Speed Dating (12 page)

“Everyone thinks I’m really your girlfriend.”

“Right. Which was our plan. So?”

“Maybe this is crazy. I know I’m only your pretend girlfriend, but I’d appreciate fidelity.”

“I’m not sure I follow you, honey. All we do is a little kissing.”

She felt foolish but she was a woman of strong morals, and even in a pretend relationship it was important for her to believe in her man. “I know. But if you are seen with other women, it makes me look foolish.”

“So now you’re asking for an exclusive on my lips.”

She gaped at him and caught the crinkle around his eyes that told her he was teasing her again.

“Oh, just forget I ever spoke,” she snapped and turned up the volume on the car’s CD player.

With a click the music was silenced completely, and the car made a neat little
S
. Suddenly they were pulled over into a picnic area.

Dylan opened his door and got out, strolling over to check out the graffiti on a picnic table. She got out and stretched her back, then walked over to join him.

“You want a drink?” he asked, heading for a soda machine.

“Thanks. Sparkling water or juice if there is any.”

He fed coins into the machine and came over with a couple of cans. Passed her one.

Her stomach felt a little jumpy and she wondered if the greatest adventure of her life was about to end. She probably should have kept her mouth shut, but she knew she couldn’t do that. She needed to be honest and she needed to keep her dignity, whatever the cost.

“Here’s the thing,” he said, looking at the table rather
than at her. “I asked you to help me out of a jam and you did. I asked you to act like you were crazy about me and you did that, too.”

She nodded.

“Now, we’ve worked so hard to convince Ashlee that we’re an item, I’d be crazy to go out with other women, right?”

“I suppose. If she was going to find out.”

“Oh, she’d find out. You don’t know Ashlee. She still has friends who are married to or girlfriends of the guys. They fill her in on everything.”

“I saw you take that model’s phone number, after the ad shoot.”

He made an embarrassed face. “It was reflex. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so I took it. You didn’t see me throw the paper away later.”

“No. But the point is you took it, which made me feel slighted.”

“Honey, I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to phone that girl, and there was nowhere to put that paper if I gave it back to her.”

“There was quite a bit of room in her bra cup. At least a
D
’s worth.”

“I should have thought about your feelings. You’re right. But believe me, I’m not going to date anyone while you’re around.”

“You won’t date anyone else so that Ashlee doesn’t find out?” And her confidence was at an all-time high.

“No. That’s one reason. I also heard what you said. You don’t want to share.”

“Right.”

“I respect that. I don’t want to share you, either.”

“You don’t?”

He gazed at her over his drink can, eyes narrowed against the sun.

She felt a huge sense of relief, but he didn’t seem to be having the same reaction to their little talk. In fact, she realized when he finished drinking that he wasn’t done talking.

“I didn’t make any promises, Kendall, and I won’t be making any.”

“Promises?” What promises?

“You’re a nice woman. You also seem like the kind who wants to settle down and have a few kids in the near future so you can calculate the odds that they get into med school or Yale, or that they’ll break their arms if they take up softball. Am I right?”

She decided to ignore his animadversions on her professional background. “I do plan to get married someday and hope to raise a family. Yes.”

“Just so we’re both clear on that, I am not your guy.”

She was so surprised she choked on her juice, and then got caught between a laugh and a cough so that it gurgled up into her nose and burned. “Ow, ow,” she cried, digging in her bag for a tissue.

He slapped her on the back, nearly knocking her out. “You okay?”

She nodded and waved him back. When she had blown her nose and composed herself, she stared at him.

“You think I would want to marry you?”

He blinked at her as though she’d asked the stupidest question he’d ever heard. “I’d prefer you didn’t, but just for the record what is so hysterically funny about the idea?”

She smiled at him, a big, happy sunbeam of a smile that showed all her teeth. “You are exactly what I need right now and I will always be grateful that you told me to jump into your car in Charlotte. I love being your good-luck charm and I can probably get used to the noise and the smell of the racetrack, given time, but there’s no long-term for us. There couldn’t be.”

“Right. Right. That’s what I’m saying.” He kicked some gravel around with his feet. “I know why I think that, but why do you?”

She gaped at him. “Dylan, you would be a terrible husband and father.” Realizing how rude that sounded, she hastily added, “For me, I mean. You’re so restless and on the road so much. I’m looking for a family man.”

“So, I’m an unacceptable risk as a husband and father, that’s what you’re saying?”

