Diamonds Are Forever - Brooke St. James Page 0,15

"You can just pretend to."

I let out the breath I'd been holding since he came up to the dock.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm just relieved. I thought you were going to ask me for the ring back."

He made a face like he had no idea what I was talking about. "I told you I don't care about that thing. I hope you got rid of it. I didn't even remember it existed."

"What's this dinner about?"

"It's for my dad. It's a bunch of people he knows. That girl I used to date got herself invited through one of my dad's friend's sons. She's going to show up tonight, and I would really like to just have…" He trailed off, making a pleading expression. "It would be helpful if you would pretend to be my girlfriend while we're there. You don't have to, but it would get her off my back."

I stared at him. "Where is this thing?"

"At Palm Beach." He gestured behind him. "It'll only take like ten minutes to get there from here. And we don't have to stay all night. I just wanted her to see that I'm with somebody else. I mean, not with, but… we don't need to do anything, she'll just assume we're together if you're there with me. I just don't want to have to talk to her. I feel like she's just there to try to get me back, and I don't want to deal with it tonight."

I shrugged. "I don't mind doing it all, but the problem is I'll probably know someone there. My whole family's from here. We have friends who go to Palm Beach all the time. I know someone who works over there."

"It's not open to the public. It's at Palm Beach, but it's private. It's a party for my dad and a few of his colleagues. You probably won't know anyone there. And it really wouldn't matter if you did, honestly. You don't know her, and that's all that matters."

I nodded. "I'll do it, yeah, I'd be happy to." I glanced down at my own appearance. "I wasn't quite prepared for a fancy dinner party, though. I didn't know what to wear."

He took a second to look me over. "I really don't care. I think you look great. Please come."

"I brought a skirt to change into, but I'm not sure that it'll be fancy enough even after that."

"Are you kidding? You have a dress with you? That's perfect. Put it on."

"Not a dress. Just a skirt. It'll go with this top." I pinched the front of my shirt. "This is the only shirt I have with me, so it'll have to do."

He smiled brightly and gave an excited clap. "Thank you so much for this."

"You're welcome," I said. I was so relieved he wasn't looking for the ring that changing into a skirt and going to a dinner party to pretend to be his girlfriend felt like a walk in the park.

"I'm going to change into the skirt," I said, as I started going back toward my car. "But you have to be honest with me about how it looks when I get back. If it's not fancy enough for the party, it would only take me about twenty minutes to run home and get something else."

"I would seriously be fine with you wearing what you have on right now," he said.

"Okay then, just wait here and I'll be right back."

I had a short white skirt that fell above my knees, and I made quick work of getting it on. I ran back onto the dock as quickly as I could in my new outfit.

Drew was smiling at me when I came back down the dock. "Oh my gosh, thank you, you look amazing," he said. He scanned my appearance. "You look like you planned for this. Let's go."

Chapter 6

Drew helped me onto the boat, and we set out from Oak Bayou, heading toward Palm Beach.

This beach was the biggest news in Galveston right now. It was part of a place called Moody Gardens, and it was a gorgeous, man-made, white-sand beach on the bay side of Galveston. Earlier this year, tons and tons of pristine, white sand had been shipped on barges from Florida to build this beautiful new attraction. I didn't realize how dark Galveston's sand was until that white sand got here. It was powdery and beautiful. I had been several times since it opened, but never to a private event. I had no idea what to expect.

Drew