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“I’m Mitchell. Isn’t that who you wanted?”
“Yes, but you don’t understand. You have to be the right Mitchell. My associates have seen his picture. They know what he looks like. If I bring the wrong man, my career will be over.”
“I am the right Mitchell. Trust me.”
“Who am I kidding?” she said helplessly. “Without a future husband, I’m right back where I started and I have nobody but myself to blame. How could I have let this happen? I knew better.”
“Future husband?” That was not part of the plan, imaginary or not. “Tell me about Mitchell,” he said, stalling, “What does he look like?”
“In my photograph, he’s standing on a beach by a big black rock, looking back at the camera. He’s tall with tawny hair and…” she paused “…he looks a little sad.”
The beach by the black rock—he remembered it well. He and Melia had shared some special moments there. After she died, he’d gone back to that beach a lot. The photograph was one of those he’d given to Bettina, taken by an acquaintance. The memory of that beach sucker-punched him in the gut. He’d thought he’d put it behind him but he obviously hadn’t. He’d seen that expression in his mirror every time he shaved.
“Mitchell, do you know the photograph I mean?”
“I do,” he said, a sudden attack of regret causing him to backpedal on his rash offer. “I don’t know what kind of trouble you’re in, but I think you’d better wait for Bettina to handle it.”
“Normally, I’d agree with you. Waiting would be wise. But this time I can’t wait. If I can produce the real Mitchell, I stand a chance at getting a promotion. With a promotion I can afford to look after my mother.”
Her mother. She must be ill. That would explain Ms. Harris’s desperation. “I really am Mitchell. I promise you, I’m the guy you’re looking for.”
“I hope you are.” Her resignation clearly voiced her doubt. “I’ve arranged for us to use a friend’s cabin up by the lake, near Mr. Jacobs’s house for the afternoon. I thought it would be better if we had a private place where you and I could rehearse the story of our relationship before I introduce you to my employer.”
“Rehearse?” He couldn’t see her, but his mind didn’t care. It went into erotic overtime. “That sounds—interesting.”
“It’s business,” she said. “This is serious. Don’t worry. Just keep an open mind. I have everything all worked out.”
Mitchell tried to open his mind but it refused, choosing instead to imagine what his “fiancée” meant by rehearsing. “I’m pretty much a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of guy. You might want to reconsider your plan.”
“It’s too late for that, Mitchell.”
It was too late. Bettina always said he lived his life as if it was a James Bond adventure, but this time he felt as if he’d just stepped into Alice’s rabbit hole—except this rabbit hole had nothing to do with tea parties and chess games. And the “off with their heads” line ran eerily through his mind. Once he’d admitted to being Mitchell, he’d sealed his fate. Short of hanging up, he had to follow through. It was a matter of honor. If he said he’d do something, he did it. Besides, he told himself, it was only for a weekend. And she’d probably be as plain as dry toast.
“Bring casual clothes for the lake and a dress suit for the wedding,” she went on, more confidently now. “I don’t know why people have to get married in June. It’s too hot. By the way, I don’t want to know who you really are. Bettina called you Mitchell Dane, and that’s who my co-workers are expecting. At least she gives her men last names, even if she keeps her own a secret.”
“Mitchell Dane?” Bettina gave Anne Harris his last name but kept hers a secret? What was she thinking of? Then it hit him—using his photograph…her sudden need for a vacation… This entire weekend was a setup. “Just look after the office for three days, Mitchell, in case of an emergency. Please?” She was getting even for all the high-handed rules he’d imposed on her when she was growing up.
She hadn’t appreciated the early curfews he’d set, when her friends had more freedom. He hadn’t handled his responsibility well. He was still a teenager with raging hormones and thwarted dreams. And he might have gone too far while he forced her to study business instead of art, but he’d tried to make sure she could take care of herself. Now she was either getting even or returning the favor. She thought it was time for him to settle down. The last time he was in town and she’d invited one of her clients to dinner, he’d hightailed it out of town a day early. This latest incident proved she hadn’t given up. She’d turned him into Anne Harris’s future husband. He wondered if Anne was even a real client or not, and if Jess and Ran were in on her plan. If not, they’d better get ready. They’d be next.
