The Fake Engagement

He’d never hired a person he needed so desperately in that way before. Just thinking about it, he couldn’t help but cringe.

She had deserved a lot better than a finger point, a demand to get into his office, and to start doing her job.

The following day, he’d seen how angry he was and intended to find the perfect PA. He was going to go to one of those agencies that helped to find the right person you were looking for on the job.

That never happened because when he got to work, he found the five files that had been messed up the previous day. His cabinet had been rearranged, as had his desk. Notes had been neatly stacked per order of importance, along with an amazing coffee and a smiling woman.

Now, that had been a highlight of his day.

A very happy woman to come to the office to see.

Of course, over the days that followed in the last three years, the smile became rare to see, not that he was surprised. He was a hard man to work for. Still, Eliza surprised him as she hadn’t quit, which was a relief.

She made his life so much easier.

“Brother! You know it’s so dull to be staring out of the windows, don’t you?”

He’d been so lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t seen his young sister, Trudy, coming toward his office.

He moved toward her and held her tightly for a hug.

“I have missed you so much.”

“And I’ve missed you.”

Trudy pulled back and wrinkled her nose. “I have no idea what you see in the city. It’s so cold and everyone bumps into you. It’s like a freaking circus down there.” She walked past him, going toward the window and looking down. “Fuck me, that’s so far down. Is that what you do, pretend to be a king, glaring down on your subjects?”

“Very funny. Trudy, you know I love you and enjoy your trips, but what are you doing here?”

His sister never visited him at work. It was the one place she said she couldn’t stand him because it was so superficial. She liked to remember him being human, whatever that meant, but he wasn’t going to argue with her.

“You know why I’m here, and you know why I know that you’re avoiding the subject.” She spun around, her arms folded as she looked at him. “Am I right about that?”

He glared at her. “I’m busy right now. I don’t have time for this conversation.”

“Of course, because tearing companies down and keeping all of their good parts is what you do now. You don’t call home. You don’t write.”

“I make it home every single Christmas, and I send presents for birthday,” he said.

“No, you stay as long as is necessary, and we all know you’re miserable because of it. Westcliffe Heights is in your blood. You can come here and act the big hotshot businessman, but you’re a Boone, Preston. Always have been. Always will be, and that means you’ve got to come home for this summer party. You know Mom and Dad have been planning this for years, and if you don’t turn up, it’s going to break her heart.”

He ran fingers through his hair, trying to find anything that could distract his sister from this line of questioning.

“They’re only interested in finding me a woman, Trudy. You know this. They want me to settle down, have a couple of kids. Get married. All of that.”

“And what’s wrong with that? Yes, there will be lots of eligible women. Mostly single Westcliffe Heights women, but come on, Dad is wanting to retire soon. He’s nearly sixty years old. You know this is important to him. To both of them.”

His parents were celebrating being together fifty years. He knew that made them ten years old, and the truth was, his parents had been boyfriend and girlfriend since they were ten. His mom got pregnant at sixteen, and that was when they got married, but they always celebrated their anniversary on the first of August. The day they finally got together and shared their first kiss. They’d been best friends before that.

Marsha and Greg Boone were an inspiration to so many. Their love for one another had shocked Westcliffe Heights. There were tales of their love, and how at the age of five, Greg, his father, had declared he would marry Marsha.

“I’m not going to marry one of their women, or their picks. I’m just not.”

“You’re still going to embrace the playboy life?” Trudy asked. “You know it upsets them when you play this role. It’s not you. Out of all of us, you were the one who said you would find your soulmate.”

“Enough already.” He knew exactly what he’d said growing up, but it hadn’t worked out that way.

Glancing past his sister’s shoulder, he saw Eliza scrambling around her desk. She wore a pair of sunglasses and her hair, for the first time ever, was not pulled back into a bun. Compared to the last three years, she looked a mess, but seeing her like this, her lack of calm, he couldn’t deny she looked … sexy.