“No, but your surprise comes wrapped in a delicious package.”
Colin lifted an eyebrow. Mrs. Dalton had called him adorable and cute. She’d even said he was a handsome young man, but her salacious overtone made him feel embarrassed like he’d been hired out as a male escort.
“You brought me a box of Bourbon Nib Brittle?” Josie asked with excitement.
Shelby laughed. “Something much better.”
“I doubt that,” Josie replied dryly. “Have you ever tried Bourbon Brittle?”
Colin wouldn’t know. While in Nashville, he’d focused all his efforts on getting a face to face with Phillip Jacobs. He’d heard Phillip frequently hung out at the famous Bluebird Café for open mic night on Mondays, but Colin hadn’t been able to get on the list to sing. Two nights ago, he’d finally made it inside, but Phillip hadn’t shown up.
“Hush, I didn’t bring you any food,” Shelby said. “This is somethin’ you really need.”
“A new car?”
“No, it’s not a new car.”
Colin shifted from foot to foot. How long was Mrs. Dalton going to drag this out?
“Why don’t you just tell me since I’m never going to get it right,” Josie mumbled.
“All right,” Shelby said. “But maybe you should put the scissors down just in case you drop them.”
“You didn’t buy me a dog, did you?” Josie asked warily. “You know my landlady doesn’t allow pets.”
“It’s not a dog.” Shelby made a squealy noise of excitement and clapped her hands together. “I brought you a fiancé!” she said, sounding like a game-show hostess awarding the grand prize to one of the contestants.
Several seconds of silence passed. Colin could only imagine Ms. Sinclair’s shocked expression. “You brought me a what?” Josie asked.
“A fiancé. For your stepsister’s wedding.”
Another beat of silence followed. “Please tell me you’re joking,” Josie said.
“No joke, sweetheart.”
“Um, where did you find him? At the rent-a-fiancé store?”
“No, silly. He was at the party.”
“You didn’t pay this guy anything, did you?” Josie asked with a heavy sigh. “Because that would be wrong on so many levels.”
“Goodness, Josie, I thought you’d be excited.” Shelby’s voice held a hint of disappointment.
“I’m sorry…and I really appreciate the gesture, but I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“Oh, hush. It’s the perfect solution.” He heard the click of Shelby’s heels coming toward the doorway. “Just wait until you meet him. I promise you’ll be as excited as I am.”
“You mean he’s here?” Josie asked in a high-pitched voice. “Like at the house?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Shelby said, her footsteps coming closer and closer.
Colin glanced over his shoulder, trying to decide if he had time to run for the exit. Before he could take one step, Shelby opened the door and grabbed his hand. “Close your eyes, Josie. I’m bringing him inside.”
If he was going to make a run for it, he needed to do it now. Several things flashed through his mind. Like returning to England to continue weeding yards for other people. Then he thought about Gran and how happy she’d be if he was doing what he loved and sharing his music with the rest of the world.
Decision made, he followed Shelby into the large office and met Josie Sinclair’s startled blue eyes.
“Hello,” Colin said, offering her a smile. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
Josie stared at him with wide-eyes, her mouth falling open in shock. Colin was flattered by her response until he saw all the color drain from her face. He lunged forward, but wasn’t fast enough to catch her as she fell backward and hit the floor with a thud.
Chapter 3
Josie
Josie’s eyes snapped open, and she sputtered against a face-full of water. “There you go, love,” a male voice said in a British accent. “You gave me quite a scare.”
“So you threw water in my face?” she asked, blinking to clear her vision.
The man, who resembled the British rock star, Colin Wilde, chuckled. “Sorry about that. It was the only thing I could think to do.”
Her head hurt like crazy, and her vision was still a little blurred. She blinked several times in a row and focused on the handsome face in front of her. The celebrity British rock star she remembered had worn an earring in one ear, and his dark hair was longer, tipped with bleached highlights. Still, even with the dark brown hair and shadow of a beard, this guy looked so much like him it was uncanny. “Did anyone ever tell you that you look a lot like Colin Wilde?”
