The Engagement Plot

by Phillips, Krista;

  Her stomach constricted into a ball of rocks. What if it was the reporter? Would they be that bold to just knock on the door? Had they seen the men leave and assumed she was a sitting duck?

  Grabbing the first heavy thing she could find, a cast-iron skillet, she made for the door, fully intending to show whoever dared cross her what kind of stock Minnesota girls were made of.

  She fisted the skillet and opened the door.

  The business end of a rifle greeted her.

  Her best friend—a.k.a. horrible advice giver—stood holding the weapon and sporting a pair of snow shoes. “Where is he?”

  “Who?”

  “Mr. Skunk himself. How dare he?” Carly elbowed her way into the room and stalked around, wielding the gun as she yelled. “Come out and show your face, you lowdown piece of dirt.”

  Oh, how Hanna was glad Will was gone at that moment, yet, at the same time, regretted it, too. He would have probably wet his pants seeing sweet Carly aim for him. “He’s not here. Gone fishing with Dad.”

  Her friend and former boss lowered the gun and gaped at her. “Your dad made friends with that reprobate? You cannot be serious.”

  “Dad seems to think I need to forgive him. Biblical and all.”

  Carly set the gun against the wall and plopped down on the couch with a huff. “I’ll give you biblical. Look up all those verses in Psalms about David praying for God to smite the enemy and those who hurt God’s people. No one hurts the good Lord’s people without paying dearly.”

  Hanna wanted nothing more than to say a hearty “Amen!” but the huge flaws in her friend’s theology forced her to shrug her shoulders instead. “He’s here. He has apologized. And, well…” She paused, unsure how to break the news to her friend.

  “Well, what?”

  Hanna bit her bottom lip. “We’re kinda, sorta, maybe, a little bit…engaged?”

  Carly shot up and grabbed her gun again. “What lake are they at? I came in here with this thing unloaded, but I’ll go find me some bullets if I have to. No one is brainwashing my best friend.”

  “Oh yes, and the school board would love that. First, a teacher in the tabloids. Then a principal on prime-time news for murdering a CEO. Just lovely.”

  Carly glared at her. “I won’t kill him. Just hurt him a little.”

  Her friend wouldn’t do anything of the sort. She wouldn’t even go hunting for fear of hurting an animal. Probably borrowed the gun from her dad. Still, Hanna grabbed the rifle from her and held it for safekeeping. Just in case. “It isn’t for real. It was his idea to get the press off our backs for a bit. Fake an engagement, live separately for a while, then call it off quietly. Difference of opinions. Amicable split. Clean and drama free.”

  Her friend’s down-turned face and incredulous eyes told her feelings on the matter. “Sex addict, Hanna? Not so clean, don’t you think?”

  “You saw that already?”

  “Internet. I’d seen the news but figured it was just tabloid crud. My best friend would have called me if something that momentous had happened. But no, I have to see my Facebook feed lit up with pictures of my friend the sex addict and her lover. Guess I was wrong.”

  Hanna sank down beside her, rifle in her lap, and covered her face with her hands. “I was going to tell you. This just all got out of hand so fast.”

  Carly put an arm around her and gave her a sideways hug. “I’m just glad I live close so I could come knock some sense into you.”

  The reminder hurt more than helped. Because of Hanna’s blunder, Carly’s job had been in jeopardy as well. She’d allowed Hanna to take leave to be on the show, in fact, had been the one to encourage it. When all headed south for the winter, the school board had taken the principal to task.

  Instead of fighting, Carly had taken a job at a school closer to home. At least she lived in her own house, even though it was a trailer on her parents’ property that used to belong to her grandparents. She had plans to buy her own house closer to the school after the winter was over, though.

  Still, as much as she owed Carly, Hanna knew what she had to do. “I’m flying to Nashville with him on Monday.”

  Carly dropped her arm. “And that’s supposed to stop the rumors how?”

  “We’re going to date. Casually. I’m only going for a week or two. Will’s gonna set up some in-person interviews from reputable sources to tell the real story.”

