Page 115 of You Found Me
“Almost,” Annie said. “But not quite?”
“No.”
“No body parts actually touched?”
“No, dammit. No.”
“Okay.” Annie nodded as if she were working through a complicated problem. “It could be worse. This is fixable.”
“There’s nothing to fix.” He reached for the bottle of aspirin he’d had on standby. “I should go.”
Annie peered at him. “One question.”
“Just one?” He popped three pills.
“Do you like her?” Her expression told him she already knew the answer, she just wanted to hear him say it.
He shifted, uncomfortable with this entire conversation. “She’s doing a fantastic job blending in. My family loves her. The whole town thinks of her as Lucy Carmichael. Nobody suspects anything. They all think she’s my girlfriend.”
“It’s a simple yes or no question.” Annie’s careful tone made him feel even more awkward.
He wished like hell that he could scrub the image of the Della standing in a field of sunflowers out of his head. He was attracted to her. He couldn’t deny that. His body responded every time she was close.
“Silence will be taken as a yes.” Annie made atsksound. “I get it now. You’ve committed the cardinal sin of falling for your own cover. You’ve started thinking of her as your actual girlfriend, but a part of you knows what a bad idea that is, so you’re flogging yourself for it.”
“No.” He didn’t sound nearly firm enough, so he stared straight at her and said it again more emphatically. “No.”
“Denial. The first sign of truth.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You like her. You really do.” She said it with certainty and more than a little concern. “I’m sorry, Ward. I should have said something sooner.”
“I don’t need to hear a lecture about boundaries, Annie. I know where the lines are. Imadethe lines.”
“This kind of cover has a way of erasing those carefully constructed lines. It messes with your head. Believe me,” Annie said. “There are tricks for handling this kind of assignment. I just didn’t think you needed any because she’s a celebrity and weallknow how you feel about celebrities. I should’ve realized all that bluster was foreplay.”
“We’re not doing this.” He readied to hit the End button.
“It’s understandable, you know. She’s pretty, and perky, and she has thatitfactor. It’s how she gets so many people screaming at her at concerts.”
“I’m not some groupie.” The idea made him recoil in disgust.
“No, you’re not. It’s worse than that. You don’t like Della the pop star, you like the small-town girl Della’s pretending to be. She’s not that girl, Ward. She never will be.”
“You haven’t seen her lately.”
Annie’s serious eyes lasered a hole right through his denial. “I told you in our first prep meeting that she’s a skilled performer. An entertainer. She’s spent a lifetime perfecting her craft, and she’s damn good at it, but that’s all it is. You’re caught up in the fantasy right now, but trust me reality is waiting just around the corner to kick you in the ass and take your lunch money.”
“I know.” He looked out the window at the clouds rolling in. “Believe me, I know. Christ, what the hell is wrong with me?”
“Nothing, actually. It turns out Donovan Ward is human. These things happen. Hell, they’ve happened to me several times.” She picked up her cup and held it up in salute. “Welcome to the Shit Happens Club.”
“Not helping.” He leaned back in his chair, feeling defeated. “I need a drink.”
“You can push past this, you know. The last time I mixed a little business with pleasure, I told the man we had to keep things professional until the op was over and that we could hook back up after.”
He’d basically done that, but he had to admit he hadn’t been as nice about it as Annie probably had been. She’d probably let the guy down nice and easy, with a sexy little kiss to seal the deal. “Did you get back together with him?”