Page 44 of The One You Want

Bradford, ignoring Margaret entirely, pulled out an empty chair and sat next to me, far too close for comfort. “I’m glad I saw you,” he said, leaning towards me, invading my personal space. “I’ve been wanting to talk toyou.”

“About what?” I no longer cared about being polite. I was so over this—my grandmother’s meddling and this guy’spersistence.

“Your grandmother mentioned to me that this relationship of yours? With Jeff, isit?”

“Grant,” I said quickly. There was no way in hell I was letting him in on the truthnow.

He waved a hand dismissively. “Whatever. She told me that it was a casual type ofthing—”

“It’s not.” Across the table, Margaret let out a little squeak of excited surprise and I winced. Great. My not-casual-boyfriend was going to be a prime subject of gossip bydinnertime.

Bradford scowled before pulling it together, pasting another smile on his face, this one even more forced than the last. “Well, I just wanted to make sure that you knew my offer for dinner stands. If things with this Gerald don’tlast—”

“Grant.”

He managed to hold the smile this time, though it looked awfully tight around the corners of his mouth. “I really would love to take you out sometime. We can even hang out as friends, if that works better foryou.”

Jesus, he was persistent. “Things are really busy right now,” I told him. “When I do have free time, I’m usually with Grant.” That actually wasn’t even a lie—between the markets and seeing him around town, I did spend a lot of time with him. “But maybe some othertime?”

That scowl broke free again before he managed to smooth out his expression. “Sure, sure,” he said easily, though his jaw looked rigid. “I’ll see you around,okay?”

“Sure, Bradford. Have a niceafternoon.”

He gave me one more commercial worthy smile and stood. I didn’t let out my breath until he was through thedoor.

“Holy. Shit.” Margaret murmured, her wide eyes glued to me. “Who wasthat?”

I sighed. “That was my future, if I don’t figure out what the hell I’m doing with mylife.”

“You’re dating someone?” she pressed. “But I thought you said none of that stuff you tried this summerworked.”

The truth was on the tip of my tongue but as I looked at her, something stopped me. I didn’t actually know Margaret all that well. For all I knew, if I told her the truth about the lie Libby had told, it would be all over the island in no time. And if my grandmother found out I’d been lying to her, losing my trust fund was going to be the least of my concerns. She would probably killme.

“It’s really new,” I said instead, crossing my fingers under the table. “I kind of played it up for that guy, since he’s sopersistent.”

She sniffed, her eyes narrowing as they went to the seat he’d left. “Persistent and rude. He didn’t even sayhello.”

“Sorry aboutthat.”

She shot me a sharp glance. “Don’t you apologize for the shortcomings of the men in your life. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. In chapter three the book tells you all about pride infiltrators and how dangerous theyare.”

I tuned her out as she prattled on about the stupid book. I shouldn’t have been surprised that my grandmother had gone to Bradford after our conversation. The woman personified the word pushy. She wasn’t going to drop this, I knew it. And if she knew I wasn’t really dating Grant, the pressure would only getworse.

What I need is some time,I thought. Time to figure out this whole job thing. Maybe if I could do that, if I could prove to my grandfather that I was serious about something, he’d be willing to hold her off. I just needed enough time and space to really be able to show him that I could be successful at something besides formarriage.

Grant. His name flashed through my mind like a lifeline. He said he didn’t mind stepping in as my fake boyfriend the other night. Would he feel the same way if I asked him to let the lie stretch on for a while? Could I really ask him to dothat?

As Margaret continued to chatter about lioness and threats to the pride, I wondered if I really had anychoice.