  “Real? I thought you were faking the engagement. That doesn’t sound real to me.”

  Hanna stuffed down the twinge of guilt into her mental box and sat on the lid to keep it tightly shut. “It’s more real than what they’re printing in those stupid magazines. And it’s real for now.”

  Carly stared at her for a minute. A super uncomfortable sixty seconds. Hanna tried not to squirm but failed.

  Then Carly raised her eyebrows. “You’re still in love with him, aren’t you?”

  Hanna gasped even as her heart raced. “No, of course not. I can’t stand him. I’m trying very hard not to hate him.”

  “I think my best friend protests too much.”

  “You’re out of your mind.”

  “It makes sense. Pretend to be engaged. Snap a few fun pictures. Travel to Nashville. Hope that he falls in love with you all over again and actually isn’t an imbecile this time.”

  Hanna hopped up faster than if she’d been sitting on hot coals and stomped across the room, propping the rifle up against the wall. It wasn’t safe in her arms when she was this angry, loaded or not. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Will means nothing to me. I buried my feelings for him at the bottom of the lake seven months ago. And that lake, for your information, is frozen solid.”

  “What if he dives in there, swims to the bottom, and tries to mess with your feelings again? Then what, Hanna? Your dad’s even being nice and drilling the hole through the ice for him.”

  “William doing that is about as likely as him walking through that door with a fish bigger than the one I caught in ’09.”

  As she finished speaking, the front door opened, and in walked Will and her father, each carrying two modest-sized Northerns.

  Jim’s face shone like it was Christmas all over again. “You should have seen it. Amazing. Boy-howdy, just downright amazing.”

  Hanna stood and took the fish from the men. She’d never seen her dad so animated since…since the winter of ’09 when she blew out his record for largest catch. “Did you catch a big one, Dad?”

  “Me? Oh, heavens no. Take a look for yourself. Will, show her a picture I took on that fancy phone of yours.”

  Carly stood beside her and implanted an elbow into her side.

  Hanna shot her a dirty look. Surely, it couldn’t be—

  She grabbed the outstretched phone from Will’s hand and looked at the picture.

  Will stood—wet from the knees down, a huge stupid grin on his face—next to the largest fish she’d ever seen in her life.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  You’re lucky this car still runs.” Hanna stared out the passenger-side window of the black Lexus sedan Will and her dad had finally freed from the ditch the day before, ruining all her well-laid plans.

  Her dad had agreed to drive them to the airport since they assumed the car would be out of commission for a while. This would have at least put a firm barrier between her and Will until they were out of Minnesota. But low and behold, the two men, emboldened by their fishing triumph, had taken a portable car heater, shovels, sand, and chains out Sunday afternoon, and four hours later, they drove up the gravel drive in separate vehicles.

  All the car had needed to start up once they got it out of its wintry jail was a little heat on the engine and a jump.

  The resulting high five from the two macho men, way too proud of themselves, had made Hanna stomp back into the house disgusted. She might actually like the stuffed-shirt, doesn’t-get-his-hands-dirty Will better than this new version her dad had inspired.

  Will had even grown a beard. The st
ubble made him look even more handsome, which was highly irritating.

  Now she was riding all the way to Duluth with her rugged “fiancé” by herself.

  Common sense said she needed to get used to it sooner rather than later. But common sense had no part in Hanna’s life lately. It had long since flown the Knight’s coop and rested in the minds of people like Carly, who declared that Hanna had lost every last one of her marbles and a few checker pieces, too. She’d threatened to kidnap Hanna until Will gave up and flew home.

  Hanna almost wished her friend had made good on the threat.

  Will flicked the radio button and turned it to a rock station. “I’m just glad we were able to save your dad a trip.”

  Leave it to Will to make her feel bad about brooding. Why did the man have such an innate ability to make her feel guilty when it all was 100 percent his fault?

