by Gina Wilkins
“Yeah. Sure. Why not? I’ll help you with your scheme if you’ll help me pull off my practical joke and object lesson on my own well-intentioned but meddlesome family,” he added with a wry smile.
Dana took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “It’s a deal.”
She held out her hand.
Cody still hoped she wasn’t as serious as she looked, that all she wanted him to help her with was a lighthearted charade. He wasn’t comfortable with the seriousness in her eyes when she offered her hand.
Impulsively, he stood, took her hand and used it to tug her forward. And then he planted a smacking kiss right on her surprise-parted lips.
He’d kissed her as a joke—a way of shaking her up a bit. He hadn’t expected to like it quite as much as he did.
Dana didn’t seem to share his reaction. After only a momentary hesitation, she pulled back abruptly. “Don’t do that,” she said, sounding cross, her cheeks flaming.
“You said we have to make your family believe we’re really in love,” he reminded her with an impudent grin. “Shouldn’t we practice?”
Shoving her hands into her jeans pockets, she backed several steps away from him. “I don’t think you’re in need of any practice,” she muttered. “We’ll save the performances until we have an audience. This is a business deal. I have absolutely no interest in turning it into anything else.”
And then she turned and all but bolted from the office.
Watching after her, Cody realized that she had pricked his pride. Again. And he found himself wondering if he could make her eat those words…
Two days later, Cody paced restlessly in the deserted parking lot outside Country Straight. Forgoing his usual jeans, boots and western shirts, he was neatly dressed in navy chinos and a navy-and-burgundy-striped cotton shirt. He’d had his hair trimmed, and had buffed the dust off his soft leather shoes. His Jeep Cherokee, freshly washed, sat nearby, packed and ready.
He’d made arrangements to be away for the rest of the long weekend, announcing that he would return to work on Tuesday afternoon. The club was closed on Mondays, anyway, so his and Dana’s absence wouldn’t be too much of a problem for the rest of the staff.
It was a beautiful Saturday morning. The sky was cloudless, a deep, rich blue that hinted of the autumn to come. The air was warm, but not too hot. A great day for a leisurely drive.
All that was holding him up now was Dana. She was supposed to have met him here fifteen minutes ago.
Surely she hadn’t changed her mind. This trip had been her idea, after all.
He’d offered to pick her up at her home, but she’d refused, saying she would meet him here, instead. Cody didn’t even know where she lived. The only address she’d listed on her employment records was a post-office box in nearby Parkerville. She’d mentioned a time or two that she lived in an apartment, but that was the extent of his knowledge about her personal life.
He glanced at his watch again, then at the empty streets. Seventeen minutes late…twenty minutes. Had she changed her mind?
At exactly thirty minutes past the time they were to have met, Dana pulled into the parking lot in an aging sedan and climbed hastily out from behind the wheel. Wearing a short-sleeved green silk blouse and loosely pleated taupe slacks, she was more formally dressed than Cody was accustomed to seeing her.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I couldn’t get my car started,” she explained. “It needs a new battery, I think. I had to get a neighbor to jump-start it for me this morning.”
“I was beginning to think you’d changed your mind.”
“I told you I’d be here,” she said, as though that should have been enough to belay any doubts. She sounded annoyed that he’d even questioned her word.
“Yeah. Sorry. Here, let me help you with your bags.”
“I’ve got them,” she said, clutching a bag in each hand. She stubbornly insisted on loading them into the back of his Jeep herself. And then she walked around the vehicle, opened the passenger door, climbed into the seat and snapped the seat belt.
She looked, Cody thought wryly, as though she’d just stepped onto a tumbril headed for the guillotine.
Oh, yeah, he thought with a sigh. This was just going to be loads of fun.
Shaking his head, he climbed behind the wheel and fastened his seat belt before starting the engine. “How long does it take to get to your stepmother’s house in Memphis?” he asked as he backed out of the parking space. All he’d been told about the upcoming weekend was that they would be staying overnight with her stepmother, for whose benefit they were putting on the charade of an engagement.