Anne interrupted his thoughts. “I’m already packed.” She gave him her address, then added, “Please hurry, Mitchell. We need to get going,” and hung up before he could back out. And he still didn’t have her telephone number.
Mitchell sat for a minute, considering his next move.
He had let a hoarse, sexy voice and a woman in trouble get to him. Bettina had counted on that; his past had made him a caretaker. He couldn’t fight the guilt for Melia’s death or the need to help any woman or child in distress. He’d never admit it but he was a romantic. He’d watched Casablanca on every black-and-white television set in every language in the world. He would never have let Ingrid Bergman’s plane leave without him.
But that was a movie, and he had to assume Anne Harris was truly one of his sister’s clients. If this was a setup, well, maybe he’d turn it around and the joke would be on Bettina. He had a couple of weeks between assignments… Anne Harris wanted to rehearse… He was beginning to warm to the idea. She needed a lover who would play his role to the hilt. He’d give her what Bettina had promised. He just had to dust off his hilt a bit.
2
ANNE HARRIS HUNG UP the phone and, as she had a hundred times, picked up the black-and-white photograph of the man who was supposed to be her fiancé. He was very tall and lean, with windblown, fair hair that was too long. He looked as if his thoughts were a thousand miles away as he balanced himself against a gray rock on the beach and looked directly into the camera. The expression on Mitchell Dane’s face was one of restlessness, of private longing. She didn’t have to be told that he didn’t share himself freely. She knew.
She knew because she’d had to learn to be that way. She traveled alone now, not willing to share her creative ideas with her co-workers. The last time she’d done that, the man she’d shared them, and her life, with stole her idea, sold it to another company and left Baltimore. She was still paying off the debts he’d run up and replacing the money she’d been forced to borrow from her mother’s account. Bundles of Joy was her second chance and she couldn’t blow it.
As one of Bettina’s models, this was just another job to Mitchell Dane. Anne couldn’t expect him to understand how serious this was. Neither had her mother, Faylene, the day she’d met Anne’s new boss, Alvin Jacobs. She’d seen Faylene’s eyes light up when she saw Mr. Jacobs and, worse, she’d seen Mr. Jacobs’s response. When Mr. Jacobs announced that his granddaughter had just become engaged, Faylene, overdosed on romantic bliss, waxed poetically about planning her daughter Anne’s wedding as though it was an upcoming event.
Anne should never have let her mother’s remark go unchallenged. Any other time, she would have corrected Faylene’s imaginative claim. But Mr. Jacobs had been instantly reassured that hiring Anne had been inspired. Anne had let it go, intending to arrange a quiet breakup with her imaginary fiancé once she’d proved to Mr. Jacobs that she didn’t need a husband and children to sell baby goods. But the charade had gotten out of hand.
To buy time to untangle the problem, Anne made her second mistake by following her mother’s advice and visiting Bettina to contract for a Bachelor-in-a-Box. Then came the photograph, and from the first moment she saw Mitchell Dane she’d felt a connection, as if he were some kindred spirit as familiar with loneliness as she was.
The week after, Faylene had seen Mitchell’s picture and gone into total ecstasy. “He’s perfect, Anne,” she’d insisted. “He looks regal, heroic and,” Faylene had added with a softness Anne hadn’t expected, “as much in need of someone to care about him as you are. All we have to do is find the man in this picture.”
“Mother, he’s just a model,” she’d protested. “Bettina probably doesn’t even know him. He’s like all her bachelors—exciting, dangerous and delicious—because he isn’t accessible. Besides, I am absolutely not interested in a man. I don’t know how I ever let you get me into this.”
“But he’s not one of those corporate executives you go out with.”
“Went out with,” Anne corrected with a pang. She considered herself a smart woman but her whirlwind courtship with Phillip and the embarrassment of being used and dumped had taught her a lesson: don’t trust a man who’ll do anything to be successful and don’t marry one who isn’t.
“Bettina says Mitchell is single, a wanderer who never stays in one place.”
“That’s the fictitious background Bettina supplied, Mother. Mitchell isn’t real. He’s probably a fertilizer salesman from Yazoo City, Mississippi.”
