The Fake Engagement

She answered on the second ring.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Mackenzie, it’s Preston.”

“Who?”

“Eliza’s boss.”

“Ah, right the one working her to the bone right now so she can’t call us?”

“What?” he asked. “Eliza hasn’t called you?”

“Not once in the past week. Do you want to tell us what’s going on there?”

“Nothing’s going on.” He groaned.

“Something is going on and Eliza is avoiding because she doesn’t want us to get involved. Do you want Juliet and me to come down there?” Mackenzie asked.

“No, I don’t think that’s entirely necessary just yet.”

“Okay, so if you didn’t know about Eliza not talking to us, and you weren’t calling to warn us about something, why are you calling me?”

He pressed his lips together. “I need your help.”

“With what?”

“I … I want Eliza to fall for me.”

There was silence on the line.

Preston glanced down at his cell phone before putting it back to his ear. “Are you still there?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. I just, I guess I wasn’t expecting that for an answer.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Has something happened between you and Eliza?” Mackenzie asked.

Preston smiled at a couple of the neighbors. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Holy crap, something happened. Didn’t it? I just knew it.”

“I don’t know if anything happened.”

“Did you two sleep together?” Mackenzie said.

He was starting to wish he hadn’t called Mackenzie at all. “You know what, how about I just hang up and we both forget about this conversation.”

“Wait? What? Hell no. If you’ve got feelings for Eliza, then I need to know what they are. Juliet and I need to know if we have to come and kick your ass.”

“Do you know if Eliza is attracted to me?” he asked. He wanted to slap his head against the nearest post to wake some sense into him. He was a grown man and he was asking his woman’s best friends if she even liked him.

She’s not your woman yet.

Mackenzie smiled. “Well, that depends if you’ve got the ten.”

“The ten?”

Mackenzie sighed. “It is a list of ten things Eliza cooked up that were important factors toward her falling for her man.”

“Ten?”

Woman of ten.

“Yeah.”

“What are they?”

“Oh, please, I’m not telling you all of her ten. Besides the fact I don’t know. We all did it. It was something we did after we all got our hearts broken and it sucked big time. Anyway, I’m not going to tell you. Just know that you are more suited to Eliza than you would believe. Next time you see her, tell her to pick up her phone, and also, yes, Eliza is attracted to you. She’s had a crush on you for years, but she would never say anything.”

He was still reeling from the ten comment.

Eliza had made a list of ten things.

No, there was no way Eliza was the woman from Melinda’s prediction.

Woman of ten.

No. Not happening.

There were limits to what he accepted about Melinda’s premonition. Being back in town was weakening his resolve. It couldn’t be possible. He refused to believe it.

Running a hand down his face, he made his way into the house only to find no one around. There was no sign of his parents or siblings.

What the hell was he going to do?

Chapter Fourteen

I’ve had sex with my boss.

I’ve had very good sex with my boss.

No, it was adequate.

Not life-changing.

I had sex with my boss.

Eliza cringed.

Her cell phone went off as she continued to pace in her and Preston’s room. His parents had gone out, as had all of his siblings, leaving her alone in the house. After getting the necessary files faxed to her, and doing everything Eliza Drake would do, she’d come up to this bedroom to pack.

Then she’d freaked out.

Walking out on Preston now would be a huge mistake.

A massive one.

He didn’t deserve that.

She’d stuffed her suitcase back in the closet and put her clothes back in order. Why couldn’t her life be simple? Where she worked her ass off, then came back to her apartment, hung out with Juliet and Mackenzie, or made something. She liked to work with her hands. It helped her to think.

“I’m an idiot.” She sat on the edge of the bed took a deep breath.

Her cell phone went off again and she saw it was Mackenzie calling her. The last five calls had been from her friend.

Guilt filled her as she thought about how she’d been the last week without her friends. They didn’t deserve her silence either. She’d been an awful friend.

Accepting the call, she pressed it against her ear.

“Hi,” she said.

“You had sex with your boss?”

Eliza gasped. “What? How did you know?”

There was some hesitation, a couple of stumbled words. “That doesn’t matter how I know. I just know. It’s why you haven’t been calling, isn’t it?”

“Preston called you.”

“That’s beside the point.”

“No, it’s not,” Eliza said. “It is the whole point. The only way you could know that I had sex with my boss is if he called you. Did he?”