by Lizzie Shane
She should have known he was headed to a work thing because of the flawlessly tailored suit. If left to his own devices, Max was more a T-shirt and jeans guy, but he certainly looked good in a suit. Of course, Parvati always thought he looked good.
Max Dewitt was tall and muscular enough that he should have looked like a wrestler in a monkey suit, but instead he looked like James Bond—a sexy, super ripped James Bond with perfectly styled dark brown hair and steely grey eyes that somehow managed to be warm when he smiled at her.
Which he did now, revealing perfectly straight, perfectly white teeth. And the dimple…really the dimple was just unfair. Sex appeal overkill.
He shook his head, still smiling. “Even if it was someone you’d heard of I wouldn’t tell you who.”
Parv made a face. “Your ethics are seriously interfering with my ability to live vicariously through you.”
“You know I hate to disappoint you…”
“But you aren’t going to tell me squat. I get it. Go on. Go be important with your fancy celebrity while my family spends the rest of the day giving me concerned looks and speculating on my sexuality because I haven’t managed to find a nice man and give him babies yet.”
He arched a single brow. “You’re what? Twenty-eight?”
“Twenty-nine.” Closing in on thirty.
“Then you’re too young to get married. Twenty-nine is the new nineteen.”
“My sister got married at nineteen. In fact, so did my parents.”
Max tilted his head to the side. “Cultural thing?”
Her sister Devi would probably eviscerate him for assuming it had anything to do with being Indian American, but Parv had always liked that Max didn’t dance around their differences and just asked. “You might think so, but my family is thoroughly Americanized. They just believe in marrying young.”
Her parents had met as freshmen at Stanford and married immediately before the term began their sophomore year. Forty years ago today. And they were still nuts about each other.
“I think I saw your parents once,” Max commented, “when you and Sidney graduated high school—but I don’t think I ever met your sisters.”
“They’re all older. I was the surprise baby. By the time I was in high school, my sisters were all off curing cancer and revolutionizing the tech world.” And generally making the rest of humanity feel inferior.
“I take it you aren’t close.”
Parv shrugged. “Angie’s geographically close. She’s just up in Santa Barbara with her perfect house, perfect husband, perfect job and perfect kids.” She caught him glancing at his watch again and waved him toward his Tesla. “Sorry. Go make the world safe for celebrities. I can be insecure on my own time.”
He started moving toward the driver’s side of his car, but he did give her one last devastating smile, dimple flashing. “Chin up, Parv. You’re pretty damn perfect yourself.”
There was a time not so long ago when that compliment would have made her melt into a happy puddle of feminine hormones at his feet, but she’d learned not to take his compliments too seriously. He was only being nice to his little sister’s best friend. Nothing more.
So she smiled and bantered back, keeping it light. “You’d know all about perfection.”
He laughed and slid into his car, zipping out of the parking lot a moment later.
Max Dewitt. Her first and most devastating crush. And he still didn’t have a clue.
Thank God. The last thing she needed was for him to figure out she’d pined for him for ten solid years between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four. She’d only begun to be able to talk to him without her tongue swelling up in the last five years. He was comfortable with her now. If he found out she’d once doodled Mrs. Parvati Dewitt on everything she owned, he’d probably be kind and sympathetic and look at her with the same barely-veiled pity that her aunts had been sending her way for the last several years.
Poor spinster Parvati.
Poor broke spinster Parvati.
Poor broke failure spinster Parvati.
Her family was going to be asking her today, over and over and over again, how the business was going. If she was dating anyone.
She could handle the dating question—she’d been handling that one for years—but when they asked her about Common Grounds…
She was going to have to lie.
Soon enough the truth would come out. When she closed Common Grounds, everyone would know that she had failed, but this was her parents’ day. She refused to be the one less-than-perfect aspect of their legacy. If she told the truth, it would spread through the party like wildfire, carried on a wave of well-intentioned concern—which just made it that much worse. They all wanted the best for her, so it was that much more painful when she disappointed them. Her parents would worry. Her sisters would be annoyed with her for ruining the big day.
As lies went, it was a small one.
And maybe when she was forced to admit defeat and close Common Grounds for good, she could claim she just wanted a change. That she wasn’t in debt up to her eyeballs. Better they think she was too flighty to stick with it than that she was a failure. If they believed it.
Parvati turned away from the Big Green Mermaid of Doom and pulled out onto the Pacific Coast Highway, headed north toward an afternoon of lies, starting with the one she told herself as she drove.
“Everything will be great.”
About the Author
Born and raised in Alaska, contemporary romance author Lizzie Shane has traveled the world, but keeps coming back to the frozen north where she uses the long winter months to cook up more happily-ever-afters (and indulge her addiction to books and movies). A Golden Heart® winner and three-time finalist for Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA® Award, she also writes paranormal romance under the pen name Vivi Andrews. Learn more about Lizzie and her books at her website or follow her on Facebook.
And don’t miss the rest of the series…
OTHER BOOKS BY LIZZIE SHANE:
Reality Romance
Marrying Mister Perfect
Romancing Miss Right
Falling for Mister Wrong
Planning on Prince Charming
Home for Christmas (A Holiday Novella)
Courting Trouble
The Bouquet Catchers
Always a Bridesmaid
Little White Lies
Dirty Little Secrets
The Decoy Bride
The Real Thing
Yours For Christmas
All He Wants for Christmas
Miracle on Mulholland
An Unplanned Christmas (Coming July 2019)
Table of Contents
Start
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Epilogue
&
nbsp; Thank You
About the Author
