Not Actually Engaged (Otherwise Engaged #1)

by Jan Hinds

  Angie shook her head. Her voice lowered to a whisper. “I won’t tell you why, but I can tell you how I lie.”

  Tina and Paige both moved closer to Angie.

  Paige touched her arm and asked, “Angie can we help you? Are you in danger?”

  Angie waived her hand in dismissal. “I have everything under control. I have a plan. I can give you tips on lying, but I don’t recommend making it a way of life. The guilt still gets to me sometimes. The trick is to think of the big picture. It also helps to pattern your thinking to view the lie as the truth.”

  Paige’s face blanched. “Great, all I have to do is live in a fantasy world believing I’m really engaged to Cooper.”

  With a shake of her head, Angie said, “Only when you’re around the people you’re lying to. You have to compartmentalize your life. Be the fiancée around your parents, be the friend when you’re not.”

  “Wow.” Paige swiped her hand over her for forehead. “Last night I insisted we tell our parents the truth, but the more I thought about it, I don’t want to be the one to force a wedge between Cooper and his parents when they find out he’s been deceiving them. At the very least, it will hurt them. They’re really loving parents. Then again, if we continue with the charade, I’m lying to my family as well. Since the damage is already done, I agreed to continue to pretend to be engaged. Do you think I’m doing the right thing?”

  Tina folded her arms and lowered her voice. “I don’t know. I’m just worried he’s going to break your heart. I know how much you like him.”

  Angie shook her head. “I’m no expert on families, or relationships, but it sounds like no matter what you do, someone will get hurt. Only you can decide who you will hurt, and if hurting them is better than lying to protect them.” She breathed out a harsh, humorless laugh. “My father says the truth will set you free.”

  “Do you believe him?” Paige asked.

  “My father is the biggest liar in all creation.” She waved her hand as if erasing what she said from the air between them. “One thing I’ve learned is that there is a price or consequence for every decision we make. What you have to figure out is, what is the price and are you willing to pay it?”

  After considering her friend’s troubling words, Paige said, “I know none of this is real, but there might be a silver lining. Maybe living with him will cure me of my crush on him. I’ll probably find out he has annoying habits that will drive me nuts.”

  Tina began filling a box with Paige’s movie collection. “You know you’ll always have a place here if you need to leave him. Anytime, night or day. I want you to keep your key to the apartment.”

  “She won’t need to leave me. I have no annoying habits,” Cooper said from the doorway. He leaned on one crutch and the dark look in his brown eyes caused Paige’s heart to race triple time.

  She cringed and wondered how much he heard. She narrowed her eyes at him. “What about eavesdropping and answering someone else’s phone messages?”

  Tina pulled clothes from the closet and folded them carefully into a suitcase. “Who else did he contact besides me?”

  “My dad, and he sent a text to Ted, impersonating me, and broke up with him. In a text!”

  Tina eyed Cooper with renewed interest. “I’m beginning to have a higher opinion of you.”

  With a bow of his head, he said, “Thank you.” His eyebrow lifted as he handed Paige her phone. “Speaking of the ex, you got another message from him.”

  She put her hands on her hips. “What are you doing with my phone?”

  “You left it on the kitchen island this morning and I picked it up for you.”

  “And yet you failed to give it to me.” Paige took it from him and read the text. Her eyebrows inched higher the more she read. “Hmm.”

  She slipped the phone into the back pocket of her jeans and taped together another box.

  Tina, Angie, and Cooper said in unison, “Well?”

  Paige looked up. “Well what?”

  Cooper raised his eyebrow. “What did he say?”

  “If you must know, I sent him a message this morning and told him a friend texted him last night as a prank, but that considering his response, ending things might be a good idea.” She looked at Tina. “Sorry, he thinks it was you.”

  Tina covered her heart with her hand. “A cross I will gladly bear.”

  Cooper entered the room. “So what did he text back?”

  After emptying the contents of her dresser drawers into a box, she folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “You mean you didn’t read it?”

