leathery that smelled incredibly expensive.”
“So maybe that went to your head.”
“Maybe.”
“In that case, I’d do it,” Camille said. “Assuming I wasn’t in a relationship, of course.”
“I’m not in a relationship.”
“And you could use the money.”
“And I could use a date for the stupid ball. He said three months, which would take us right up to Christmas. I hate being alone on Christmas.”
“I don’t think you should be making long-term plans with the man.”
“You’re right, of course, but I’ve been alone for three years now and sometimes it’s a bit lonely, especially since Thomas doesn’t really need me any longer. Even when he’s staying with me, he’s never home and he stays with his father every other week.”
“It sounds as if you’ve made up your mind.”
“I wish I had. In spite of everything I just said, I’m mostly happy on my own. I don’t even really need the money, although it would be a lovely windfall.”
“So turn Lucas down.”
Terri nodded slowly. “That seems like the most sensible thing to do.”
“I’ve offered before to help you find a man,” Camille reminded her. “Max knows tons of people.”
“And I’ve told you before that I’m not interested. You said you wouldn’t nag me anymore if I did your stupid online challenge, remember?”
“And you said you wanted a date for the Harvest Ball.”
“When I was in college, we used to talk about having boyfriends that we could keep in our closets. We could pull them out for special events and then tuck them back away when they weren’t wanted. That’s what I need now.”
“There are companies that let you hire dates. I don’t know that there are any in Ramsey, but I’m sure there must be some in New York City. You’d probably have to pay to fly the man here, though.”
“I’m not desperate enough to hire a man to pretend to be my date,” Terri said with a sigh.
“Whereas, Lucas is desperate enough to hire you to pretend to be his fiancée.”
“That isn’t because he can’t get a date. I’m sure women are constantly throwing themselves at his feet. He just wants a particular type of woman to introduce to his mother.”
“How will you feel if you see him around town with someone else?” Camille asked. “I mean, there are other women around our age who are single. I’m sure he’ll be able to find at least one who would be happy to get paid to pretend to be his fiancée.”
Terri made a face. “I suppose I was assuming that he’d leave Ramsey if I said no. I don’t know why I thought that and it doesn’t really matter. If he actually does announce his engagement to someone, it will be all over the local and the national papers.”
“And you’ll feel that you missed out on an opportunity,” Camille guessed.
“I’ll know that I missed out on a lot of money, anyway. It all comes back to the money. Am I a terrible person if I’m willing to lie to a dying woman for a few dollars?”
“It’s a lot more than a few dollars and you’d be lying to her to make her happy in her dying days. He’s going to lie to her anyway, with or without your help.”
“I just don’t know what to do.”
“I’d do it if I were you,” Camille said. “It might even be fun. I’m sure he gets invited to all sorts of wonderful parties and events. Who knows, maybe you’ll even meet someone special at one of them, someone you could get involved with after things end with Lucas.”
Terri slowly erased her lists from the board and then packed up the homework sheets that needed grading. “Thank you for your help,” she told Camille. “I still have no idea what I’m going to do, but talking about it helped.”
Camille gave her a hug and then the pair walked through the building together.
“Call me if you need to talk more,” Camille said when they reached her office. “Use my cell. The kids are both training tonight.”
“Molly is okay, then?”
“She’s fine. She’s always been prone to nosebleeds. The other kid was more upset than she was, convinced that he’d broken her nose and that he was going to be in trouble.”
“Poor kid.”
Terri walked out to her car and headed for home. She needed to go grocery shopping, but there was still quite a lot of leftover pizza and garlic bread in the refrigerator. She could reheat that and leave the shopping for Thursday. Thomas was already working his way through the