Chapter 2

Alyssa took her time getting out of bed the next morning. She collected the Sunday paper and spread it out on her bed. She went through the wanted ads, but she’d seen everything there a hundred times already. She chewed the end of her pen, but she didn’t bother circling anything.

She flipped to the cartoons, but she couldn’t even enjoy those. Nothing was going to stop her from worrying about her money troubles. Not until she promised herself she would do what she knew she had to do. She committed to going into Harwick & Co. tomorrow morning to see what sort of torture Mason could come up with for her. She had nothing better to do anyway but sit at home and trawl through jobs she didn’t want on the internet.

Around eleven o’clock, she forced herself to get up and get dressed. She went for a walk through the park and watched families picnic with young children and feed the ducks at the pond. They lounged contently on the grass watching the sun sparkle on the water.

What was their secret? All these people looked so happy, so satisfied with their lives. Why couldn’t she share their happiness, just for a little while? She stopped at a park bench and sat swinging her legs back and forth. She was staring down at her feet feeling sorry for herself when a chirpy voice startled her. “What—no hangover this morning?”

She looked around to see him standing next to her bench. He smiled down at her. She rolled her eyes to heaven and looked back at the ducks. “I don’t drink enough to get hung over.  I never do. I’ve never been more than a little tipsy.”

“Good for you.” He sat down without being invited. “I’m the same way. I hate getting drunk, especially when you see the way people act when they can’t even stand up straight. No thank you.”

She came up with a cutting reply to send him on his way, but she swallowed it at the last second. She couldn’t alienate this man if she was going to grovel for a job tomorrow morning.

He rattled on about nothing. “I love walking in the park on a Sunday morning, don’t you? It’s all so domestic and bucolic. It gives me a feeling like I’m totally free, that I don’t have to check my emails or deal with any emergencies. No laptop. No phone. Perfection. No king could be freer than me on a Sunday morning.”

Alyssa scoffed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You just used the word ‘bucolic’ in a sentence.”

“What’s so funny about that? Didn’t I use it correctly?”

“Oh, you used it correctly. I just never expected a guy like you to use a word like that.”

“What do you mean—a guy like me?”

Alyssa closed her eyes and turned away. “Never mind. Forget I said it. I was going to say I want to take you up on your offer of a job. I really need one, so if you were serious, I would love to work for you.”

He sat in silence for a moment. “You don’t sound very happy about it. I don’t usually hire people who aren’t passionate and excited about contributing to the company.”

Alyssa groaned. “I’ll be honest with you. I’m not happy about it. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.”

“So what’s so bad about my company that you don’t want to work for me?”

“It’s not your company,” she replied. “It’s you. Everybody knows you’re a lowlife player—I mean, a player. I don’t want to…..well, I would love to work for your company. I can’t think of anywhere I would rather work. It’s you I don’t want to work for. I don’t want you thinking…Oh, what am I saying? Just forget it. I’ll find a different job.”

She wished like anything he would get up and leave, but he didn’t. He sat there gazing at the ducks right along with her. Had she offended him? “I’ve known about you for a long time, Alyssa. I’ve waited for a long time to get you into my company, but I have a different job in mind for you—something more personal.”

She spun around to face him. “What?”

“I’ve got a family reunion coming up,” he replied. “I’m going down to Cabo San Lucas for two weeks, and I want you to come with me.”

Her jaw dropped, and her eyes bugged out of her head. “You see! I haven’t so much as worked one day for you and already you are making inappropriate proposals. Forget it! I told you I wasn’t getting involved with you. Oh, I should have known you would turn this into some sleazy pick-up. What was I thinking?”

He grabbed her hand sharply to stop her walking away. “This is not some sleazy pick-up, Alyssa. This is strictly business, and I never mess around with business. I’ll pay you fifty thousand dollars for two weeks’ work.”

She stared at him in astonishment, but he never twitched a whisker. “Fifty….You’re not serious. You can’t be.”

He fixed his eyes on hers. “I’m going to tell you something related to this job, but I need your word that you will keep this confidential. If you accept this job, you’ll have to sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep this information private forever. If you turn this job down and blab to the world what I’m about to tell you, I’ll ruin you so you’ll never work in this town again. Understand?”

She was completely taken aback and had to remind herself to blink. “All right. I’m intrigued. What is it?”

“Ok. Mason Harwick is not my real name. My real name, the name I was given at birth, is Miguel Ramirez. I was born in a tiny mountain village in Sonora, Mexico. I came to this country when I was seven years old, and I worked my way up to where I am now. I never finished grade school. I taught myself everything I know, and I’ve made myself a success.”

Alyssa chucked for a moment. What kind of game was this guy playing? He could not be serious. Who just comes out with something like that?

But she could tell by the expression on his face he was being totally sincere.He wasn’t playing around.

