And then, as quickly as it had hit her, the rage passed, leaving her with nothing but a churning, acid feeling in her gut and the certainty that if she didn’t hustle, she was about to lose her dinner and many glasses of wine down the front of her very expensive gown.
One hand clapped to her mouth, she lifted her skirt with the other and surged to her feet. The few die-hards still lingering stepped out of the way as she charged for the door.
She barely made it to the ladies’ room before the first spasm hit her, and she spent the next ten minutes reacquainting herself with the contents of her stomach.
Yep, this night was a real doozy.
But at least it was mostly over. There was that to be grateful for.
Chapter Two
Three months later
“Come on, Andie. It’s quitting time.”
Heath’s deep tones echoed up through the manhole into the roof space where Andie was working. She finished tightening the connection on the LED downlight she’d just installed, then tucked her screwdriver into her work belt.
“You are the worst boss in the world. I’m trying to get this finished, in case you hadn’t noticed,” she called back.
“It’s Friday, and we’re on time and on budget. Get your ass down here so I can buy you a beer.”
“Five minutes,” she promised.
She barely registered Heath’s heavy tread as he headed for the door. She was too busy double checking her work one last time before grabbing the reel of cable she’d been working with. It was tempting to leave it in the roof space until she was on the job again Monday morning, but she’d seen too many residential developments raided by opportunistic kids and grifters over the years to risk it. Once, they’d returned to a worksite after Memorial Day weekend to discover the entire house had been stripped of its copper wiring and piping. As a result, her policy these days was always better to be safe than sorry.
She made her way to the manhole, moving nimbly from one roof beam to the next, then lowering herself to the ladder positioned underneath. She folded the ladder, and took both it and the reel of cable with her as she exited the house. She could see the rest of the crew gathered at the head of the cul-de-sac around the job trailer, and she made a quick detour by her pickup to dump her burdens before joining them. Big Mack and Angelo were tossing a football back and forth, while Pete, Rory and Mathew were sitting on the tail-gate of Rory’s battered pickup, all three of them already sucking down cold drinks.
Pete handed her an icy-cold root beer without her having to say a word when she joined them and she gave him a grateful smile.
“You’re a good man,” she said as she cracked the can open.
Resting her back against the sun-warmed metal of Rory’s pickup, she gazed out at the ten homes in various stages of construction curving around the cul-de-sac. Every single one was a McGregor Construction home, and she couldn’t help feeling a warm sense of pride on Heath’s behalf. This was their biggest project yet, and there wasn’t a doubt in her mind that the next would be bigger still. Heath might be quiet about it, but he was an ambitious man. One of the many things she admired about him.
“What you got planned for the weekend, Andie?” Rory asked, his head tilted back as he soaked up the rays.
“Bit of this and that. Thinking of going for a hike. Haven’t decided yet,” she said. “How about you?”
“Ella’s 8th birthday.” He shrugged.
“A houseful of screaming kids. You poor bastard,” Mathew said.
“Hey, that’s my princess you’re talking about,” Rory said.
“So you don’t want to come fishing with me and Pete, then?” Mathew asked.
Rory looked pained. “Oh, man. Can’t you wait until next week?”
Andie hid her smile behind the can of root beer, well aware that the guys were just winding Rory up. Sometimes it was easy to forget they were grown, adult men, they spent so much time ragging on each other.
Not that she didn’t give and get her fair share of crap, too. She could more than hold her own when called upon. In fact, she prided herself on it. It was one of the many reasons she’d thrived in an industry that was almost one hundred percent male.
The sound of a car engine drew her gaze to the street and she watched as a small dark blue SUV pulled up just shy of where the guys were fooling around with the football. A slim, stylish woman with shoulder-length brown hair climbed out of the car and took a moment to get her bearings before striding toward them.
“If you’re looking for Heath, he’s in the trailer,” Pete said helpfully.
“Thanks. I’m also looking for Andie Bennett.”
All the little hairs on the back of Andie’s neck stood on end as the other woman’s gaze honed in on her.
“That’s me,” she said, shaking off the odd sensation as she pushed away from the pickup.
The woman smiled broadly. “I thought so. I’m Jane Weiss, Marietta Chamber of Commerce.”
She offered her hand and Andie shook it bemusedly. What on earth did someone from the Chamber of Commerce want with her?
“I’ve got some incredibly exciting news for you and Heath, Andie. As you know, we announced the eight semi-finalist couples for Marietta’s Great Wedding Giveaway a couple of weeks ago.”
She paused, clearly waiting for Andie to respond, but since Andie hadn’t exactly been slavishly following the coverage of the giveaway, all she could do was nod and continue to be baffled.
“It seems that one of our couples couldn’t wait until August to get married, so we’ve had a couple drop out. And then we lost another couple because… well, their plans have changed.” Jane pulled a face, which Andie guessed meant that the couple were no longer getting married. Awkward, having to back out of a competition as well as an engagement.