A slow smile curved his mouth. “I’ve been told that a time or two.”
She tried to stand up, but a wave of dizziness made her head spin. “Whoa,” she said, gripping onto the man’s hand. “Maybe I should sit here for a few more minutes.”
“Good idea. Mrs. Dalton has called for an ambulance.”
Usually, she’d argue but she had a whopper of a headache and was fighting nausea. Closing her eyes, she drew in a slow breath, trying to process what had just happened. Had Shelby really rented her a fiancé? She opened her eyes to find the handsome stranger looking at her with concern.
Aside from his hairstyle and the five o'clock shadow covering his jaw, he was a dead ringer for Colin Wilde, the lead singer for the British boyband Wild Card. Like every other girl in the world, Josie had crushed on the handsome singer. Then the band broke up, and Colin had disappeared from the limelight. She’d heard rumors that he’d been in and out of rehab. She’d also heard that he was broke, homeless, and living on the streets of London. This guy didn’t look broke or homeless.
“So, if you’re not Colin Wilde, then what’s your name?”
His lips lifted into a crooked smile, making the skin around his hazel colored eyes crinkle. “Perhaps we should wait until the medics have a look at you before I answer your question.”
Wow, that accent of his was so dreamy. Was it real, or was he faking it for the part? “Are you really from England?”
“Yes,” he said, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “Although I actually come from a small village in Sussex, about ninety kilometers south of London.”
“And that’s how many miles?” she asked, unable to recall how to figure it out without using Google.
His lips twitched at the corners. “Approximately fifty-five miles.”
Wow, he’d calculated that without asking his phone for help. So not only was he British, but he was also smart. Her eyes roamed over his rugged features. A very handsome, intelligent British man who smelled really amazing. It was so tempting to lean in so she could get another whiff of whatever cologne he wore. Maybe having a pretend fiancé wasn’t so bad after all.
“Okay, British Guy, so how did my boss really find you?”
Amusement lit his eyes. “I met Mr. and Mrs. Dalton at the party last night.”
What was he doing at a fancy party in Nashville? Maybe he worked for the catering company or had been a valet? Or, he could be an actor…he certainly was hot enough for that kind of profession. He denied all three vocations when she asked him, making her wonder what was wrong with him. Someone who looked like him shouldn’t be single unless he didn’t like women.
“Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”
One of his eyebrows lifted up. “Why don’t you have a boyfriend?”
Touché. Before the interrogation went any further, Shelby burst through the door, followed by James and two paramedics.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re awake,” Shelby said, placing a hand over her heart. “The way you just toppled over scared me to death.”
British Guy let go of her hand and moved out of the way for one of the paramedics. “Hi there,” he said, squatting next to her. “My name’s Willy. What’s yours?”
“Josie Sinclair.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Josie.” He clamped a small device on her finger
to measure her heart rate and oxygen levels. “Can you tell me the date and year?”
Josie rattled off the current date, year, and day of the week.
“Excellent,” Willy said as he wrapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm. “Do you remember what happened?”
“Um, yes,” she stammered. She did not want to tell Willy that her boss had hired a boyfriend for her and that she’d passed out because the guy looked like a rock star from England. “Shelby…Mrs. Dalton told me something that surprised me, and I must have fainted.”
Willy chuckled and gave a low whistle. “That must have been some surprise.”
“You could say that,” Josie mumbled under breath, hoping Shelby or her husband wouldn’t offer any more information. Her eyes flickered over to the sexy man slated to play the role of her fiancé. Would British Guy sell her out? “I haven’t eaten anything today,” she said. “Maybe my blood sugar is low.”
“Are you diabetic?” Willy asked with concern.
“Oh, no. I just didn’t have time to eat yet.”
