I Waxed My Legs for This? (16 page)

“I still don’t see where I come in,” Sarah said.

“We—Leland and I—were having a meeting, talking about partnership, and he was agreeing I had everything I needed to be a partner... everything but a wife. And that’s where you come in.”

“I know I must appear dense, but I still don’t see where you’re going with this,” Sarah said.

“Sarah, I know we don’t know each other very well. Actually we don’t know each other at all, but that doesn’t really matter. Leland insists I need a wife to become partner, and I want this position, so I want you to be my—”

Her face lost its color and she asked in a shaky voice, “You want me to be your wife?”

“Not wife,” he assured her. Donovan was happy with his life as it was and didn’t plan to marry for a long time, if ever. Right now he just wanted to concentrate on furthering his career, and in order to do that he need a... “Fiancée.”

“Fiancée?” she repeated, making the word more of a question than a statement

“Fiancée. And just for one night Leland and his wife are having a huge blowout anniversary party next week and I told him I’d bring my fiancée. The only problem is, I don’t have a fiancée.”

“So you lied.”

Donovan didn’t like the way she made it sound. “I embellished.”

“Lied,” she insisted. “I’m not your fiancée, but you want me to pose as one. That’s a lie.”

“You are my fiancée if you say you are. I mean, we could be engaged, for just one night. Then I’m not lying. We’ll simply dissolve our engagement afterward.”

“What did you do? Look at your appointment book and say to yourself, the next single woman who walks in the door I’ll ask to be my fiancée?”

Sarah looked annoyed. More than annoyed, she looked insulted.

And the way she put it the proposal sounded insulting. Donovan said, “I—”

“Why would you think I’d agree to this? I came here for legal counsel, that’s all.”

“But this would help you,” he insisted.

“How could my playing your fiancée for a night help me?” she asked. There was a furrow on her brow, as her face got all tight with annoyance.

For the first time in a long time, Donovan wasn’t quite sure what to say to make this better. In the courtroom he was never at a loss. He prepared his case, knew it inside out and was so prepared that nothing could throw him off his rhythm. But he hadn’t had enough time to prepare for this. Actually all the time in the world couldn’t have prepared him for this.

Mentally he tried to put some tactical offense together.

“You said you were in financial straits,’’ he started.

“I won’t be after this deadbeat pays me. Things will go back to being merely tight. But I knew things would be tight when I bought the store. I was willing to scrimp for a few years in order to own something... something that’s all mine. By Design has so much potential. All I need is to get it off the ground. If you can get Ratgaz to pay, I’ll be okay.’’

“And I will. But you shouldn’t be so dependent on one job. Plus, sometimes the courts move slowly. And even if we reach a settlement, it could be a while. What if in the meantime you had other jobs? Jobs that would pay the bills while you waited?”

“Pretending to be your fiancée would get me other jobs?” Sarah asked.

“Leland Wagner is a very well respected man within the community. Anyone who’s anyone in Erie will be at this party. And I’ll promise to introduce you around.”

“Really, Mr. Donovan—”

“When did I become Mr. Donovan?” He was surprised by how much he didn’t like the cold distance in her tone.

“The minute you asked me to play a role in your absurd charade.” She rose and started to the door. “Thank you for seeing me.”

“Sarah, what about your case?” Donovan asked.

“I’ll handle it myself. I’ll handle everything,” she said as she walked out of his office.

Pick up
A Day Late and a Bride Short