by Dara Girard
“I had an invisible boyfriend for three months, pretended a stranger was him for a night and then broke up with him after the wedding.”
“Okay, maybe you both are crazy.” She abruptly surged to her feet and pointed to one of the children. “If I have to warn you again, I’m sucking you out of the water like a straw. Is that clear?” She waited a moment—making sure her glare said all that it needed—then sat back down. “What were we talking about?”
“Crazy behavior,” Tanna said.
Ambrosia tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes, that’s right.”
“You just don’t know what it’s like to have people trying to match you up every minute of the day as if your singleness was a curable disease.”
“True, but I still find his reason insulting. You’re pretty, smart and successful. Why wouldn’t his mother like you?”
Tanna raised her shoulders, feigning nonchalance. “There are reasons,” she said, not wanting to tell her friend what they were. “But I don’t care. He’s not my type.”
“I looked him up. I’ve seen his picture.”
Tanna smiled with a look of triumph. “But have you seen the picture of the woman he’s in love with?” she asked knowing that she hadn’t.
Her friend’s eyes widened. “Is this woman also someone his mother doesn’t approve of?” She clasped her hands together. “I get it now, it’s the lesser of two evils. If his mother won’t agree to his first choice she’ll have to accept his second.”
“Something like that,” Tanna said, although she knew that wasn’t his strategy at all. “Trust me. At the end of this, you’ll be getting the remaining balance, Doran will get his mother off his back and we’ll all be happy.”
“I don’t know what you’re getting out of this.”
Tanna squeezed her arm. “Helping you is all that matters to me.” Her cell phone rang. She checked the number. “It’s him.”
“Maybe he’s changed his mind. Maybe he’s calling to cancel.” Ambrosia grabbed her bag, put it on her lap and dug for her purse. “Maybe he wants his money back.”
Tanna snatched the bag from her then set it heavily on the ground afraid it would tip her chair over. “I doubt it,” she said before answering. “Hello, the amazingly attractive and elegant Tanna speaking. How may I help you?”
“There’s been a change of plans.”
Her shoulders dropped. There was no smile in his voice. He was going to cancel as Ambrosia had feared. She could feel her friend’s anxious gaze on her. She’d have to come up with the money another way. “Hold on a minute,” she said to him, stood then walked outside the pool gates for privacy. “You’re getting back with Megan?”
“No, I—”
“Your mother left the country?”
Doran sighed in frustration. “What have I told you—”
“About not interrupting. I know, I’m sorry. Damn, I just did it again, didn’t I? I don’t usually I just…and now I’m rambling so I’ll stop and let you speak.”
“Thank you. The thing is—”
“I really didn’t mean to cut you off like that and jump to conclusions. That was unfair….hello? Hello? Are you still there?”
“Only if you’re finished.”
“Yes. Go on….I’m waiting,” she said when he didn’t speak.
“I’m just making sure.”
“Ziiiippp!”
“What was that?” he asked.
“That’s the sound of me zipping my lips.”
“Okay,” he said, but she couldn’t tell if he was amused or annoyed.
She didn’t want to annoy him. She wanted to continue with his plan. She switched the phone to her other ear and took a deep breath. No matter what he said she could handle it.
“I called because there’s been a change of plans and if you interrupt me by saying ‘What?’ I’m hanging up.”
She made a cry of protest.
“What did you say?”
Tanna made a motion of unzipping her lips even though he couldn’t see her. “I said I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“Good. You’re self-employed, right?”
“Yes, I run my own business. Why?”
“Before you meet my mother, I need to show you off.”
“Show me off?”
“Yes, for about two weeks so clear your schedule and be ready tonight.”
“I thought the five thousand dollars was just for the weekend?”
“I mentioned several days, remember?”
He had. She knew she should have been more specific. “Yes, but—”
“See you tonight.” He disconnected.
Tanna stared at the phone wishing he didn’t have a habit of doing that. She returned to her friend and sat down.
“What did he say?” Ambrosia asked, her eyes wide.
“He wants my schedule to be free for the next two weeks so that he can ‘show me off’.”
“What does that mean?”
Tanna shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Chapter 10
Tanna found out soon enough when Doran whisked her off to a celebrity wedding in Morocco. Took her dancing at a nightclub in Monte Carlo, wined and dined her in a villa in Turks and Caicos then escorted her to the private island party of an eccentric billionaire Doran affectionately called “The Loon”.
She was never without the finest clothes to wear or the most sparkling of jewelry. In public, Doran held her close, whispered silly jokes in her ear, introduced her as if she were a treasure he’d discovered. But in private he was a different man. A man she couldn’t quite read. He talked without revealing much about himself. She wondered if she could loosen his tongue with alcohol as she had on their first meeting, but every attempt ended in failure.