“Anyway, the Committee made a decision last night that with two drop-outs we should really give some of the runners-up a second chance. I’m sure you can guess where this is going.” Jane’s eyes were bright with anticipation.
“Um… Not really.”
“You and Heath are now semi-finalists!”
Andie stared at the other woman. What craziness was this? “But—”
She blinked as a memory came back to her in a horrible rush—the woman handing out forms the night of the Valentine’s Ball, the fantasy she’d poured onto the page in a fit of maudlin lunacy, having to rush off to the bathroom to lose her dinner…
Sweet Baby Cheeses, someone must have found her abandoned entry and handed it in.
Oh boy. Oh. Boy.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy.
There was a rushing sound in her ears. The ground seemed to shift beneath her feet. For the first time in her life she thought she might actually faint.
“Andie and Heath? You’ve got to be kidding.” Pete’s voice sounded as though it was coming from a long way away. “Talk about being punked.”
The guys were all laughing. Jane was looking confused. And then another voice chimed in, and Andie willed the earth to open up and swallow her.
“What’s this about me and Andie?” Heath asked.
Heath looked from the woman in the neat suit to Andie. Who, he noted, was paler than he’d ever seen her before, her expression bordering on stricken.
Suit lady held out her hand for him to shake, a friendly smile on her lips. “Jane Weiss, Chamber of Commerce. I was just telling your fiancée- “
“Fiancée-?” Heath said.
“I was just telling Andie that you are now semi-finalists in the Great Wedding Giveaway.”
Andie’s gaze was glued to the ground, but she made a small, wordless sound of distress. The guys were all nudging each other, some of them smirking.
“You been holding out on us, boss?” Big Mack said before loosing a big belly laugh.
“Yeah, somebody has sure as hell messed up in there at Town Hall,” Matthew said. “Andie and Heath. Can you believe it?”
Jane frowned, clearly trying to work out what was going on. “I�
��m a little confused. Did you and Andie enter the competition or not?”
Andie made another distressed sound, and instead of being pale her face was now beet red. He could practically feel the heat radiating off her cheeks. He waited for her to lift her gaze or say something, but she seemed paralyzed by whatever strong emotion had her in its grip.
“Sorry, Ms. Weiss, but would you mind giving Andie and me a second, please?” he said, not taking his gaze from Andie’s face.
Grabbing Andie by the elbow, he steered her up the stairs to the job trailer. Shutting the door behind them, he turned to her.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked quietly.
Andie lifted a shaking hand to her forehead, kneading the skin there, an old habit of hers since she was a kid.
“I have no idea how this happened.”
“How what happened? Why on earth would this woman think you and I were getting married?”
Andie shook her head, her ponytail swishing across her shoulders. “I have no idea. I mean, I have some idea, but I still don’t know how…”
She shot him an anguished look, and he could see she was mortified, about as embarrassed as he’d ever seen anyone be.
“Tell me the bit you do know.”
“Okay. They were handing out forms at the Valentine’s Day ball, for the wedding giveaway. The woman said they didn’t have enough entries, and I didn’t get a chance to tell her I wasn’t interested. I was drunk enough that it seemed like a pretty funny idea to just fill it out to kill the time. I… I stuck your name on it because it was the first one that popped into my head, and I made up a bunch of baloney. I can’t even remember half of it…”
He shook his head. “You entered us in a wedding giveaway competition?” He couldn’t quite get his head around it.
“No! No way. I didn’t enter us. Only a mad person would do that. God, no. I just filled out the form. As a joke. But then I had to rush off to the bathroom because… well, because, and I forgot about the entry form. I guess someone must have found it and handed it in.” Andie’s face was still flushed, her expression pained. “I’m really sorry.”
He studied her, trying to understand what was really going on, because something about her explanation didn’t quite sit right with him. Then he flashed back to the night of the Valentine’s Ball. He’d stopped by Andie’s table before heading home, and now that he came to think about it, she’d been more than a little glassy-eyed.
His mouth twitched. “You must have written some pretty good baloney if we got picked as semi-finalists.”
Now that he understood the mix-up, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling. The idea of the two of them getting married was absurd. Beyond absurd, really. For starters, they would never have even started dating because Beau would have gutted him the second it looked as though Heath was going to lay a finger on his little sister. Then there was the fact that Andie worked for him…
“Please tell me you are not laughing at me,” Andie said.
“You’ve got to admit, it’s kind of funny.”
“No, it isn’t. People think we’re engaged, Heath. There’s a woman out there who thinks we’re in the running for an all-expenses paid wedding.” Her eyes were wide, her shoulders hunched up around her ears.
“Relax. We’ll just explain what happened, and they can pick someone else.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s that easy,” she said, throwing her hands in the air.
“No one is going to hold us at gunpoint and make us marry because you filled out an entry form when you were hammered, Andie.”
“I’m not worried about the competition. I’m worried about them,” she said, jabbing a finger toward the door.
It took him a second to understand she meant the crew.
“They are going to crucify me when they hear about this.”
