Stepbrother's Gift

“You were going to hire someone to be my boyfriend?” I repeated, stuck on that part of his statement. “Like, to take me out on dates and stuff when you aren't around?”

“Don't worry. The guy I was looking at is gay and has excellent taste in restaurants,” James assured me, as if that was the weird part of his hiring plan. He let me go and started pacing the room. “But now... now I don't know what to do.”

“Well, you can cross having to have a job interview with the pretend boyfriend off your list.” My voice faded as I finished, knowing that it wasn't funny. I just hated to see James look so defeated. It wasn't James to look like he'd just been kicked in the balls and left in the mud.

“Not funny, Allie.” He ran his fingers through his hair. He already had bed-head, so he only mussed it up further.

“Sorry,” I murmured, staring at the paper resting on the bed. This was bad. “At least there's no mention of the pregnancy.”

“Yeah, but for how long?” James sank into a chair. I'd never seen him look so depressed. “Once you start to show, it won't be rocket science. Even if we avoid the rumors now, they'll come back. There's no running from this.”

He paused, clearly at a loss for what to do. He needed some help. And I had an idea. “So we own it,” I said.

“What?”

“We own it.” I said with a shrug. “We're in love, right? People love a good love story. We make it about how we feel, how you're Romeo and I'm Juliet and we can never be together...”

“And you think people will go for it? That they'll look past the whole brother-sister thing?” He looked doubtful.

“The way I see it, we have two options.” I held up one finger. “One, we deny everything. It could work, but if there are actual pictures out there, we'd really be in trouble.” I pulled up a second finger. “Or, two, we acknowledge it.”

James rubbed his chin, his eyes thoughtful. “We control the angle. We spin it positive, make everyone focus on how romantic it all is instead of how wrong.”

“Basically.” I chewed on my lower lip, not quite sure if he was going to go for it. To announce our relationship was never part of the plan. Honestly, it was all going so fast, I wouldn't have announced it to more than close friends even if we weren't related by marriage. But, that wasn't an option anymore.

“It could work...” James' cockiness was starting to come back. “I need to get in contact with Lauren.”

He pulled out his phone and hit a speed dial.

“Dammit!” Frustration crossed his face and he slammed the phone shut. “She's not picking up.”

“That's not usual, right?” I felt an inkling of something darker at work. His secretary was one of the only people that actually knew about the two of us. I thought of the look of horror on her face when she heard my moans from his office. I remembered how awkward she looked when she saw James and I come out of the closet at the coffee shop. “Could it have been her?”

“For her sake, I hope not.” The muscle in James' jaw twitched and his eyes narrowed. His phone rang and he immediately picked it up. “Hello? No, I'm not ready to give a comment. How did you get his number?” He turned off the call and stared at his phone in disbelief.

“What's going on, James?” I asked.

“Damn reporters,” he replied. “I don't think Lauren's picking up for anyone. That's a real problem.”

His phone started to ring again and he just hit silence this time.

“Do you have someone else you can use?” I went to my bag and pulled out some clothes and started to get dressed. “A backup secretary?”

James shook his head and sighed. “Lauren would have handled that.” His phone rang again. “This is not going to work. I need someone to do her job, but I don't know who should do it.”

I slipped a blouse over my head, pausing as the soft fabric brushed against my stomach. “Just call someone at your company.”

He rolled his eyes and silenced his phone for a third time. “Who? Who can I trust? The only places where an incriminating photo could have occurred were my office, my home, or a hotel room. The most likely is the office or the hotel rooms- both of which my employees would have access to. I need someone who I can trust and I can't trust anyone right now.”

I hopped on one foot as I put my leg into my pants, nearly losing my balance as I got an idea. “I know someone you can trust. Someone who has proven they're trustworthy. And local.”

“If you say Tessa, that's not going to happen,” James replied, not looking up at me as he turned the ringer on his phone off completely.

“Not Tessa,” I scoffed. There was no way I'd even think about that- not with the weird way Tessa was convinced James was hiding something. “Audrey.”

“Audrey? Audrey Lipman?”

I nodded. “She has held up her NDA, even though she could have made a ton of cash by selling you out. Plus, she already knows your lawyers because she's worked with them. And she's all of two miles away.”