to write. I’ll be in my office if you need anything.”
Knowing that Thomas would be more than happy with his dessert and the television, she shut herself into her office and forced herself to focus on work. When she went back downstairs a few hours later, Thomas was asleep in front of the television, the empty dessert box on the table in front of him.
She woke him and sent him to bed before she tidied up the living room and the kitchen. Sleep was elusive.
Terri had to drag herself out of bed the next morning. At least I can talk to Camille before the school day starts, she thought as she headed for the high school the next morning.
“Two hundred thousand dollars?” Camille echoed Terri’s words. “That’s an awful lot of money.”
“Would you pretend to be someone’s fiancée for that amount?” Terri asked.
“I don’t know. If I wasn’t involved with Max, maybe. I mean, he’s doing it to make his mother happy, not to dodge taxes or anything weird or illegal.”
“Or so he says,” Terri muttered darkly.
“There is that, of course,” Camille said thoughtfully. “He doesn’t seem like the most trustworthy man on the planet.”
“Or even in Ramsey.”
“Or even in Ramsey,” Camille agreed. “What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea,” Terri said with a sigh. “The kiss complicates things.”
“And there’s the bell,” Camille said as the signal for the start of the school day echoed through the corridors.
“Are you busy right after school?” Terri asked quickly.
“I’ll make time for you,” Camille promised. “I’ll come to your classroom once the kids are all gone.”
“Thanks,” Terri called over her shoulder as she dashed toward her room and the class that would be waiting for her. The day seemed to drag and she could feel a headache developing as the last class of the afternoon straggled in. Washing a few painkillers down with some water, she forced herself to smile brightly at the young men and women who deserved her very best. Forty-six minutes later, she was happy to hear the end of day bell.
“Don’t forget that the homework packet is due on Friday,” she called after them as the students began to leave the room.
She was straightening desks and chairs and collecting lost pens and scraps of paper when Camille walked in a few minutes later.
“Okay, so I haven’t been able to think about anything else all day,” Camille said as she dropped into a chair. “What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea. There’s a part of me that wants to tell him to leave me alone, but I could put Thomas through college with that money. I suppose I’d have to pay taxes on it, wouldn’t I?”
“I would, if I were you. It would still be a lot of money, though, even after taxes.”
“But I’m uncomfortable with the lying.”
“And with Lucas?” Camille asked.
“I don’t even know how to reply to that. He’s arrogant and pushy and he doesn’t seem at all bothered about lying to his own mother.”
“To be fair, I think we all lie to our mothers sometimes,” Camille laughed.
Terri chuckled. “Yes, well, I may have when I was a teenager and wanted to get away with something, but it never ended well when I did.”
“I did everything in my power to hide the breakdown of my marriage from my parents. I didn’t want them to worry about what would happen to me after they were gone.”
“And that’s one of the reasons why I’m actually considering agreeing,” Terri admitted. “I understand him wanting to make his mother happy, especially if she truly doesn’t have long left.”
“But do you believe him about that?”
“I don’t know what to think. I suspect he lies far too easily, but I can’t see why he’d lie about something like that. The whole reason he wants a pretend fiancée is so that he can make his mother happy in her last weeks or months. If she isn’t really dying, why bother paying me to pretend to be his fiancée?”
“I’ve no idea. Tell me again about the kiss.”
Terri blushed and sighed. “I don’t know what he was thinking. He said something about us having enough chemistry for the story to be convincing and then he kissed me.”
“And it was magical?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You said something about the whole world vanishing and you getting lost in your emotions until Thomas hit you with the door.”
“Emotions might be an overstatement. It was really just one emotion.”
“Lust?” Camille guessed.
Terri turned a brighter shade of red. “Um,