Page 9 of Welcome Home for Christmas
Chapter 3
Allison headed toward the back of the building. There was a bathroom she planned on ducking into in order to hyperventilate. This was never going to work. One: Troy was a Marine. Her mother would never buy into the fact that she’d fallen for a Marine. A Marine’s life was too unpredictable, whereas Allison liked routine and order. Two, and this was a biggie: Troy was the exact opposite of her, down to the relaxed way that he walked. No way her mother would fall for their farce. Then the prestigious Dr. Pierce really would be recommending therapy for her only daughter.
Allison closed the bathroom stall behind her and sat on the closed lid of the commode. She sucked in a deep breath, counted to ten, and then exhaled.
“Allison?”
Allison straightened to the sound of her name.
“Allison, are you okay?” It was Julie.
Allison opened the stall door and stared at her. “I bought a Marine to be my boyfriend for my family’s Christmas Eve party,” she said quickly, unloading her confession as she exhaled.
Julie blinked, then burst into laughter. “Geez. I stepped outside with Lawson and totally missed that….You do know there are dating websites for that kind of thing, right?”
Allison groaned and walked toward the mirror. “Troy isn’t going home for Christmas, so this is perfect. Or I thought it was, but now I’m positive that this is a disaster waiting to happen.” She turned to look at Julie. “You know my mother. She can smell a lie a mile away.”
Julie considered this. “Only one thing to do then.”
“Right.” Allison knew exactly what she had to do. “I should cancel this idea and just make good on the money I donated.”
Julie shook her head. “No, you shouldn’t. I say you need to buy more hours and spend enough time with Troy to make this convincing.”
Allison furrowed her brow. Her mind was spinning. “How do I do that? I’ve never been able to pull the wool over my mother’s eyes.”
“Just go on a few dates with the guy. Trade off your life stories and enough information to get past your mother’s lie-detector instincts. There’ll be so much going on at the party that she won’t have time to scrutinize. People will see you with a handsome guy on your arm, you’ll feel great, and then, once Christmas is over, you can return to your regularly scheduled single life. Until next year.”
Hope sprang up inside Allison’s chest. “That…might…work.” She nodded to herself as she thought about it. Then she smiled as she looked up at Julie. “It’s actually a good idea.”
Julie shrugged. “I have my moments. I wish I would’ve bought Lawson. It’d be nice to make him do whatever I wanted.”
“He pretty much does that now,” Allison said.
Julie grinned, a blush coloring her cheeks. “You’re right.”
Allison had to admit, she was a little envious of people in love. Most looked genuinely happy. If not for her own experiences with the feeling, she might be a believer. In the last five years, though, she’d dated a man with a whole lot of forever potential, who also happened to be gay. Her mother had spotted that immediately. She’d dated a guy who liked to steal things from her. Her mother had labeled him as “shady” at their first meeting.Shadywas an understatement. And the last guy Allison had dated, James, had been the biggest heartbreaker of all. She’d fallen head over heels for him, and just as her mother had predicted, he’d cheated on her.
The whole love experience was torture. Allison wasn’t ready to make herself vulnerable to that kind of heartbreak again. But she could appease her mother and make it seem as if she were dipping her toes back into the dating waters. That seemed harmless enough.
Julie touched her shoulder, gaining her attention. “Better now?”
Allison nodded. “Yes. Much.”
“Good. Because I think we need to get back out there to the party. The auction should be ending, but we still have to entertain the wives and make sure no one drinks and drives.”
“Good idea.” Allison straightened and did another discreet round of deep breathing. All she had to do now was locate Troy and do whatever it took to get him to agree to go on a few dates with her, to get to know each other as intimately as a real couple would. How hard could that be?
She entered the banquet room and broke off from Julie, who went to discuss auction numbers with her sister Kat. They wanted to announce how much money had been raised for the children’s shelter by the end of the night.
Allison’s gaze moved over the crowd, looking for Troy, hoping that he hadn’t left yet. He’d appeared to be heading toward the exit the last time she’d seen him. Her gaze snagged on a broad-shouldered man standing in the corner. Troy. He was standing with an attractive blonde, her back toward Allison.
Jealousy sprouted up like an unwanted weed, which wasn’t the right reaction. Troy wasn’t hers. He was free to talk to other women.
Troy looked up as she drew closer. “Hey,” he said, smiling at her. How could he smile at her like that, like he was happy to see her with those twinkling eyes and sexy grin, when he was mingling with another woman?
“Hi,” she said.
“Oh, hi, Allison.” The woman Troy was talking to turned around. Shelby Summers. She was married with three children.
