Bride by Mistake by Shank Marilyn

Author:Shank, Marilyn [Shank, Marilyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2013-01-07T23:00:00+00:00

Zach arranged for a long lunch hour and then called Leona, his housekeeper, and asked her to pack a picnic lunch. What he was about to propose, if overheard in public, would make people think he’d lost his mind.

And he’d probably agree with them.

Zach hoped Liza wouldn’t abandon her role as his fiancée. She’d seemed so troubled last night, she might opt to quit. But they couldn’t stop now. Even if Liza wasn’t interested in him romantically, which she’d made perfectly clear, she had agreed to pose as his fiancée, and a deal was a deal. As a lawyer, Liza knew you followed through on agreements or there were consequences. But Zach had high hopes that this new approach would smooth out their problems and appeal to Liza’s business sense as well.

Liza came out to the car when he drove up. She wore tan slacks and a forest-green blouse that brought out the emerald in her eyes. Just looking at the woman took his breath away.

“Hello, Zach,” she said.

“Hi, Liza. Hop in.”

“So what’s this brilliant solution you’ve come up with?” she asked as she climbed into the passenger seat.

“Let’s discuss it over lunch. I thought we’d go somewhere quiet. Like a park instead of a restaurant.”

She shrugged. “Fine with me. It’s a lovely day.”

Zach drove to Swope Park and parked in the shade of a sycamore tree. “Grab that blanket, will you, Liza?”

She reached in the backseat for the blanket Zach had pulled off his linen closet shelf. He grabbed the picnic basket and led her to a grassy hillside looking down on a rushing creek. “Is this okay?”

She nodded. “It’s beautiful here.”

Zach spread the blanket and the two of them set out the salmon salad sandwiches, potato salad, and brownies Leona had prepared. They’d no more than settled when a rabbit shot out of the brush and zipped across their blanket at breakneck speed.

Liza jumped. “Ooh! He startled me.”

“I think we startled him.”

After they began eating, Zach said, “I know you’re upset about the changes in our relationship. And you have every right to be.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“What I asked was unrealistic. But we can fix this, Liza. First we’ll go back to being friends. A platonic relationship and nothing more.”

“Good,” she affirmed. But Zach thought her eyes dimmed a little as he explained their new status.

“And we’re going to change our arrangement,” he said. “I plan to pay you for your time, Liza. Handsomely.”

She arched her eyebrows and her mouth dropped open. “Pay me? You’re going to pay me for pretending?”

“I certainly am. I’ll double the fee that your top client pays. And it’s retroactive. From now on our pretend engagement is strictly a business deal.”

When Liza threw her sandwich at him, and it struck Zach squarely in the face, he felt more startled than when the rabbit shot across their blanket. Liza sprang to her feet and stormed off toward a bank of trees while Zach sat there, utterly shocked.

A moment later he slipped his handkerchief from his pocket and wiped off the salmon salad as best he could.

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