Finder's Keeper (10 page)

“I’ve changed my mind,” she announced. “I’m sorry you came all the way out here, but I didn’t have your number or I would have called to cancel.”

Chase arched an eyebrow. “Hm.”

“Excuse me?”

“You surprised me, Mia. I hadn’t taken you for a girl who reneged on her bargains.”

“I’m not reneging. I’m reevaluating. I’ll still do your barbeque thing, since I did agree to that, but I don’t think your presence at my niece’s Christening is appropriate or wise.” She would never be able to fake easy intimacy with this man. He made her feel too unsteady. Too precarious.

“I thought you needed a date.”

“I do, but the risks involved with bringing you outweigh the potential benefits. Too many things could go wrong.”

Chase grinned. “I bet you’re a blast on a Vegas weekend. Man, I’d love to see you play roulette.”

Mia pursed her lips. “You’re implying that risk-taking is a pleasurable activity, but the adrenaline high associated with gambling has never appealed to me.”

“Because you’ve never tried it.”

“I don’t need to jump off a bridge to know it would hurt.”

“But what a rush all the way down. I’ll add bungee jumping to the list.”

“The list?” she asked, knowing even as she spoke that she should have ended the conversation already.

“Roulette, bungee jumping… I’m going to teach you to love risk. There’s a wild child in you, Mia Corregianni. I’m sure of it.”

“Which just goes to show how little you know me.” Her definition of risk was moving forward with an experiment before the funding was approved. “My family would never believe we’re a couple.”

“I thought opposites attracting was a scientific principle.”

“In electrons and protons, maybe. The science that governs human attraction is a bit more complicated.”

Chase groaned, pressing a hand over his heart. “I love when you go all scientific on me. Tell me about your degrees again?”

His eyes twinkled and there was nothing derisive in his expression, but Mia couldn’t escape the fear that he was mocking her. She swallowed down a sudden lump in her throat. “We don’t suit. This farce wouldn’t last five minutes, but thank you for being willing to try. I appreciate your dedication to your job.”

“Honey, I never work this hard for a job.”

Mia felt her face flushing. Was he implying he was working this hard because of her? Why? How did he benefit from it? People were motivated by self-interest, but she couldn’t seem to figure his out. “What are you getting out of this?” she blurted.

A laugh burst out of him. “The pleasure of your company? I like you, Mia.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Stop trying to charm me.”

“You’re going to like me too.”

“I doubt it.”

“Everyone does eventually.”

“I’m not everyone. You and I aren’t going to get along, Chase. You can’t charm me and I can’t cut through your layers of protective bullshit, no matter how direct I am.”

Something sober and real flickered in his eyes. “So we’re at an impasse.”

“Precisely.”

His teeth gleamed in another quick, flashing smile. Just like that, any trace of sobriety was gone. “Are you sure I can’t charm you?”

“Positive.”

“But you have to admit, I’m charming. Your family would love me.”

They would. Too much, no doubt. “I can’t risk—”

“What’s the worst that can happen? They find out the watch is missing? They’re just as likely to discover that with you alone. This way, at least you have someone to take the attention off the watch. I’ll be like the magician’s assistant, standing there looking sexy so no one notices you rigging the tricks behind the curtain.”

“Just think. If you weren’t so aware of your own attractiveness, you’d be even sexier.”

“Like if you didn’t know you were so damn smart, you’d be even smarter?”

Her hands fisted. “That’s hardly the same thing.”

“Confucius say
The wise man knows only that he knows nothing
. Or something.”

“I don’t think that was Confucius.”

“Einstein? Machiavelli? I get all those dead smart guys mixed up.”

Mia’s jaw dropped. “Did you just compare Albert Einstein to Machiavelli?”

“Yep. Or maybe I was thinking of da Vinci and Oppenheimer. Which one invented the clock?”

“Neither. Unless by clock you mean atomic bomb.”

“Well, whoever it was, we’re gonna be late if we stand here debating it. You look great, by the way. That dress is hot on you. Ready to go?”