  “You know I didn’t.”

  Paige raised her eyebrows and tilted her head.

  He held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, I saw the first line. So what did he say?”

  “That is between me and Ted,” she said and turned back to her dresser.

  Cooper stopped in front of her and tilted her chin up, forcing her to look at him. “We’re supposed to be engaged. That makes it my business.”

  “Ah, but we both know we aren’t engaged. So that negates any interest you have in my other relationships.”

  He lowered his lips until they hovered close to hers. “I thought we clarified things last night.”

  Backing away from him, she shook her finger at him and said, “Lust does not equate with love. Nor does our mutual attraction negate every other relationship in my life. If we were actually engaged, then you would have a say in how I relate to other men. A fake engagement gives you no rights.”

  Angie picked up an envelope from Paige’s desk and fanned her face. “Daffodils, Paige, things are heating up in here. We need to turn on the air conditioning.”

  Paige taped two more boxes together, strategically placing them between her and Cooper. He grinned at the boxes like he knew exactly what she was doing. “What else can I help you with?” he asked.

  Paige handed him a box and motioned to the chair. “You can fill this with everything from the desk and add the books from that shelf. Mark the box office when you’re done.”

  He sat down in the desk chair to fill the box.

  Tina took the last of the clothes from the closet and waved an empty hanger at Paige. “When are you going to let me take all this to Goodwill and design you a new wardrobe?”

  “When I lose the last thirty pounds. Aunt Marty wants to buy me a new wardrobe to celebrate when I reach my goal weight. She’ll be paying and I’ll gladly bow to you as my style guru.”

  Cooper’s eyes swept over Paige’s curves. “You don’t need to lose any more weight. You look perfect as you are.”

  Tina put her hands on her hips. “Aww, that’s sweet, but I’m pretty sure that’s her decision, not yours.”

  The stern warning in her friend’s voice elicited a chuckle from Paige as she taped together another box.

  Loud banging on the apartment door interrupted them. “That’ll be Zach,” Tina said. She navigated around the boxes Paige had strewn around the room to block Cooper from getting close to her.

  Angie looked from Paige to Cooper, grabbed an empty box and said, “I think I’ll double check the kitchen to make sure all your dishes are packed.”

  Nodding his head toward the door after Angie left, he asked, “What’s with the flowery language?”

  “Angie? Her father is a minister and she’s afraid to pick up the habit of swearing, so she uses flowers instead. No one is allowed to cuss around her so watch your language. She hasn’t said much else about her family, but I get the distinct impression she’s afraid of her dad.”

  “I guess that explains why I never hear you swearing,” Cooper said as he tossed boxes onto the bed, and moved closer to Paige. “I think I need to know what Ted wrote to you.”

  She laughed and grabbed the boxes, throwing them back in his path. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re grounded from touching my phone.”

  He laughed. “Grounded? I’ve never been grounded before.” He tossed the boxes behind him.

  “I don’t believe
that. Everyone gets grounded at some point.”

  “Not me. I was a perfect son.”

  “Sure you were,” Paige said in a doubtful tone. She giggled and dodged away from him when he reached for her.

  Cooper flailed his arms as if losing his balance and Paige grabbed his waist to steady him.

  He wrapped her in his arms and hugged her close. “That’s just where I wanted you.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “You’ve been avoiding being close to me all morning. I—”

  A deep voice interrupted Cooper’s response. “I thought you said he was a jerk. I think he just likes her a lot.” Tina’s friend Zach filled the doorway with his broad shoulders. His thick strawberry blond hair was damp and looked like he’d finger combed it back from his face.

  Cooper’s head jerked up at the sound of Zach’s voice. “Zach Lancaster? Man, I haven’t seen you since college.”

  Zach kicked boxes out of his path and pumped Cooper’s extended hand. “Tina, you didn’t tell me Paige’s friend was Cooper Jennings. I would have told you not to worry. Jennings is one of the good guys.” Zach’s amiable grin slipped. “Man, I was sorry to hear about your leg. You were on such a roll. I was rooting for you to pass all Pierce’s records and rub his nose in it. Tough break.” He cringed. “Sorry, poor choice of words.

