Author: Bella Andre

“I was?”

“You were.”

He was this close to kissing her again when she abruptly took a step away from him and out of his arms. “I just hope they don’t hate me for using you.”

“No one could ever hate you.” Her phone rang in her bag and he said, “Have you checked your phone since the billboard went up during the game?”

She shook her head and pulled it out. “Oh my God. I have forty-five missed calls.”

She dropped the phone like it was a hot potato and he caught it just before it hit the dirt. Quickly scrolling through the callers, he saw it was all the usual suspects: journalists, bloggers, gossip and columnists who had all easily ferreted out her private cell number.

Damn it, he should have thought this out well in advance of the impromptu ESPN interview this afternoon. He’d wanted to help Vicki...not hurt her even more with all of this media attention that she wanted none of.

Then again, he found himself thinking, maybe if they could use the media attention to get more eyes on her sculptures, it wouldn’t all be for nothing.

“One more thing,” he told her before they left the batting cage.

“There’s more?”

Hell yes, there was more.

There was the fact that he’d just realized he was in love with her, for one.

But even though he was clearly a total ass-hat to have broadcast the news of their fake engagement far and wide without running it by her first, he wasn’t quite stupid enough to also blurt out the four-letter word tonight.

Friends-to-love was going to need a hell of a lot better transition than that. He needed the rest of this week with her if he was going to figure out how to pull it off. At least a week.

So, for tonight, he would just drop one more bomb on her.

“The owners are throwing us a party tomorrow night to celebrate the end of the regular season and send us off to the playoffs. I’m pretty sure you and I are the guests of honor.”

She took a deep breath that lifted her breasts up to the top of her dress in a shockingly sexy way. “Smith told me all I needed to do was smile. Maybe I can just keep doing that.”

Ryan made a mental note to give his movie-star brother yet another round of thank-yous for helping Vicki with great advice.

“Well, you do happen to have a pretty damn gorgeous smile.” He pulled her hand up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to it. “What do you say we hit my beach with enough booze and pizza to forget about all this for a little while?”

The smile Vicki gave him almost had Ryan forgetting to keep those four little letters to himself.

Chapter Twelve

The next morning, as they walked from his parked car toward the diner on the corner, Ryan rubbed a soothing circle on her back. “Relax. They’re your friends, not a firing squad. You didn’t sleep well, did you?”

Did he have any idea what it did to her when he looked at her like that? As though she was the only person in the world who mattered?

She couldn't bring herself to pretend again that she had, in fact, slept well in his awesome guest bed. “I’m not a big sleeper.”

She never had been, not even when she was a kid. Almost as if she had to be ready and alert to throw her things in a bag and head off to the next town at any moment. Still, last night had been a particularly bad night. More than ever before, she’d wanted to go into his bedroom and climb into his bed, just so that he could hold her in his arms.

But that wasn't what had her blinking once, twice, then just plain gasping.

Her face was on the front page of the newspapers in the rack behind him.

Vicki read the headline out loud: “Who is the mystery woman engaged to San Francisco’s most eligible bachelor?” Each word was more hollow than the one that came before it. The paper had paired the article with an old, and very unflattering, picture of her.

Ryan’s jaw was tight as he pulled her away from the curb. “Ignore it. We’ll be yesterday’s news soon.”

His siblings were already at the table by the time they walked inside. Vicki was surprised by the low-key restaurant the Sullivans had chosen to meet in. Then again, she supposed they’d have to know places off the beaten path if they wanted to get together with Smith and Ryan and be left alone.

Lori jumped up to give the two of them a simultaneous hug, and her energy was so infectious that Vicki smiled despite her dark mood.

Sophie pushed out of the faded brown booth before Vicki could tell her to stay where she was.

“Oh my, you’re gorgeous, Sophie! Congratulations.”

Ryan’s other twin sister hugged her, or tried to anyway, with her belly big and round between them. “It’s so great to see you again, Vicki. It’s been way too long.”

“When are you due?”

Sophie laughed. “Not soon enough.” She put her hand on her stomach. “I think they’re starting to get a little too happy in there.”

Gabe was the next one to pull her in for a hug. He looked every inch the rugged fireman. “Look at you,” she teased, “all grown up.”

“Same goes for you,” he said, pulling back just far enough to give her an appreciative enough glance to make her blush.

Chase had been at the high school at the same time she and Ryan had attended, and even though she’d never gotten to know him very well, she’d been following his photography for a long time.

He held out his hand and shook hers. “It’s great to see you again, Vicki.”

“You, too. And I have to tell you what a fan I am of your photography.”

“Right back at you,” Chase said with a grin. “Your sculptures are fantastic.”

Ryan slid into the large booth and pulled her in beside him, holding her hand in his on top of the table as everyone else settled back into their places.