Glad he understood her so well, she said, “Yes.”

“You’ve calculated it all out with a calculator and a spreadsheet. I’m good enough for a few kisses and some laughs.”

“Exactly. A monogamous pretend relationship.”

“Well, honey, it looks like we’ve got a deal, because we both want the same thing, and we’re both agreed I’d make a lousy dad.”

There was a note of bitterness that broke through his cheerful tone and caused her brow to furrow. Something was going on here that she didn’t understand. “I’m sure you’d make a wonderful father.” She thought of all the times he’d spent an extra minute with one of his younger fans, and how all the kids of the other drivers treated him like a favorite big brother. He always had time to kick a football around or joke or talk sports. “I didn’t mean—”

He tossed his drink can into the recycling container and started walking back to his car. “Let’s go.”

As they continued the drive, she was desperate to change the subject. “How are you going to entertain a bunch of sick kids? Some of whom, I hate to tell you, might not be racing fans.”

“I have hidden talents, my friend.”

“Do you?”

“I can make an entire menagerie of balloon animals. Poodles, lions, water buffalo, you name it.”

“Really?” She was delighted, especially since he’d obviously decided to let his weird mood go. Dylan—the easygoing, laid-back, fun guy—had returned. “What a great talent to have.”

She loved this part of the world, the vast sandy beaches, so different from the rugged Oregon coastline; the Atlantic; the hot weather. She loved having time alone with Dylan and, as awkward as the conversation had been, she was glad they’d talked about the importance of fidelity in their fake relationship.

“So, who booked you for this?”

There was a pause. “Ashlee.”

So much for fidelity. “Ashlee? You’ve barely got any time in your schedule and you’re doing this for Ashlee?”

“I am doing it for some kids who could use a laugh,” he reminded her.

“And your clingy ex-wife isn’t going to be anywhere near, right?”

“Of course she’ll be there. She’s the one who set this up.”

D
YLAN ANSWERED
questions that were fired at him faster than ones at any media scrum she’d ever seen. A dozen or so kids were assembled in the ward, and whether or not they knew who Dylan was, they seemed pretty excited.

“What’s the fastest you ever drove?”

“About two hundred miles an hour.”

“Do you have any kids?”

“No.”

“Are you a millionaire?” Giggles.

“Yep.”

“Is that your girlfriend?”

Dylan raised his head and caught sight of Kendall standing in the doorway. A beat passed. There were no media here, no Ashlee or crowds of fans for whom the deception mattered. “Yep,” he said again, and dropped his gaze back to the group of kids.

“What’s her name?”

“Kendall.”

This was the guy who’d told her he’d be a terrible father?

“Where’s Ashlee?” Kendall asked him when there was a short pause.

“I don’t know. She’s supposed to be here, with the balloons.”

“Got it. Keep talking. Tell them some of your charming anecdotes. I’ll be right back.”

He had a bag of ball caps that he’d planned to sign and give out at the end of the show, but Kendall handed it to him now, figuring a change in the program would give her more time to find balloons.

She ran out, cursing Ashlee all the way to the car. She asked for help in a bakery that specialized in kids’ birthday cakes and was directed to a strip mall to find the right kind of balloons for twisting into animals. Then she got lost trying to find the strip mall.

Kendall came dangerously close to breaking the speed limit on her way back to the hospital.

As soon as she returned with the balloons to the fifth-floor children’s ward, she felt a buzz in the air. There was a lot of noise and laughter coming from the open doorway.

When she peeked in the doorway she saw Dylan, sitting on a table and surrounded by kids. Kids on crutches, in wheelchairs, kids dragging IV poles and oxygen tanks. No matter how pale, or thin, they were all laughing. Many of them held balloon animals, like the one Dylan was currently fashioning.

She let out a shaky breath and slid quietly into the room, putting down the bag of balloons. Ashlee was there, standing unnecessarily close to Dylan, handing him balloons.

She wanted to be angry, but Ashlee actually looked as if she cared about these kids and, whatever her motive, it was a good thing. Jeff would love this, she thought.
What a great photo op. But Jeff wasn’t here. The media weren’t here. It was just Dylan and a bunch of kids.

Dylan talked while he twisted balloons into what she thought was a giraffe. The way he talked to the shy young girl who was waiting for her giraffe made Kendall’s heart flip over. She had long blond hair, a pretty face and a clear breathing tube connected to a portable oxygen tank. She wore jeans and a T-shirt that announced a fun run in aid of cystic fibrosis funding.

