Make-Believe Fiancé

by Vivi Holt

  10

  Gwen leaned her head back on the seat as the jet engines hummed beneath her, making everything gently vibrate. She closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. It’d been a big weekend, and though she’d taken plenty of opportunities to relax, for some reason she was bone-tired.

  Heath sat down beside her and handed her a mineral water. “Thank you again for coming with me this weekend.”

  She took a sip. “Thanks for asking me. And for paying my rent.” She chuckled and flashed a grin.

  “You’re welcome.”

  By the time the limousine carried them from the jet center in Billings to Gwen’s apartment, she was almost asleep. She’d changed into jeans and sandals after the reception, carrying her gowns in a brand-new garment bag Heath had insisted on buying her. Would she ever get a chance to wear them again, considering her work life revolved around crayons and reading groups and her personal life involved the occasional trip to a café or the movies? Still, she smiled at the memory of how she’d looked in them, and the reflection of that in Heath’s eyes.

  Heath walked her to her door, pulling her luggage on its bumpy plastic wheels behind him. He leaned against the door frame as she quietly unlocked the door. She glanced up at him, her heart pounding and her palms damp with sweat. “So I guess this is goodbye.”

  “For now. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Oh?”

  “After work, I’ll get you the money and the letter you need.”

  “Oh, right. Thanks.”

  “Hope it goes well at school tomorrow.” He was stalling, she could tell. What was going on in his head?

  “Thanks. You too, with the whole CEO announcement and stuff.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, thanks.” He leaned closer. Was he going to kiss her? She pursed her lips and her pulse accelerated, making her head buzz.

  He pulled away. “All right … well, see you tomorrow, then.”

  She bit her lower lip and frowned. “Okay. Bye.” Why didn’t he kiss her? Well, maybe because she’d told him she didn’t want anything more than a business relationship between them? Still, she’d been sure he was about to try. But now he was trotting away as though he didn’t have a care in the world. She sighed and rubbed her face with both hands.

  Inside, she found Diana bouncing around the kitchen to Taylor Swift. “Why are you still awake? It’s after midnight.”

  Diana grabbed her by the hand and spun her around. “I made margaritas!”

  “Okaaay. Well, I’ll pass, since I already had champagne at the wedding. But you have fun.” Gwen pulled her luggage into her room and set it down, then headed to the kitchen for a glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie. She’d finally gotten to the store, and she always kept her cookie jar well-stocked.

  “I have news,” continued Diana, sipping her drink.

  “Oh?” Gwen poured hers and selected a cookie from the jar.

  Diana walked over and shoved her hand under Gwen’s nose. “I’m engaged!”

  Gwen’s eyes crossed on the gigantic blue rock on Diana’s ring finger. “Wow! That’s some ring.”

  “I know. Isn’t it beautiful?” Diana threw her arms around Gwen, almost knocking the glass of milk over. “I’m enga-a-a-aged!”

  Gwen laughed and patted her on the back. “Congratulations. I’m really happy for you.”

  Diana stepped back and her face fell. “I’m sorry, I’m not upsetting you with all this engagement talk, am I? I know how much your divorce hurt …”

  Gwen shook her head. “No, no, of course not. It’s fine. I’m glad you’re happy.”

  Diana took another sip of her margarita. “You know, you’ll find someone one day.”

  “I know … actually, I didn’t want to rain on your parade, but Heath and I are engaged as well.” She raised her voice in an attempt to match Diana’s excitement, but instead sounded like a cheerleader.

  Diana’s eyes widened. “What? Really? Wow, that was fast. Oh, we’re going to be brides together – that’s so fantastic! I was wondering what you’d do once I got married, since you just moved in, but now I won’t have to worry about it because you’ll be moving into Heath’s place. Oh, that’s great!” She hugged Gwen again.

  Gwen frowned against her shoulder. She hadn’t thought of that. Once Diana was married, would she have to find somewhere new to live? She might not be able to rent this apartment on her own.