  Paige looked from Zach to Cooper. “I take it you two know each other?”

  Zach pouted and put his hands on his trim hips. “You mean to say, you never realized I took over Sawyer Pierce’s football position at Purdue after he left? You wound me Paige. I thought you were our resident football trivia queen.”

  Tina slapped Zach on the arm. “Like she’s supposed to remember every mediocre football player who takes to the field.”

  “Hey, now, Zach was no slouch,” Cooper said in his defense.

  “True, but I was no Sawyer Pierce, or Cooper Jennings.”

  Cooper grinned. “I have a confession. I like to watch the NFL games just to cheer when Pierce gets tackled.”

  Zach gave him a fist bump. “I do the same thing.”

  Cooper snapped his fingers. “There’s a Purdue game this afternoon. And the Colts are playing tonight.”

  Zach frowned at Paige. “Yeah. I planned to watch them until I got drafted into the moving business.”

  Cooper looked down at Paige and raised that blasted eyebrow. If he didn’t know what that did to her, she wasn’t about to tell him. “How about we divide and conquer? Zach and I can move your things to the house, then go pick up an entertainment system while you girls get snacks for the game and groceries for tomorrow.”

  Paige pointed a warning finger at Zach. “Cooper can’t be carrying heavy things. He’s not to even walk up and down the stairs if he can avoid it. If I find out you let him do anything that sets back his recovery, I will hurt you Zachary Lancaster.”

  Cooper squeezed Paige’s shoulder. “I guess we’d better listen to the boss. Do you know someone else we can enlist to help us today?”

  Zach thought a moment and then snapped his fingers and grinned. “Do you remember Aaron Pratt?”

  “Offensive tackle who graduated a couple years ahead of me?”

  “Yeah. He lives here in Fort Wayne. I landscaped his house last spring. We could ask him to help and invite him and his wife to come over for the game too.”

  Cooper’s full, dimpled smile warmed Paige’s heart. “Sounds like a great plan. I’d love to catch up with both him and you,” he said.

  Paige looked up into Cooper’s eyes. “You do realize we don’t have enough furniture for us to sit on, let alone anyone else.”

  His shoulders slumped. “You’re right. I forgot we still have to shop for furniture today.”

  Paige picked up her tablet. “Not necessarily. We need to prioritize. I’ll check things out and see if we can still pull things together before game time.”

  Paige sat down on the floor next to Cooper while he packed up the contents of her desk. “We should be able to set up the entertainment system. I might be able to find some camp chairs to get us through until you can get the living room furniture that you want.”

  Cooper grazed her cheek with his knuckles. “The furniture we want. The most important thing I want is you moved in. Next in line of priority is to prepare for dinner with our parents, but I’d love to be able to watch the games with Zach and Aaron. The camp chairs will be fun until we can get what we want. It’ll be like tailgating in the living room.”

  Paige handed him her tablet. “You sit there and shop for the television and gadgets you want. Go ahead and purchase online and mark it for store pick up.”

  His hand lingered on her arm as he accepted the tablet. Warmth coursed through her from his touch and she hurried from the room before anyone saw the impact a mere touch had on her.

  In the bathroom, she closed the door and wet a washcloth with cold water. After ringing it out she pressed it against the back of her neck, her forehead, and her crimson splotched cheeks. No doubt about it—she had to avoid Cooper’s touch or she risked a severe broken heart.

  ♥♥♥

  Shortly after Cooper finished his online shopping, Aaron Pratt arrived. While the guys reconnected, Paige went through the apartment checking to make certain nothing was left behind.

  It only took one trip to move all Paige’s worldly possessions to Cooper’s house. None of her garage sale furniture would fit in the Victorian home so she left it in the apartment. Having her furniture left there gave her the sense of having a safety net to fall back on.

