Remember, I’m Olaf.” Giggling, Brenda turned on the iPod, and one of the songs from Frozen blasted through the living room. Emotion floated up Alice’s throat and lodged there like a large ball of hesitation. She resisted the urge to reach for her cell phone to snap pictures or even make a video. Smiling, she focused on watching her cute six-year-old mini-me dance and twirl.
Tears burned her eyes, and she blinked them back.
“She’s dancing again? Even I know those steps by heart now,” Rachel said behind her, and Alice turned to meet her sister.
Rachel slumped on the couch and skimmed an old In Touch magazine. She’d been working part time at a department store in the mall, and for the past few weeks they had been episode free. Which meant her sister hadn’t felt overwhelmed or stopped her medications.
Whenever Rachel had a meltdown, Alice took charge and handled everything. Their mother tried to help, too, but ever since Judy started to have high blood pressure, Alice had been especially careful to shield her mother from additional stress.
Alice headed to her bedroom, then opened her packed closet, where a myriad of colorful pieces fought for space like One Direction fans camping out in front of the band’s hotel.
“Why are you going on a trip?” Mom asked, standing on the threshold.
“I told you, Mom. It’s work stuff.” Thank goodness she loved sewing. Being a proud plus-size woman in her late twenties had taught her to take fashion matters into her own hands and make the dresses she wanted to wear. If she had relied on her skinny sister for wardrobe exchange, she’d have been in serious trouble.
“I thought Cara was at a camp.”
“She is. This is something else.” She removed a couple dresses from hangers, and after a quick assessment, folded and placed them in her secondhand carry-on bag. What did one take on a trip to impress people and come across as a suitable wife-to-be for a millionaire? Viola’s assistant had emailed information about a Marie Antoinette-themed party. She had sent their measurements to an Italian specialty costume shop—and used Lorenzo’s credit card to ensure they would ship the costumes straight to Viola’s place. But, besides that, she wasn’t really sure what else to bring.
The thought brought sourness to her stomach. How hard would pretending to be his fiancée be?
In one crap-filled evening, she had been roughed-up by a loan shark, skinny-dipped, lied, and blackmailed her boss. How much more difficult could some acting on the weekend be? Oh, goodness. I’m fucked, and not in the fun way. In six days, Buck would be knocking on her door and would have her ass if she didn’t come up with twenty grand.
“What do you mean by something else?” her mother insisted, and Alice knew better than to lie to Judy Sommers.
“There’s been a misunderstanding, and someone thinks Mr. B and I are engaged. The business deal means a lot to him, and he’s asked me to go out of town for a weekend of fun in Italy.”
“You’ll be pretending to be his fiancée?” her mother asked, folding her arms across her blue scrubs.
“When you say it like that…it sounds so official.” She opened the bottom drawer and fetched out a few pairs of underwear. The scrap of a red-lace number teased her, and she stretched her fingers and touched it. It was a sexy bodice she had bought during a Frederick’s of Hollywood online sale a year ago. Why would she take it with her?
“Alice Rae Sommers. You can’t get involved with him. Remember Joshua?”
Have you learned nothing from Joshua the jerk? The man broke up with you via Facebook, woman. “Oh, trust me, Mom, it will never happen,” she said firmly. Although her attraction to Lorenzo was…different than anything she ever experienced. Sure, there was the thrill of the forbidden, but the way her body responded to him when he made no attempt at all to seduce her was scary. How would she respond if he tried? Could someone die from an orgasmic implosion? “I’m more worried about leaving you guys behind than Mr. B jumping my bones.”
“Oh, please. We’ll be fine without you,” her mother said, and injected so much energy into her voice that it had the opposite effect. Maybe she’d fool someone else. Not Alice.
“Are you sure?” Alice asked. “It will only be for a couple of days, but you need to take care of yourself while I’m gone. Especially after your ulcer.”
Her mother plopped down on her