“We’ll check your blood sugar just to make sure,” Willy said before pressing a button to inflate the blood pressure cuff.
“Hi, I’m Darren,” the other paramedic said as he crouched down on her other side. “Are you experiencing any dizziness or nausea?” he asked as he gently probed the back of her head.
“Not right now.” She yelped when he touched a sore spot.
“Sorry about that.” He then gave Willy an estimated size of the knot on the back of her head, which he called a hematoma. “No lacerations are present,” Darren added after parting her hair to look at the wound. Then he held up a penlight and shone it in her eyes. “Pupils are equal and reactive.”
Willy wrote everything down and then took hold of her hand, cleaning off the pad of her ring finger with an alcohol wipe. “I’m gonna check your blood sugar, so you’ll just feel a tiny prick.” Before she had a chance to respond, he pressed a small device and pierced the tender flesh.
“Ouch,” she said as a drop of red blood welled on the top of her finger.
“Sorry about that.” Willy collected the blood on the glucose strip and handed it to his partner to finish the test. “It’s better to do it quickly before you have time to think about it,” he said, wrapping a bandage around the top of her finger. Then he plugged the tips of a stethoscope into his ears. “I’m just gonna listen to your heart and breath sounds.”
Josie held still and then took several deep breaths when the paramedic asked her to. “Everything sounds great,” Willy said, putting the stethoscope back into his emergency bag.
“Blood sugar is normal,” Darren said.
Willy diagnosed her with a possible mild concussion, telling her what to expect, her restrictions, and that someone needed to monitor her for the next twenty-four hours. “We can take you in for observation,” he said, removing the probe from her finger and the blood pressure cuff from her arm. “Or you’ll need someone to stay with you tonight.”
“I don’t want to go to the hospital,” Josie said. She still had two more years to be on her dad’s insurance, but nothing was covered one hundred percent. She was saving for a new car and didn’t want to waste any money on an unnecessary medical expense. “I’ll see if my landlady will check on me tonight.”
“Nonsense, you’ll stay here tonight,” Shelby said. “We’ll take good care of her.”
Willy nodded his head and turned back to Josie. “I’d like to have you stand before we leave.” He held out his hand. “On the count of three,” he said after she placed her hand in his.
Josie stood up, grateful the dizziness and nausea stayed away. Her head still throbbed, but she wasn’t going to mention it. “I think I’m good.”
“All right,” Willy said, letting go of her hand. He handed her a sheet of paper about concussions and told her to call if her symptoms returned or worsened.
James and Shelby walked the paramedics out, leaving Josie alone with British Guy. “Sorry about all of that,” she said, placing her hand on the desk in case she went down again. The man was entirely too handsome to even look at without feeling like she might swoon. How was she supposed to pretend to be in love with him if she blushed every time she looked at him? “I’ve never passed out before.”
“Wish I could say the same,” he said dryly. His smile faltered, and she saw a flicker of regret cross his features. “But that’s all in the past, hmm?”
“Um…yes?” she answered more like a question. She had no idea what he was talking about. While she wanted him to clarify his cryptic statement, she needed to find out his name. “So, are you going to tell me who you are?”
Holding her gaze, he gave her a sexy half-grin before crossing the room to pull out the desk chair. “Yes, but perhaps you should sit down first.”
Josie’s stomach fluttered at his nearness, and her legs felt weak. She sank down onto the leather chair and licked her lips. “Okay. I’m sitting.”
He studied her for a few seconds, and she noticed that his eyes were more green than brown. He rubbed a hand across his whiskered jaw. “The reason I look like Colin Wilde is because that is who I am.”
A rush of heat made Josie’s head spin as she processed his words. “Did you just say you’re Colin Wilde?”
He nodded his head.
“Colin Wilde from Wild Card?”
Again, he nodded.
“Oh, wow,” she said, gripping onto the arms of the chair. “I think I need a drink.”
