so deeply into my predicament.”
The street lamp illuminated only half of his face, but there was no mistaking his sincerity. She exhaled slowly and straightened in her seat. “Oh, it’s not all your fault. I went along with it, even when I realized who we were supposed to be fooling. I could have said no, but I didn’t.”
“Why did you do it?” he asked softly, his gaze just a little too direct.
Tess looked away. She didn’t have an answer for him, not one she could share without sounding pathetic. How could she tell him that work and school had taken up so much of her life for the past several years that she hadn’t had time for many dates or much fun? And despite all the complications their “date” had wrought, she had had fun. She’d enjoyed putting on a sexy dress and going out to a fancy restaurant. She’d enjoyed Jack’s company and the forbidden feelings he conjured up in her whenever he smiled or touched her hand. It was heady stuff for a woman who spent most of her spare time dressed in ratty sweats, her nose pressed into a textbook.
“Tess?” he prompted.
She decided it was best to ignore the question. “I can’t believe I said we’re having a June wedding. It just got out of control.”
“Yeah,” Jack said with a sigh. He leaned his forehead on the steering wheel and moaned like a man facing amputation without anesthesia. “Way out of control. I guess we should own up to it and apologize. We probably should have done that from the start. It would have been much easier.”
“I’ve been thinking the same thing myself, although I don’t relish the thought of telling Cora Faust I lied to her.” In jest, she asked, “Got any other ideas?”
Jack rolled his head to the side on the steering wheel and squinted at her, as if taking her question seriously. “Well, we could keep up the charade for a little while longer. I mean, just long enough for my position to be secure. Then we could tell the Fausts we called off our engagement.” He sat up and shrugged. “Tell them we decided we just weren’t suited.”
“Jack, I don’t know. My family.”
“I’m asking a lot, I know. Before you say no, think about it. We’ve already asked the Fausts to keep our engagement a secret. We could also ask them to keep quiet about our breakup to spare us any public embarrassment. No one else needs ever know we lied.” He grinned triumphantly. “It’s a brilliant plan, Tess.”
“You mean devious.”
“Well,” he cocked his head to one side. “Maybe just a little, but my intentions, ultimately, aren’t dishonest.”
She remained quiet for a moment, surprised to find she was actually considering what he proposed.
“It wouldn’t be for long, Tess, I promise. A few weeks, maybe a month. What do you say?”
Tess glanced around the empty parking lot and tried to figure out just why she was willing to continue playing along with this scheme, because that’s precisely what she was prepared to do. Surely, she had more than paid Jack back for the ruined suit. But then, Tess knew it had stopped being about the suit several lies ago. Maybe it had never been about the suit at all.
She liked Jack Maris. She liked spending time with him. She liked the way he said her name, and the way he had held her hand as they sat at the table, stroking the pad of his thumb over her knuckles with such casual tenderness. Maybe she was just being a fool, but this—whatever this was—felt right. She thought about her mother’s firm belief in fate. Perhaps Tess should believe in such things herself.
“I must be crazy,” she muttered.
Jack’s brows pulled together. “Is that a yes?”
“Yes, I’ll do it,” she said slowly.
In the low light, he looked relieved, then oddly troubled, as if he were having second thoughts. Fiddling with his seat belt, he said, “Make sure, Tess. You don’t have to, you know. I may have made you feel obligated, but you’re not.”
“It’s just a white lie, really,” she said, trying to reassure him as well as herself.
“Right, just one little white lie. Who can it hurt?”
“Certainly not the Fausts,” she agreed a little desperately. “After all, how can our pretending to be engaged possibly hurt them?”
“It will just be one less gift for them to buy come June,” he added with a smile.
“Then it’s settled.”
Once they reached an agreement there seemed little reason not to say good-night, but Tess hesitated until the silence became awkward.
“Well, I…” she said at the same time Jack began to speak. They both laughed a little tightly, then she said, “Go on, please.”
“I was just going to say that I’m flying back to Boston on Sunday night. I need to pack up my things and get my affairs in order.” He pulled a business card from his wallet and scribbled something on the back before handing it to her. “Here’s a number where you can reach me in the evenings if anything comes up. If you need me before Sunday call me at the Saint Sebastian.”
She nodded and tucked the card inside her purse.
“Well, I suppose I had better get going. I have a test tomorrow night that I haven’t studied for yet.”
“Test?”
She beamed a smile in his direction and informed him grandly, “Your fiancée, Jack Maris, is a college student, who, after this semester, will be only twelve credits shy of a degree in journalism.”
“Really?”
“Really. What did you think, that my aspirations stopped at being a waitress at Earl’s Place?”
Tess’s words held only teasing humor, but Jack realized he didn’t know what she aspired to be. He didn’t know much about her at all except that she had gorgeous hair, filled out a size-six dress with the perfection of a fashion model, and blushed prettily with only the slightest provocation. But those were superficial things. He surprised himself by wanting to know more about Tess Donovan. Much more.
She opened the door and got out, then poked her head back inside the car. The heavy curtain of her hair dangled down with all the invitation of a bull-fighter’s cape. He wondered if she realized how sexy she was, and decided that she didn’t when the smile she offered was more shy than sensual.
“Thank you for a very memorable evening, Jack.”
“Memorable,” he murmured as he watched her walk away.
Chapter Three
Dawn had barely broken the next morning when Jack donned sweats and set out on a five-mile run. The Saint Sebastian’s bellhop had mapped out the route and assured Jack it was scenic. Jack didn’t care about scenery. He wanted to clear his head, and he generally found that a punishing run helped him do that. These days he had a lot mucking up his orderly life.
Конец