But she didn’t believe that. Logically, she knew she was creating a man to match her fantasy, a man she’d never have. His expression said sad, but the voice on the phone was full of life. A man who flew by the seat of his pants. A man who was free, the one thing she longed to be. Her sisters were happily married; they’d inherited all the nesting ability they needed from Faylene. Anne, well, what she might have wanted didn’t matter. She had to be responsible. But, unlike her father, she also had to be a success.
The Georgia sunlight streaming through her bedroom window caught the stone in her phony engagement ring—mistake number three—and winked mockingly. She’d bought the ring the week after the photograph from Bettina arrived. It was a constant reminder of the lie she was living.
She still wore the ring, but she’d turned Mitchell’s photograph facedown on her desktop, unable to stop the flights of fancy the man evoked. Who was he? Where was he and what was he thinking to give him such an expression? Even the odd smile on his lips added to the mystery. A longing in his eyes, yes, but something about him said that he was neither a ne’er-do-well, as her mother’s first husband had been, nor driven and determined like the second, Anne’s father. And if she dreamed about Mitchell Dane every night, she was the only one who knew.
When her night dreams gave way to daydreams, Anne decided she was in trouble. And this time it wasn’t totally Faylene’s fault. Mitchell had become far too real in her mind, if not in her life. And the steady parade of female employees who made up excuses to come through her office just to see his picture boxed her in even tighter. Now in order to stay in Mr. Jacobs’s good graces, she’d just made arrangements to put her fiancé on exhibit. She’d be spending the weekend with Mitchell Dane.
She told herself she had no choice. She had her mother to consider. Not only had her father left a letter asking her to take care of Faylene, he’d also named Anne administrator of her trust. Unfortunately, after paying off his business debts, there hadn’t been enough money in the trust left to manage. Even worse, she’d been forced to make a small withdrawal to pay for her move from Baltimore to Atlanta. Faylene wasn’t worried about the loan but Anne was.
“I’ve held back all my life for my children,” Faylene had said. “Now I’m going to enjoy myself. When I run out of money, I’ll find another husband. Too bad you don’t do the same thing—look for a husband, that is. You need to loosen up, Anne. Stop worrying about me. Have some fun. Fall in love.”
But Anne worried. As the only unmarried junior executive in line for a promotion at Bundles of Joy, this was the wrong time to confess her deception. If she didn’t produce her fiancé, this weekend would be the end of Anne Harris’s career and the payments on her mother’s RV would come to an end. She had no choice. This weekend had to succeed.
The doorbell rang. “This is it, Anne,” she muttered to herself. “If this is the wrong man, you’ll just have to face Mr. Jacobs and confess your deception sooner than you planned.” When she opened the door, she heard a gasp. She wasn’t certain if it came from her mouth or his. This was the man in the picture, the man Bettina had called Mitchell Dane, the wanderer who never stayed in one place. And he was…perfect.
The black-and-white photograph hadn’t begun to do him justice. Bathed in the June sunlight, he looked down at her with blue eyes that sent a shock wave of awareness through her. She opened her mouth, but her voice died in her throat. How could she have been so wrong about the expression in his eyes? Longing was wrong. Restless was even more wrong.
Mitchell Dane had bedroom eyes.
He was taller than she’d expected, perhaps six feet four inches or so, and, though he was slim, his shoulders were broad. He needed a haircut but she suspected that the ragged, casual cut was intended to show a wild streak. With skin the color of warm copper and tawny hair bleached to a white gold by the sunlight, he was a wild savage who only had to look at a woman to promise forbidden pleasure.
The connection she’d felt with the photograph was even stronger in person. The heat filled her throat, swooped down through her lungs, sucked out all the air, and puddled in the pit of her stomach as hot as lava straight from a volcano.
She couldn’t breathe. She just waited. When she didn’t show up at the wedding, Faylene would discover her standing in the doorway, turned into a petrified shell of ash.
To Mitchell Dane, meeting Anne was like being hit by a tidal wave. Or a tornado. Now he knew the reason for Anne Harris’s hoarse, whiskey voice. This was a woman so hot, she was on fire.
He stared at his new fiancée in stunned silence. Her hair was a rich mahogany color, like fine wood rubbed to a flawless sheen. It hung straight, touching her shoulders in a saucy swing as she stepped back. In the right setting, with a spray of orchids behind her ear, she could be a barefoot pagan girl on some South Sea island. In fact, for a minute, he thought he was looking at Melia.