“You and me both,” he muttered darkly. He grabbed the nearly empty bottle of water from the desk and handed it to her. “Sorry, but I used most of this to revive you.”
“Thank you,” she said without looking directly at him. Her hand shook like she’d overloaded on sugar as she tipped the bottle to drain the small amount of water left inside.
Colin perched against the edge of the desk, folding his arms across his chest. Apparently, the former rock star worked out because his biceps were impressive. Sensing him watching her, she lifted her face and sucked in a sharp breath. Knowing who he was made him even more good looking than before.
“I think we need to talk,” he said in his sexy British accent.
“About what?” she asked.
“Us.”
Us? “Um, are we about to have a define the relationship talk?” she asked in a shaky voice. This whole thing was so crazy. She really hoped she didn’t faint again.
His lips twitched. “I’d normally wait until we’ve at least kissed a few times.” He winked at her. “But under the circumstances, I believe it’s necessary.”
“Kissed?” Josie asked, her eyes going wide. Merely thinking about his lips on hers made her heart feel like she’d just finished a high-intensity workout her boss was so fond of.
“Americans do kiss, right?” He grinned, revealing straight, white teeth. “Especially if they’re engaged?”
Before she answered his ridiculous question, Shelby walked into the room. “Well, that was sure exciting.” She tucked a few loose strands of her hair behind one ear. “So, are y’all gettin’ to know one another?”
“He’s Colin Wilde,” Josie blurted out.
“I know that, honey.” Her lips parted into a wide smile. “Isn’t he going to be perfect?”
“No,” Josie said, standing up from the chair. “He is not perfect! There is no way I could ever pretend to be in love with him.”
Chapter 4
Colin
Colin was taken aback by Josie’s declaration. He knew not everyone he met would love him, but girls usually at least liked him. “Thanks so much,” he said under his breath.
“You can’t pretend to be in love with him?” Mrs. Dalton’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Why ever not?”
Josie pointed her finger at him. “Because he’s—he’s—he’s Colin Wilde.”
Yes, and Colin was beginning to regret that sorely. No wonder Josie didn’t have a boyfriend. The girl was mad.
�
��Well, bless your heart,” Shelby said with a giggle. “Aren’t you just the cutest thing.” She looked at Colin. “Don’t mind her, sugar. She’s just a little starstruck right now.”
Pushing away from the desk, Colin rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at the pretty girl who might be as looney as his grandmother’s goat. “Do you want me to leave?” he asked when her eyes darted over to look at him.
“Of course not,” Shelby said. “Josie just needs a few minutes to take everything in.” Shelby took Colin by the hand and led him across the room. She snagged Josie along the way, leading them to a sitting area with a beautiful view of the Dalton’s backyard.
“You sit here,” Shelby said to Colin, pointing to a leather oversized stuffed chair. “Josie, you sit next to me.” Shelby sat down on the leather loveseat and pulled her assistant down next to her.
Colin had encountered plenty of female fans who were gobsmacked with him over the years. He’d also encountered plenty of crazy fans. He still didn’t know which category to put Josie in. Maybe she was both.
“Now, let’s see if we can work this out,” Shelby said as if she were a therapist, and Colin and Josie were the clients.
“Josie, is Colin’s fame the only objection you have about him?”
“Excuse me?” Josie said, looking at her employer as if she was the nut job.
“He’s an attractive man, right?” Shelby said.
Josie’s gaze landed on him for a single heartbeat and then flitted away before she nodded her head.
“So being attracted to him isn’t an issue…you’re just having a hard time because he’s a celebrity?”
Pink tinged Josie’s face as she finally looked Colin in the eyes. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’m sorry if I offended you. What I said—that I can’t pretend to be in love with you—is because of me.”
Colin narrowed his gaze. Now she was using the universal line it’s not you, it’s me?
Moonlighting with the British Rock Star: A Georgia Moon Romance Page 3
