Million Dollar Christmas Bride - Holly Rayner Page 0,17

handle. She let them rest there.

“Maybe something like that,” Jackson said.

Bianca reached for her purse, which was resting on the floor mat by her feet. She pressed the door open and began to step out onto the pavement before Jackson even had time to get out and open the door for her.

“I guess that’s why you’re in need of a fake fiancée,” she said. “Not interested in having a real one, right?”

She said it breezily, as if it barely mattered. But Jackson sensed an undercurrent to her words, something chilling and strong. He’d always felt that he was good at reading people, and he realized now that Bianca was just as good. She’d felt into the depths of him, constantly reading between the lines.

Maybe she knows things about me that I’m not even aware of, he thought.

She stepped out of the car swiftly, then offered a quick wave before striding off toward her front porch. It wasn’t until she was already inside that Jackson realized she’d forgotten to take her box of chocolate truffle cake.

He pulled away from the curb, her words on his mind. I’m forty-one, he thought. Most of my friends are married with children. Yet I’m perpetually single. What does that say about me?

The depths of his being rumbled with answers that he wasn’t ready to listen to as he pressed on the accelerator and headed for home. The nagging sense that his trust issues were the real reason behind his bachelor lifestyle seemed to follow him for the entire drive.

No matter how fast he went, he couldn’t seem to shake the feeling.

Chapter 6

Bianca

Bianca stepped through her front door and switched on the interior lights. Peaches, snoozing on her dog bed by the love seat, got to her feet and stretched her long, golden-fur-covered body.

With her mind on the conversation she’d just had with Jackson, Bianca slipped her phone into the pocket of her jean jacket and then patted her thighs so that Peaches would join her at the door. She clipped the end of a leash onto the dog’s pink collar and then once again exited out into the night air.

The houses that lined the street were decked out in red and green lights for the holidays, and they shimmered and blinked in her peripheral vision. Bianca loved Christmastime. They didn’t have much money growing up, but her mom always made Christmas special. She had fond memories of baking cookies, making handmade ornaments, going to see Santa, and attending the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church. Bianca’s relationship with her mom was probably closer because her dad wasn’t around.

That made Bianca think of Jackson and his mother.

I can’t believe he wants to lie to his mom, she thought as she took off after Peaches, who led the way toward her favorite patch of grass down the block. I can’t imagine trying to pull a fast one on my mom like that. Mom would see right through it!

Then again, Mom and I are close.

Jackson barely knows his mother.

What would that be like?

Though she searched her mind in an attempt to understand Jackson’s position, she found she couldn’t imagine what it would feel like for him.

Regardless of how distant she’s been in the past, wouldn’t it be easier just tell his mom how he feels? she thought. Peaches tugged against the leash, and Bianca stepped off of the sidewalk so that Peaches could water a nearby bush.

Family dynamics can be so complicated, Bianca realized. Maybe I shouldn’t even try to understand the whole thing… I’ll just go along with it. I won’t have to pay him back the five thousand dollars, and on top of that I’ll collect ten thousand more. It’s not like I can turn all that down.

She thought about her delinquent insurance payments and decided that was one of the first debts she’d pay off with the money she earned that upcoming Saturday.

As her mind was roving over the other debts that would be good to pay off, she had a sudden thought. Shoot! I’m scheduled to work this Saturday!

It didn’t take her long to realize that she’d better call Nicky, who would definitely be awake because she was on shift that night.

Nicky picked up after just a few rings. She spoke in a hushed tone, “Hey, what’s up? Aren’t you off tonight? You should be asleep.”

“And you should be taking vitals,” Bianca joked. It was nearing ten, a time when LNAs at Riverside were supposed to make rounds into all of the patient rooms