Page 29 of Kissed By Her Fake Fiancé

“Sorry.”

He pushed away from the table, still not taking his eyes off the screen. In the eleventh hour, he’d stumbled upon a big piece of news. A name found in a gigantic pile of city council meeting records. Lucky Howard had apparently shown up at one of the meetings to discuss developing that land. That explained why he’d been spotted at the top of the mountain, although he still couldn’t confirm why the guy in the Santa costume was there.

Holden didn’t know the specifics of Lucky’s financial situation, but the guy had a pretty thriving business going. He was the top developer in Misty Mountain, and a good developer was exactly what the project at the top of the mountain needed. In fact, Holden had hoped to talk Lucky into joining him once he had the financing in place. It looked like he’d waited too long to have that conversation.

“I’ll hop in the shower and be with you two in a minute,” Holden told J.J.

He kept true to that promise. Not that Holden ever took all that long to get ready. But today, he did spend a little extra time shaving and getting dressed.

When he came through the entrance into the living room, he saw it was not a second wasted. Faith looked amazing. She wore her hair pulled up off her neck, curled wisps framing her face. Her forest green sweater sparkled as it caught the light. She wore slightly more makeup than usual, but it didn’t look overdone. It was just enough to accent those big brown eyes and make her high cheekbones pop.

“Hi,” he said, his voice packed with far more emotion than he expected.

Her mouth spread into a smile. “Hi.”

J.J. covered her mouth to suppress a giggle, alerting him to the fact that their cheesiness was pretty obvious. “You two.” She sighed. “Can we just go? I’m starving.”

Exchanging a quick smile, Faith and Holden followed her to the garage. Once they were speeding down the driveway, J.J. asked a question that reminded Holden of something he’d wondered several times over the past couple of days.

“Where’s your car, Miss Faith?”

A long silence followed in which Holden was thinking he might have to remind J.J. it was rude to ask personal questions. But it wasn’t really personal…unless she couldn’t afford to buy one or something.

“I had one before I went over to England,” she said. “I was sent over there for a temporary work assignment, so I planned to come back and have it waiting for me. But then, when it looked like I was staying permanently, my dad sold it for me. So basically, I have no car yet. It’s something I need to do.”

“We could go car shopping,” J.J. said. “Can we, Dad?”

He smiled. “I don’t think car shopping is nearly as fun as you think it would be.”

“Not at all.” Faith shook her head. “But I’d be open to tracking one down online if you could help me test-drive it. You could take a look at it and make sure it’s a good buy.”

“I’d be happy to.”

He assumed if her dad sold her old one, she probably had enough money to buy a new one. Or at least to make payments on a loan. He’d fill out whatever paperwork was necessary to show she was reliably employed. He could even make her an employee of his business if it would help.

But what would happen when they inevitably had to go their separate ways? Would she then need to come off the payroll? Would that make things more complicated? He wasn’t sure.

“You should get a sports car,” J.J. said. “Pink. And the kind that doesn’t have a top on it.”

“A convertible?” Holden asked.

“Yeah, one of those.”

He glanced back at his daughter, catching her smile in his peripheral vision. Then his gaze skidded across Faith’s relaxed expression before he returned his attention to the road. With all the stress he’d been through that day, it was nice to just be seated here in this car with the two of them. It felt like his stress level had gone from a ten to about a two in a matter of minutes. In fact, the second he laid eyes on Faith tonight, his tension had melted away.

“I have to talk to Lucky Howard,” he said as the earlier stress suddenly flashed through his mind. He’d debated not bringing it up in front of J.J., but it wasn’t like it was anything she couldn’t hear. “I think he’s in cahoots with the guy we talked about last night. In fact, I know he is.”

“They’re not doing anything wrong, are they?” Faith asked, confusion clear in her voice.

“No, but I want to get to Lucky as early as possible. I might be able to turn things around.”

It seemed so clear to him now. It was the perfect solution. There was no reason he should just lie down and let Lucky and some fake Santa snatch his business idea from under him. No, he could make this work.

“No business, Dad,” J.J. reminded him from the backseat. “Only chips and salsa and ice skating for the next four hours.”

“Four hours?” His eyes widened. “The show’s four hours?”

“I think she’s including dinner and the drive to Knoxville in that,” Faith said.

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