Laurel sighed, and there was a world of feeling in the sound as her shoulders slumped.
‘Oh, the usual, I suppose. I thought everything was perfect. We were going to get married, live happily ever after—you know, get the fairy tale ending and everything.’ She looked up and met his gaze, as if checking that he did understand what a fairy tale was.
‘Oh, I understand,’ he said, with feeling. Hadn’t that been what he’d thought would be his by rights when he said ‘I do’ to Cassie? Look how wrong he’d been about that.
‘But then it turned out that he wanted the fairy tale with someone else instead.’ She shrugged, her mouth twisting up into a half-smile. ‘I guess sometimes these things just don’t work out.’
‘You seem surprisingly sanguine about it.’
‘Well, it’s been six months,’ Laurel answered. ‘Melissa says I should be well over it by now. I mean, he obviously is, right?’
Six months? Six months after Cassie had left him Dan had still been drinking his way through most of LA’s less salubrious bars. He probably still would be if his business partner hadn’t hauled him out and pointed out that revenge was sweeter than moping.
Making a huge financial and professional success of Black Ops Stunts wasn’t just a personal win. It was revenge against the ex-wife who’d always said he’d never be worth anything.
‘People get over things in their own way and their own time,’ Dan said, trying to focus on the week in front of him, not the life he’d left behind.
‘The hardest part was telling my family,’ Laurel admitted, looking miserable all over again. ‘I mean, getting engaged to Benjamin was the first thing I’d done right in my father’s eyes since I was about fifteen. Even my stepmother was pleased. Benjamin was—is, I suppose—quite the catch in her book. Rich, well-known, charming...’ She gave a self-deprecating smile. ‘I suppose I should have known it was too good to be true.’
‘So, what are you going to do now?’ Dan asked.
Laurel took a deep breath and put on a brave smile that didn’t convince him for a moment.
‘I’ve sworn off men for the time being. I’m going to focus on my business and on myself for a while. And then, when I’m ready, maybe I’ll consider dating again. But this time, I want to be a hundred per cent sure it’s the real thing—the whole fairy tale—before I let myself fall.’
Well, that was rather more information than he’d been looking for. Dan smiled back, awkwardly. ‘Actually, I meant...how do you plan to get through spending a week in the same hotel as him?’
Laurel turned pale. ‘Oh, I’m sorry. Of course you don’t want to hear about that! Melissa always says I talk about myself far too much. Anyway... This week... Well, like I said, I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m hoping that will keep me so busy I don’t even have to think about him.’
If Melissa had her way Dan suspected Laurel would be plenty busy. And probably only talking about Melissa, too.
‘What you really need is a new boyfriend to flaunt in his face,’ he joked, and Laurel laughed.
‘That would be good,’ she agreed, grinning at him. ‘But even if I hadn’t sworn off men I’ve barely had time to sleep since I started organising this wedding, so I definitely haven’t had time to date.’
That was a shame, Dan decided. Laurel, with her warm brown eyes and curvy figure, should definitely be dating. She shouldn’t be locking herself away, even if it wasn’t for ever. She should be out in the world, making it a brighter place. Less than an hour together and he already knew that Laurel was one of the good ones—and the complete opposite of everything he suspected about her half-sister. Laurel should be smiling up at a guy who treated her right for a change. A guy who wanted to spend the rest of his life making her smile that way. The prince she was waiting for.
Dan knew he was definitely not that guy. Treating women right wasn’t the problem—he had utter respect for any woman who hadn’t previously been married to him. But he didn’t do ‘for ever’ any more. Not after Cassie.
Besides, he knew from experience that ‘for ever’ wasn’t what women wanted from him, anyway. They wanted a stand-in—just like the directors did when they hired him or one of his people. Someone to come in, do good work, take the fall, and be ready to get out of the way when the real star of the show came along.
But maybe, he realised suddenly, that was exactly what Laurel needed this week.
A stand-in.
That, Dan knew, he could absolutely do. And it might just help him out in his mission to save his baby brother from a whole load of heartbreak, too, by getting him closer to the centre of the action.
‘What if he just thought you had a boyfriend?’ Dan asked, and Laurel’s nose wrinkled in confusion.
‘Like, lie to him?’ She shook her head. ‘I’m a terrible liar. He’d never believe me. Besides, if I had a boyfriend why wouldn’t he be at the wedding?’
‘He would be,’ Dan said, and the confusion in Laurel’s eyes grew.
He almost laughed—except that wouldn’t get him any closer to what he wanted: a ringside seat to find out what the bride was really like.
‘I don’t understand,’ Laurel said.
Dan smiled. Of course she didn’t. That was one of the things he was growing to like about her, after their limited acquaintance—her lack of subterfuge.
‘Me. Let me be your pretend boyfriend for the week.’
CHAPTER TWO
LAUREL BLINKED AT HIM. Then she blinked a few more times for good measure.
‘Are you...?’ Pretend. He’d said pretend boyfriend. ‘Are you fake asking me out?’
Dan laughed. ‘If you like.’
‘Why?’
Because he felt sorry for her—that much was clear. How pathetic must she look to elicit the promis
e of a fake relationship? Really, there was pity dating and then there was this. How low had she sunk? Not this low, that was for sure.
‘Because it feels wrong to let your ex wander around the wedding of the year like he won,’ Dan replied with a shrug. ‘Besides, I’m here on my own—and, to be honest, it would be nice to have a friend at my side when I have to deal with my family, too.’
His words were casual enough, but Laurel couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something else under them. Something she was missing. But what?
‘So it’s not just a “Poor, sad Laurel, can’t even get a date to the celebrity wedding of the year” thing?’ she asked, cautiously.
Dan gave her a quick grin. ‘I’m not even sure I know what one of those would look like. No, I just figured...we’re both dateless, we both have to spend the week with some of our less than favourite people, we’re both non-Hollywood stars in the middle of a celebrity extravaganza...why not team up?’
Who were his ‘less than favourite’ people? she wondered. Who was he avoiding, and why?
Suddenly the whole suggestion sounded a little bit dodgy. Especially since...
‘Aren’t you a stuntman?’ Laurel narrowed her eyes. ‘Doesn’t that count as a Hollywood star?’
‘Definitely not,’ Dan said firmly. ‘In fact it probably makes me the exact opposite. Put it this way: if I wasn’t related to the groom by blood there’s not a chance I’d have been invited to this wedding.’
‘Same here,’ Laurel admitted.
One thing they had in common. That, plus the whole far-more-famous-sibling thing they both had going for them. Maybe—just maybe—this was a genuine offer.
Leaning back against the car seat, she considered his proposition. On the one hand, the idea of having someone there to back her up, to be on her side for once...well, that sounded pretty good. Especially when she had to face down Benjamin for the first time since that really awkward morning in the coffee shop, half an hour after she’d walked in on him in bed with her replacement.