  And what was with this awful music? She changed the station to country. “He wouldn’t have minded. It does him good to get outside of Embarrass once in a while.”

  “I think he has a pretty good life there. He enjoys it, and that’s what matters. Country? Really? I assumed you were a rock kind of girl.” He flipped the channel back to some woman screeching about how everything she did was wrong, and how she didn’t really care because it was her life and she could mess it up if she wanted to.

  “Do you even hear what they are singing about? It’s awful.” She turned the knob over a few clicks to the familiar twang.

  “You’ve got to be kidding. Like it’s any worse than this ‘honey done me wrong, so I’m gonna go drink my sorrows away and shack up with some random girl for kicks’ kinda song? Real holy there, Hanna.”

  The dig using the made-up nickname she’d been dubbed with was like a slap in the face. If he weren’t driving, she’d return the favor. “Don’t be a jerk. And that is not what he’s singing about.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  In truth, she had never really paid attention. The music was just catchy. She clicked the radio off. “There, we’ll just drive in silence. Better?”

  “No.”

  She leaned against the side of the door, as far away as she could get, and glared back at him. “You’re from Nashville, and you don’t like country? Really? That’s an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one.”

  “I’m not from Nashville. I just live there. And I like it just fine, actually.”

  “So your problem with it today?” She narrowed her eyes when she saw his smirk.

  “Would you be mad if I said I just wanted to see you all riled up?” Cross out oxy and what do you get? Moron. That fit just as well. “It depends. Would you be mad if I said I wanted to fix this whole mess by saying you forced me into bed against my will that weekend and have been stalking me ever since?”

  He slammed on the brakes, causing the driver behind them to swerve and honk their horn, and pulled to the side of Highway 53. His eyes were almost black with anger. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  She wouldn’t. She’d been mostly kidding, but seeing him this mad made her rethink things a minute. “How do you know? You only knew me for, what, six weeks? Maybe I’m really some girl who likes to extort CEOs for their money.”

  His glare turned into a smirk, and he reached over and tweaked her on the nose. “No. You’re not that kind of girl. Even I know that, Hanna. Now, revenge, maybe. But extortion? That’s out of your league.”

  She twisted so he couldn’t read her face and stared out the window. “You have no idea who I really am.”

  “No? Let me give it a whirl. You’re a Christian. A goody-goody. You try not to do wrong but mess up every once in a while, like going on a TV show that brings your morals into question. You love your family and would do anything for them. You take your reputation seriously, which is the only reason you’ve agreed to continue our engagement and come to Nashville with me. You are sweet, and loving, and…competitive.”

  Hanna turned full in her seat to see him sitting there, a triumphant look on his face. “What? I am not competitive.”

  “That’s what I thought at first when your dad told me. But then I saw your eyes when you saw the picture of me with that fish.”

  Hanna didn’t want to remember the fish. She hadn’t been pleased about her record being broken. But it was the sign Carly took it to mean that bothered her the most. “I was surprised, that’s all.”

  “I’ll bet the moment you get back to Minnesota you’ll be out on that lake trying to outdo me.”

  The thought of being back in Embarrass and done with this whole mess made hope swim in her chest. “Of course I’ll beat you. That’s a given, William Preston.”

  “You sound like my mother when you say my whole name.”

  “I’m sure she added your middle name, too.”

  While he talked, Will shifted in his seat and looked over his shoulder at oncoming traffic. “Only when she was really mad.”

  “How often was that?”

  He flashed a boyishly handsome smile back at her. “Too often for her liking.”

  A second later, before Hanna could get a thought in to stop him, Will leaned over the console, put his hand behind her neck, and pressed his lips to hers.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  She really should push him away, and she would.

  But the kiss brought back memories. Sweet silly ones, when they knew cameras were rolling yet kissed anyway. When Will would look at the camera guy and say, “If you didn’t get a good shot, I’d be glad to do a retake,” then wink at her. She’d felt shy and delighted at the same time.

  This time, no cameras were rolling.

  She was just kissing Will.

