’ll see you then.”
“Rose, wait. I think we should get together to discuss the topic and how best to present it.”
Oh, heck, no. “I’m not meeting with you to discuss anything. Ever.”
“There are three of us on the panel. It’s not as though we’re going to be meeting privately.”
“You can email your thoughts to me and the other presenter, if this is something you want to discuss.” If his email appeared in her inbox, she’d mark it as spam. Rose pivoted on her heels and strode back into her family room.
“We should meet, Rose.” Benjamin’s voice was adamant. “It’s better to discuss these things in person.”
Rose hesitated beside her black leather sofa. “Why are you so nervous about this panel? We’re discussing legislative updates and their impact on the judicial system. It’s not that complicated.”
“I want to be prepared.” Benjamin’s response seemed tense.
“You’re a lawyer. Do your research, and you’ll be prepared.”
“Research has always come so easily to you.”
Rose frowned. What was he saying? “It’s part of my job.”
“I’m asking for your help in preparing for this panel so that I don’t make a fool of myself.”
Rose shook her head. He was amazing. “What makes you think I’d help you?”
“It’s been almost two years, Rose. Why are you still holding a grudge?”
“If you didn’t think you could research the discussion topic, why did you accept the invitation to participate on the panel?”
“Because I saw that you were on the panel, and I wanted the chance to spend time with you again.”
Rose caught her breath. Her mind spun with the implications of his words. Then she burst into laughter. She leaned her head back, allowing the waves of hilarity to rise up from her stomach, expand her chest, then roll from her throat.
“What is so funny?” Benjamin sounded as though he was clenching his teeth.
“You must think I’m such a fool.” Rose wiped the
tears from her eyes. “There you sit with your pregnant wife—yes, I’ve heard that she’s pregnant—expecting me to believe that you’d jump at the opportunity to spend time with me again. Why would I want to spend time with you? What makes you think I’m not with someone?”
“Are you?”
“Goodbye, Ben. Don’t call me again.” Rose ended the call even though Benjamin was still speaking. Let the snake stew on that until the reunion.
Rose tossed her phone onto her sofa and watched it bounce on the seat cushion. She dragged her fingers through her hair, wanting to pull on it. He must think she’s an idiot to try that come-on with her.
“I wanted the chance to spend time with you again.” Rose mocked him to the empty room. “Urgh!”
She spun on her bare heels and marched across the family room. This was yet another example of why she needed a fake boyfriend, and why the farce had to work. She couldn’t bear it if people realized she’d been celibate since her failed engagement.
Rose strode back to her sofa. She snatched her phone from the cushion and dialed Donovan’s number.
Donovan answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“It’s Rose. We need to talk.”
“All right.” His acquiescence eased her temper.
“May I stop by?”
“Sure.” He gave her his address and directions to find him.
“Thanks. I’m on my way.”
* * *
Donovan watched Rose assess his living room. He’d decorated it in deep greens and warm blues, with comfortable furniture against stark white walls. The furnishings were meant to make his guests feel welcomed and relaxed. She seemed neither.
“What’s happened?” He followed her into the room. The polished hardwood flooring felt cool against his bare feet.
She turned to him. Her glossy, black hair swung above her narrow shoulders. Her long slender body was clothed in black capris and a gray tunic. “What do you mean?”
“You wouldn’t be here if something hadn’t happened.” He stopped an arm’s length from her.
“Am I that transparent?” Rose rested her purse on his mahogany coffee table and paced away from him.
“Yes.” Donovan smiled to soften his stark response.
Rose lowered her head. “Ben called.”
Donovan felt curiously irritated by that announcement. He studied Rose’s back, forcing his gaze to remain above her well-rounded posterior. “Does he do that a lot?”
“I haven’t heard from him in almost two years.” She spoke with her back to him. “Actually, it’s been one year, five months and two days.”
“Not that you’ve been counting.” Donovan shoved his hands into the front pockets of his gray cargo shorts. “Why did he call?”
“He wanted to discuss our panel presentation.” Rose finally faced him. “I told him to do his own research. There isn’t any reason for us to get together.”
“Do you think he was making an excuse to see you again?” His irritation was rising. Did Benjamin still have feelings for Rose? Why does that thought bother me?
“No, I don’t.” Rose rubbed her forehead. “He said he was afraid of making a fool of himself during the panel. I believe him.” There was vicious satisfaction in Rose’s words.
“I have a feeling there’s a lot more to your background with your ex than a simple breakup.” Donovan propped his shoulder against the wall beside his entertainment center. “Care to clue me in?”
“Of course there’s more to our breakup. Isn’t there always?”
“Not necessarily. Sometimes people just drift apart.” Donovan braced himself to hear about Benjamin Shippley.
Did he break your heart? And is it still broken after one year, five months and two days?
Rose sighed. She wandered to the other side of the room, near his overstuffed couch. “Ben cheated on me. Luckily, I found out before the wedding.”
