What was this silly game they were playing?
He glanced over to find her studying him. He squeezed her hand, then winked.
She winked back.
His feelings of goodwill grew and filled his chest to bursting.
He laughed with her. A beautiful sound, Janet’s laughter. They were laughing together. Laughing and looking and longing for something inexplicable.
Gage was so busy staring at her, he didn’t see the wooden mile marker on the jogging trail up ahead.
“Gage look out!” she cried.
But it was too late.
Ooph!
The post caught him low in the belly.
Her hand broke away from his at the impact. His fedora flew off. He somersaulted in midair and ended up on his back in the grass, staring up at the cloudless sky and her worried face.
Great. Just great.
Sprawled out on the soft ground as he was, Gage knew he must look like some hapless cartoon character. Now he knew how Charlie Brown felt when Lucy kept pulling the football out from under him.
“Are you all right?” Janet gently patted his cheek, first one side and then the other. “Gage, speak to me.”
Way to impress the lady, Gregory.
The breath knocked from his lungs. He couldn’t say a word. But he could look. He searched her eyes, telegraphing his feelings, telling her he was okay.
She bent lower over him, her hair falling against the side of his face. It tickled his nose nicely.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he wheezed and propped himself up on his elbows. “Don’t you dare.”
Her lips were inches from his now. One lone tear slid from her cheek and dropped to his bottom lip. The salty flavor of that bitter tear gave him strength. This was very important. He had to let her know exactly how wonderful she was.
“But...”
“Shhh. Stop blaming yourself for everything. You’ve been taking responsibility for things beyond your control for too many years.”
“I... Am I that transparent?” Her confused expression tugged at his gut.
“You’re a terrific person, Janet. Beautiful, kind, understanding. A brilliant doctor. If your father can’t see that, then he’s a blind fool who doesn’t deserve your love.”
“You really think so?” She blinked back the tears and gave him a smile so sweet his heart jumped to his throat.
“I know so.”
He ached to taste those lips again. Gently, he pulled her down. She placed one knee on either side of his prostrate body and lowered her chest to his.
They lay pressed hip to hip against the earth, held together by their gazes. The pressure of her body drove him wild with desire. He forgot everything. In that moment he was simply a man and she was simply the woman he wanted.
“Now, where were we?” he murmured. “Before we were so rudely interrupted.”
She lowered her mouth to his. Her tongue was both wicked and pure, her breath warm, her taste heavenly. Many tumultuous thoughts tumbled through his head. Hot, sexy thoughts that included some long-held fantasies.
Snap. Click. Whirl.
“What the hell?”
In unison, they turned their heads and looked over at the grinning cameraman, taking shot after shot of their compromised position.
Amanda Jacobs was on her knees in the dirt beside them. She thrust the microphone in Janet’s face. “So, tell the entire world, honey, just how good in bed is the hunkiest bachelor alive?”
12
Janet glanced down at the ring Gage had placed on her finger that afternoon in the shopping mall. It was a cubic zirconia in a cheap setting, purchased for appearances’ sake. It meant nothing. Nothing at all.
So why couldn’t she stop holding her left hand out in front of her and staring at the stupid thing?
Why couldn’t she stop having so much fun with him?
After their run-in with the overzealous Amanda Jacobs, with whom they surrendered and agreed to a brief interview. They’d completely committed to the charade. Might as well go all in.
Afterward, they’d had lunch at a local pizza hangout. It had been the best darned pizza she had ever eaten. Then they’d played video games in an arcade as if they were tweenagers.
They had also had their photo taken in one of those booths with the cheesy black curtains. Janet had the snapshot—they were both sticking out their tongues—tucked into her front pocket.
In the picture, she looked totally unlike herself, a bit silly, carefree and girlish.
“Our official engagement photo,” Gage had said when he handed it to her, and she’d experienced this weird, sappy sensation in the pit of her stomach. A serious what-if? scenario started playing in her brain until rational voice quickly shut it down. She would not indulge those ridiculous fantasies.
“So this is what it’s like being engaged to Gage Gregory,” she murmured.
“Yes, I guess it is.”
They were walking toward their building, the afternoon almost gone, when they spied the contingency of reporters still camped out on the front stoop.
“They’re more persistent than flies,” Gage muttered.
“This is nuts.” She shook her head.
“Gotta face ’em sometime. You ready?”
She nodded. Hand in hand, they ran the gauntlet. Gage shielded her with his arm as they pushed their way through the throng. Once inside, the door firmly locked behind them, Janet turned to view the tumult through the window.
“Aren’t you glad we’re not really getting married? Can you imagine the actual wedding bedlam?”
“No,” she said in all honesty. “I can’t.”
Then through the mini-blinds she saw something on the street that struck terror into her heart. She plucked at Gage’s sleeve. “Oh, no, here comes my own bit of insanity.”
From a white sedan parked at the curb, Gracie and a smiling, round-faced man Janet didn’t know emerged carrying boxes. Blithely, they made their way toward the crowd.
The reporters fell upon Gracie and her companion like mosquitoes on beachgoers.
“We’ve got to stop her from talking. Once she gets wound up, she’ll never quit,” Janet said.
Determined to muzzle her mother before she could start in on her Baby Predicate spiel and Nadine’s amazing powers of prognostication,
