Time to Pretend (20 page)

“I’ll swing it,” he said, steering her out the door.

Sophia grabbed her arm. “I’m picking you up at six tomorrow. I’ll get directions to your house from Danny.”

“Dress to kill, sweet thing. You’ll have men falling at your feet all night long.” Ginny’s catlike smile all but purred. “Unless we go to a gay bar. Then you’ll have to contend with the women.” What had she agreed to do? Overwhelmed and a little numb, Alaina nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
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Chapter 12

A knock on the front door startled Daniel from his thoughts. He had been in the midst of spraying the practice mats with a fungicide cleaning solution. The vast number of bare feet trudging through the studio made this weekly practice a priority.

The last of his students had left over an hour earlier. A glance around told him nobody had left anything behind. Alaina was likely at home preparing for bed. They had been up pretty late the night before.

If Evan had been successful Tuesday night, then Alaina would have been up late that night as well. Daniel wondered for the hundredth time why Evan hadn’t yet called him. Alaina had given no indication that anything had happened between her and Evan.

Daniel wondered what she wore for sleep. Did she have actual pajamas or did she prefer something from the pile of T-shirts that were on the chair in her room when he had been there Monday?

He ruled out the idea of something sexy or skimpy, but that didn’t stop him from imagining her dressed in a see-through teddy. It would be white. He noticed she never wore red. He liked that. Nothing to compete with that silky auburn hair.

Knocking from the vicinity of the front door, more insistent this time, caught his attention.

Tamping down the stirring below the waistband of his practice sweats, he peeked around the corner. The door was all glass, but only half of the front wall had windows. Though he knew Alaina wouldn’t show up without calling, he hoped it was her. If it was anyone else, he would ignore the tapping. He wasn’t in the mood for visitors.

It was Sophia. She knocked louder.

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With a sigh, he revealed himself. Flipping the locks, he wrenched open the door. “It’s after ten, Sophie. What are you doing here?” She breezed past him, carrying the scent of vanilla and cinnamon with her. “I knew you’d be up.”

“So?”

She waited for him to lock the door. “I thought you’d want to talk about this morning.”

When they were teens, Daniel didn’t talk to Sophia about his love life because half the girls he liked had been her friends. After her rape, he didn’t bring up the subject because his thoughts inevitably led back to the guilt he felt for giving his blessing to that relationship.

Charlie had been one of his best friends. Now he wanted to kill the bastard. That feeling didn’t abate, no matter how much time passed.

Why had he broken the long silence by admitting his problems with Alaina to her and Drew?

“You could have called.”

She grinned at him, her brown eyes twinkling with delight. “You wouldn’t have talked to me, Danny. I know you too well. This’ll work face-to-face.”

He hated this touchy-feely crap. To keep that thought under wraps, he bit the inside of his cheek. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“You’ve been lusting after Alaina for at least a month. When did you find out she had a kid?”

He’d had a crush on Alaina for four months, but he wasn’t about to correct Sophia. The last thing she needed was more ammunition.

“He’s her brother, but I think they do have more of a mother-son relationship. She made dinner for me Monday. I saw drawings on her refrigerator, and then I saw his room.” He also decided against mentioning he only saw it because he searched her house for water damage after Alaina had expressly forbidden his involvement.

Sophia’s head tilted. Her hair shifted, falling to obscure part of her face. She brushed it aside. “Have you met him?”
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Daniel’s patience was running thin, and not only because he knew Sophia was bound to ask questions to which he didn’t know the answers. “No. We’re not even officially dating. She’s being cagey about being with me. What’s with the third degree?” She came closer. With her heels on, she didn’t have to tilt her head much to look him in the eye. Her hands came up to rest on either side of his face. “Danny, you’ve never had a serious relationship in your life. Now you’re dating a woman who is ten years older than you. What’s going on?”

The brush-off he wanted to say didn’t come to his lips. His brain thought it and willed it to his tongue, but his tongue didn’t listen.