She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. In an instant, all her ideas about who and what he was evaporated before her eyes. This was not the person she had seen on nights out. She always thought a man as successful as he could have only been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. She had assumed nobody could have built themselves up to his level of success without a private education, handouts, trust funds, and a sizeable inheritance.

This was the man who could do what he pleased. He could have any woman he wanted, any time he wanted. He could travel the world and spend millions on luxury yachts and charter trips across the Atlantic.

Now she knew the truth. He deserved every penny he ever earned. He enjoyed an unmatched reputation in the business world, and his word carried the weight of pure gold. He never flinched from a business venture, and he got it all by the sweat of his knuckles. She might never do anything with him, but no one could blame him for living by his own set of rules. He deserved to.

“Like I said,” he went on, “we’re having a family reunion in Cabo. My parents are conservative Mexican Catholics. They don’t care how much money I make as long as I’m following the rules of the Church. I told them a long time ago that I got married. They would never consider me successful if I wasn’t married. They still live in Mexico and have never set foot across the border, so I could tell them anything I wanted. Now I’ve got to show up at the family reunion with a wife. No ifs, ands, or buts. I’ll pay you to put on an act. If you play your part, after two weeks in the most expensive hotel on the coast, you can walk away fifty thousand dollars richer and never see me again.”

Alyssa turned back to the pond with her mind in a ferment. He sat still and said nothing while she mulled over everything he said. He wanted to pay her fifty thousand dollars to pretend to be his wife.

She couldn’t imagine an easier way to make more money than she’d seen in one place in her life. She’d rather have a real job, but in her situation, who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth?

Dozens of questions crowded into her mind. “Where will I stay? Will I have my own room?”

He shrugged, but he wouldn’t look away from the shimmering water. “Sorry. We’ll be man and wife, so you’ll have to share a room with me. You can sleep in the bed while I sleep on the couch, but we have to make a convincing show of being happily married. That’s what I will be paying you for.”

She closed her eyes. Share a room—with him? Fifty thousand dollars? The things she could do with that money! She could move to California and do a lot more than surf. She could realize some of her most distant dreams. She wouldn’t have to rent these crummy apartments on the south side anymore.

Then again, this could turn out to be a royal disaster. If anyone at that reunion found out the truth, he could chuck her out with nothing. He could leave her stranded south of the border with no way to get back.

He spoke up in answer to her thoughts. “I’ll buy you a round-trip ticket and give you five thousand dollars spending money so you don’t have anything to worry about. You’ll fly straight to the hotel and fly straight back. Nothing can go wrong. You’ll be surrounded by other Americans, with the exception of my family. You’ll have plenty of people to talk to and plenty to do and to eat. The hotel is putting on a five-star buffet every day for the reunion, and we’ll have the use of the whole resort, the beach—everything.”

“Do your parents speak English?”

He chuckled. “Not very much. Once I explain that you’re my wife, you probably won’t have much to do with them. So, what do you say?”

What could she say? She never dreamed of an offer like this. Ten minutes ago she had nothing, she was completely stuck. Now, she had an offer that answered all her needs even better than working for his company. “All right. I’ll do it.”

He stood up and dusted off the seat of his pants. He fished a business card out of his pocket. “Come to my office first thing in the morning and we’ll sign all the papers.”

She peered up at him. “What papers?”

“The contract and the non-disclosure agreement. Feel free to bring your own lawyer if you want to.”

She turned red and looked away. “Very funny.”

“We’ll sign the marriage license and get it filed with the records office.”

Alyssa’s eyes popped. “What? I thought you said I had to put on an act.”

He shook his head. “I’m not lying to my own parents. If I tell them you’re my wife, it has to be the truth. If anybody at the reunion looks up my vital statistics, they have to find out my wife’s name is Alyssa Channing of….well, you get the idea.”

She stared at the pond. This couldn’t be happening.

“Do you still want to do this, even if it’s official?”

“I guess I have no choice, do I?”

“Great.” His hand appeared in front of her face. “I’m looking forward to doing business with you, Alyssa.”

Her eyes darted to his face, and she found him smiling down at her. His eyes twinkled. Now that she knew the truth, he looked more Mexican than she realized. He held out his hand to her in a gesture of inviting her to join him in something pleasant.

She put out her hand, and his warm fingers slipped around it. She tried to give him a firm, businesslike handshake, but he held her hand in a soft embrace. He stroked his thumb across her knuckles.

What should have been a business handshake to seal a deal between two parties turned into something very different. It turned into a loving caress, a sign of intimacy between lovers—spouses.

What in God’s name had she done? What had she agreed to? The next moment, he let go of her hand and walked away. The spell shattered, and the dizzy electricity of his touch faded to nothing. He hadn’t really caressed her hand. He just shook it. He didn’t mean anything by it. He just said he was looking forward to doing business with her.

That’s all it was, and that’s all it ever would be. Business.