The Substitute Read online

Josh laughed, his hand pulling her closer. “Funny, Megan was saying the same thing today in the airport.”

  Megan’s jaw dropped as she glared at him in disbelief.

  Gram shook her head. “For the life of me, I don’t know why you would call someone’s back end an ass. Especially a cute one. Don’t you kids know that an ass is a donkey?”

  Megan didn’t take her gaze off Josh for a moment, her temper about to blow. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing—”

  Before she realized what was happening, he cupped her cheek, and kissed her, his lips soft but insistent. She put her balled hands on his chest with the intention of pushing him away, but her heart began to race in spite of herself and she leaned closer, inexplicably drawn to him as her anger bled out and her hands relaxed. His muscles were firm below her fingertips and her knees began to weaken, but the arm he’d looped around her back held her up. If this was a dream, she decided she wasn’t ready to wake up.

  Josh lifted his face, looking slightly dazed for a moment before he turned toward her family, still holding her in his arms. “Sorry,” he murmured. “I just love her so much I can’t stop myself sometimes.”

  Megan gaped at him as if she’d just had a lobotomy. The way her brain felt at the moment, it probably wasn’t too far off.

  “He doesn’t look like a donkey,” her grandmother said in a smug tone.

  “Aww…” her mother cooed. “That’s so precious. Your wedding is going to be the talk of the summer at the country club.”

  Megan was speechless again, but this time for an entirely different reason. What had just happened?

  The door to the garage opened and Megan turned to see her older brother filling the opening, a duffel bag in his hand. “Get a room,” he groaned with a grin.

  “Kevin!” She broke free from Josh’s hold and ran to her brother, throwing her arms around his shoulders.

  “Hey, Squirt!” He dropped his bag and wrapped his arms around her back, lifting her several inches off the ground as he swung her in a circle.

  “Kevin! Put her down!” their mother shouted. “If you break her leg, she’ll never be able to walk down the aisle on Saturday!”

  He put her down and playfully tugged a lock of her hair. “I’m not going to break her leg. I already did that when we were kids. No point in doing it again.” Kevin picked her up again and swung her for several seconds more before setting her on her feet. He gave her a mischievous grin, then winked.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised by how happy she was to see him.

  “Rumor has it that my baby sister is getting married. I took leave so I could put the fear of God into your fiancé,” he said. He narrowed his eyes on Josh, his voice taking on an air of authority. He had been teasing before, but not now. This was one of the reasons why Megan had never brought her boyfriends home when she was in high school and college. Kevin loved to intimidate any male who got within ten feet of her. But then, he’d always had a way of intimidating anyone. The marines seemed like a natural fit for him. “So are you finally gonna introduce me to the man you’re marrying in three days?”

  Her brother’s words sobered her. “Actually…” She took a breath for strength, her stomach knotting equally with nerves and irritation. “There’s something I need to tell all of you—”

  “Sweetheart,” Josh said, glancing at her brother, then giving her a strained look. “I know you’re still irritated with me over our argument at the airport in Seattle, but there’s no reason to drag your family into it.”

  She shot him a glare. Who was this guy and what in the hell was his end game? One thing was for sure—she wasn’t about to find out in front of her mother.

  Gritting her teeth, she marched toward him and grabbed his wrist, her nails digging deeper than necessary as she tugged him to the doorway. “He’s right. I’m still pissed at him and we need to get this straightened out.”

  “Megan!” her mother shouted after her. “You’re being incredibly rude.”

  But Megan ignored her as she climbed the stairs and dragged him into her room. It wasn’t until she shut the door behind them that she realized she was still holding onto his wrist. She dropped it as though he were on fire.

  “What the hell is going on?” she demanded. “Is this some kind of sick joke?”

  He shook his head. “No! It’s a giant misunderstanding.”

  “Misunderstanding? A misunderstanding is when you order French fries and get onion rings. The fact that my parents think a stranger is my fiancé is not a misunderstanding. It’s a disaster. How could you let this happen?”

