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She jumped, startled. “What the hell? Did you do that?”
“Do what? Do you have something in your purse?”
“Something that talks? Sure. I brought my talking hamster to work with me today. Forgot to mention it.”
He made a face. “Maybe you should open the bag and check.”
Grimacing, she opened the purse, and he changed the voice to sound a bit louder. “Wow. That’s better. I can breathe now.” She stared at him, and he shrugged. “I learned ventriloquism when I was thirteen. For some reason, I thought it would help me get girls.”
“Seriously? Why didn’t you join a rock band or play a sport like every other teenage boy in America?”
“I can’t sing or play an instrument, and my parents thought sports were a waste of time. I played football in high school for a year. Mom was afraid I’d get hurt, and Dad wanted me to concentrate on my studies. This firm is my destiny. I grew up hearing that every day. I was expected to be a lawyer like my father. Done deal. What about you? Did your parents push you into becoming a lawyer?”
She faltered. “M-my parents died when I was eleven.” She tugged on her blouse again. Before he could offer his condolences and make a sympathetic face, she asked, “Is it getting hotter in here?”
“You’re too focused on where you are instead of who you’re with.” He flashed her the smile that had gotten him the prettiest cheerleader in high school and still got him out of speeding tickets,ifthe cop was female. “I showed you my special skill to impress the opposite sex. What’s yours?”
She shook her head, no comment.
“Come on. I know you have one. Everyone does.”
“I can write backwards, and I can read upside-down.”
“No kidding?” He pulled his planner from the box and opened it to a random page. He held it upside-down. “Can you read this?”
She read the words out loud without stumbling over a single one. Most importantly, the little exercise seemed to take her mind off their predicament.
To keep it going he handed her the planner and a pen. “Write this down. Backwards.”
The corner of her mouth curved as if she loved a challenge. She nodded, got ready with pen poised over paper, and he began to dictate a letter. “To whom it may concern, I am resigning from my position effective immediately.” He took it from her and tried to read the backwards writing. It looked correct. “Wow. That’s good. I’d give this to the senior partners, but they probably can’t read backwards.”
She blinked. “You’re quitting? Why would you do that?”
“Because working for family sucks.” The last thing he wanted to do was spill his personal problems to someone he barely knew, but keeping her from losing her grip had become priority one. He shared his problem to keep her mind off her fear. “My father and I had a huge blowup last night. I am tired, exhausted of dealing with his issues aboutmypersonal life.” Skylar snapped his fingers when a brilliant idea hit him. “Wait a second. Maybe my idea to help you salvage your reputation will help me get them off my back.”
“What idea?” She reminded him, “You got distracted and didn’t finish your thought earlier.”
“Hear me out. This is a radical idea, but it just might help us both. If you and I were engaged and had been engaged for over a year, keeping it secret until now, all of our problems would be solved. My family will get off thepoor Skylartrain, and no one will think you’re sleeping with a senior partner.”
“No. They’ll think I’m sleeping with the boss’s son, a junior partner. I don’t see how that helps me.”
Did he have to draw her a map?
He grinned. “If we were secretly engaged and didn’t tell anyone including my father, it would make you look like a saint. You wanted to get the promotion on your own merits. It’s a flawless plan.”
♥♥♥
Anna’s mind whirled in dizzying circles. Because of their precarious situation, she couldn’t focus on his ridiculous plan. The very idea of them pretending to be engaged was ludicrous at best. Who would believe it? The two of them hadn’t spoken a word to each other since he’d gotten her thrown off the Belcher case. There were no stolen glances. No secretive smiles.
“We are not lying to your father,” she said. “Maybe you don’t care about your job since you’re planning to quit anyway, but I don’t want to lose mine. I’ve worked hard to make junior partner.”
“But everyone thinks you were on your back at the time.”
Her cheeks flushed hot with the mental image of her coworkers gossiping around the water cooler about her. The nasty sneers she imagined on their faces pushed her to the edge. Blood boiled beneath her skin and a new kind of rage-filled her. No way could she work with people that didn’t respect her. She snapped, “I’ll do it if you can promise me no one will ever know it’s a lie.”
“I’ll keep my mouth shut as long as you do.” Skylar stood. He stared up at the lit numbers and scratched his stubble-covered chin. “We’re two extremely busy people, so no one will expect us to get married right away. We’ll drag it out for a month or two. Then we’ll break up.”
Anna struggled to stand. The snug skirt didn’t give her thighs much room to move, and one of her heels caught in the carpet. Skylar reached down, grabbed her by the waist, and pulled her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. He didn’t let go until she was steady on them. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, but the gesture fueled her annoyance.