  After unloading Paige’s car, Tina took charge of the unpacking while Paige and Cooper picked up the rest of his belongings from his parent’s house. Before they went in, Cooper said, “I can’t tell you what it means to me for you to go along with the fake engagement. I wasn’t looking forward to disappointing my parents after all they’ve done for me.”

  “I like your parents. I hope when I do find someone who wants to marry me, that his parents will be at least half as nice as yours are.”

  She played her part well, and even initiated a kiss for the first time in front of Matt and Sylvia Jennings. It was a brief peck on the lips before leaving his side to finish packing up his room, but it was enough of a moment that Cooper drew her close and kissed her deeply before letting her go.

  After loading up the trunk, Matt carried a heavy, taped-up box to the car and carefully placed it in the back seat. He whispered in Cooper’s ear and winked at him.

  Cooper in turn hugged his mother. “Thank you. I’m sure she’ll love it.”

  As they pulled out of the drive, curiosity ate at Paige. “What will I love?”

  Cooper quirked his eyebrow. “What did Ted text you?”

  “What?” Paige laughed. “That’s not fair. What did your dad say?”

  “I’ll tell you when you show me Ted’s message.” Cooper folded his arms and smirked at her.

  “Fine.”

  “So what did he say?”

  Paige pretended she was indifferent, even though she was dying to know what was in the box. “No. I mean, fine, don’t tell me.”

  He grumbled something unintelligible.

  “What did you say?”

  “I said geraniums,” he growled.

  Paige laughed so hard she almost ran a red light.

  She thought of his parents and their kindness to her. “About tomorrow and our fake engagement.”

  “Yeah?” he asked with an uncertain tone.

  “People break up all the time. Once you’re healed, we can just tell everyone our relationship didn’t work out.”

  “I don’t know. People will find it hard to believe you decided not to marry me. I’m quite the catch, you know.” He batted his eyes at her.

  She laughed. “Right. So I’m supposed to take the hit and let everyone think you didn’t want to marry me, because that’s so much more plausible?”

  “Hey, that’s not what I meant at all.” The tenderness in his voice stirred a warmt
h in her heart. “You can make up some fictional annoying habits to justify rejecting me.”

  “Who says they’ll be fictional?” she teased.

  “Name one annoying trait I have,” before she could say anything, he added, “that doesn’t have to do with your phone.”

  She scrunched her face up at him. “Give me time. I’ll come up with something.”

  When they got back to the house, Zach and Aaron unloaded her car and Cooper had her follow him to his office. He unlocked a drawer in his desk and took out an envelope, handing it to Paige. Inside she found a stack of hundred dollar bills.

  “That should be enough to get groceries and whatever else we need. We’ll stop by the bank on Monday and add you to the business account so you can make purchases and pay bills with the company account. I want to add you to my personal account too, so you can take care of my bills when I’m laid up. Next week we’ll shop for the rest of the furniture we want.”

  Paige looked from the money to him. “You were that sure of me that you had all this prepared?”

  Cooper trailed his finger along the side of her face, igniting a tingling flush from his fingertip on her skin. “I wasn’t sure, merely hopeful.”

  “You have to stop touching me,” she said backing away from him.

  “You have to get used to me touching you or we’re never going to sell this engagement to our parents.”

  ♥♥♥

  The men took the van to the electronics store while the women headed to a superstore in Paige’s car. On the way, Angie planned the menu and jotted down a shopping list.

  In the sporting goods section, Paige found camping chairs and a zero gravity recliner for Cooper. She also picked up a set of TV trays.

  The guys returned before the girls and could be heard laughing in the apartment living room.

  Angie took charge of the apartment kitchen and put Paige and Tina to work on the appetizers and game snacks while she fixed a batch of brownies and prepped tenderloin pork chops for Sunday’s dinner. She jotted down the recipes for dinner rolls, Maple Glaze Pork Chops, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, and a salad with candied walnuts, fresh pears and salad greens. For desert Paige planned to make a fresh apple pie, her father’s favorite.