Deciding that she wasn’t needed, and she’d rather drink hospital machine coffee than hang around watching Ashlee drool on Dylan, she headed back to a seating area she’d noted when they first came in. To her surprise, she found Harrison sitting stiffly in one of the chairs flipping through an ancient
Reader’s Digest.
He was the only person there.

“Harrison,” she said.

He glanced up, nodded, then put down his magazine. “Kendall. I thought you’d be helping with the balloons.”

“I think Dylan’s getting plenty of help. Ashlee is sitting so close to him you’d think he was a ventriloquist and she was his dummy,” she snapped, and then gasped at her own rudeness. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Ashlee is never subtle,” Harrison said. As if that were breaking news.

She nodded.

He picked up a well-thumbed and unsanitary-looking magazine from the stack and then put it down again. He turned to her. “You’re probably wondering why I let her treat me this way.”

In fact, she’d been wondering that since their wedding day when she first met the three of them. Since
he’d opened the door to discussing his private life, she was happy to walk through it.

“Why do you?” she asked, sitting beside him on a brown vinyl chair.

“I love her,” he said simply.

Somehow, coming from this pompous, too-rich guy, the words sounded more sincere than anything else he’d ever said in her company.

What could she say? Ashlee spent a lot more time trying to talk Dylan into getting back together than she did basking in the love of her new husband. She glanced at him uncertainly.

“She loves me, too,” he said. Okay, there was the blind ego she’d come to know and not love. He glanced her way and his lips tilted as though he’d read her mind. “She really does love me. She simply hasn’t accepted it yet.”

“When do you see her doing that?”

“A lot depends on you.”

“Me?” Shock had her squeaking out the word like a very inquisitive mouse.

“Why do you think Ashlee keeps wanting to do these horrendous double dates?”

“I was thinking it was some kind of torture ritual.”

He smiled slightly and shook his head. “She’s watching you. Ashlee is a…complicated woman. Our background, the three of us, it’s complicated, too. Think about it.” Here he allowed himself another small, amused smile. “She was the prettiest girl in the town. In the county. I was in love with her from the second I saw her in high school. I mean real, love-at-first-sight stuff.”

“Wow. And you waited all this time?” And for what, she wondered, but a big dose of heartache.

“Ashlee and Dylan were the golden couple growing up. High school prom king and queen, you know the types.”

Oh, she did. She’d watched those types from afar all her life.

He took a breath and she saw in that moment the pain of heartbreak he’d endured, that young success story who could get everything he wanted but the girl he loved. “So I got on with my life. Went to Harvard, learned some skills that I hope will keep our factory competitive and our labor force working for the next couple of decades.” He glanced at her.

“You didn’t marry a nice MBA or law grad?”

“No. I kept waiting, hoping Ash would come to her senses. I could see they were all wrong for each other.”

“And yet Dylan married Daisy.” She blinked, realizing she’d let her private name slip. “I mean, Ashlee.”

But Harrison was chuckling. “Daisy as in Gatsby’s Daisy? Not a bad parallel. I hope I end up better than Gatsby, though.”

“I hope so, too,” she said, thinking more than just Ashlee’s happiness was at stake. “Can’t you take Ashlee away from here? Spending so much time hanging around her ex-husband can’t be a good idea.”

“I could, of course, find an excuse to take her away from Dylan, but then she’s never going to realize that she’s over him. Has been over him for years. She not only loves me, but she needs me. I give her stability and—” he sent Kendall a swift, rueful glance “—she gives me excitement.”

He might be right that Ashlee was in love with him. Kendall had seen no evidence of it at all, however. Also, she could see what Harrison obviously couldn’t. Put the
two men together and Dylan, with his easy charm and slight air of danger, was by far the more interesting.

Again, it seemed as though Harrison read her thoughts. “I don’t pretend to be an exciting man like Dy. I don’t even want to be. If you weren’t around, I’d be dragging Ashlee home, but Ash isn’t as dumb as she appears. I think she’s finally starting to realize that you and Dylan have something special and it’s letting her accept the possibility that she and I have something special.”

“But she’s hooked on that reading from her astrologer telling her that she’s destined to end up with a man from her past.”

He sighed heavily. “Does no one ever consider the possibility that I am a man from her past?”

“It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. It only matters what Ashlee thinks,” she reminded him.

