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“Sounds like a real keeper,” Blake said.
“He does. Too bad he doesn’t exist,” I added quickly. “He’s just a pleasant fantasy.”
Usually when Blake scowled or frowned, which was all the time, I could see what Elsie had called the smile in his eyes. But he grinned tightly at me, and there wasn’t a trace of anything like that in his gaze.
No lightness. No humor. It was the first time in a long time that I felt like a stranger was looking at me as he said, “I’ll keep my eye out for somebody like that, just in case.”
I thought it was supposed to sound like a joke. It didn’t. He seemed almost angry. Disappointed.
Or I was caught in a bout of wishful thinking.
I almost joked backYeah, get his number for me, will ya?But anything I thought of saying stuck in my throat. I didn’t feel like joking about it.
I hadn’t said anything else by the time our flight landed.
I was too afraid if I tried, I’d open my mouth, and the truth about my fantasy would slip out. The truth about what I thought my ideal man would be.
He’d be just like you.
24
BLAKE
I bracedmyself as we entered the hotel. I already knew the weekend was not going to be fun for me.
The hotel was packed with people, many of them draped over the furniture in the lobby like they lived there, chatting and laughing. I braced myself for being around a bunch of wealthy socialites and banker types. I got familiar with people like that after working for Ellis.
I watched Callie smile and wave at someone in the lobby. I admired the line of her throat and her gorgeous profile. It would be easy to pretend to be her boyfriend. What man in his right mind wouldn’t want to be with someone as sweet and sexy as her?
I marveled that Callie, the governor’s own daughter, managed to turn out okay and not like some upper-crust snob. She wasn’t like the people he surrounded himself with at all.
The weekend would be stressful, watching over her in a crowd, but I hoped I’d get to enjoy myself in the hotel room. I planned to play the doting boyfriend to the nines in publicandin private. I was going to consider our hotel room time my reward for putting up with the crowd.
And I was going to try not to let her intellectual romance-novel hero fantasy bother me. Even though that was about as far from me as you could get.
“Callie!” someone squealed, running toward her.
The person she’d waved at with a couple of other women trailing behind. They hugged while I stood and waited to be introduced, forcing a smile that was as pleasant as I could muster.
“Mackenzie,” Callie said, taking my arm, “this is my boyfriend Blake.”
We shook hands while she grinned at me, one eyebrow arched. Of course, she knew the truth, but the other women standing around didn’t.
“Nice to meet you,” I said. I put my hand possessively on Callie’s lower back. No time to start pretending like the present.
“Likewise,” she said back, and she and Callie exchanged a look.
Callie quickly introduced me to the others and said that we needed to get settled. She gave them quick hugs and said she’d see them later, but we had to stop for her to introduce me to several other people before we made it up the elevator.
I kept my hand on her back, sliding it around her waist each time we stopped to talk, and pulling her closer. She didn’t need to point out that I was her boyfriend. I made sure it was obvious.
And I loved doing it.
Once we went into the hotel room, I did a quick sweep of the closet, the wardrobe, and the bathroom. I didn’t expect anyone, but I did look closely for any kind of surveillance devices someone might have tried to hide.
I also noticed that she’d booked a room with one king-sized bed. I hoped that was because she had the same thing on her mind and not just that the doubles were booked with other guests who needed two beds.
She sat on the bed, bouncing gently on the mattress. “Feels comfy.”
