Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“A condition?” More surprise than annoyance lit her face.
He’d been going for annoyance. He enjoyed getting a rise from her. Ralph sat several feet away with his feet propped on his desk as if he’d been watching a show and shook his head.
“Well, what is it?” She waved her calipers. He got back to serious business. Because this was serious underneath their surface attraction.
“You’ll meet my family at some point—in particular my sister Tammy. You need to keep it light—without letting on about the pretense. You’ll be my latest lady, but—”
“Latest lady?” A bubble of panic rose from her gut. “You mean fiancée.”
“Fiancée? No, that’s too extreme and not fair to my family. We need to keep it at girlfriend—”
She blanched.
“What is it? What did you do?” He narrowed his eyes at her.
“I told Mike Foley that we were engaged—he assumed—and you said to go along so I thought it was the plan. I implied that we were getting married in April.”
“Married? To you? In April?” He laughed without thinking. His mind buzzed. He couldn’t even compute the implications beyond the initial ridiculousness of the idea.
She frowned.
“It’s not really that funny,” she said. “I have a family too, you know.”
Ralph said, “You guys are in deep shit. Foley is media. He’s going to—”
Trent cut him off. “He won’t write that story.”
“No, but he’ll spread the news and someone will write it,” Ralph said. Trent closed his eyes. Ralph was right.
“What the hell, Charlie. What did you do?” He looked at her and saw the apology and also the hurt. He turned away. “Shit. I’m going to have to tell my family the truth. I can’t let them think—”
“What? You can’t let them think that you might actually consider getting married? Or is it me?”
He turned back to her. Her chin jutted up in that challenging and defensive way she had. He took a breath and he felt that familiar warmth toward her. She was so brave. So proud.
Then she said, “Besides, I don’t know what reason you would give them for pretending to be engaged, but it can’t be the truth.
You can not tell them about the drug trial—that you’re John Doe.
” She folded her arms across her chest, emphasizing her femininity rather than her point.
Lucky for her, he responded to her vulnerable feminine side.
“I know. The last thing I need is having my family worry—or worse—question my decision.” He thought about Tammy.
He shoved his fingers through his hair and felt his shoulder tighten with the movement.
A sharp pain cut across his shoulder blades.
“Damn.” He didn’t want to admit to Charline that his family had been after him to settle down.
That he’d never even once contemplated marriage in all these years and all those women.
Marriage seemed like a foreign concept, not part of his life.
His life was football. The next game. Bachelorhood.
The next lady. Family in the background supporting and loving him.
Why should he change such a perfect life?
Why should he think beyond it? He was expert at living in the present and not looking past the next week.
He glanced up from his reverie to find her staring.
“I know it’s a difficult choice—between two evils.”
The way she said the words, as if she were one of the evils and hurt by it, made him forget about his family’s expectations and his own lack thereof.
He considered Charlie. She was right. She had just as much to lose in all this.
Maybe more in some ways since she’d been living with the research and the dream of a breakthrough for years of hard work.
“No,” he said. “It’s not difficult in the end. We’re in this together. We may as well jump into the deep end and be officially together. Maybe it’ll make things easier.”
“What do you mean? Not—” Her face showed panic, maybe even fright, and he realized she thought he meant that they should really get married. He laughed at the irony of him worrying about hurting her feelings.
“No. We’re not going to really get married. We will pretend to be engaged, though. It’ll help with logistical problems. You can set up shop at my place. Do some of your testing there rather than on the field or at the clinic.”
“Set up shop? I can’t do that. I live with my mother and sister. They rely on me—”
“You live with your mother and sister? They rely on you—what do you do? Never mind. You don’t have to live with me, but you could move some of your things in—medical things.
” He waved his hand to indicate the calipers in her hand.
“Maybe some clothes. Make it more convenient so you don’t need to always be at the field.
So we don’t have to worry about rumors of you not staying at my place.