  She pasted a smile to her face. “That’s right. No reason to stress about it – we’re both getting married. It’ll be great.”

  “Now you have to drink a margarita with me, so we can toast!”

  Gwen stifled a yawn. “Sure, okay.” She could barely keep her eyes open, but she took the offered drink and raised it. “To us,” she said.

  “To us,” echoed Diana with a smile. And they both drank. Even as Gwen wondered how she’d managed to get herself even deeper into this jam.

  The Lucky Diner sign glowed yellow against the dark sky. Heath stepped out of his beat-up truck and loosened his tie. It had been a hard day at the office, putting out fires, managing staff issues and catching up on everything. He hadn’t even had a chance to meet with Adam about the financial irregularities, though the CFO had said he was still working out the details. He patted his coat pocket, checking that the money and letter were still there, then headed inside.

  He saw Gwen right away in a booth by the window. She smiled when she saw him. He kissed her cheek and slid into the booth opposite her, grinning back. Then pulled the envelope out of his pocket and set it on the table in front of her. “There you go.”

  “Thanks. You don’t know how much it means to me. Really, you’re a lifesaver.”

  He nodded. “Glad to help. How did school go today?”

  She was about to answer when a waitress stopped by their booth, pencil poised above her pad. “Howdy, Gwen. Nice to see you.” Gwen chatted with the waitress for a few moments, then ordered a cheeseburger, salad and milkshake. Heath placed his order and the waitress left them alone.

  “School was great.” Gwen played with the envelope. “I’m just so glad to be teaching again. Well, not actually teaching yet, but getting the classroom ready and meeting the other teachers …” She sighed. “I just loved it. I can’t wait for next week. Teaching is what I’m meant for. At least, that’s what I think.” Her cheeks flushed.

  He smiled. “I’m sure you’re a great teacher. I know I would’ve loved to be in your class – I would’ve had an enormous crush on you.”

  She laughed and rolled her eyes. “They’re in third grade, I highly doubt you would’ve had a crush on me in the third grade.”

  “Oh, don’t underestimate me,” he joked. The waitress brought their orders and Heath took the top off his burger bun to add more ketchup.

  “So I guess this is it,” she mused.

  “I guess.” He took a bite of hamburger, his thoughts in a swirl. He didn’t want that to be it. If they parted ways now, would he ever see her again? “Actually, I’ve been thinking about something.”

  “Yes?”

  “Nana was so happy about our engagement, and she’s going to be at the hospital every day this week getting treatment. I wondered if … maybe we could postpone the breakup. Just until she’s feeling better.”

  She frowned and sipped her lemonade. “So we’d stay engaged?”

  “Just a bit longer. I don’t want to upset her while she’s feeling so bad.” He cleared his throat. It was the truth – he didn’t want to disappoint Nana. And it would also buy him some time, give them a chance to get to know each other better … who knows?

  She smiled. “Sure. Okay, I can do that.”

  Heath smiled back, suddenly feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

  On his way home from the diner, he stopped in at Nana’s house to check on her. She lay on the couch, flicking through channels on her widescreen TV. “Heath, dear – how lovely.” She sat up and straightened her hair.

  He kissed her cheek and s
at down beside her. “How are you, Nana?”

  “Oh, as well as can be expected. Nora – that’s the live-in nurse your father hired today – is in the kitchen. She can get you a drink if you’d like.”

  Heath chuckled. “She’s not your maid, Nana.”

  “Oh, she doesn’t mind fetching things for me. What else does she have to do?”

  He smiled. “Well, I’m glad you’re okay. I’ll check in on you again tomorrow on my way home from work.”

  “Thank you, dear. But why aren’t you out with Gwen? The two of you are so sweet together. I’m just so excited you’re getting married – the wedding will be beautiful.”

  He swallowed hard and nodded. “Yes, I guess so.”

  She pinched both his cheeks. “Oh, it will be. And maybe I’ll even get some great-grand children before I go.”

  He sighed. “Don’t talk like that, Nana. You’re going to live a long time yet.”

