Holiday Romance Sneak Peek - Read the entire first chapter!

 

Her Fake Fiance - by Kelly Dawson

Chapter One

I hung up the phone from talking to Grandma and looked around at my friends in despair. “What am I going to do?” I asked them. “You heard Grandma – she’s not going to take no for an answer. Her exact words were: ‘make sure he’s there. No excuses.’ She was very emphatic. She might be old, but she’s stubborn!”

Mild panic overtook me as I shook my head slightly, wondering how on earth I was going to get out of this one. Hopefully, one of my friends would be able to come up with a miracle idea. After all, these were the girls I’d grown up with, gone to school with, played pranks with, made up convoluted stories to get out of trouble with… Surely, between our genius mischievous minds, we’d be able to come up with something.

Cassie’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. “You mean to tell me that you made up this fake boyfriend purely for your Grandma’s benefit, and now she wants you to bring him to the family Christmas do?” Despite my friend’s best efforts, raucous laughter escaped her and she clapped her hands. “Oh my god Lissa, that’s priceless!

I shot her a glare. “Yeah thanks Cas, huge help. As always.” At my death glare, Cassie got control of her laughter, then I filled her in on the rest of the information. “Except he’s not just my boyfriend. I told her I’ve got a fiancé.”

That small, but vitally important detail, set her off again and she rocked back and forth in her seat, snorting with laughter. “Holy hell Lissa, whatever possessed you to do such a thing? How do you intend to get out of this one?”

This time it wasn’t just me who glared at Cassie, it was all of us.

“Shut up Cas, not helping,” Sharon scolded. Although I noticed that she, too, was struggling to contain her laughter. She just had better self-control than Cassie did.

“Why don’t you tell her you broke up?” Laura, ever the logical one, suggested.

I shook my head. “Breaking off an engagement right before Christmas? No. She’ll be so disappointed. I’m the last granddaughter to get married. Grandma’s terrified I’m going to be left on the shelf. You have no idea how proud and excited she was when I told her about my fiancé. I can’t do that to her. It would ruin her whole Christmas. And I don’t know how many more she’s got left.”

Laura raised a perfectly manicured brow. “Well how disappointed do you think she’s going to be when she finds out you lied?”

I looked at her as if she was a bit daft. “I’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t find out,” I said, stating the obvious. Of course Grandma would be heartbroken if she knew the truth. I would have to keep that from her at all costs.

“Well can you just not go, then?” Laura suggested.

Again, I shook my head. Although Laura’s suggestions were perfectly reasonable, they weren’t going to work here. Grandma was old and she loved Christmas. It was the one time of the year when the whole family gathered together in the one place. The entire extended family came – all the aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters… all of us. And Grandma, the matriarch of the family, was in her element.

“No. Not an option. It’s the highlight of Grandma’s year. I couldn’t disappoint her like that.”

Sharon topped up my wine glass. Good old Shazza. She lived by the adage that wine fixes everything. She put the bottle back down on the table a little too hard, then steepled her fingers under her chin.

“Well that leaves bribing someone, or hiring someone,” she announced, clearly pleased with her idea. “Because realistically, finding a real fiancé in two weeks is pretty slim.”

My mouth fell open in shock, my jaw almost hitting the floor.

“I’m not hiring a fiancé!” I exclaimed a little too loudly, the bar’s other patrons all turning in their chairs to look at me. “I mean seriously. Using a male escort? I can’t go there.” And I couldn’t. The idea of buying sex, or in this case a fiancé, just didn’t sit right with me.

“Bribery it is, then. I can chip in ten bucks,” Sharon announced.

“Me too.” A chorus went up around the table as my friends fished in their purses for some cash.

“I don’t suppose you told her your fiance’s name?” Michelle piped up. “I mean, I could do it. Just tell her you’re a lesbian? I’ve got no plans for that weekend.”

Laughter erupted out of my friends at this genius idea, but I just shook my head. Grandma was progressive for an oldie and wouldn’t be at all bothered by that, except that I’d told her my fiancé was a man called Zane. And he was a lawyer. No blue-collar worker for me. I wanted a fancy man, one who drove a Mercedes convertible with the top down and lived in a swanky inner-city apartment with a gorgeous ocean view.

