Worth the Risk_ A Contemporary - Megan Hart Page 0,49

into a corner," Ruth said ruefully, sitting back in her chair. "Laila, if I'd known, I never would've kept asking you."

"I would have," Bubbe said snappily. "Makes no sense, a pretty girl like you, hiding herself away like that."

Laila smiled at her grandmother. "You wanted so much for me to find someone new, to settle down. I thought if I told you I'd found somebody, we could break up and then I'd buy myself some more time."

"She's too smart," Bubbe said grudgingly to Irene.

Laila's mom sighed. "So you hired David? Hal? Whatever his name is?"

Laila nodded. "I told him to be a real jerk, so you'd all be happy when we broke up."

"I can't say I approve of all this," her mother said. "Lies are never the right choice."

"They always come back to haunt you in the end," Laila finished one of her mother's favorite sayings. "I know, Ma. And I'm sorry."

"So he's not a doctor?" Bubbe asked.

Her grandmother sounded so disappointed, Laila nearly laughed. "No, Bubbe. Hal's in school to become a massage therapist. And even though he is a little clumsy, he's not the jerk you all think he is."

"I don't understand," Bubbe said. "So if you two aren't engaged, how'd you end up pregnant?"

Laila hung her head, at a loss to explain. "I'm not pregnant."

"But David, I mean Hal, told Eli you were knocked up!" Sarah said.

Laila frowned. All at once she remembered the night at dinner with Hal's socially inept responses. "I don't think he meant it that way. Anyhow, I'm not pregnant."

"Oy, that's a relief," Bubbe said. "So, when's he coming back?"

"He's not coming back, Bubbe," Laila said. "He's gone."

"I thought the break up was just fake," Bubbe insisted.

"It was. But it was real." Laila shrugged. "It's hard to explain."

Bubbe chuckled. "Doll, you're telling me."

There was no way Laila was going to admit to her mother and grandmother that she'd gone to bed with Hal. "Hal's a good guy. He didn't deserve to get tangled up in all of this. It's better that he left."

"But you're going to see him again, right?" Bubbe persisted.

"No, Bubbe," Laila said as patiently as she could. "I told you, Hal and I weren't really dating. I hired him from an escort agency."

"Escort, shmescort," Bubbe said. "Maybe that's how it started, bubbeleh, but you can't tell me that's how it ended up."

Laila's cheeks burned. "Of course it is. Hal did what I hired him to do, and now he's on his way back to Pennsylvania. I'll send the check to the agency next week and that's the end of it."

"That's not the end," Bubbe said firmly with a wag of her finger. "You're too crazy about that man, Laila Alster."

"Hal's a nice guy," Laila said stiffly, not wanting the conversation to go any further. "But there's nothing between us--"

"And he's bonkers about you, doll," Bubbe cut in. "It was all over his face. I never saw a man more enthralled with a gal than him over you."

"You're wrong," Laila said, feeling the tears threaten her again.

"No?" Bubbe asked. "How can you be so sure?"

Because of the way I treated him, Laila thought. Because she'd used him and hurt him, and even if there had been some feelings between them, they'd certainly been destroyed now. Hal had done his job, and that was all.

"I'm sure," Laila whispered.

"You wait and see," Bubbe said with a pat to Laila's hand. "You give him a second chance."

Laila wished she could believe her grandmother. Then she remembered the look on Hal's face just before he'd walked away. There would be no second chances. And why should there be? After the way she'd treated him, she didn't deserve any.

Hal didn't feel like fighting the sweet, old lady with the knitting bag for the window seat. Despite her kindly smile, she looked as though she could be nasty with her needles. Hal slid into the aisle seat with a resigned sigh, though the window seat had been his first choice.

"Rule number one," the old lady advised him as he sat. "Never go to the bathroom on a bus."

Hal looked at her. "What's rule number two?"

She shook her needles at him. "Don't eat at the taco stand when we make the rest stop. Otherwise you'll have to break rule number one. Frequently."

She chuckled loudly at her own joke, slapping her leg with the hand not holding the lethal looking needles. "Oh, I crack myself up."

Hal didn't feel like smiling. He just nodded and stretched his legs as much