Pretend for Me (6 page)

She talked fast, and her pacing sped up. He found it
adorable to witness for the first few seconds. When he saw the panic on her
face he intervened.

“Stop.”
He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “We’re the best of friends. We can
pull this off, Sara. I’ve got your back on this. Stop panicking.”

“You don’t know my family.”

“They love and care about you. I care about you. I can
handle this. Besides, it should be fun, and I’ll get all of your childhood
stories told to me this weekend.”

He laughed when he saw the face she pulled.

“Lighten up, have some coffee, and then we’ll hit the
road and drive to your parents’ house.”

Andy handed her the cup and watched her sip the dark
liquid.

“There is something I forgot to tell you about my
family,” she said.

He stood leaning against the counter waiting for her
to tell him. “I’m waiting.”

“My family is, erm, are … they’re well off.”

Her face heated at her words. The beautiful red flush
of her cheeks contrasted with her hair.

“Your family has money?” he asked, trying to clarify
what she was trying to say.

“Yeah, a lot of
it.
So, it would be great if you didn’t bring up money or
plans for the future and all the stuff like that.”

He processed what she was saying. “Do you think your
family is going to assume I’m a gold-digger after your money?”

She nibbled her lip. The sight went straight to his
cock. Watching her nibble her lip had a deep effect on him. Andy didn’t know
what it was about her nibbling her lip that affected him so.

“They wouldn’t come right out and say it, but they’d
try to get information out of you and … erm … they might mislead you on certain
topics.”

He cupped her cheek, stroking the delicate flesh. Andy
wanted to do more to her, but touching her cheek was enough at the moment.
“Sara, I own several successful clubs. I’m paying off my loans, and I’m not
starving. I’ll never be after your money. Please, don’t panic. We’ve got this.”

Andy wasn’t going to say anything to worry her with
regards to her family. He was already getting the huge picture that they were
rather protective of their little sister.

“Also, my sister is very pretty.”

Again, he’d seen the picture, but to him, Tracy didn’t
match Sara in beauty. He had been taken by Sara from the instant he met her. A
picture did not make a woman, or at least to him it didn’t.

“I don’t care what your sister looks like. I’m there
for you and no one else. You need to trust me.”

She smiled and then put the coffee cup down. “If we
want to avoid a lot of the morning traffic we need to get going.”

“I’ll come and meet you by your door.”

Sara left his apartment as he finished locking
everything up. The security inside the building was good, and he wasn’t worried
about any break-ins. He picked up Champion and his suitcase and then made his
way down to her apartment. She stood in the doorway looking like she wanted to
throw up.

“I’m sorry. I packed a little more.” She pointed to
two suitcases, her laptop bag, and her purse.

“We’ll be gone for three days, and you’ve packed like
we’re staying the month.” He shook his head. There was no way he would ever
understand women. They were a complete mystery to him.

He didn’t say the words out loud. She took her purse,
the laptop bag, and Champion while he carried their suitcases down to his
waiting car. The apartment block owned an underground parking facility, which
was perfect.

They rode the elevator down to the underground
section. She crooned to Champion, and he struggled with all of their cases.
“What do you have packed?” he asked, throwing the cases into the trunk of his
car.

“When you see my family you’ll understand why I pack
for every occasion.”

Sara put Champion in the back of the car then climbed
into the front.

“I’ll give you directions, and you drive,” she said.

“Sweetheart, there is no way I’d let you drive my
baby.”

“It’s a car.”

“But it’s my car. This is the first car I bought after
the profits from my first club. She is sentimental to me.” He stroked the
leather interior of his baby to emphasis his point.

“Whatever, it’s a car.”

She put her seatbelt on then waited for him to start
the car. He turned the engine over and listened to his baby purr to life. The
engine was a dream. He didn’t know a lot about cars. What he did know was he
loved the sound of his car turning over.

Sara gave him an odd look. “It’s still a vehicle that
pollutes the air and causes global warming.”

His good mood died along with her attitude. “What’s up
your ass this morning?” Andy put his car into gear and pulled out of their
apartment building.

“Nothing.
I’m just nervous about this whole weekend.”

They were silent while he got onto the freeway.

“What about you? Do you have any family gatherings
coming up?” she asked.

“No, my parents died before I moved to the city.”

“What? Why didn’t you ever tell me?” She turned to
face him in the small vehicle. Andy quickly glanced in her direction and saw
the sadness on her face.

“Don’t worry about it. My folks didn’t have me until
they were quite old. My mother was forty-five when she gave birth to me. They
were good to me even though I exhausted them.”

“Wow, that must have been hard,” she said.

He nodded recalling some of the horrors of his youth.
“When I was a teenager they used to think my folks were my grandparents. They
were good, and I never let any of the comments bother me. Kids can be cruel and
all that.”

Sara was silent beside him. He didn’t like it.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I’m amazed. There is so much about you I don’t know.
It makes me wonder what I’ve been missing all these years.”

He laughed. “There’s not much to tell. I never talk
about my parents because it puts a downer on the conversation. I knew in
advance my folks weren’t going to last. When they found out about their illness—they
both had advanced cancer—they let me know what they were doing. I wasn’t
shocked by their death. It hurts, but I lived through it. They brought me up to
believe that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I live with that policy
throughout my life.”

