“Oh God.” Cori Dash just made eye contact with the one person she wanted to run into least. Make that two people she didn’t care to see – ever – and they were coming her way.
Pacing back and forth, Cori looked around, searching for her saving grace. What would she say, what would she do, and how the hell could she get out of there in a hurry, unscathed. Then it happened, her name in a high-pitched sing-song voice, rolling off the tongue of a snake.
“Cori! Cori, dear! It’s been so long!” Then she leaned in for a pompous, no arms, hug and double air kiss to each cheek. Winnie Chesterfield was a spoiled rotten Manhattan socialite with more money than God and a silver-plated knife to stick in anyone’s back who got in her way of anything. She was also Cori’s old college roommate and ex-best friend.
It got even more uncomfortable when Phillip leaned in for a couple air kisses of his own, but unlike Winnie, used his hands too, in a less than appropriate manner for a hug. Phillip Allen Chancellor was from old New York money and possessed the arrogance to show for it. He and Winnie were engaged to marry…and he was also Cori’s ex-fiancé.
While Cori was working hard, trying to make a name for herself in the Manhattan business community right out of college, her fiancé and best friend were working hard – on each other – every night for months. At the time, Cori was crushed. She had just lost the two closest people to her, those who she cared about most, but now, she couldn’t give a rat’s ass.
Looking at the two of them, she realized they were made for each other. She never really fit into either of their worlds. They were born rich, went to college for something to do, and lived off healthy trust funds until they inherited Fort Knox someday.
Though she put on a good show, Cori wasn’t from the city or money. Her parents died in a car accident when she was a child, and her aunt and uncle inherited her…and her trust fund. Rather than go toward providing for Cori, the trust fund was used to expand her aunt and uncle’s farm, in the mid-west, and build their business. When it came time to go to college, there was nothing left, and her aunt and uncle weren’t interested in helping her.
“So, what are you doing here?” Winnie asked with her plastic smile and fake plump lips.
Cori looked up to the banner hanging between two trees, and pointed, “Uhh, Paws in The Park? Isn’t that why…everyone is here?”
Winnie giggled, looking at the ball of fluffy fur she was holding, “Oh, yeah! I suppose that is why we are all here. I told daddy we would represent his empire for him as a platinum donor. So, I bought a dog this morning, and here we are.”
“You just bought it…this morning. Wow. I thought your family had dogs. Doesn’t your mother breed them or show them or something?” Cori asked, trying to contain the eye roll.
“Oh, yes. She still does, but you know me…new outfit, new puppy!” The high-pitched sing-song voice Winnie kept using was already raking Cori’s nerves. How she used to tolerate it was beyond her.
When Winnie quickly startled, Cori followed her view to the pooch sitting quietly at her own feet. “What is that? Oh my…it seems to be…drooling…a lot. What’s wrong with it?”
Winnie took a step back and tucked the fur ball, she was holding, deeper into her side as if protecting it, to which Cori had a clever response, “Oh, this is Bronco. My dog. She just drools when she’s happy. Bronco, can you say hi? Say hi to the people. Such a good girl.”
Extending Bronco’s leash toward Winnie and Phillip, the dog took the cue and was happy to oblige with a proper puppy hello. Drooly licks of their knees and hands quickly became an attempt at kissy face when Bronco jumped up, her feet nearly as high as their shoulders. Silent satisfaction coursed through Cori as she watched Bronco get up close and personal.
“Oh, hon. Cori. Um. Can you call off your…dog? Wow. She’s so…sweet…but um…” But um, what? Cori thought. She assumed Winnie liked kissing things that didn’t belong to her.
“Right, of course. She just really seems to love you. I better go, though. My company is sponsoring the event; I’m supposed to mingle.” Cori didn’t have to mingle. She only showed up to impress the powers that be at Thorne Industries, her employer, in hopes that it would help with a promotion she was aiming for.
“Well, you are mingling, silly, with us! Typical Cori, all work, no play,” Winnie teased before her voice turned low and sympathetic, her lips pouty. “So, how are you, really? Are you…seeing anyone?”
So that’s what this was all about. Winnie wanted to know if Cori was still suffering from the betrayal she and Phillip inflicted or if she had moved on. Two could play at this game, and Cori didn’t intend to lose. She was a firm believer in selling whatever perception you wanted people to believe in – even if it wasn’t entirely truthful. Feeling vengeful and full of spite, she lowered herself to Winnie’s level and concocted the quickest play she could.
When a handsome stranger walked by and made eye contact, she saw it as her opportunity. Pulling him in by linking arms with him, she stared into his eyes as if somehow it would subliminally charge him to play along with whatever she had to say.
“Oh, there you are!” she said with a hard stare and sincere smile, “Honey, I’d like you to meet my old college friends, Winnie and Phillip.”
Her hard stare turned to a pleading one, “Yes, dear, I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before?”
The man’s brow furrowed and his handsome lightly bearded face looked both shocked and confused, “Excuse me?”
Now desperate, Cori squeezed his arm a little, silently signaling her desperate plea before turning to Winnie and Phillip, “This…this right here is uh…my new fiancé! Right, honey?” she turned to him again and tossed him a wink from her left eye so they wouldn’t see, in her final attempt to get him on board. If she pulled this off, it was official – she was a full-blown liar, and good at it. “We are sooooo…in love. Right?”
When she laid her head on his forearm, his hardened look of confusion softened and a bright toothy smile took over. “Right, sweetheart. Winnie and Phillip. I’m sure you’ve mentioned them. I just don’t remember…at all.”
Cori relaxed into him, hoping the sweat beading on her forehead didn’t show too badly because it wasn’t hot outside in the least. The man bent down and kissed her forehead, startling her. Of all the men in the park that day, she picked the crazy one it seemed. She hadn’t counted on the kiss, nor did she subliminally request one in her attempt to get through to him. Maybe she was better at this than she thought.
