“I’m good, thanks.” He didn’t expect to be there long enough to drain a glass. “So let me see if I’ve got this straight. This all came about because your grandmother moved to Florida and couldn’t have a good time because she was too worried about you?”
She nodded and perched on the arm of the couch. “Instead of enjoying herself, she was constantly worrying about me. About me being alone in this big house. Worrying that I won’t remember to change the batteries in the smoke detectors or that I’ll fall off a ladder trying to clean out the gutters. It seemed harmless at the time to tell her there was a man around the place.”
“Why not tell her you’d hired a handyman or something?”
She laughed and he tried to ignore how much he liked the rich sound of it. “And have her frantic I’d managed to hire some transient serial killer? No, a boyfriend was better. Especially one whose family I know so well. You’re my best friend’s husband’s cousin. How bad could you be?”
“What did you tell her I did before I became your imaginary boyfriend?”
“I told her you were in the army and that we met when you came home on leave to visit your family.” She shrugged. “And that when you came home for good, we started dating. It was easier to remember if I tried to stick close to the truth. The timeline’s off, of course. She thinks you got out of the army before you really did.”
He shoved his hands in his pockets, pretty certain he must be losing his mind. “What would I get out of the deal?”
She looked as startled as he felt at the possibility he might actually be considering it. “A temporary job—landscaping, not just living here—and a place to stay.”
“I have a place to stay. And guys like me can always find a temporary job.”
“Guys like you?”
He smiled and raised an eyebrow at her. “Guys with strong backs who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. What else?”
“Nothing, I guess. There’s really nothing in it for you.” Her shoulders slumped for a moment, but then she straightened her back and laughed. “It was crazy anyway. I just wanted her to stop worrying about me and get on with her life. She loves it there—I can hear it in her voice—but she’s torn.”
“Did you think she wouldn’t come home for your wedding?”
“I didn’t think it would get that far. I assumed at some point I’d meet a nice guy—you know, one who actually knew I existed—and we’d start dating. I’d tell her you and I broke up and after a little while tell her about my new boyfriend. The real one.”
“But you haven’t.”
She shrugged and shook her head. “No. To be honest, I haven’t really been looking. I want to grow my company enough so I can leave the heavy lifting to somebody else and do the design part-time before I get married and have kids.”
He should get in his truck and drive away. He had his own life to sort out and spending a month playing house with Emma would be a weird detour to take. Staying over Kevin’s bar and finding a job pounding nails somewhere would give him everything he needed, but without the soap opera.
But she really did seem like a decent woman who’d gotten herself into one hell of a situation. Not to gain anything for herself, but so her grandmother could relax and enjoy her bingo games. Lisa liked her of course, but so did his Aunt Mary, and she was a pretty shrewd judge of character.
He cleared his throat. “Between graduation and signing my name on the army’s dotted line, I wrecked a motorcycle. I messed myself up pretty bad, but when Aunt Mary called because she never went more than a few weeks without talking to us, I told her I just had a little road rash and a bruised elbow. I made my family lie for me, too.”
Emma nodded. “Because there was nothing she could do and the truth would have worried her sick.”
“Yeah. So I get it, I guess. Where you’re coming from, I mean, and how you got to this point.”
“It started out a harmless white lie, but then it got away from me. And I’m afraid if she comes home and I’m alone, she might not go back. She loves it down there and both of her best friends are there now.”
He must be as crazy as she was. “If I do this, what’s your end game?”
“My end game?” She shrugged. “I’m hoping before she leaves she’ll agree to sell me the house. And then I’ll wait awhile and tell her we broke up.”
“Wait a minute. You’re going to get her to give you her house under false pretenses?”
She shook her head, the ponytail swinging. “Not give. Sell. Her reasons for not selling to me are ridiculous and before you proposed to me—” He tried not to react to her words, but it was damn weird when she talked about him like that. As if he had a double life he couldn’t recall. “—she kept talking about putting it on the market because she didn’t want this big old house tying me down and holding me back.”
He looked at her and her dark coffee eyes met his with an intensity that almost made him take a step back. It sure seemed like she was telling the truth. “If I start thinking you’re just some deadbeat looking to scam Granny out of her house, I’m done.”