Mia had collected her clutch before she collected her wits enough to realize Chase had somehow evaded all her attempts to break their date. His charm was totally in her face, so much so that she was focused on the fact of it, rather than the realization that it was working and he was getting his way. It was a smoke screen to conceal his constant evasions and manipulations.

Maybe, just maybe, he could handle her family.

“Relax, Mia,” he said from the doorway when he saw her hesitate. “What could possibly go wrong?”

What could go wrong? She was only going to a church with the hottest man she’d ever met in order to pretend he was her boyfriend in front of her entire family so they wouldn’t suspect that she’d lost the single most important object in their world.

What indeed?

Chapter Ten

Prepping for the Executioner

“Just promise me one thing.” Mia locked her door and descended the steps at Chase’s side. “Whatever happens, if anyone in my family suggests doing a Christening-slash-wedding since we already have the church for the afternoon, promise me you’ll run like hell.”

He laughed. “I’ll keep the getaway car running. Just try not to slow us down in those heels.”

“I’ll drive.” She hit the button on her key fob and he changed course across the parking lot as her tail lights flashed.

Chase’s grin was intended to tease her, but she couldn’t figure out why. He was always laughing, always teasing, but half the time she felt like she couldn’t keep up with the witty commentary that must be running quickly though his thoughts. The internal thoughts of most people didn’t interest her, but with him she felt like she was missing out on some fabulous joke by not being inside his head.

This time he let her in on it. “Don’t want your parents to see I drive a beater, eh?”

She stopped in her tracks, frowning between Chase, his car and her own. “I hadn’t taken into account the status differential between your car and mine. I assure you, my reasoning was purely logical. I know the way to the church and my parents’ house where the party will be held after the Christening. My car is more fuel efficient and since the family obligation is mine, it seems fair that I be the one to provide transportation. I would have suggested picking you up previously if I had been thinking clearly yesterday.” And if she hadn’t been trying desperately to think of any way to avoid bringing him.

The logic and practicality of her choice were clear, but she tended to forget how few people made decisions based on reason. Of course Chase would be the kind of person who made decisions based on emotion. Of course he would see her choice as a slight against his car, and by extension against his very masculinity.

Yet another example of how much Mia sucked at social nonsense. If he was anything like the other men she’d dated in the last few years, he would pout for the remainder of the day or make snide comments about her rampant penis envy—which was exactly what she didn’t need at Marley’s Christening.

Mia sighed. She hated making concessions for social ridiculousness, but she needed today to go smoothly. “Are you going to feel like I’m symbolically chopping off your penis if I drive?”

Chase burst out laughing. “I think my penis can take it. I was just teasing you, Mia.” He nudged her into motion toward her car again. “I thought maybe you were planning to pass me off as some doctor or lawyer and my car was screwing with your agenda.”

“I don’t have an agenda.”

The unfamiliar heels caught on the uneven pavement and Mia wobbled. Chase’s firm grip was instantly at her elbow, steadying her—but Mia started at his touch, nearly tripping herself all over again.

God, this was never going to work. She could say all the right words, but her body was going to be screaming the lie if she jumped every time he brushed against her.

He was hitting all the right notes—the secret, just-between-us smile, the hand on her arm. If their deception relied only on him, it would have gone off beautifully. No. She was the problem.

“I can’t do this.” Mia dug in her heels. “They’ll see through me immediately. I’ll never be able to fake the necessary intimacy to convince them we’re a couple.”

“So we aren’t a couple.” He coaxed her into motion again. “Why can’t it be our first date?”

“You’re only the second guy I’ve ever introduced to my family. My parents would never believe I chose throwing them at you as our first date.”

“So we met yesterday, love at first sight, and—”

“I don’t believe in love at first sight.”

“Which makes it even more romantic.”

“I don’t do romance.” Her definition of romance was a man who didn’t mind being ignored in favor of a stack of scientific journals.

“Maybe you do with me.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Maybe I had a lobotomy last night. It’s the only way I could have believed this was going to work.”

“We just have to stay close to the truth. We’re less likely to get tripped up or contradict one another that way. Trust me, effective lying is all about circling around to check out the truth from a different angle.”