  His face froze with fear. “Please tell me that you remember sitting by me on the plane.”

  “I remember that part.” She rubbed her hand over her forehead as if to banish the lingering headache. “You sat down and I accused you of being a terrorist. Then I made fun of the flight attendant and stole your drink.” She cringed in embarrassment. “Everything else is fuzzy after that.”

  “You don’t remember getting off the plane?”

  “No.”

  “The flight attendant was going to call security, so I helped you off. I had to carry you over my shoulder because you couldn’t walk, and I got the impression that security wasn’t going to help you find your mother. The flight attendant had it in for you.”

  Think, Megan. Think. She scrunched her eyes shut to remember how she got into this situation. “I vaguely remember telling her she couldn’t have your babies. Then you dragged me away.” She glanced up, putting her hands on her hips. “While I appreciate you for helping me not get arrested by a federal marshal, that doesn’t explain how you ended up here. As my fiancé.”

  He held his hands up in surrender, his eyes pleading with hers, and damned if her breath didn’t catch. Her pulse quickened just at the sight of him. Of course, it didn’t help that their kiss was so fresh in her memory.

  “You couldn’t walk and you were talking nonsense, so like I said, the only way I knew how to get you out of the terminal without leaving our bags behind was to carry you over my shoulder. But people thought I was abducting you, so I told them that you were my fiancée.” He heaved out a sigh of frustration. “Your family heard me and thought I was Jay. And then I got stuck.”

  Everything made perfect sense, but something about his delivery was off.

  He narrowed his eyes and she could practically feel the judgment rolling off him. “Have they really never seen him before?”

  “No,” she said sharply, putting her hands on her hips. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

  “Not even photos?” His brow lifted as though a new idea had occurred to him. “Wait. Does he even exist?”

  Her mouth dropped in shock. “Of course he exists!”

  “Then why no photos?”

  Her back stiffened. “I have some photos of him. Just not very many. And I guess they’re a little blurry.”

  “You have to admit that’s pretty weird, since you were supposedly together for two years.”

  She gasped. “Who are you to judge me? You’ve been conscious and coherent all day, yet you were just sitting in a strange woman’s kitchen pretending to be her fiancé!”

  “Now, Megan. I wouldn’t call you strange. A little eccentric maybe.”

  She balled her fists and groaned in frustration. “Are you some creepy stalker? How did you know I’d been with Jay two years?”

  “Your mother. She’s very chatty when she’s in a good mood.”

  She covered her face with her hands. “I still don’t understand how this happened.” Dropping her arms to her sides, she glared at him. “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you. Your parents thought I was your fiancé.”

  “I mean, why didn’t you correct them?”

  He quirked his brow and smirked at her. “Says the woman who’s getting married in three days to a made-up groom.”

  She stomped her foot. “I did not make him up!”

  He began to pac
e at the foot of her bed, his pure masculinity a sharp contrast to the white and lavender ruffled comforter. “Look, in hindsight, it probably wasn’t the smartest decision to call you my fiancée when I left the terminal—especially after you told me that your mother was picking you up—but I didn’t know what else to do. I tried to explain the misunderstanding, but before I knew it, I was riding in your mother’s Navigator to Blue Springs, Missouri.” He spun around to stare at her. “Your mother is frightening.”

  “I told you!”

  He grabbed her hand and sat down on the bed, guiding her to sit next to him. “Look. You need someone to stand in for your fake boyfriend—”

  “He’s not fake!”

  “—and your parents think I’m him. We can make this work for you.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, ignoring the fact that his touch sent flutters through her stomach. She jerked her hand free.

  If he was offended, he didn’t let on. “We’ll let them continue to think I’m here to marry you. Then I’ll act like a jerk and break up with you in front of them. That way I’ll take all the blame, which gets you off the hook. You have to admit that it’s the perfect plan. Your mother won’t kill you and you might not even have to return all those toasters.”