“Right. And she’s starting to think that maybe Dylan’s finally found someone who is right for him. When she gives up the idea of getting back together with him, she’ll see what’s under her nose.”

“How can you live like this?” she burst out.

He picked up an ancient
Golf Magazine
and straightened it on top of an old
National Geographic.
“I miscalculated. I made the foolish mistake of thinking that Ashlee looked on marriage the way most of us do—as a permanent arrangement, not an excuse for a party.”

“I’m sure she wants her marriage to last,” Kendall said, more as a sympathetic gesture than that she really thought anything of the kind.

“I’m sure she does, too. And when she sees how happy you and Dylan are, she’s going to forget about that astrologer. Kendall, I’m counting on you.”

“I’m not what you think I am,” she said suddenly, because in the face of such raw honesty she found she couldn’t lie to Harrison.

“You don’t know what I think you are, so that is a ridiculous statement.”

“What I’m trying to say is—”

“Don’t forget I’ve known Dylan as long as I’ve known Ashlee. He may hate my guts, but it doesn’t stop me from understanding him in a way I doubt he understands himself.” He looked at her fully. “He’s as terrified of commitment as Ashlee is. Don’t run away. He’ll do his best to drive you away, but don’t go. I don’t mean to be dramatic, but I think all our happiness depends on you.”

“Our entire relationship is a pretense,” she snapped, unable to stop the words she’d promised not to utter. “The whole thing’s an act to make Ashlee leave him alone.”

“Sure it is,” said Harrison with a knowing arch of the eyebrow that made her want to smack him.

She walked to the vending machine and got herself a coffee. She offered Harrison one, but he simply looked at her as if she was out of her mind for drinking that stuff. But then he hadn’t run all around a strange town in a panicky search for balloons that turned out not to be needed.

All our happiness depends on you,
Harrison had said.

She returned to her chair and sat down. She sipped her coffee.

“Okay,” she said. “This is none of my business.” It was also risky to give personal advice to a man she barely knew, and she didn’t usually take emotional risks. Hanging around with Dylan was making her as crazy as he was. “But you’re making it too easy for Ashlee.”

He looked at her strangely. “I beg your pardon?”

“I know. This is pushy and I am never pushy, but I can’t seem to help myself.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Dylan.”

She smiled at the way they both assumed Dylan was responsible for her changing. “Probably.”

“Go on. I suppose I’m desperate enough to take advice from someone who is as hopelessly in love with Dylan as I am with Ashlee.”

She blinked and experienced an odd sensation, as though she were about to pass out. “I’m not hopelessly…” She couldn’t finish the sentence because she’d always tried to tell the truth and even as she formed the words to deny his charge, she realized he was right. She was in love with Dylan. And hopeless didn’t begin to describe it.

His face softened and he leaned over to touch her shoulder. “Sorry. Maybe it’s not hopeless. What do I know? I should have known it was hopeless when I married Ashlee.”

“No. Your marriage wasn’t a mistake.” She pushed thoughts of her own romantic troubles aside. “Ashlee is confused, that’s all. She left Dylan once and for good reason. You’re right. Those two are all wrong for each other. They’re too alike. Anyone can see—”

“You can see it and I can see it, but we aren’t exactly objective observers.”

“Right.” She sighed.

“But I’ll try anything. What do you think I should do?”

She sipped her coffee again. “What Ashlee does so well. Play hard to get.”

“Excuse me, but I already graduated from high school.”

“Maybe, but this crazy love-hate triangle with the three of you sure hasn’t.”

“And how do you suggest I play hard to get with my own wife?”

“Stop coming with her when she follows Dylan around. It can’t be any fun.”

“Having my liver chewed by cockroaches would be more fun.”

“Exactly.”

“But…I don’t know. If I’m not there she might do something crazy.”

“I know. She might convince him to get back together.”

“It’s a big risk.”

“For both of us.”

He sat back. Drummed his fingers on the knee of his impeccable trousers. “I’ve got business at home that can’t wait. I shouldn’t be hanging around like this as it is.”

He stood, paused there another moment, and then, with a sudden nod, as though he’d just made up his mind about something, started walking down the hall in the direction of the balloon party with such determination in his stride that she had to jog to catch up.

The balloon animals were all done, and Ashlee and Dylan were spending one-on-one time with a couple of the kids. Ashlee had a little girl about two sitting in her lap, playing with her hair. There were bandages on the girl’s legs.