“When did you know Drew was the one?” Sophia chewed at her lip. “I think I knew the first time I saw him, but it took me a lot longer to admit it to myself.” She released her hold on him and stepped back. That annoying look she affected when she dissected him settled on her face. “You’re thinking she’s the one?

Are you in love with her?”

He shrugged, but he knew it was a lie. He knew exactly how he felt about Alaina. “I knew the first time I met her. That whole time we met with her, I just wanted to… I don’t know. Something.” He ran a hand through his hair.

“Why didn’t you?”

“She didn’t seem interested. It wasn’t until that Wednesday session before we went out that I got up the nerve to ask her out. I was shocked when she said yes.”

“That was the date I interrupted.” She perched on the merchandise counter, scooting back to sit cross-legged. “You were a jerk to her.” Daniel shook his head. “That was a misunderstanding. We cleared it up.”

She was quiet for a minute, lips pursed in thought. “So, what now? You’re in love with her. Are you ready for the whole sphere of domesticity thing?”

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He laughed softly. Hoisting himself up, he joined her on the counter. Sophia watched him, waiting for him to speak. He liked that about her. She was a good listener.

“I don’t know about that yet. I’m taking it slow. I don’t want to mess it up.”

Sophia nodded, but her thoughts appeared to be a million miles away. Finally, she looked up at him. “What about Evan?” Daniel’s breath caught. He didn’t know how to answer that question. Evan had a definite role in Daniel’s life. He couldn’t imagine living without his best friend and lover. Not seeing Evan or hearing from him for these past two days was beginning to take its toll on Daniel.

Finally, he settled for an evasion. “What
about
Evan?”

“Look, don’t take this the wrong way because I’m totally cool with it, but I always thought there was something between you two.” She gripped his arm, which was a good thing. The urge to bolt was almost too strong to ignore.

“I don’t know why you would think that.” Another evasion. He felt like shit for denying Evan, but it was all he could think to do.

She chewed her lip for a moment. “I saw you guys kissing one time. I’ve never seen you so passionate about anyone. Pieces of the puzzle clicked into place.” Sophia sighed. “Look, Danny, I want you to be happy. But I can’t help wondering if you’re fixated on Alaina because she’s older and maybe she won’t notice you screwing around with Evan because she’ll feel so lucky to have you in her life. If that’s the case, you’re underestimating her. Also, that’s mean to do to both her and Evan.”

“Sophia.” He growled her name as a warning. He didn’t want to admit anything.

“Mom and Dad are perfectly aware that Evan has a thing for you.

I don’t think they’d be too shocked if you guys wanted to be together.”

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“I want to be with Alaina.” He cut off the flow of her words. If she said much more, he might break down and admit thoughts and feelings he’d never allowed to manifest completely.

Evan’s ultimatum burned in his chest. Time was running out, and the motherfucker hadn’t bothered to call him since Tuesday morning.

* * * *

A long string of hot cheese stretched from Zach’s mouth to the rest of his pizza slice. He sucked at it, trying to find where it might end.

Laughing, Alaina reached across the table and broke it with her finger. A bit of it wrapped around her finger, so she popped it into her mouth. “Mmmm. I love cheese.”

“That’s my cheese.”

She lifted a brow at him and smacked her lips. He loved cheese pizza as much as she did. Of course, he wouldn’t eat any other toppings, so when he was around, she went without mushrooms and peppers. “If you want it back, you’ll have to come after it.” That challenge proved too much for Zach to resist, as she knew it would. His eyes narrowed as he studied her with that calculated look that didn’t quite fit his face. She resisted the urge to laugh because she knew what his next move would be.

He sank down beneath the table. She thought he would attack her from below, but he surprised her by popping up in the aisle next to the table. The bench seat dead-ended at a wall on one end. The back and the table blocked her escape from those directions. Zach’s maneuver boxed her in.