“Mr. Dane,” she finally managed to say. “Thank you for coming.”
Mitchell nodded, finding it difficult to speak.
“It’s really you,” she said. “You’re my Mitchell.”
“It’s really me.”
If this was a joke, Bettina had really pulled it off. Mitchell had assumed Anne Harris would be as plain as dry toast. Boy, was he wrong. This woman could walk down the street, hold out her hand, and find a ring on every finger before she’d gone two blocks.
Casual clothing, she’d said. And that’s the way she was dressed, sort of elegant casual. Her khaki cotton shorts were matched with a tan tank top and covered with some kind of neutral-colored gauzy shirt with flowers the same bright hue of her turquoise canvas shoes. His fingers itched for the camera he had packed in his duffel bag at the last minute. If he were smart, he’d turn around and leave now. But that option disappeared the moment she’d opened the door. When he’d first heard her voice, he’d been stunned by the unexpected rush of desire that hit him, and even more by its intensification as he stood in her doorway.
The urge to photograph her didn’t surprise him as much as the electricity that hung between them, barely held in check. She felt it, too. He could see it in the way her gaze darted everywhere but to his face. Her mouth opened slightly, and her hand moved to catch a strand of hair that caressed her cheek. For a long moment he simply looked at her, at slim fingers that curled behind her ear and slid down her neck to catch the point of the collar on her blouse. “Thank you for coming,” she finally said in that throaty whisper he’d heard on Bettina’s phone.
His fiancée glanced down at his jeans. Bettina accused him of being casual to the point of being threadbare. He hadn’t thought about it until he viewed himself through the eyes of this elegant woman. Maybe he could stand some upgrading. That had never mattered before. And it was too late to worry about that now.
“Well,” he finally said, “are you going to let me in or do we just stand here and stare at each other?”
She blinked and stepped back. “I’m sorry. Come in.”
He followed her, dropped his bag, and closed the door behind him, gathering control as he looked around. His photographer’s eye noted that her little house was much like a beach cottage. That surprised him. He’d expected her to live in a condo, not a wood-frame bungalow on a small side street. From where he stood in the living room, he guessed he could see most of it. There was an archway behind Anne that apparently led into a dining area with a kitchen to the right. To his left was a bedroom and a tiny sitting porch. It was warm, cozy. The walls were creamy white. Two fat couches seemed to shake hands in front of a fieldstone fireplace at the end of the room. She’d covered them in a bright turquoise and coral print. The colors of the islands.
“I didn’t really expect you to be the man in the photograph,” she said. “I hoped, but I didn’t believe you’d really come.”
“And I didn’t expect you to be a beautiful woman. I guess we’re both surprised.”
“You thought I’d be ugly?”
“You don’t want to know what I thought. Let’s just say I’m surprised you had to use an agency to find a fiancé.”
“Believe me, I didn’t want to. It was my mother’s idea.”
“Your mother?”
“My mother took it upon herself…never mind. I should never have let it happen. If we can just get through this weekend, I’ll put an end to it.” She reached into her pocket. “I have your cash.”
Mitchell took a step closer. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to pay for services in advance? After all, I might not live up to your expectations.”
“Mr. Dane, let’s get this straight right now. I just want a man who can convince my employer that he is my fiancé for two days. Are you up to the job or not?”
Oh, he was up all right, or well on the way, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it. New, stiff jeans would have been welcome.
Anne didn’t move. The woman had a way of standing absolutely still, waiting, as if she were making up her mind about him. The technique probably worked well in business; it must unsettle her opponents. It sure as hell unsettled him.
“I said I’d take the job. If you still think I’m the man you want…” So much for walking away, Dane.
She ignored the want and got down to business, speaking slowly so that he’d understand. “Don’t worry. I have it all worked out. We’ll take my car and drive up to Lake Lanier—my suitcase is already in the trunk. We spend the afternoon at a friend’s cabin rehearsing. Then we drive over to Mr. Jacobs’s for the party tonight and the wedding tomorrow.” She took a long look at his duffel bag and knapsack. “You did bring a dress suit.”
“Oh, yes. I don’t think I will embarrass you.”
“Well, I don’t suppose it really matters. My associates think you’re a photographer, so they expect you to be a little…eccentric.”