Tanna looked at him as they flew back from a brief trip to Barbados on his private jet. It had plush light grey lounge chairs and luxurious cabin space. Doran lay stretched out on the couch, watching an action film on the TV, looking very much like the carefree playboy his sister had described. Tanna studied his handsome profile not sure she really liked him, not that it mattered, that wasn’t her job. But she wondered if it had only been the liquor and desperation that had made her see him in a different light when they were at the castle.
Even in the weeks they’d been together, his passing kisses hadn’t aroused her as that first kiss had. But his present kisses had been very superficial—a light peck on the cheek here, a brief brush of the lips there. She felt a little disappointed because she didn’t want to see this side of him. It had been more enjoyable thinking of him as the fantasy hero she’d met at her sisters’ wedding. But that hero was definitely gone. In two years a hard edge had developed around him. She knew she was in no danger of falling for a man like him whose heart most definitely belonged to someone else.
“I think you’ve made your point,” she said, as he watched a shootout scene he’d seen three times before. It was a bloody, gory film that appeared to be his favorite. He even smiled at the same places. “I had fun, although I think you went a little overboard.”
“How?” he asked, lifting the sparkling glass of water the steward had set down for him.
She waited for the sight of a car exploding, a part of the film that always made him laugh, filling the cabin with the sound of shattering glass, metal being blown apart and scorching flames, then said, “Who attends this many functions in two weeks?”
“I do.” He took a long swallow then set the glass down. “The only difference this time is that I’m with the same woman more than once.”
“And that hasn’t happened since…” She stopped, leaving the question in the air.
He replayed the car explosion scene. “You’ve succeeded with the easy part. Now the real work begins.” He turned to her and flashed a roguish grin before he glanced at her hand. “Dear.”
She looked down at the engagement ring on her finger. The stone was so big it was almost an embarrassment. It was how she’d felt the first time she saw
it, but he’d insisted she try it on, then she couldn’t get it off so she feigned delight, forcing him to buy it. Another man may have taken umbrage on how much it had cost him, but Doran appeared unperturbed.
After she met his mother, she was going to fast until she lost enough weight to get the blasted ring off her finger and hand it back to him.
“It looks good on you.”
She didn’t know what to make of that statement so she looked at the film. “Now that’s what I call a bonfire,” she said saying the lines of the main hero.
Doran sat up and stared at her surprised. “You’ve seen this before?”
Tanna stared back at him. Was he serious? He’d seen the same film in the hotel in Morocco, again in the villa, another time on the flight back from Monte Carlo and now. She was with him each time, didn’t he remember that? “Um…Yes.”
“Isn’t it great?” he said with more enthusiasm than he’d shown the entire time they’d been together.
“Yes.”
His whole face spread into a smile. “What’s your favorite part?”
Tanna chewed her lower lip as if thinking then said, “The car explosion.”
He punched his fist into the palm of his other hand and the hard edges fell away from his features, making him look like a little boy who’d made a new friend. “Mine too! It just hits it, right?”
“With perfection,” she said, feeling a little guilty for lying to him. But the happy expression on his face made the feeling fade. If a little lie could make him look like that, she’d lie all the way home. “Everything comes together at that moment.”
“I know. Not everybody gets that.”
She turned back to the film. “Oh, and this is another good part,” she said pointing to the screen. “The ambush. When Taylor’s betrayed by his friend. That’s the worse. I never saw it coming.”
“Me neither,” Doran said in a low voice as he returned his gaze to the screen.
And they watched the climactic scene in silence, but to her surprise Tanna soon noticed Doran looking at her more than the film. When she glanced at him, he quickly looked away, but she felt a new awareness in the air, the sudden heightened awareness of a gazelle sensing a lion in the distance—anticipation, as she sensed him starting to look at her in a new, exciting way.
Don’t fall for it, her mind told her. He didn’t see her as a woman, he only saw her as a prop in his deception.
But with every glance he sent her way, there was a tingling in the pit of her stomach, the cabin suddenly felt too small, her body felt too hot.
Don’t fall for him, her mind warned her, but she knew she was in danger of doing just that.
Chapter 11
Daisy Garth loved her men with beards, her vodka straight up and her gossip hot. She jogged around the tree lined track of the Ola Day Spa. At fifty-nine she was determined to keep her figure for her latest boy toy—a souvenir from Antigua. But today she couldn’t concentrate on the physical activity as her mind hummed with the latest news.
“I saw your son with a woman,” she said to her companion, Vanessa Gibson, who easily kept pace with her. She jogged with the ease of someone born for the task, her brown skin untouched by the slightest hint of sweat.
“Which one?” Vanessa said. “The boring one or the naughty one?”
Daisy laughed harder than the comment warranted, but she was building up to the real topic and that always made her giddy. “Who else?”
“Doran is always with a woman.”
“Not just any woman. He seemed serious about this one.”
“He hasn’t been serious in years.”
“He’s serious now.”
Vanessa paused. “Why do you say that?”
“Ellen saw him in a jewelry store.”
“That’s also nothing new.”
“She saw him buying rings.”
Vanessa slowed her pace. “Rings?”