  Kissing…the enemy.

  Realization splashed her in the face like a bucket full of icy cold water from Lake Superior. Hanna jerked back and would have slapped him if he hadn’t caught her hand in time and pinned it in her lap. “Cameras, Hanna. Pulled over a few lengths behind us.”

  Both hurt and relief swirled in her belly. So the kiss hadn’t been real. Just like all the other ones.

  She started to turn her head to look, but a squeeze to her hand stopped her.

  Will tilted his head toward the windshield. “Rearview mirror.”

  A glance confirmed a suspicious pickup truck in the distance parked on the side of the road as well.

  At least the sleazeball knew to get a decent vehicle instead of a swanky sedan like Will.

  Ignoring the pounding thud of her heart, she squeezed her eyes shut to block out the feelings she did not want to be having. “You had no right to kiss me.”

  “Had to. Otherwise, who knows what kind of story they’d come up with about us fighting on the side of the road?”

  For a CEO, the man had the brains of a rat. “So you’d rather us be making out on the side of the road? That’s better?”

  “Given my options, yes.”

  Hanna’s lips ached from the kiss. She could still feel his mouth against hers and caught the long-forgotten woodsy scent of his aftershave tickling her nose. She’d always teased him that he smelled handsome. And doggone it if he still did, maybe even more so if that was possible.

  No need to let him know all those tidbits, though. It was purely a natural physical reaction. Nothing deeper. She reclaimed her hand, turned in her seat, and adjusted her sweater. “Warn me next time, okay?”

  “Would you have let me?”

  “In your dreams.”

  He winked. “My point exactly.”

  “Just don’t do it again.”

  Will inched the car forward, the wheels sliding in the snowy shoulder before he could merge back into traffic. Finally catching traction, the sedan made it onto the road.

  Hanna peeked in her side mirror. The truck pulled out as well.

  Will turned the radio back on, country this time. “You’ll have to act like you don’t hate me in public, you know. Think you can handle it?”

  No. That was the part she was dreading the most. Acting all lovey-dovey like nothing was up.
Like they were a happily engaged couple living on their hopes and dreams of a future of happily-ever-after bliss.

  All the while, Hanna’s hopes of a future with anyone might as well be swirling around a flushed porcelain commode. She was destined to work on Dad’s hay farm the rest of her life. Joy, joy.

  “I understand what’s expected of me, Will. I have as much invested in this as you do.”

  Will laughed. Not a ha-ha laugh, but a haughty, unbelieving chuckle. “I doubt that, Hanna. Unless you stand to lose a six-figure annual salary, bonus, and millions of dollars in stocks, that is.”

  The man and his money. Is that all he ever thought about? “You can pick up and start again. We’re talking about my whole life here. What decent man is going to want a wife who will risk putting him and their kids into the tabloids at any moment? My teaching career is over for now, maybe forever. I thought I could go back, but now, I’m not so sure anymore.”

  Not to mention her faith. But she didn’t want to go there. Her relationship with God was complicated at the moment and not something she cared to dwell on. She’d figure out what wasn’t right later.

  Will didn’t reply to her. Instead, he just drove a little faster. A clear male sign that he disagreed with her but didn’t want to get into it.

  And avoiding a deep discussion was perfectly fine with her.

  Whoever the snitch was, they had access to their itinerary in advance.

  “So what do you think about dates?” Will spoke a little louder than he normally would have in the first-class compartment, but the man catty-corner behind them with a large newspaper spread out in front of him spurred the increase in volume. He wanted to be sure the snoop heard every word. If the tabloids were going to print something, hopefully Will and Hanna could maneuver it to their advantage.

  Hanna scrunched up her cute little nose. “Dates? What are you talking— Ouch!”

  Will released the small piece of skin on her arm that he’d pinched as gently but accurately as possible. “For the wedding, sweetie. The day you’ll make me the happiest, luckiest man alive.”

  The look she shot him suggested that he’d be lucky to even be alive after this flight.