Chapter 1
“I need a boyfriend,” Lottie whispered seductively as she threw a long leg over the bench beside the picnic table and sat down close to Knox. “Are you game?”
What was wrong with this woman? Shehadappeared to be kind of sweet at his brother’s wedding when she introduced herself as Charlotte Johnston.
Maybe he heard her wrong.
“Would you repeat that, please?” he asked.
“Do you need to get your hearing tested?” Her voice went from silky smooth to as rough as forty-grit sandpaper.
“I hear just fine—most of the time,” he answered and then realized what day it was. “April Fools.”
“I’m serious as a…” she started.
He held up a palm and butted in before she could finish. “You are a pretty good actor, but I’m not falling for her joke.”
His thoughts went back to Spanish Fort, where Aunt Bernie, the matchmaking queen of north Texas, was already hard at work attempting to set him up with blind dates every weekend. The Universe might have just plopped a good situation down into his lap, but then again, this was most likely the workings of Bernie. She could be very manipulative, andshe and Lottiehadspent time together at his brother Tripp’s wedding.
Lottie flipped her straw-colored braids over her shoulders, nudged him, and crossed her heart with her finger. “This is no one’s idea but mine, and it’s not an April Fool’s joke. I promise.”
“Yeah, right,” Knox said.
“No one put me up to it.”
Knox shook his head. “Not happening, and I still don’t believe this is anything but another attempt to fool me.”
“I just need a boyfriend for six weeks, and then we’ll go our separate ways.”
“Are you talking about afakeboyfriend?” Knox asked.
“Of course. What did you think I meant?”
“You need to be clear when you sit down beside a man and whisper sweet nothings in his ear that sound desperate and more than a little bit scary.”
She threw up her palms. “You should have known what I was asking without me having to say it. It’s a simple yes or no answer. Bernie told me that you weren’t seeing anyone, so I figured you would be a good guy to ask.”
So, Bernie was at the core of the whole thing after all.
“Good God!” she hissed in a whisper. “Did you really think I was asking for real?”
“Yep, I did,” Knox answered. “Why do you want a fake boyfriend? Why not a real one?”
She dropped her hands back to her lap. “I’m damn sure not interested in all the bells and whistles of falling in loveand getting married, even if I did catch the bride’s bouquet. I just need a boyfriend, and not a real one.”
“Again, why?” He felt a little spark at her touch, but then she was an attractive woman with all those curves and big brown eyes.
“You aren’t stupid, are you?” she barked.
“Last time I checked, I could still add two and two without using my fingers to count,” he shot back. “And I still smell a really stinky April Fool’s joke.”
Was Aunt Bernie trying to play matchmaker on the sly?
“I’m the only woman carpenter here,” Lottie answered with a long sigh. “Like I said, no one put me up to this. Are you going to answer me or not? And for your information, I haven’t even talked to Bernie since the wedding. But she did tell me all about her matchmaking business and website, and said she would fix me up for free. I told her I wasn’t interested, and we went on to another subject.”
“So, why do you need a boyfriend so badly that you’d ask an almost complete stranger to pretend?” Knox asked.
“I’m here to work, and when the rest of the crew begins to arrive in a few days, all the single guys will begin to hit on me. I’m tired of it, and them. They’re all good workers or Uncle Jack wouldn’t have hired them, but…” She let the sentence hang without finishing it.
