Page 55 of Homebody
Dean
I had a feeling you might not
Even texting Dean was enough to have her grinning like a fool, her heart pounding and her hands trembling as she held the phone. She’d happily do this all day—lay on the sofa texting Dean and waiting for his reply.
For a split second she considered that, then reality edged into her fantasy.
The lab. What time was it? She looked at the time on her cell. She was already late. She had to go! She shoved the cell in her pocket, took one last look at the gorgeous flowers and ran out the door.
She saved time by grabbing her bike rather than walking and arrived at the lab only about ten minutes past the time she’d promised him she’d be there.
Liam had given her the code to the door so she keyed it in and rushed inside to find him standing there blocking the way, arms crossed, stare leveled on her.
Uh oh.
Breathless, she said, “I’m so sorry I’m late. I had to stop home.”
She held up the notebook as proof of why she’d gone home first. Leaving out the part about having to cover her hickey and gush over her flowers as she hoped she hadn’t pissed off her new boss on her first real day on the job.
“You’re not late. I told you that you can set your own hours. That’s not the problem.”
“Um, okay. Thanks. So, is there a problem?” she asked, trying to figure out the reason for this odd stand-off if it wasn’t her tardiness.
“I need you to explain to me why Dean Sinclair believes you’re some flighty commitment-phobe who’s never completed a thing in her life.”
Her eyes widened as things began to make sense. “Oh. That.”
“Oh, that?”He let out a short laugh. “And what exactly does that mean?”
She lifted one shoulder figuring a lie had gotten her into this, another lie would have to get her out of it. “Guys like girls who aren’t too serious. Or smart.”
“So you’re honestly telling me that you’re hiding from him who you really are and all that you’ve already accomplished because guys don’t like smart women?”
“Yup. That’s it exactly.” She nodded. “So, what are we working on today?”
Her lame attempt at changing the subject didn’t work as Liam continued to stare at her, unmoving.
Finally, he shook his head. “I don’t buy it. I have your CV. I’ve seen your academic credentials. There is no way a person as brilliant as you’ve proven yourself to be is playing dumb to get a man.”
“I wouldn’t say I’m playing dumb, per se. I’m just not delving too deeply into specifics with Dean. You know. Just keeping it casual.” She shrugged.
Liam shook his head one more time. “Try again. And before you pile on one more lie let me remind you the research we do here is not only enormously important, but highly confidential. I have to be able to trust who I work with. I would like to believe I can trust you. That you’re an honest person. Right now, that’s seriously in question. Oh, and before you answer I need to tell you Iwillfind out if you’re lying.”
She was going to lose this job.
No. She could not throw away her dream job all because of her deal with Susan Sinclair.
The fear of that was stronger than her loyalty to Dean’s mother. She felt bad about that but this was her life they were talking about. Her career. Her future.
“Dean’s mother paid me to pretend to be a bad girl to keep Dean away from his ex-girlfriend Juniper while he’s home on leave.” Her heart pounding hard, the truth came out in a breathless rush of words.
Liam’s eyes flew wide as his mouth opened but no words came out.
Tessa took that as an opportunity to plead her case.
“I’m so sorry. Please don’t fire me. I really am an honest person. I likeneverlie usually, I swear. But I needed the money to make rent and I didn’t think anyone would get hurt by it. In fact I never thought it would work because I mean look at me compared to Juniper. She’s like a girl from an eighties hair-band video and I’m… me. But then we started to hang out together and I started to reallylikeDean, like a lot, and now it’s a big mess and I can’t tell him this all began with a lie but it doesn’t matter anyway because he’s leaving and I’ll probably never hear from him again.” She stopped to take a breath and dared to look at Liam.
She found him smiling. The expression threw her enough she didn’t know what to say. So she just stood there and waited for him to reveal her fate.