The man turned to Winnie and Phillip with a friendly smile and extended his hand. With jaws dropped, they each shook as he introduced himself. “Nick, pleasure to meet you both. Nice…dog.”
“It’s our pleasure, Nick,” Phillip said with an angsty tone.
“Yeah, we’ve been together for,” she let out an exaggerated sigh, “wow, a long time now. Oh! And he never calls me Cori...you know, my name, just sweetheart. Isn’t that…cute?”
“Cori? Right, Cori…just sweetheart to me. She’s my…little sweetheart,” he added, closing his hand over hers and pulling her in for another kiss to the forehead.
This guy was good, really good. She might have to buy him a beer for this one – but if he kissed her one more time, she was out, no beers. “Yeah. So, we are so happy. Never been happier. Like ever. He is,” she shook her head, turning to him while she stalled, looking for the right words to burn Phillip, “the best thing to ever happen to me. I mean, like…the best…couldn’t imagine any other man to spend the entire rest of my life with because…wow, Nick is…amazing and better than anyone else…out there. Yeah…happy…we are just soooooo happy, happy, happy.”
Nick’s lips twitched as it became harder and harder to avoid bursting into laughter and maintaining the adoring smile he plastered on for her declaration of how great he was and happy they were. “Well, sweetheart. As much as I would love to get to know your…friends, right? Um, we have plans. Big plans for tonight, and we should probably get ready for those plans.”
When he tossed a wink at Cori that suggested more than mischief and implied his plans for the night might be naughty by nature, she froze – why does she always pick the weird ones. Time to send a warning, she thought, “You’re right. Plans. We better go. I need to get my really big, ferocious dog home. She’s super, super protective of me, and well, I’m surprised she hasn’t like, bit anyone yet because…protective.” Protective was said in a sing-song tone of her own that made her skin crawl a little less than it did when Winnie used it.
“Ferocious. Yeah, she sure is.” He looked down, as did the other three, to see Bronco licking his hand that held a smaller than usual dog for a man of his stature.
Touché, Cori thought. Bronco wasn’t getting bonus treats for that one.
“Well, before you go…we would absolutely love to have you two join us for our engagement weekend in the Hamptons,” Winnie invited, a challenging look on her face.
“Oh well, we couldn’t possibly. I mean, we are super busy this weekend, and…”
Winnie grinned as if she thought she knew something. “It’s Memorial Day weekend. Over a month from now. Surely that’s enough time to plan.”
“Oh, well, uh…Memorial Day weekend is…” Shit, Cori thought. How was she going to get out of this?
“We’d love to. Right, sweetheart?” Nick interrupted, “We can rearrange a few things…it’ll be great to get away together anyway.”
“Get away together. Right. Uhhh…”
“I won’t take no for an answer now, Cori!” Winnie laughed. “I’ll email you the details. Same email?”
“Yep. Same email. Same, same…same, email.” Cori was stuck between a stuck-up debutant and a psychopath, it seemed. The only thing running through her mind was whether to run now or wait until Winnie and Phillip walked away.
“Oh good!” she said, pecking at the screen on her phone. “I just emailed you the itinerary!”
“Yay, the itinerary.” Cori chanted in fake cheer. “Can’t wait!”
Extending his hand once more, Nick added, “Hey, it was really great meeting you two. We’ll see you in the Hamptons!”
“Sure thing.” Phillip replied with a smug grin, whatever that was about.
“Oh!” Winnie stopped in her tracks and turned to look Cori in the eye, “Where is your ring?”
“My what?”
“Your engagement ring?” the grin Winnie wore left Cori feeling nearly defeated. Shit, caught off guard and hadn’t thought about a damn ring.
“At my jewelers,” came a deep timbre, Nick lacing his fingers through Cori’s, his stare boring through her, “It seems my lady had delicate little fingers, and the ring I bought was just too big.”
Okay, Cori thought; that worked. This Nick guy was really good at this, and she didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. And he wasn’t even done yet.
He turned his attention to Winnie, eyeing her ring, “And it was just so big and heavy from all of the diamonds that spun on her pretty little finger. So, we are getting it sized down. You know, so it fits.”
“Ah, I see.” Winnie quickly looked at her own ring, which was gorgeous and had enough sparkle to land a plane, but she still tucked it away in fear it just wasn’t big enough. Or rather, that it wasn’t bigger than Cori’s. “We’ll see you soon!”
Nick and Cori watched them walk away, still in close proximity of each other since Winnie looked back often with an evil eye, as if she was going to catch them at something.
“Wow, thank you!” Cori broke the silence. “I was just hoping you wouldn’t give away my crazy little fib, but you more than came through for me.”
“Well, it isn’t everyday a pretty girl grabs your arm and calls you her fiancé. Thought I’d see what that was all about. Glad I could help, Cori.”
Something about his gaze put her at ease. Though he had to be a little nuts to play along with such a scheme on a whim like that, she no longer felt threatened. If Bronco was any gauge of character, he was good people given the amount of drool she was laying on his hand.
“Yeah, well, can I like, buy you a drink of something? As a thank you. I’m not like, hitting on you or anything.”
He looked around and checked his watch, “Sure, I have a little time. I wasn’t really excited to do the run this afternoon. I don’t think this one could keep up anyway, and I’m not jogging with a dishrag of a dog under my arm. He’s cramping my style a little as it is.”
She laughed, “But he’s cute. Small, but cute.”
“Yeah…cute.” He said, staring again.
“So, there’s a nice little bistro on the corner, one block over. We can sit outside with the dogs. Sound good?”
“Lead the way.”