“An hour and a half,” Dana replied, looking out the window.
Cody couldn’t help noticing that she twisted her hands in her lap as though she were nervous. He knew the feeling. He loved pulling over a joke as much as anyone, but there was something really strange about this escapade. He got the feeling that there was a lot riding on the outcome, and that made him nervous, too. Especially since he didn’t have a clue what it was all about.
Glancing at her hands again, he suddenly remembered something. He reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out a small velvet-covered box and tossed it into her lap. “You’ll probably want to wear this,” he said, keeping his tone casual.
She looked at him quickly, then turned her gaze slowly toward the box. “What is it?” she asked, sounding wary.
“Open it and see.”
She opened the little box as carefully as though she’d been warned that it might blow up in her face. One look at the contents had her snapping the lid shut in a hurry.
“I can’t wear this!” she said, pushing it back in his direction.
“You’re the one who wants your family to believe we’re engaged,” Cody said with a shrug, ignoring her attempt to hand him the box. “Won’t they expect you to have a ring?”
“Not necessarily. Not everyone wears an engagement ring.”
“Still, it does make the story more believable. Try it on.”
Dana still didn’t reopen the box. “Where did you get it?”
Cody sighed. “Lighten up,” he advised her. “I didn’t steal it or anything. It’s sort of on loan.”
“On loan?” she repeated, surprised. “From whom?”
“Bennigan’s Jewelry Store. Bob Bennigan’s a buddy of mine. Owes me a few favors.”
“Your friend let you borrow a diamond engagement ring? What did you tell him? What if it gets lost or stolen or something?”
“Dana, relax. It’s a nice ring, but it’s hardly the Hope diamond. And I didn’t tell Bob anything except that I needed to borrow an engagement ring for a few days. He handed me this one and said to keep it as long as I needed it.”
Cody smiled then. “He said he’d make me a good deal on it if I decide to keep it. He’s probably hoping he’ll make a sale as well as pay off a favor. Two birds with one stone, so to speak.”
Dana still looked dazed. Cody nodded toward the box in her hand. “Try it on. It might not even fit.”
With visible reluctance, she opened the lid again and lifted out the ring. A round diamond in a plain gold setting sparkled in the sunlight streaming through the windshield. Dana slid the ring carefully onto the third finger of her left hand.
It appeared to fit perfectly.
“It’s lovely,” she said quietly.
“Not very fancy.”
“No, but I’ve never liked gaudy jewelry. This is beautiful. Tastefully elegant.”
Cody liked that description. Reminded him of Dana herself. “You’re going to wear it, then?”
“I, um, I guess so. As you said, it does make our story more convincing. You thought of everything, didn’t you?”
He grinned, relieved that the tense moment had passed. “I’ve orchestrated some pretty elaborate hoaxes in my time. I’ll have to tell you about some of the stunts my university buddies talked me into pulling. There was one in particular. It involved a goat, a parachute and a particularly pompous
history professor.”
“I didn’t know you went to college,” Dana commented, stashing the ring box in her purse.
Cody winced. “University of Arkansas. But I didn’t finish,” he admitted. “I washed out during my sophomore year—found out they wouldn’t let me major in partying.”
Evading unpleasant memories, he quickly changed the subject. “Tell me about your family. If we’re going to pull this scam off, I really need a few more details than you’ve given me so far.”
Dana drew a deep breath, as though wondering how to begin. Cody sensed that she was still reluctant to talk about her personal business, even though it had been her idea to involve him this weekend.
“You said we’ll be staying at your stepmother’s house,” he said promptingly. “Is your father still living?”
“No. He died five years ago.”
There was grief behind the quiet statement. “I’m sorry,” Cody said.
Dana looked out the side window, her face averted from him.
Though he was tempted to shut up, Cody pressed on, needing to know more about the circumstances he’d impulsively fallen into. “What about your mother?”