“Yeah nice try, but no. I named him Zane. He’s a lawyer.” I grinned sheepishly.

“You wanted a rich man, huh?” Michelle winked. “Can’t say I blame ya. If he’s fictional, might as well make him how you want him.”

It wasn’t just the money that I wanted in my pretend fiancé. It was status. Power. Dominance. All the things that lawyers oozed. Well they did in my head, anyway. I didn’t actually know very many lawyers, but the one I’d invented had all those things in spades.

“So who do we know that we can bribe?” Cassie asked.

We all racked our brains and spent the next several minutes listing off on our fingers, the names of all the single males that we knew, that could possibly be bribed into doing the job. There weren’t very many of them. The ones that I’d known forever were automatically ruled out, because they knew members of my extended family. And as I thought about it, I disregarded the idea completely. It was one thing telling my best girlfriends about the fix I was in. It was totally another to admit it to a man we knew, then beg and bribe him to be my pretend fiancé. That would just be too embarrassing. How would I ever live it down?

“Aha! I’ve got it!” Michelle yelled, attracting the attention of all the bar patrons yet again.

“Quiet!” I hissed, really not loving all this attention. I could feel my face flaming at the snickers from the tables around us. We’d obviously been talking louder than I realised.

“I’ve got this cousin who’s just got home from overseas. He’s the black sheep of the family but I think you’ll like him. He’s in his early thirties, I’m pretty sure he’s single, and his name is Zane. He’s not a lawyer, but his name really is Zane.”

“But can he keep a secret?” I asked. “Because that’s really important. This can NOT get out. Nobody can know about this. I mean, your mum knows my mum. They talk. What if they…” I rested my head on my forearms on the edge of the table and banged lightly in frustration. Then I looked up at my friends. “I really don’t think bribing someone we know is going to work. It’s too risky.”

Michelle waved her hand airily, acting like my very valid concerns were nothing. “Oh you don’t know Zane,” she said. “He’s the black sheep of the family for a reason – he doesn’t get on with any of us. I talk to him on Facebook a bit but that’s it. I don’t think he speaks to anyone else. My mum will never find out.”

I looked at her, incredulous. “What makes you think he’ll do this, then?”

Michelle grinned. “He’ll find your predicament absolutely hilarious, and he’ll want to be a part of it. He’ll help, I can almost guarantee it.”

“So he’s a sadist, then?” I groaned. “Great.”

Michelle pretended to look hurt. “You got yourself into this mess. Do you want my help or not?”

I looked around the table at the rest of my friends.

“Can’t hurt,” Sharon said.

“Yeah, may as well give it a go,” Cassie agreed.

Laura pursed her lips in disapproval. “Well you know what I think,” she grumbled. “But if you’re intent on going through with this harebrained scheme, this cousin of Michelle’s is probably as good as anyone else. And bound to be cheaper than an escort.”

“It’s settled then!” Michelle clapped her hands. “I’ll send him a message now.”

Butterflies welled up in the pit of my stomach as I watched my friend type frantically on her phone, her thumbs flying over the little keys. I couldn’t believe I was doing this, I really couldn’t. This was the sort of thing that only happened in movies. Or other people’s lives. It didn’t happen in mine. Except that it was. And it was my own fault. But really, I attempted to justify my position in my head, how was I to know Grandma would insist on me inviting this fiancé she’d never met, to the family Christmas? My siblings and cousins hadn’t brought theirs until they’d actually walked down the aisle. Until there’s a ring, they’re not family. That’s what Uncle Peter always said, and I’d kinda counted on his logic when I’d ran with my lies. That had backfired majorly.

Michelle giggled as she typed more, obviously giving this Zane guy more details. Embarrassing details, most likely. She looked up at me, grinned, then typed some more, waited, then gave me a thumbs up.

“He’ll do it,” she said. “There’s a few details that will need to be worked through, but I’ve found your fake fiancé. Zane Miller. You’ll be able to meet him next week.”

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