He went right past eccentric. “Photographer?” Mitchell echoed, more sharply than he intended. What in hell was Bettina doing using his name and now his real-life profession? “Whose idea was that?”
“Bettina’s. It was convenient. It gave a reason for you to always be away. And I liked the idea of a man who is free to go where he wants to and gets paid for it.”
There was a tinge of yearning in her voice and he wondered if she ever let herself go. Now he leaned against the doorway, keeping far enough away to defuse the effect of whatever seemed to connect them. “What kind of assignment was I on?”
“You were in South Africa. I don’t know what you were doing there. Bettina never told me and nobody ever asked. They only wanted to know when we were getting married.”
“And you told them?” She seemed calm. She didn’t try to make him feel welcome, nor was she overtly unfriendly.
“I said we hadn’t decided. I was waiting for you to get into town.”
“Well,” he finally said, “I’m here. Do I pass?”
She blinked. “Pass?”
“Inspection. Are you satisfied with me as your lover?”
She blinked and looked quickly away. “Not my lover, my fiancé.”
“If I were really your fiancé, I’d be your lover, too. We’d be good together, Anne Harris.”
Anne trembled slightly, then jerked her cool control back into place. “Let’s get this straight—being my lover isn’t included in the job, Mr. Dane.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s just that this is more difficult than I’d expected. You’re not just a picture now; you’re a real man. I guess I wasn’t prepared for that. Perhaps it’s not too late for me to call it off and confess the truth to Mr. Jacobs.”
Before he could speak, the phone rang. Anne answered, listened for a moment, then said, “Mother, I’ve been trying to reach you. Do you realize that your little fib to Mr. Jacobs about my nonexistent fiancé could cost me a promotion and maybe even my job?”
Anne Harris was very convincing. If this was a matchmaking attempt, Bettina had chosen the right woman. The question was, was she in on the hoax? For now, maybe the best way to handle the situation was to go along. Bettina would be surprised at how convincing he could be.
Who was he kidding? If Anne Harris wanted a fiancé, she had one. He’d play the role because he couldn’t turn away. She might not be the woman he’d loved and lost, and everything about her said hands off, but he had to know.
Mitchell wished he could hear the other side of the telephone conversation. Anne appeared to be blaming her problem on her interfering mother. He could appreciate that. Sometimes Bettina’s meddling in his personal life was just as bad. He couldn’t imagine that Anne’s employer would refuse to promote her because she was single. There had to be more to the story.
“Where are you, Mother?” she asked. “I’ve asked you to let me know when you leave town.” Then, “So you’ve been in Key West with a lovely man who paints sunsets. How nice to be able to take off on a whim. No, I did not know that the Hemingway cats have six toes. Mother, stop prattling and listen to me. I have to take my fiancé to Mr. Jacobs’s granddaughter’s wedding this weekend. I don’t suppose you know anything about that, do you?”
There was a pause. “I’m sorry, Mother. I know you didn’t arrange the date for Mr. Jacobs’s granddaughter’s wedding.”
Another pause. “No, Mother, I have not suddenly acquired a real fiancé.” She hesitated. “I managed to find the imaginary one your friend Bettina provided for me.”
Mitchell listened openly. So Bettina and Anne Harris’s mother were friends. Hello…the plot was thickening.
“Yes, Mother, the real man. And yes, he is…what you said. I mean he looks like his photograph. But that’s not the point.”
What you said? Their conversation was certainly intriguing. Anne had caught his attention. Her mother and his sister were friends. By now Anne had moved into the kitchen. He was beginning to get the picture. Mama had somehow suggested to Anne’s employer that she was engaged. When Anne had to supply the imaginary fiancé, Mama had referred her to Bettina, who sent Anne Mitchell Dane’s picture. The question was, to what end? There was no way she could have known he’d come to town the very weekend of the wedding. But he had and Bettina had taken advantage of the coincidence. Now Anne had to produce him to protect her job. Logically, there were too many unforeseen variables for it to be a hoax.
Okay, maybe his future “wife” was playing it straight. So would he—for now. He took a good look at her slim back and long legs and decided to wait and see. In any case, this could turn out to be fun. And it had been a very long time since he’d had fun.