He pounced, launching himself across the short distance. She caught him and used the force of his attack to twist him in her arms.

Banding one arm across his chest, she went for the ticklish spots on his sides. He squirmed and giggled, but he sacrificed his defenses to stick a finger in her mouth.

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“You nut,” she said through her laughter. “I already swallowed it.”

All bets were off now that he had no other goal. He retaliated by tickling her sides. They were, unfortunately, ticklish in all the same spots. She shrieked, and Zach nearly upended the table with his flailing.

“I think we better stop,” she said as she glanced around. Not too many people were staring at them. Good thing this establishment catered to kids.

He returned to his side of the table, but not before stealing half the cheese on her slice. Opening his mouth, he regarded her with twinkling eyes and lowered the gooey mass of cheese inside.

She let him have this victory. Their parents had never been the kind of people who played around or had much fun. Time hadn’t changed a thing.

As if he read her mind, he grinned big. “We have fun together, don’t we?”

Alaina returned his grin. “Always.”

“Even though you make me do my homework and study and clean my room and stuff.”

She grabbed another slice of pizza from the tray between them and dabbed it with a napkin to soak away some of the grease. “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

“I asked Dad if I could come live with you, and he said maybe.” The little pools of grease gone, Alaina set aside the orange-stained napkin. This wasn’t the first time he’d broached the topic. “Zach, don’t you think Mom and Dad would miss you if you did that?” He regarded her with a solemn expression. “Dad said I might as well be your kid because you missed your window of opportunity and you’ll never have kids of your own.” If Zach lived with her, then she wouldn’t have to spend so much time explaining the ways in which their father’s statements were incorrect. He already spent several days each week at her house.

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She took a bite to buy time. Knowing her father, he had also ranted about how no man would ever marry her because she spent too much time filling her head with nonsense. Women who could support themselves turned men off.

“Did someone mistake him for your grandfather again?” Zach licked his fingers and sucked away some of his pop before answering. “That happens all the time. He doesn’t correct them anymore.”

Their father also had an incredible ego. He had been proud to impregnate his wife. For months, he went around telling everyone that he might have been sixty, but he was still a stud. “What about Mom?” Zach shrugged. “Mom’s always taking a nap or going to the doctor or bingo or getting her hair done. She doesn’t take me with her.”

Alaina held in a sigh. She knew from the beginning she would need to be more than a sister to Zach. Her parents hadn’t been too active in her life. Age had already slowed them down before Zach came along. She loved the little guy so much it hurt.

“Alaina?”

She snapped out of her thoughts. “Yeah?”

“Karate lessons start on Monday, right?” She shook her head. The next session didn’t begin for two or three more weeks. “They start the week after school starts or maybe the week after. I’m not sure.”

He leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Dad said karate is for pansies, and I should play a real sport like football or basketball.

What’s a pansy?”

Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time she’d been forced to explain a derogatory term to Zach. She took a deep breath and tried to figure out the best way to explain her father’s idiocy without calling him anything nasty.

* * * *

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Michele Zurlo

Construction on her house should have been completed for the day by the time she arrived home from her dinner with Zach. It didn’t take too long to eat pizza and play a few video games. The sun had only just begun to blind her below the visor in her car. Yet Evan paced around the back of her house with a tape measure and a clipboard, gazing up at the window to her office.

He turned, an expression of surprise on his face, when her car passed him on the way to the garage. She parked inside, using the side door leading to the back yard to exit as she usually did.

What was he doing there still? Either he was as dedicated as Daniel said, or he was waiting for her to get home.

Standing in the shadow cast by her house in the evening sun, Alaina smiled at Evan as he approached. Not knowing what he expected, she worked to keep it friendly.

He lifted his baseball cap, and a shaft of sunlight glinted momentarily from his hair, disappearing once he joined her in the shadows. “I didn’t know what time you’d be getting home. I wanted to talk to you about some of the interior repairs so I could finalize a supply list.”