  “I didn’t register for toasters. I registered for a bagel oven.”

  He looked taken aback. “You seriously registered for your fake wedding? How far were you going to take this anyway?”

  She gritted her teeth, seething. “I had a fiancé. His name is Jay Connors. He’s an investment banker and he lives in downtown Seattle in a condo that overlooks Puget Sound.”

  His head jerked back in disgust. “An investment banker. You can’t be serious.”

  “What’s wrong with dating an investment banker?”

  “Nothing. If you were really engaged to one. But if you made the guy up, you could have at least given him a more exciting career. Like a firefighter. Or a trapeze artist.”

  “And what is it that you do, Mr. McMillan?”

  “I’m an entrepreneur.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Like that’s any better. Isn’t that a fancy way of saying you don’t know what to do with your life?”

  He ignored her insult and pressed on. “What do your parents know about me?”

  “They don’t know anything! I just met you.”

  “Not me. Him. Your fake fiancé. The one you made up.”

  “I didn’t make him up!” she shouted.

  “Then show me a photo.”

  “I don’t have to prove a damn thing to you.”

  He smirked in triumph.

  Damn him. Why did she care what he thought? Yet she found herself digging her phone out of her purse anyway. She scrolled through her photos, then stopped. “Here’s a picture of us at a Seahawks game.”

  Josh took the phone and stared at it for several seconds. “This? That looks like you’ve Photoshopped your head into a bad photo of James Van Der Beek.”

  “The guy from Dawson’s Creek? I’m more than a little frightened you know who he is.”

  He shrugged. “Hey, my college girlfriend Trisha was obsessed with that show. I watched it with her. You could have used a photo of Brad Pitt or someone more current, you know.”

  “Wouldn’t that be kind of obvious?”

  He lifted his brow with a smirk. “So you admit it’s a fake.”

  “I didn’t fake this photo!” She took a deep breath to regain control. Pressing her lips together, she gave a slight nod before continuing in an ultra-calm voice. “So his face isn’t very clear. The camera on my phone sucks.”

  He tossed the phone back to her. “I’m not convinced, but that’s not the point,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest. “We have a mission.” He made sure he had her full attention. “I’ll make myself look like an ass and break up with you, saving you from your mother’s wrath.”

  She narrowed her eyes, her suspicion building. “Why would you do this?”

  “Because I’m a nice guy.” He grinned, his whole face lighting up, and in that moment she could see why the bitchy flight attendant had been so determined to snag him. If she hadn’t been so suspicious of his motives, it would be easy to fall for that grin.

  “Try again.”

  He shrugged with a good-natured smile. “I have my reasons.” When she started to talk, he cut her off. “Look, I’m here in Kansas City for family reasons. I’d prefer not to be here at all—no offense—but this gives me a chance to procrastinate and not deal with the drama.”

  She of all people could understand avoiding family issues, but wasn’t impersonating someone’s fiancé a bit extreme? Then again, she’d flown home to her own wedding with no groom, so who was she to judge?

  “How do I know you’re not a thief? Or a murderer. Maybe you’re waiting until the middle of the night and you plan to kill us all in our sleep.”

  “You have a very active imagination. It makes me wonder even more about the existence of your boyfriend. Why would I go to so much trouble?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, annoyed. “How would I know how a serial killer thinks?”

  “First I’m a terrorist and now I’m a serial killer? I think you need to make up your mind.”

  She gritted her teeth.

  “I’m perfectly harmless.” He held his hands out at his sides. “I promise.”

  She knew bullshit when she saw it. And she’d seen plenty of it in her dating life. Jay may not have been the most exciting man in the world, but at least she’d known what she was getting with him. Or at least she’d thought so until he pulled the rug out from under her. What were you supposed to do when even the “safe” guys, the ones you settled for, turned out to be cheats and liars?