“She died when I was eight. My dad and I moved in with his parents after that. He met Barbara, my stepmother, when I was eleven. She was a divorcee, with a daughter who’s almost three years older than I am. They married when I was twelve, and had my half brother almost two years later. Dad was forty-three when Andy was born, and Barbara was thirty-nine. They were both delighted to have a son together.”.
“How did you feel about it?”
Dana glanced at him with a faint smile. “I’d grown very fond of Barbara, and I’d always wanted a little brother. I fell in love with Andy the first time I saw him. Daddy called me Andy’s ‘other mother.’“
“What about your stepsister? Was she as pleased?”
Dana’s smile faded. “Lynette had a harder time adjusting to the new family. Her father was still living, and she was close to him. She never really got over her parents’ divorce, though Barbara once told me the marriage had been a mistake from the beginning. Barbara and Daddy were so happy together, and I think it hurt Lynette that Barbara loved my father in a way she’d never been able to love Lynette’s.”
“I guess I can sympathize with that,” Cody murmured.
Dana nodded. “So can I, now that I’m older. Lynette and I weren’t close—she wouldn’t allow us to be. But there was never any real conflict between us while we were young.”
Something in Dana’s voice made Cody wonder if there had been conflict more recently. Not that it was any of his business, of course, he reminded himself.
“You weren’t very old when your father died,” he said instead.
“I’d just graduated from high school,” Dana explained. “I’d planned to start college in the fall. I’ve wanted to teach since I was in junior high. But Lynette had just married and moved away when Dad died, and poor Barbara had a terrible time dealing with his death. To be honest, she fell apart. I couldn’t leave her and Andy like that, so I decided to postpone college for a while and stay at home to help out.”
Cody couldn’t help but be impressed by her sacrifice. It must have been difficult for a grief-stricken eighteen-yearold to put aside her own plans in order to take care of her widowed stepmother and baby brother, he thought. Had it been then that she’d become so cool and serious-or had she always been that way?
“Anyway,” Dana continued briskly, obviously wanting to finish the story quickly, “I went to work in an insurance office, and Barbara went into grief counseling, and things got better. Andy started school, and Barbara became involved in volunteer work at the children’s hospital. A little over a year ago, right after my twenty-third birthday, I decided it was time to concentrate on my own plans again.
“With Barbara’s encouragement, I applied to several colleges. Percy Teacher’s College offered me a scholarship. I looked it over, liked what I saw and signed up. Then I saw the ad in the local paper for a waitress position at Country Straight—and you know the rest.
“There you have it,” she said flippantly. “The life story of Dana Marie Preston.”
Cody suspected that several significant details had been left out of her so-called life story.
Men, for example.
Had Dana ever been involved in a serious relationship? With her looks, he found it hard to believe men hadn’t noticed her. He certainly had, not that it had gotten him anywhere. Had she treated all men with chilly reserve, or had she saved that distinction for him?
Which brought him to another missing detail. “You still haven’t told me why you need a phony fiancé this weekend,” he reminded her. “I haven’t got a clue what you want me to do—or why.”
Dana twisted the diamond ring on her left hand and chewed her lower lip.
Watching her out of the corner of his eye, Cody couldn’t help but remember how her lips had felt beneath his. It wasn’t the first time he’d replayed the kiss in his mind. And he found himself wondering when he’d have a chance to kiss her again.
He told himself he wanted to do so only out of curiosity—would it feel as good to kiss her again as it had that first time?
He was beginning to think he would have to prod her to answer him when she finally drew a deep breath, looked up at him and said with devastating simplicity, “My stepmother is dying.”
The Jeep swerved. Cody brought it quickly back under control. “She’s—dying?” he repeated, uncertain that he’d heard her correctly.
Dana swallowed audibly and nodded. Her green eyes were moist. “Yes. Her fiftieth birthday isn’t far away. It’s very unlikely that she’ll live to celebrate it.”