  “No one knows how long they’ll live, my boy. And I’ve had a good long life. But I would like to see you married and happy with a wife and children.”

  He half-smiled. “I know, Nana.”

  “So your mother and I are planning quite the engagement party, I hope you know. After the announcement, the two of you will be the talk of the town.”

  Heath nodded – he’d heard about that from Gwen. He wasn’t sure how they would get out of that one.

  The noises of the office surrounded Heath the moment he stepped off the elevator. He’d gone for a ride around the ranch Tuesday morning on his favorite stock horse, Hilda. Her chestnut coat had gleamed in the early morning light, and his breath had been visible in the chill air. It had been relaxing, invigorating – just what he needed. But now, the sounds of printers whirring, phones ringing, voices engaged in urgent conversation all served to increase his heart rate. He smiled tightly at several employees who hurried by, then headed for his office.

  He’d barely had a chance to sit when Adam poked his head in the door. “Good morning.”

  “Morning, Adam. Coffee?”

  Adam shook his head. “First, can you come in my office for a moment? I have to show you something.”

  “Okay.” He got up, followed Adam into his office and pulled up a chair. “What’s up?”

  “You know how we’ve been scouring the financial reports and I told you I’d found something?”

  “Uh-huh.” From the look on Adam’s face, the news wasn’t good. “Give it to me straight. What’s going on in my company?”

  “Someone’s defrauding us.”

  His eyes widened. “Are you sure? I mean, you said some money was missing, but I assumed it was an accounting error or something.”

  “Yes, I’m sure. At first it was just a feeling, then I noticed a specific set of figures that didn’t add up. So I’ve been looking through everything, and I mean everything, from the past five years. And I’ve found discrepancies here and there that by themselves might not mean a lot, but added together … it’s a half million dollars, Heath.”

  He coughed, as if choking on the revelation. “What?!”

  Adam raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, Heath, but it’s true. Whoever’s involved has stolen …” He tapped a key on his laptop. “… by my count, $503,771.27. Give or take a nickel.”

  Heath sighed long and loud. “Do we know who?”

  “I’ve found a trail that leads to someone – whether or not it’s that person, I can’t say for certain. I think we should turn over everything we’ve found to the police, but I wanted to talk to you about it first, get your read on things.”

  “Who?” Heath leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs and rubbed his face.

  “Paula Weston.”

  “In Accounting? Wow.” She’d made him a cake for his last birthday – chocolate with vanilla buttercream. It couldn’t be Paula.

  “As I said, neither of us is an investigator. Maybe someone’s making it look like it’s Paula and she’s not even involved. I can’t say for certain.”

  Heath nodded. “You’re right. We should report this to the authorities. They’ll be able to get to the bottom of it. Thanks for working on this, Adam. I can always count on you.”

  Adam nodded and frowned. “Happy to help. Sorry for being part of the cause.”

  “What? It’s not your fault.”

  Adam’s face fell. “Technically it is. I’m in charge of finance. How did I let something like this slip by?”

  Heath sighed. “I don’t know. We all missed it somehow. And it’s really bad timing, with the handover from Dad coming up. You know who the board will blame …”

  Adam sighed. “I know. They’re not convinced about you. Some of them wanted to open the CEO position up for external applications. But hopefully Graham will convince them you’re the right person for the job.”

  “Unless the fraud lands at my door.”

  “You didn’t know,” Adam insisted. “You couldn’t have known. It was my fault – I should’ve seen this a long time ago.”

  “But you trusted your staff.”

  “I trusted my staff, just the way you’ve trusted me. And I let you down.”

  Heath stood. “Don’t worry, Adam. If it comes down to it, I’ll take the heat. I don’t want you getting the blame for something that happened on my watch. That’s one of the joys of being the boss – everything is my fault.” He walked back to his office.

  Once he sat down, he began mentally kicking himself. If only he’d realized earlier what was going on. How had they missed a half-million-dollar theft? Well, there was nothing he could do about that now except report it and hope the police got to the bottom of things. Perhaps they’d even recover some of the money, if they were lucky.