We’ll get out ahead of it. You’ll have a good reason to be seen around my place whenever you like. I’ll even give you a key.”
She studied him, considering what he said, while he waited with no small amount of trepidation. Then she nodded.
He put out his hand to shake hers. “We have a deal. Great.” He heaved a breath. “Let’s go buy you an engagement ring.”
Her eyebrows shot up.
“No fiancée of mine is going to be caught without a ring. Not even a pretend fiancée.”
“That isn’t necessary, really—”
Ralph interrupted, looking at his watch, “Trent’s right. If he gets engaged, he buys a ring—he’s known for being generous with the ladies. It would look odd if you didn’t have a big fat diamond, and then people would ask questions, and that would be the last thing you both need.”
Trent nodded. She stood mute.
Then she took the caliper and went forward with her measurements, recording data, taking tissue and blood samples, with her usual serious focus and no further discussion.
“I have to get back on the field,” Trent said once she was finished and he’d dressed. “We’ll go to my jeweler after practice. Wait for me.” Then he leaned forward and kissed her on the lips, lingering for a moment until they warmed up.
When he pulled away, she said, “I’ll be here. You keep an eye on the injection site. If there’s any sign of redness or puffiness get off the field and come straight to me.”
He nodded, keeping the warmth he felt to himself.
He walked out with Nunley behind him and headed back down the corridor and out onto the field with less apprehension than he’d had on the way off the field. He wasn’t sure what that meant—maybe the miracle drug was taking effect already.
Or maybe it was Charlie’s effect.
She felt like a groupie standing in the tunnel not far from the locker room waiting for Trent to reappear.
There were several women and a few young children grouped in the hall talking to each other.
They all knew each other, of course. They glanced at her from time to time. One of the women even said hello.
“You with Trent?” A large attractive woman about her age asked as she entered the tunnel from the field carrying what looked like a picnic bag full of things.
Charline nodded, unsure what people thought of her—of her and Trent as a couple. They were judging her somehow and she had no idea what the judgment was—good or bad? Respect or disrespect?
The woman also nodded. She didn’t smile. She didn’t frown. She didn’t roll her eyes. Nothing. Charline had no clue what it meant, what her status was, and it was driving her crazy.
At the clinic, she knew exactly where she stood and what people thought.
At home, she knew exactly where she stood within her family dynamic.
She had always known—at least since junior high.
That’s what she felt like now—like she was in junior high again and somehow dating the star football player and no one knew what to make of her. Except she knew it was all fake.
Almost. There had been the chemistry. The combustible sexual attraction. But judging from the press she’d read, that was hardly unusual for Trent. All women were attracted to him. And he was attracted to all—well, at least a lot of them. Gorgeous, knockout females.
The large woman brushed by her in the narrow hall to join the group a few yards away.
“Wait,” Charline said. “Can I ask you something?”
The woman stopped and waited for her to continue.
“What’s wrong with me being with Trent? Is there a problem?”
“Not for me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, I suppose. As long as you don’t care about how temporary it is. That man is as confirmed a bachelor as I’ve ever seen.” She flicked a sympathetic look at Charline and moved on.
Charline felt herself heat up. She’d been conflicted about the diamond ring before, and now the unease deepened.
On one hand, it would give her legitimacy and easier access to Trent without a lot of questions or explanations required.
On the other hand, it would make her feel like the biggest phony on the planet.
And when it was all over, she’d be a joke.
What was she thinking? When this was all over she’d be a world-renowned medical researcher—bigger than Madam Curie—as developer of one of the biggest breakthroughs in medical history.
If all went as she’d hoped—as she’d counted on—no one would care whether she had really been engaged to Trent Lockheed or not. She’d come up with a story about their breakup that made sense—for the press. She’d tell her family the truth.
Her biggest problem was that she couldn’t tell her sister Suzette the truth now. She’d have to pretend she was really engaged to him. Because as far as Suzette knew, Trent was a big donor and nothing more.