“You met Smith at the game yesterday,” Ryan said, “so I think we’re all good here. We’re heading to Palo Alto to talk to Mom about everything after breakfast.”

The gray-haired waitress came by to take their orders and Vicki didn’t see even the barest flicker of excitement or recognition in her eyes when she looked at Smith or Ryan. It was clear she couldn’t care less who was eating at the diner that morning.

Even though Vicki doubted she could swallow a thing, she ordered a fruit salad.

“She’ll also have a side of bacon and a short stack,” Ryan told the waitress before he launched into his own order.

A part of her wanted to rebel, to tell the waitress she didn’t want those things, but she knew Ryan was only trying to look out for her. He was the kind of man who couldn’t stand to see her want for anything. And hadn’t that been why she’d texted him? Because she knew he’d drop everything and come to help her?

And yet, she continued to wonder how much of what he’d done for her this past week had been because he still felt that he owed her a debt for saving his life when they were kids. After all, hadn’t that been one of the first things out of his mouth that night when she’d apologized for dragging him into her mess?

As soon as the waitress went into the back, Ryan shot her a smile and she knew he was about to tell his siblings the truth. But Vicki had already decided she needed to be the one to explain it.

“We’re not really engaged,” she said in a voice that couldn’t possibly be overheard by anyone but Ryan’s family in their corner booth.

Everyone’s eyes automatically moved to her and Ryan’s linked hands on the table, but even though her fingers immediately stiffened, he only held on tighter.

“I hated lying to you yesterday,” she said to Lori and Smith. “In all the places I moved to as a kid, your family was the only one that ever took me in and made me feel like I belonged.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

Ryan pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

Lori spoke up first. “I’m totally bummed to hear you’re not actually going to be marrying my brother, because you’d be such a great addition to our family, but I have to admit I thought you seemed a little too surprised by the public congratulations at the game yesterday. Something seemed off. So what is going on with you guys? And what’s with the whole engagement story?”

“Well, we’re not dating either,” she clarified for them, even though Ryan was still holding onto her and she was praying he wouldn’t let go any time soon. She made herself meet his siblings’ eyes. “The long and short of it is that I ended up in a situation with one of the board members who will be voting on my fellowship. Ryan stepped in when it seemed to make sense to pretend that I was taken.”

Sophie’s eyes were wide with shock and concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, “thanks to Ryan, who came when I panicked.”

“So you told the guy you were getting married to Ryan—” Gabe began.

“No, that’s all me.” All eyes turned to Ryan. “When I found out what a sadistic bastard the guy was, I couldn’t stand the thought of him even coming near Vicki again. It seemed like an engagement might do an even better job of keeping him away than just letting him think we were dating, at least until she wins the fellowship in a few weeks. I’m the one who told the reporter about us yesterday. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to reach Vicki to let her in on the new twist before the team decided public congratulations were in order.”

“How much power does this guy have over the fellowship choice?” Chase asked.

She unclenched her teeth enough to say, “A lot.”

“And her ex-husband has just been pulled onto the board,” Ryan added through his own clenched teeth.

Smith gave Ryan a hard look before turning to her. “Bullshit like this happens all the time in my business. But never on my movies if I can help it. Who is he? I’d like to make a few calls.”

Oh God, the last thing she needed was for Smith Sullivan to get involved. Talk about juicy drama. Not to mention the fact that people would be afraid to have anything to do with her and her sculptures, just in case they looked at her wrong and she sicced the Sullivans on them.

“I appreciate that, Smith,” she said, “but it’s bad enough that I roped Ryan into this mess. I don’t want you to get involved, too.”

The waitress came over with a huge tray laden down with their breakfasts and they stopped discussing the situation. While the woman refilled coffee cups, Vicki thought again how great they all were.

What, she suddenly wondered, would it be like to actually marry into the Sullivan family?

But she already knew. It would be fantastic.

Apart from Ryan, they were what she’d missed most when they’d left California at the end of her sophomore year. Spending time with Ryan’s mother and siblings in their kitchen, hanging around in the backyard, feeling like she was part of a family. She’d been in love with Ryan from the start, but it hadn’t taken her long to fall for his family, too.

Now, as she looked around at all of them, it struck her again just how much they were there for each other. And even though she knew they had their arguments and irritations like any family, it was clear just how much they all loved each other, too, and that there wasn’t anything they wouldn’t do for one another. No matter what.

Hence this morning’s meeting.

Yet, somehow, she’d managed to work her usual un-magic on them by coming here today to ask each of them to lie for her.

“I can’t do this,” she said suddenly, and everyone stopped with forks halfway to their mouths. “I can’t ask all of you to lie for me.” She looked at Ryan. “We need to tell the rest of the world that our engagement isn’t real.”

“No.”

Ryan’s voice was hard. Unyielding. Even his siblings looked surprised by it. But she’d seen him like this several times in the past week, each time when he was angry or worried on her behalf.