  There was no point telling either his father or the board about the fraud until they knew more – as soon as he shared this crisis with them, they’d want answers and right now he had none. Paula Weston? It was hard to imagine she’d acted alone, not with such a thorough cover-up that even his perfectionist CFO hadn’t noticed the missing money. When the cops uncovered the truth, he’d tell his father and the board everything – and bear the brunt of their anger. He knew he’d be held to account – he was the one ultimately responsible for everything that happened within the company.

  He leaned back in his chair with a sigh. He’d better handle things carefully from this point on or he could find himself in real trouble. He pressed the intercom button. “Judy?”

  “Yes, Mr. Montgomery.”

  “Can you please grab me a coffee?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Then bring your tablet in here. I need you to take care of some things, and you’ll want to take notes.”

  11

  Gwen sighed and ran a hand through her hair before flopping onto the couch. She was exhausted after teaching third grade for two weeks. With Lisa’s help she’d found her way around the school and figured out most of what she had to do. The other teachers had given her a warm welcome, and the children were mostly sweet and eager to please. But it was still hard work.

  She smiled as she flicked on the TV. Diana wasn’t home yet, and she usually had about an hour or so to herself in the afternoons. She’d come to relish that time to decompress after the long day. She lay back on the couch and flipped through the channels, looking for something to watch.

  But even as she landed on a murder mystery, her thoughts wandered. What was Heath doing at that moment? Likely working, since it was only 4 p.m. But she couldn’t help thinking about him. She hadn’t seen him since he gave her the money and the letter, and there was an ache in her chest every time she thought of him. She should just call him and ask how he was doing. After all, they hadn’t broken up yet, not officially. It would make sense for her to call. And she wanted to know how Nana’s treatment was going.

  Perhaps she should just drop into the office to see him. If she called, he could answer her questions easily enough and they might not see one another. No, she should go and see him. It was exactly what a f
iancée would do.

  Gwen dropped the television remote into her lap and let her eyes drift shut. Tomorrow she’d go see him, ask him how he was doing, how Nana was coping with her treatments. Then, she’d feel better about things. And who knew - maybe she’d be able to concentrate on her own life instead of daydreaming about Heath Montgomery.

  The next day after school, Gwen pulled into Montgomery Ranches’ underground parking garage. She grimaced at the parking charges on the sign next to the ticket machine, then drove beneath the boom gate and inside. Maybe they would validate.

  When the elevator doors dinged open, she glanced around wide-eyed. The office buzzed with activity. Staff hurried in every direction, all dressed in business suits with only the occasional pair of cowboy boots to give away the business’s roots. She approached the reception desk, checking her hair with both hands and wishing she’d swung by her apartment to freshen up first.

  “Good afternoon – how can I help you?” asked a petite blonde woman with enormous round glasses.

  “Oh, hi. Um, I’m Gwen Alder and I wanted to see Heath Montgomery.” Why did her voice sound so hoarse? She coughed to clear her throat.

  The woman frowned imperceptibly as she clicked the mouse on her computer. “Do you have an appointment, Miss Alder?”

  Gwen shook her head. “No, but … he’s a friend. He’ll want to see me.”

  She looked skeptical. “I’ll let him know you’re here.” She pressed a few buttons, then spoke into her headset. “Mr. Montgomery, there’s a Gwen Alder at reception to see you … oh! I didn’t know … yes, sir, I’ll tell her.” Now she smiled at Gwen, her eyes shining with a knowing glint. “He’ll be down in just a moment, Miss Alder.”

  Gwen’s heart skipped, and she took a quick breath and smoothed her pencil skirt with damp palms.

  Heath appeared through a doorway, smiled and reached for her hand. She stumbled forward and embraced him awkwardly. He kissed her cheek, and the feel of his breath against her skin made her goose-pimple all over. “Gwen, I wasn’t expecting to see you.”