He opened his mouth to deny it, then thought better of it. Andie knew as well as he did what the guys were like. And she was right, they were relentless. Once they got wind of what had happened, they would rag on Andie for weeks. There would be running gags, new nicknames. Hell, he’d get his share of grief, too, no doubt.
“God. I’m such an idiot,” she muttered, kneading her forehead again.
A knock drew him to the door, and he opened it to find Jane standing there, an envelope in hand.
“I’m so sorry, but I have another meeting I need to get to.” Her gaze shifted over his shoulder to Andie and she lowered her voice. “I’m really sorry if I’ve created some kind of a problem here. It occurred to me just now that maybe you two were keeping your relationship on the down-low because of your work situation.”
Heath took a deep breath, ready to wade in and start untangling the mess Andie’s drunken joke had gotten them into. Then his gaze fell on the pack of very interested men gathered near the bottom of the trailer steps, their ears flapping shamelessly as they waited for the next installment in their own personal soap opera.
An image of Andie’s beet-red face popped into his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said.
“You’re sure? Andie looks a little shell-shocked.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Big Mack shift his weight expectantly.
“It’s nothing that can’t wait,” he said.
“Great.” Jane’s smile was relieved. “Inside this envelope is everything you need to know about being semi-finalists, including contact details for the Copper Mountain Courier for a profile story they want to do on the two of you. My card is in there, too. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me.” Jane thrust the envelope into his hands. “And congratulations. I have to say, I was always a big fan of your entry. If you’d had a video like the other couples, you would have been a shoo-in for the first round.”
She didn’t give him a chance to respond, descending the steps and heading for her SUV.
“You got something you need to tell us, boss?” Angelo asked.
It was like feeding time at the zoo, the way they were all waiting for him to throw them something they could sink their teeth into.
“Yeah. Go home. Don’t you know it’s Friday?” he said.
He shut the door and turned back to Andie. She was frowning, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.
“Why didn’t you tell her?”
“Because you’re right, the guys would have a field day. I’ll call her later and explain.”
Andie closed her eyes for a long beat. “Please don’t be nice to me right now, Heath. You should be kicking my ass.”
“But then Beau would kick my ass, and I have a healthy survival instinct.”
He slung his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze, hoping to cajole the tight look off her face. She was so tense, it was like hugging a rock.
“Relax. We’ll tell the guys it was an admin mix-up on Monday, and it’ll die a natural death. Problem solved.”
“I should be the one who calls the Chamber of Commerce lady and tells her the truth,” Andie said. “I’m the one who made the mess. I should be the one who cleans it up.”
“Okay, if that’s what you want.”
“It is.” She wriggled out from beneath his arm. “I’m really sorry.”
“Quit apologizing. We all make mistakes.”
“When was the last time you made a mistake as ridiculous as this?”
He thought for a second. “Sharon?”
Andie huffed out a reluctant laugh. “Well, yeah, okay. She wasn’t your best decision.”
At least he’d gotten her to smile.
“Breaking up with her was.”
“I’ll give you that.” Andie glanced toward the door. “I’m going to go. But I promise I’ll clear things up over the weekend.” ”I trust you, Andie.”
She stared at him for a heartbeat, then shook her head. “Have a good weekend.”
He watched as she exited the trailer, her long-legged stride slower than usual. This mix-up had obviously knocked her off kilter. He f
rowned as the niggling everything-is-not-as-it-appears-to-be feeling came back to him. Then he reminded himself that this was Andie.
She was one of the most level-headed, reliable, good-hearted people he knew. She honored her commitments, was as loyal as an old boot, and never shirked or made excuses. She was hands-down one of his best employees, if not the best, as well as being one of his best friends. She could out-fish him, came close to out-shooting him, and was as fearless as a damned teenager when they took his dirt bikes out for a run.
If she had something else going on, she’d lay it on the table. He was almost certain of it.
Still frowning, he locked up the trailer and went to do a last check on the site before hanging up his hat for the day.
Chapter Three
Andie waited until she was well away from the housing development before she pulled over and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. She felt as though she’d just gone ten rounds with Muhammed Ali—her McGregor Construction polo shirt was damp with sweat, and her legs were shaky. She was even a little breathless.
There were no words to describe how humiliated she felt right now—and the worst thing was, she’d brought it all on herself. Why on earth had she filled out that form the night of the Valentine’s ball? And why on earth hadn’t she torn it into nice, safe, tiny pieces once she was done?
Being drunk was no excuse. She’d put Heath in an incredibly embarrassing situation. A thousand other guys would be backing away from her at a million miles an hour right now, or at the very least giving her the side eye. But Heath believed her story, because he trusted her. And why wouldn’t he? She was like his sister, he’d told her so often enough.
After a few minutes of trying to calm her swirling thoughts, Andie lifted her head and let out a long breath.
The truth was, she’d gotten off lightly for what was a truly monumental mistake. All she had to do was tell the woman at the Chamber of Commerce that she and Heath were withdrawing from the competition and this would all go away.
Make-Believe Wedding (Montana Born Brides Book 9) Page 2