“But
yesterday
? That makes me sound so…”

“Impulsive? Romantic?” He drew her to a stop next to her car and brushed a finger across her cheek, just a feather-light caress.

Mia released a shuddering breath. He angled his head close to hers.
Oh my. Oh my oh my oh my.
Was he going to kiss her? Now? Like this?
Why?

“Just keep looking at me like that, sweetheart, and your family will buy everything we’re selling them.” He reached out and opened her door for her. “Your chariot, m’lady.”

Mia glowered at the door, jolted out of the spell he’d woven around her. “You don’t need to do that. No one is here to see you.”

“What if I’m just a gentleman? Did you consider that?”

“I think it’s best if we keep things on as professional a footing as possible, all things considered. Kindly save your chivalry.”

He grinned cheekily. “Maybe the chivalry makes me feel manly. After the vehicular emasculation, the least you can do is put up with a little door opening.”

“Fine.” She slid into the driver’s seat and buckled in, then fidgeted with her clutch where she’d tucked it against her hip as Chase rounded the hood. When he opened the passenger door she pointedly ignored the intensely masculine way he folded himself into the car.

“Telling my family as little as possible about you will make it less likely they will discover the real nature of our relationship,” she announced as she started the engine and pulled out of the lot. “We’ll be vague, implying a relationship of substantial duration.”

“You went out speed-dating on Friday. I don’t think they’re going to buy that we’ve been secretly seeing one another for months.”

“How did you know about that? Never mind—the call with my mom. We’ll say that we’d had a fight and broken up and that was why I went speed-dating. None of this love-at-first-sight stuff.”

“How did I get back in your good graces?”

“Shouldn’t we be focused on how we met?”

“This is important. How did I win you back? I might need to know this stuff.”

“You… I don’t know. You showed up on my doorstep with flowers.”

“Flowers? You’re that easy?”

“Fine. Forget the flowers. You showed up on my doorstep and talked and talked and talked until I agreed to go out with you just to shut you up.”

Chase grinned. “That sounds like us.”

“There is no us.”

“Aw, snookums, don’t talk like that. There will always be an us. Ever since I first laid eyes on you at Bubba’s Shrimp Shack, I knew you were my one and only.”

“Bubba’s Shrimp Shack?”

“I thought it gave the story some color. What do you think?”

“I think color is less important than credibility.” She frowned, trying to think how she could possibly have met a guy like Chase. “Maybe you came in as a volunteer test subject for my last experiment.”

“Kinky. I like it.”

“There is nothing kinky about my work.” She scowled at a red light. “How long have we been together? Not too long. We don’t want them to think we’re too serious. Maybe three or four weeks?”

“Have we had sex yet?”

Mia’s face went up like a torch—a series of wholly delicious images flashing
very inappropriately
through her brain. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”

“I should know, in case your father gives me the evil eye, should I look guilty or virtuous?”

“Virtuous. Very, very virtuous. But he won’t give you the evil eye. He’ll be too busy hiding in his den. And even if you meet him, they aren’t puritanical like that. My family…” Mia sighed. “Picture the exact opposite of me in every way. Loud, overbearing, fun.”

“Hey, you’re fun. And funny too.”

“No, I’m not. Every last one of them is the life of the party, except me. If I didn’t look so much like my dad, I’d be convinced I was switched at birth.” She rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “I’m the second of five kids. Three girls, two boys. My parents are both from big families—my mom has four sisters and my dad has three brothers and two sisters. All of them married. All of them with a pack of kids of their own. And every single one of them will be there today. I’ll try to help you navigate who’s who, but it’s pretty much hopeless the first time, unless we can get everyone to wear nametags like we did at my cousin Mario’s wedding. Except my other cousins made a game out of switching their nametags every fifteen minutes, so even that system wasn’t perfect.”

“Sounds like an adventure.”

“It is what it is. I love my family, but there are days when I secretly wish I’d been born an only child to a pair of yuppy WASPs.” She forced herself to take a breath. “What about you? What’s your family like?”