“It sounds like a great policy. Their passing must
have hurt though.”

Andy recalled the pain when he was woken in the
morning by the hospital. “When they went it
was
the
hardest few months of my life. I just can’t believe they both went at the same
time.”

“Then what happened?”

He smiled recalling the moment. “A couple of months
after their passing I met you.”

She gasped.
“Really?”

“Yes, I met you, and for some reason I knew the world
was going to be okay.” He reached over and tapped her knee. “I was right.”

Andy saw she was thinking. Turning to glance at her
quickly he saw her brows were furrowed in concentration. “What’s going on in
that mind of yours?”

“Would your parents have liked me?”

The question caught him off guard. In his mind he saw
his mother sitting at her kitchen table looking Sara over. He saw the approval
in her face. His father would have said the red hair was a testament to a fiery
temperament and quick wit.

“They would have loved you.”

Thinking about his parents made him realize what he
was missing out on. He tightened his hold on the steering wheel as she put on
the radio. Sara turned on some classical tunes. He listened to the sounds and
thought about his parents.

He hadn’t been lying about his parents. They would
have adored Sara. She kept Andy on his toes, and his father would have seen
something in their friendship.

Shit, this weekend might not be the best idea after
all.

****

Sara tapped her fingers on the dashboard as she gazed
out of the window. She felt like a bad friend for not knowing about Andy’s
parents. They sounded like good people. She pointed to Andy to turn off the
intersection. The number of times she’d driven up and down this very road was
more than her poor fingers could count. There was the time after prom when she
left Dylan in the motel room he’d organized. Unlike Dylan she hadn’t been ready
to leave her virginity behind in a damp, cheap motel. That night she’d debated
leaving her family and the small town she grew up in—behind.

Deciding against leaving her town behind, she’d gone
home instead of back to Dylan in the motel room. She had gone to college and
gotten her degree in English literature and begun her writing career. In
between all of that time she dated Dylan, finally lost her virginity to him on
Halloween night, and then she turned down his proposal. After she refused his
proposal because she’d caught him making plans with another girl, she’d left
him and her family without looking back. Getting away from her family and from
Dylan had been important to her.

Her family had thought she’d return home having
failed. Instead, she’d continued to fight for her independence. She refused to
use her family’s name and influence to better herself. Her writing was her baby,
and no one, not even her family, could take away her success.

“This is where you lived?” he asked.

She nodded her head and got him to continue off the
main road and down a narrow country road. He cursed the roads, but soon the
road opened up. They drove through the long town. Several shops were already
open for the day’s business. “I bet they’re no clubs around here. I wonder if I
can invest here.”

Sara laughed. “You’re not in the city anymore. You’ve
got no chance.”

The directions continued until she pointed down a long
stretch of street. The houses were large with each one having a white picket
fence.

“Why do I get the sense you haven’t been telling me
everything,” he said.

“Well, my family has a lot of money, and erm … they
pretty much
support
the town.”

She pointed off the street to the largest house in the
street. “My family lives there.”

Andy paused outside a dominating, large white house.
She pointed three floors up to the window on the far right. “That’s my room.”

He turned to her. “You live in a mansion?”

“No, my father owns Carroll Industries and is also
responsible for the fishing dock down by the mainland. My Dad has helped to
keep the town afloat with constant employment and the Carroll name has run on
for generations.”

“You’re an heiress?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I like to think of myself as a
writer. I’m not fussed with other names.”

Sara glanced up the driveway and nibbled her lip. From
the number of cars along the street and up the driveway most of the folks were probably
in the house.

“Sara, before I go and make myself look like a
complete and total fool, what exactly do your parents do?” he asked.

“Well, my father took over as the head of Carroll
Industries when my grandpa retired a couple of years back. Before then, the
Carroll name helped to set up this town.”

“Your great-great-great-grandparents were responsible
for this town?”

“Among others.”

“Shit.”

“What?” she asked, concerned by his sudden outburst.

“I thought you were just a simple country girl trying
to make it in the city. I didn’t realize you were pretty much loaded and it
didn’t matter if you failed or not.”

“It does matter. I’m still the same girl you gave a
cup of coffee to this morning. Don’t treat me any differently just because my
family comes from a long line of money.” She pointed at her chest, hurt by his
words.

“I can’t believe this,” he said.

“What can’t you believe now?” She turned to him
placing her back against the door.

“You’re not
the you
I thought
you were.”

She frowned. “I may come from money, Andy Green, but
that does not mean I’m any different from you. I’ve never been treated
differently, and my parents are firm believers in everyone starting from
scratch. We don’t force our way in because of our name. We have all earned our
right in our own areas.”

Andy held his hands up. “Okay, I believe you. Compared
to this, Sara, I’m broke.”

She leaned over kissing his cheek. “You’re a success.
You’re going to see there is nothing different about my family compared to
yours. We just have different ways of doing things.”

They got out of the car. Sara let Champion out. The
little dog refused to leave her side. She reached down and stroked his back.
There was no way she was going to tell Andy that Dylan was a successful
millionaire in his own right. That conversation could happen between the men.