Donovan hadn’t expected that. What kind of fool would cheat on a woman like Rose? “I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” Rose ran her hand over the arm of his sofa. The gesture was like a caress. “I’m sorry I ever dated him, sorry I agreed to marry him. Sorry I ever met him.”
“How did you two meet?”
“We’d been friends in law school, but we lost touch after graduation.”
“Then you weren’t close friends.” He couldn’t resist pointing that out.
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Please continue.”
Rose slowly circled his living room. “We bumped into each other a few years after law school. One thing led to another, then two years later, he proposed. It wasn’t until six months into planning our wedding that I realized he’d been cheating on me.”
“I’m sorry. That must have hurt.”
“More than I could’ve imagined.” Rose stilled. “In the two and a half years we’d been together, he’d slept with ten different women.”
“What?” He couldn’t have heard her correctly. But the pain etched into her profile told him he had.
“He’d been cheating on me since we’d started dating.” Rose wrapped her arms around herself. “He’d go out with other women, sleep with them, then come home to me. I thought he was working. Then I realized even I wasn’t working such long hours with so many overnight trips.”
“So you confronted him?”
She nodded. “And I canceled the wedding. I later learned from a mutual friend that he’d married his last girlfriend on the same date, in the same church, with the same reception hall and caterer that I’d booked.”
“Wow.” Donovan shook his head in disbelief. “The guy has a lot of nerve.”
“His wife’s pregnant. They’re living the happily-ever-after he’d promised me.”
“Don’t believe that. Not for a minute.” Donovan straightened from the wall, pulling his hands from his shorts pockets. “People like Ben don’t change overnight. If he cheated on you, he’s cheating on her.”
“Maybe he’s changed now that he’s about to become a father.”
Why was she torturing herself with these questions? Did she want them to be true? “The fact that he tried a line on you shows that he’s still a serial cheater.”
Rose exhaled. She massaged her right shoulder. “You’re right.”
Donovan saw the strain on her elegant, honey features. He crossed to her, then cupped her left cheek with his hand. Her skin was soft and warm beneath his palm.
“I’m sorry Ben lied to you and treated you so poorly. But remember, Rose, Ben’s behavior reflects only on him, not on you.” Donovan couldn’t resist the urge to smooth his thumb over her silky cheek. “You’re an intelligent, beautiful, sexy woman. You deserve better.”
Rose searched his eyes. She cupped his hand and lowered it from her face. “Did you hear that on the Dr. Phil show?”
“Do you watch it?”
She gave him the smile he’d been hoping for, then released his hand. “We should probably get the details of our fake relationship straight.” Rose settled onto one corner of his sofa. “I showed our picture to some friends last night. They had a lot of questions.”
Donovan sat on the other end of the couch. His palm burned where he’d touched her cheek. He fisted his hand to keep from touching her again. “What did you tell them?”
“The truth—your name, where you work and what you do.” She tossed him a smile that was strained around the edges. “One of my friends is a big fan of Anderson Adventures’ computer games.”
“Only one? Hopefully, by the end of our deal, they’ll all have our games.”
“Before you turn my reunion into a marketing venue for your products, let’s focus on our original plan, shall we?” Rose arched an eyebrow. “We should keep our story as close to the
truth as possible. The truth is easier to remember. Iris and Ty introduced us.”
“Good idea. But we should probably tell people we’ve known each other for longer than a month.”
“You have a point.” Rose inclined her head. “If people knew we met in June, they’d think we got together just for the reunion.”
“Imagine that.”
“You know what I mean.” She gave him a dry look. “We can’t be too obvious.”
“We could tell people we met in March. That’s when Ty met Iris.”
“Perfect.” Rose nodded decisively, then stood from the sofa. “I’m glad we could agree on those details.”
“So am I.” What was happening here?
“Thanks for letting me interrupt you. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon.” Rose turned to lead him toward his front door.
“Aren’t there other things that we need to discuss?”
Rose paused in his doorway and faced him. “Like what?”
She seriously didn’t know. They needed to discuss what they were like as a couple. What they did, what they enjoyed, what set them off; everything that made a couple a couple. Romance. But maybe that discussion should wait. Rose needed time and space after Benjamin’s phone call.
“We’ll work everything out.” He stepped aside to let her leave. “We have time.”
Her brown gaze was curious. “Yes, we do.”
Donovan watched her leave. They now had the framework of their story straight, but they’d need more than words to convince her friends. His pulse picked up. Donovan was beginning to look forward to preparing for Rose’s reunion.
* * *
On Monday morning, Donovan realized he was about to get an earful from Cecil Lowell. He recognized the younger man’s number on his cellular phone display. Somehow the most junior member of the shelter’s board of directors had convinced himself that he had a lot to teach the veterans. But right now, Donovan’s greatest concern was that Cecil continued to ignore his request not to contact him at work.
“What can I do for you, Cecil?” Donovan worked hard to keep his impatience from his voice.