Page 75 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

Her hands gathered up a stack of papers that had fallen over, lining up the corners of the documents. She bent over to pick up a photocopied document from the floor, shoving her skirts out of the way to reach it.

“Have I made you feel uncomfortable, Daphne?”

Standing, Daphne held the document in her hands as she turned to face Calvin. “Sorry?”

“I thought ... I’m sorry if I misread what was going on between us.”

That was the problem. He very much hadn’t misread it. It was Daphne who was falling too fast and too hard. She shrugged one shoulder, the puff sleeve exaggerating the movement. “No. It’s not that. I just ... I’d rather just stick to the deal.”

“Even though you’re attracted to me and I’m attracted to you.”

She tried to give him a flat look, but her cheeks were warming from the admission that he found her attractive. She dropped her gaze to the document in her hands. “I think you’ve made assumptions about me that aren’t entirely accurate,” she said.

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that I’m not boring,” she said, frowning at the page.

“You’re not boring.”

“This company name is interesting,” she said.

“Daphne, I’m trying to be serious right now,” Calvin said, frustration lacing his words. “You’re underselling yourself, and I don’t understand why.”

She shook her head. “No, look. Rated Retails Co. It’s an anagram of the account name where the funds for the renovation went.” Her skirts swished as she hopped to cross the distance between them, turning the paper to face him. She pointed to the company name. “See? ‘Rated Retails’ and ‘Realist Trade’ are anagrams of each other.”

Dragging his gaze from her face, Calvin frowned at the paper. He took the sheet from her and stared at the account number. “An anagram is when all the letters are shuffled around, right?”

Daphne knew that they needed to address whatever was going on between them. They needed to lay some ground rules, at least until the vow renewal. Were they pretending to be together? Were they casual? Was any of this real?

But Daphne was a coward after all, because she clung to the company name on that piece of paper like it was the last door floating on the North Atlantic after her ship had hit an iceberg. It was work, and work was safe. Besides, it was the first sniff at that company she’d gotten since they’d spoken to Jerry Barela.

“Yeah. Here.” On a scrap piece of paper, she jotted down one company name above the other, then drew lines between the letters.

Calvin approached, the warmth of him pressing into her shoulder. “You saw that in one glance?”

“You have no idea how many times I’ve stared at the words ‘Realist Trade Co.’ and the account number associated with the company,” she answered, lips tilted. She tapped on the document. “What’s this quote for?”

“This is a copy of the contract for the renovation at Romano’s. The original is in the evidence locker. We found it at Barela’s office the day of the break-in and took it because of the footprint.”

Looking past the numbers on the page, Daphne noticed the muddy shoe print on the corner of the sheet for the first time. Her heart thundered. “I need to look something up,” she said, and grabbed her crutches.

Chapter 27

Daphne’s dress sounded like plastic garbage bags rustling as she hurried to get her crutches. Calvin watched the fabric shimmer in the light of his office, wondering if there was anything this woman could do or wear that he wouldn’t find attractive.

He’d felt such a rush of emotion for her when she’d agreed to wear it for Ceecee’s sake. That shecared. And all he’d wanted to do was make her his.

Meanwhile, she’d taken one quick glance at a spare sheet of paper and might have uncovered an important clue. The woman was intelligent and caring and kind. She was sexy and funny and perfect.

He didn’t think he could live without her.

But she’d pulled away.

Calvin helped Daphne wrangle the ridiculous fabric, opening the door for her as she hurried to her desk. His heart pounded as he followed her in, watching her sit behind her laptop and bat her skirts out of the way. In a flash, her computer was awake and she was navigating to the Washington Secretary of State Entity Search.

“This has been on my to-do list since we spoke to Barela, but I wanted to finish categorizing and sorting all the transactions first,” Daphne explained, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “I like to work methodically; otherwise, things get missed.”

Calvin’s lips twitched. “Why does that not surprise me?”

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