“Your ridiculous idea to pretend we’re a couple? Sure.” I set aside my mug and lean forward. “Why does it have to be me? You could ask anyone to play the person who interrupted your wedding for a very good reason and saved you from a lifetime of pain and disappointment.”

He draws back and frowns. “You’re overstating what you did.”

He’s wrong. My mother is proof of that. She poured her heart and soul into her marriage and got almost nothing in return. Someday Dean will recognize the world of hurt he avoided by not marrying Ella. In the meantime, I’m not here to convince him of my virtue. “Okay, that’s fair. Marrying a person who’s in love with someone else is a minor inconvenience in the scheme of things. But my question still stands: Why me?”

“Two reasons,” he says as he adjusts his tie.

I’d love to see that tie wrapped around his head as he wades in a public fountain after a few too many drinks. I snort at the thought.

“What’s funny?” Dean asks.

“Nothing. You were saying?”

“The two reasons it has to be you. One, Olney & Henderson is a gossip mill, and my assistant attended the wedding. I can’t risk getting too far afield of the actual truth without potentially compromising this whole operation.”

“It’s an operation now? Good grief. What’s the other reason?”

“I identified you by name.”

Shit on top of shit with a dollop of shit on the side.

He reaches over and places his hand over mine. Damn, it’s silky soft. In embarrassing contrast, my hands are still sporting scratches from this weekend’s community gardening project.

“I’m not asking you to sign over your life,” he says, his eyes pleading with me not to reject him outright. “I just need three nights; depending on your schedule, maybe time for one daytime get-together too. And we’re only talking about a two-week window at most. Maybe a spur-of-the-moment outing if she returns for a second round of interviews. I know you don’t owe me a thing. And I’m definitely in a bind of my own making. But if you could find it in your heart to do this, I’d be so fucking grateful. Frankly, I don’t have anyone else to turn to.”