“To be more specific an engagement ring.”
“You’re sure you’re not mistaken?”
“A woman was with him.”
Vanessa halted and stared at her. “What!”
Daisy nodded at her friend’s outraged expression. “Yes.”
“That’s impossible. How can I not know anything about it?”
“I’m sure you’ve heard enough about him. He’s had tongues wagging from Morocco to Barbados.”
Vanessa turned and started to jog again, although at a slower pace. “I’m always hearing things about him, I’ve learned not to listen. Who is this woman? What’s her name? What is she like?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“No, I asked because I enjoy the sound of my voice. Of course I want to know.”
“Then let me show you,” Daisy said. She stopped and pulled out her cell phone. Once she found the image she was looking for she held the screen up for Vanessa to see.
Vanessa’s face paled. “Oh no.”
Daisy’s grin increased, sharing this news was even better than she’d hoped. “Yes.”
“But she looks very…”
“African?”
Vanessa nodded.
“I’ve heard that she is. At least she’s pretty even if she’s—”
Vanessa shook her head. “No. I won’t allow it.”
“It will be hard to stop him. He couldn’t keep his hands off her.”
“It’s a phase that will pass.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
Vanessa’s gaze grew cold. “That’s not an option.”
The call came sooner than expected, but it wasn’t a surprise. Doran glanced at the number on his phone as he lay on his couch watching a TV sitcom. He’d planned for this moment, he’d chosen the place to buy Tanna’s engagement ring with particular care. He knew it wouldn’t take long for news to get back to his mother.
He picked up the phone. “Who told you?”
“I’m not in a good mood right now.”
“I thought you’d be pleased. You wanted me to settle down, right?”
“Don’t be facetious.”
“Don’t be what?” he asked feigning ignorance.
She sighed loudly, which was uncharacteristic of her. She usually kept her feelings to herself, but he knew how to push her buttons.
“How much did you spend?”
Daron clicked his tongue in a gentle scold. “Didn’t you teach me that talking about money is crass?”
“She’s a gold digger. It’s as clear to me as anything. How can you think of marrying a woman who comes out of nowhere?”
“She didn’t come out of nowhere.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you this, but Megan is free.”
“You say that like I’m supposed to care.”
“You two make an excellent couple. I don’t know what happened—”
“No, you don’t.”
“But every worthwhile relationship hits a rough patch….Doran?” she said when he didn’t reply.
“I’m still waiting for the part where I’m supposed to care.”
“This is too important for you to be glib. Not only would it be a good match, but think of the connections.”
“We don’t need her connections. I think—”
“Oh dear, when have you started doing that? Haven’t you noticed that you aren’t good at it?”
Doran gritted his teeth. “I still think—”
“Megan will be at the summer party. I expect you to be your usual charming self. Give her a chance. When she spoke to me the other day, she made it clear how unhappy she is that things didn’t work out.”
She was only unhappy that things hadn’t worked out with Adam instead of him. He wondered why she felt the need to come sniffing around him again. Bigger game? “She’ll be even more unhappy when she meets my fiancée.”
His mother’s tone turned to ice. “You know I’m very picky about who comes to the lake house.”
“Yes,” he said unable to stop a cruel smile. “I know. But once you meet her you’ll
love her as much as I do.”
“I sincerely doubt it,” his mother said then disconnected.
Doran’s grin widened. Good. I’m counting on it.
Chapter 12
“I can’t believe a month has gone by so fast,” Ambrosia said as she helped Tanna pack while her daughter Hallie sat in the living room giggling over a video game she was playing in the living room.
Clothes lay neatly in piles on the bed—causal, formal and in-between—as the two women considered all possibilities. Doran was scheduled to pick her up in four hours.
“It has been an adventure,” Tanna agreed not sure she was completely prepared for the big finale—three days with Doran’s family. Fooling strangers had been easy, this would take more cunning.
“Will you miss him?” Ambrosia asked, inspecting one of Tanna’s summer blouses before deciding to reject it and put it back in the closet.
“I’ll miss the trips.”
Ambrosia sent her a significant look. “Just the trips?”
“Do I need to mention Megan again?” She held up her ringed hand. “And this atrocity on my finger?”
“I think it looks good on you.”
Tanna rolled her eyes. “He said the same thing. What is wrong with you two?”
“He said it looked good on you? You didn’t tell me that.”
“Because it wasn’t important.” She rested her hands on her hips then surveyed the clothes. “I think that’s everything.”
“You can admit it you know.”
“Admit what?”
“That you’ll miss him.”
Tanna threw up her hands. “I just said—”
“That you’ll miss the trips I know, but that’s not the full story. I wouldn’t blame you for falling for him just a little with all the gifts, traveling in a private jet to exotic places, the clothes and two weeks turned into almost four and then—”
“It’s all a lie. I never once had a Cinderella moment. There’s no clock striking twelve. I’m already a pumpkin, remember? That’s the point. There’s no happily-ever-after ending with this tale.”