Cody was stunned. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Barbara knows it, too.”
Cody shook his head, glanced into the rearview mirror and pulled the Jeep over to the shoulder of the road. Putting it into Park, he turned in his seat to face her, unable to concentrate on driving until he’d gotten this straight.
“Look, Dana, we’ve got to talk about this. I really thought you wanted to pull a practical joke on your family, something along the lines of what I planned for my own.”
“I told you it wasn’t a joke,” she reminded him.
“I know you did, but…”
He shoved a hand through his shaggy blond hair. “Why do you want to lie to your dying stepmother?” he finally asked bluntly, unable to think of a more tactful way to phrase the question.
Dana winced. “It isn’t as bad as you make it sound,” she protested. “I have a good reason, believe me.”
“I’m waiting to hear it.”
She gave him a resentful look. “Stop sounding so critical. I wouldn’t have even thought of this if you and Jake hadn’t come up with the idea the other day.”
“We were talking about a joke,” he reminded her. “A gag.”
“Call it what you want, but you’re still planning to deceive your family,” she snapped. “And for a lot less of a reason than I have.”
He folded his arms. “I’m still waiting.”
She exhaled, pushed her hair away from her face, twisted the ring again, then looked at him. “Barbara was an only child and her parents have been dead for years. My father’s people are all gone, too, except for a couple of distant cousins. Once Barbara is…gone, Lynette and I will be Andy’s only family.”
She seemed to choose her words very carefully. “Lynette is married and lives in New York with her husband, Alan, who does something in the stock market. I’m not sure what, exactly. Lynette’s a commercial artist. They don’t have children—by choice—and hadn’t planned to start a family anytime soon.”
Cody was beginning to understand. “Does this have something to do with your little brother?”
Dana nodded. “Lynette has told Barbara that she and Alan are willing to take Andy in, but I think that would be a terrible mistake. They’re both so busy, so involved in their careers and thei
r social activities. Lynette said she’d hire a nanny for Andy initially, and then make sure he receives a good education as he grows older.”
“Boarding schools,” Cody interpreted.
Dana bit her lip again. “I’m afraid so,” she said after a moment. “She’s never come right out and said so, but—”
Cody shrugged. “Sounds like a logical assumption. I’ve never thought New York City was a place to raise a child. Of course, growing up in small-town Arkansas myself, I find it hard to imagine raising kids in any big city.”
Dana nodded. “I grew up near Memphis, but we always lived in quiet neighborhoods, always had a house with a big yard to play in, and safe places to ride our bikes and our roller skates and skateboards.”
“I always had a big dog for a pet, and nearby woods to explore and creeks to splash through. I can’t imagine growing up surrounded by concrete and skyscrapers,” Cody mused.
“Neither can I,” Dana agreed with a shudder. “Andy would be miserable in New York, Cody. I just know he would.”
“How does he feel about your stepsister and her husband?”
“He’s fond of them, I suppose,” she said slowly. “He really doesn’t know them very well. He was little more than a toddler when Lynette moved away. They don’t get back to visit very often.”
Cody still didn’t quite understand. “Are you saying that you want to raise Andy yourself?”
“Yes,” Dana whispered and there was so much longing in her eyes that Cody’s throat tightened. “Oh, Cody, I couldn’t bear to have Lynette and Alan take him away. He’s so sweet and so open and loving—I just know they’d change him. I’d hardly ever get to see him, and we’d grow apart—that would break my heart.”
Cody touched her shoulder consolingly. “You love him very much, don’t you?”
“He’s the only family I have,” she murmured.
Cody thought of his own large, close-knit clan. His parents lived in Saint Louis, and his younger sister, Celia, had recently married and moved to New Mexico, and he knew how hard it was to be separated by so many miles. But he was lucky. His sister Rachel, her husband and her two children still lived in Percy, where Cody could see them anytime he liked. His beloved grandmother was only a couple of hours away, and the rest of the family gathered at every opportunity, so that they saw one another often.