  She turned to Josh and jabbed her finger into his chest. “I don’t trust you.”

  His smile didn’t even dim. “And you don’t have to. Just let me break up with you and then I’ll be on my merry way.”

  “Fine.” She sighed. “Let’s go get it over with.”

  He held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. We’re not breaking up tonight.”

  “What? Why not?”

  “We can’t. How suspicious would that look if we were just super sweet to each other and then I suddenly broke up with you? Your parents might see through it and realize you made up your boyfriend.”

  “I did not make up my boyfriend!” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down.

  “That’s a moot point,” he said, acting far too calm considering the situation. “We need to focus.”

  She took a deep breath, ready to vent her frustration. She couldn’t think of the last time she’d been this angry. Fights with Jay had run more ice cold and passive-aggressive. “Fine,” she huffed. “Since this is your crazy scheme, I take it you have some kind of plan.”

  “Tonight we act like a couple in love, then tomorrow, I’ll start acting like an ass.”

  “You’re doing a pretty good job right now,” she said, eyebrows raised. “You take this bossy, condescending show on the road, and you’re golden.”

  He heaved out a breath. “Do you want me to help you or not? If you’d prefer, I’ll call a taxi and have them come pick me up now. Then you can explain everything yourself.”

  Her shoulders tensed. “You wouldn’t.”

  He grinned. “Try me.”

  “You’re an ass.”

  “You already said that,” he laughed. “Oh, wait. No, you said you liked my ass.”

  “Not likely,” she said in a snide tone, but she couldn’t be sure it was true. Megan couldn’t remember saying any such thing, but her gram was right. He had a nice one. Alcohol had a tendency to make her spew out all kinds of truths, embarrassing or not.

  Focus, Megan.

  She began to pace. If she were smart, she’d march downstairs and tell her family everything, but that had never been her style. Yes, avoidance had been Megan Vandemeer’s philosophy long before this man had come into her life. The fac
t that she’d immediately broken it off with Jay after finding out he was screwing his secretary—and had been for months—was a huge step for her. She stopped and turned to face the man in her room. Could he really be the answer to her problem?

  “Did my parents really buy the whole thing about me calling you Jay even though your name is Josh?”

  “Never questioned it.”

  A knock on the door and Megan’s mother’s voice stopped her. “Megan? Is everything okay in there?”

  The blood rushed from Megan’s head. How much had her mother heard?

  Josh reached forward and opened the door, then stepped back next to Megan.

  Her mother stood in the threshold looking suspicious. “What are you two up to? Megan, did you say you’d had an argument?” Her disapproving tone made it clear whom she blamed for said argument.

  Josh snaked his arm around Megan’s waist and pulled her close. “Sorry we disappeared like that, Mrs. Vandemeer. We had a small disagreement before, but we worked everything out. I’ve been ignoring my little love bug lately.” He tapped Megan’s nose with his index finger, giving her a smug smile that dared her to contradict him, then he turned to face her mother. “I’ve been really busy at work for the past few weeks, trying to clear my plate so I could get away for the wedding and honeymoon, so…”

  Megan’s mother frowned. “But Megan said you were too busy to get away for a honeymoon. I thought you were flying straight back to Seattle after this weekend so you could head to work on Monday morning.”

  Josh’s mouth dropped open. “What?” He turned to look at Megan with a wide smile. “What kind of husband would I be if I didn’t take my bride on a honeymoon?” He gave her mother a sheepish grin. “I wanted it to be a surprise.” Then he turned back to Megan. “Surprise, honey!”

  Megan’s mother placed her hand on her chest, beaming. “I told Megan she needed to go on a honeymoon, but she swore you couldn’t get away and she didn’t want one. Where are you taking her?”

  “Well… Uh…”

  “Yes, honey,” Megan said, lifting an eyebrow. “Where are we going?”

  “Uh…” He truly looked stymied for a moment, but then he said, “The Caribbean,” acting as if it were a revelation.