yeah, but it isn’t like Lucas is actually interested in sleeping with me. He just wants us to look convincing in public.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he suggested that you sleep together, though,” Camille said thoughtfully. “Just to make things seem more authentic.”
Terri shook her head vigorously. “No way. I’m not about to jump into bed with the man, not even if we are pretending to be engaged. Actually, especially not if we’re pretending to be engaged and he’s paying me to do it. It would feel as if he were paying me to sleep with him and that’s something I’m not going to do.”
“Of course not,” Camille agreed.
“Anyway, he has a real girlfriend. She’s younger and prettier and I’m sure he’s not at all attracted to me, really. The kiss was just for practice, that’s all.”
“I’m not sure why you needed to practice, since you’d already told him you wouldn’t pretend to be engaged.”
“He was trying to change my mind.”
“Did it work?”
Terri sighed and sank into a chair. “I don’t know. I can’t decide what I want to do and it’s making me crazy. I’ve always thought of myself as a decisive person. It isn’t like me to agonize over making a simple decision.”
“What’s making it not simple, then?”
“The kiss,” Terri sighed. “The kiss is complicating everything. If it were a simple business transaction, I’d probably say yes, but the kiss took it out of that sphere into, well, I’m not sure where.”
“If it truly was just practice, why does it matter so much?”
“Because it didn’t feel like practice,” Terri said in a low voice. “It felt like a real kiss. Better than a real kiss, maybe. I don’t remember feeling that way when I kissed Harold.”
“Lucas has probably had a lot more experience.”
Terri nodded. “I’m sure he has. Do you think that’s why it felt so, I don’t know, overwhelming? Is Lucas just really good at kissing?”
Camille studied her for a moment and then shook her head. “No, I don’t think experience is why it felt so overwhelming. I think there’s strong chemistry between you and Lucas and that’s probably something you’ll have to deal with if you decide to accept his offer.”
“I have enough to worry about without having to deal with Lucas Hogan.”
“Sometimes you have to take chances in life,” Camille said.
“Yes, but sometimes you have to protect yourself, too. I’m afraid I might actually fall for the man. I don’t want to get my heart broken.”
“You’d have to be careful not to let yourself fall in love. Do you think you could do that?”
Terri sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t trust the man. I don’t think I even like him, but the kiss was amazing. Maybe I can simply lust after him without developing any proper feelings for him.”
“I guess you have to weigh up the pros and cons.”
“You’re right,” Terri agreed. She got to her feet and walked to the white board at the front of the room.
“Pros,” she said, grabbing a marker and writing the word in big letters at the top of the board. “A ton of lovely money.”
“And you’d be making his mother happy,” Camille added.
“And I’d have a date for the Harvest Festival Ball,” Terri said thoughtfully. “I mean, assuming he’d be willing to go.”
“He has to go if he’s here. Everyone in Ramsey goes to the Harvest Festival Ball.”
“And everyone goes in couples, or that’s how it seems.”
“Hey, we’ve gone together for the last three years.”
“And it’s been awkward every year. It’s really an event for couples, even though it isn’t meant to be.”
“So write that on your list. You’d have a date for the Harvest Festival Ball.”
Terri scribbled it on the list and then shrugged. “Cons,” she said.
“Lying is bad.”
Terri giggled. “Okay, yes, I suppose that’s true.”
“And you might fall in love and get your heart broken.”
“I’m not writing that,” Terri said stoutly. “I’m fifty-one and I should be more than capable of keeping myself from falling in love.”
“Love doesn’t work that way.”
“It might, if I try hard enough.”
Camille laughed. “So you don’t really have any cons, then.”
Terri stared at her for a moment and then wrote both of Camille’s points on the board. “They’re big cons, really,” she admitted.
“Bigger than two hundred thousand dollars?”
“What would you do?”
Camille thought for a minute. “How swept away were you by the kiss?”
“Maybe it wasn’t the kiss. Maybe it was all the pizza and chocolate brownie I’d eaten. Maybe it was his aftershave. That was pretty potent.”
“What was it?”
“Something pine-scented and