Page 8 of Boss's Baby: A Fake Fiance Romance

But I left it. Rehashing high school was the last thing I wanted to do. And as much as I hated to admit it, there was something about the way he looked at that moment that made me want to help him out. Of course, the stupid crush I’d always had on him didn’t help matters.

I sighed. “What do you want me to do?”

“Knew you’d come around.” He grinned. “You don’t have to do anything. Just stand next to me with that ring on your finger, and I’ll do the rest.”

“And you owe me.”

“I owe you.”

What, exactly, I was going to collect from him wasn’t clear, but I had to make him see I wasn’t doing this solely to be nice.

I glanced over Josh’s shoulder and spotted the lady in question—Melody Hain, wandering through the place and looking concerned.

“I think it’s showtime,” I said, nodding in her direction. Josh glanced back to see what I was looking at.

“Shit. Let’s do this. Ready?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be to fake an engagement.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Without another word, he took my hand and led me toward her. Melanie’s wide, almost frenzied eyes clamped onto Josh, then onto me, then onto my ring. She most definitely wasn’t happy to see it.

“Melanie!” said Josh. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Cass had some holiday stuff on her mind.”

Damn, it was weird to hear him call me that.

“’Cass,’” said Melanie, the word hitting her ears just as oddly as it’d hit mine. “This is your fiancée?”

“The one and only.”

Melanie’s eyes stayed locked onto mine, and for a second I worried she might unhinge her jaw and bite my head off right then and there.

“You were serious?” she asked, her tone taking the manic edge that had given her that particular nickname. “You’re engaged to her?”

Wow. Not even waiting a second to let her rich-girl attitude hang out.

“Excuse me?”

Melanie put her hands on her hips, as if offended. “Cassidy Marten? The ice-cream-store girl?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but Josh beat me to it. “Melanie, this is my fiancée. You’re being totally out of line right now.”

“Whatever,” she hissed. “Do you know who my family is? You, Josh Taylor, are seriously going to tell me I’m not good enough for you but this low-rent girl is?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked. “Where do you get off—?”

“Melanie, you’ve got one chance to show a little respect to my future wife. Now, are you going to do it, or is this how you want to leave this?”

She narrowed her eyes into little slits. The girl was not happy.

“You want to slum it, fine. Congratu-fucking-lations. Good seeing you, Josh—not.”

One last hard glare at me and the ring, and she was gone. Josh and I turned to each other, the same wide-eyed look on both of our faces.

“Did she—” he asked. “Did she seriously just do the ‘not’ thing?”

“She really did. Poor thing got knocked back to high school for a second.”

I’d have been lying if I’d said I didn’t feel the same way. Hearing Melanie speak to me the same way girls like her had back then, it pissed me off and hurt all at the same time. But those feelings only lasted for a second. As they faded they were replaced with something else—total amusement. I let out a laugh, one that made me cover my mouth and almost spill my drink.

“You cool over there?”

I composed myself as best I could. “Yeah. I mean, what a bitch. But still—”

“Some people never get over high school, right?”

“No kidding! I mean, trying to make me feel like the poor girl?”

Josh glanced down at my drink. “Let me get you another. You’ve earned it.”

I nodded, and Josh took my glass and headed over to the bar. Fresh drinks in hand, he nodded toward an open table at the far end of the place. Seconds later I was there with him.

“You sure you’re fine?” he asked. “Because she kind of went off on you there.”

“Totally fine. I mean, like I said, funny as hell she’d try to pull that kind of thing fifteen years later. Surprised she didn’t tell me I wasn’t invited to her birthday party.”

He smiled. “Well, glad to see you’ve gotten some thick skin over the years. Because when I was a dick to you back then…”

I knew what he wanted to say, that I’d handled him being an asshole back then much less well than I’d handled Melanie just then.

“It’s fine. I’m not exactly the type to live in the past.”

“Good way to be. But it makes me wonder what you’ve been up to all these years that’ve made you such a badass.”

I laughed. “I don’t know about ‘badass.’” I thought about it. “Actually, I like that—badass is good.”

“Well, fill me in.”

“Not a grand story or anything. Went to Notre Dame after I graduated high school, then off to New York. Got into marketing, and now I’m an exec.”

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