Celebrity Bachelor

“So the mountain man thing I’ve been seeing in pictures of you was on purpose?”

He smiled with both sides of his mouth this time. “Kind of gross, wasn’t it? There were actually rumors that I was turning into Howard Hughes.”

Rumors that had apparently amused him.

“Anyway,” he went on, “Alyssa put off cutting her hair when she wanted to, too. Then we registered her at a high-security private finishing school in Switzerland and I paid the school to put her name on reports and rosters to confirm that she’s secluded there. I also have someone inside who’s leaking information about her to make it look good. Then, occasionally—this week for sure—I’ll pay a guy who resembles me and grew out his hair and beard, to go to the Swiss village near the school. I have a house rented there and we did a whole clandestine arrival the way I would if I were trying to sneak into town. The guy will mostly stay holed up there except to appear in public periodically to go to the school—dodging the photographers and press the whole time to keep them convinced he’s me—”

“And in the meantime, while everyone is looking for a guy with long hair and a beard, and his long-haired sister, you shaved and cut your hair, Alyssa cut hers, and you’re calling yourselves the Johansens,” Cassie finished for him.

His smile became a grin she couldn’t help mirroring as she added, “And you’re really getting a kick out of it all.”

He shrugged a broad shoulder. “You have to make the best of things.”

“Even if the best of things is complicated and expensive?”

“Yep. Whatever it takes. If you can’t make light of it as much as possible, it gets to you.”

That last part had a more serious overtone to it that Cassie didn’t understand. But she couldn’t very well question him about it, so she glanced around at the now-empty auditorium and said, “Well, shall we go out and test your disguise?”

“Sure. But first, I had a thought last night that might aid the cause, if you’re game. A cover story for you and me.”

“You and me?”

“Consider it sleight of hand—if we keep people’s focus on the two of us, they’ll tend to pay less attention to the connection between Alyssa and me. You know, if I can make you look at this hand—” He raised his right hand in the air and wiggled his fingers. “You’re missing what’s going on with this hand.” He used the index finger of his other hand to brush her hair away from her face.

Cassie understood what he was demonstrating, but if he thought for a minute that touching her—even lightly—was going to be the thing she paid the least attention to, he was so wrong. Especially when the bare hint of his fingertip against her face set off little sparks in response.

She pretended that wasn’t the case, however, and got back to the point of this. “What kind of cover story did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking we could invent something that put the two of us together—like maybe we were college sweethearts.”

“I went to college right here. And this is a small town. More than half the people on the street could probably tell you my shoe size. They definitely know about all my former sweethearts.”

“Okay. How about if we say we sort of hooked up on your last vacation?”

“Last year in Disneyland?” Cassie said as if that seemed unbelievable.

Joshua grinned at her again. “You went to Disneyland?”

“I’d never been, so, yes, a friend and I went to Disneyland because we wanted to see it,” she said with a defiant tilt to her chin.

He laughed. “Okay. We can say we met waiting to get on a ride, got to talking, spent some time together, you told me about the college and since seeing you again came in the bargain, I persuaded my sister to come here for her higher education.”

“You don’t have any idea what a small town would do with a story like that, do you?”

“Run with it, I’m hoping. And in the process, keep their eyes on us, gossip about me as Joe Regular Guy who just might be the new suitor of One Of Their Own, and leave Alyssa just an inconsequential afterthought. Like I said, sleight of hand.”

“Yes, but at my expense. And I have to go on living here. Answering the questions about you and why you didn’t stick around and when you’ll be back and if we’re serious and on and on and on.”

“If I apologize in advance, will you do it anyway? For Alyssa’s sake? I really want this to work out for her. Something happened a while back that rocked her—that rocked us both, to be honest—and I want her to have whatever sane time I can give her.”

Cassie’s students and her own family were important to her. A plea that hit both of those hot buttons in her wasn’t one she could turn down.

Still, she was smart enough not to agree blindly. “How, exactly, would this cover story come out?”

His smile this time was softer, grateful. “We don’t want anything that seems forced. But, for instance, when you introduce me to someone you know, if the opportunity arises, one of us can work the cover story into the conversation. It will also make it seem more understandable for us to be together as much as I’m sure we will be this week. Plus I might lean over and whisper to you now and then—”

He demonstrated that as he said it, too, and the feel of his warm breath against her skin caused more of those sparks his finger had set off moments before.

“Or I might touch you a little,” he continued. “Innocently. Like here…”

He put a hand on her shoulder.

“Or here…”

He moved that hand to her arm.

“Or here…”

It went to the small of her back…

And with each split second of contact Cassie found it more difficult to breathe.

“Nothing big,” he finished. “Just enough to make us look friendly, explain why we’re together a lot, and let Alyssa be just one of the kids around here.”

Air in, air out, Cassie told herself, consciously breathing and hoping he hadn’t noticed that she had been affected by the whisper and the mock caresses.

He might have, though, because then he put that breath-stealing hand in his jean pocket and added, “But if it bothers you, we can stick with the status quo. It’s your call.”

She didn’t want him to know she could be unnerved by anything so small—which was ordinarily not true. She didn’t understand why she had been unnerved by something so small when it had come from him. So without much delay, she said, “No, it’s okay. It’s probably a good idea, even,” she admitted, keeping her fingers crossed that when his pretend attentions didn’t come unexpectedly she would be impervious to them.

“And actually,” she continued, “the story might help appease my family, too. We’re very close and I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to them why I needed to concentrate on you this week when they know I planned to duck out of as many Parents’ Week activities as I could to unpack and set up the house.”

“Great!” Joshua said without further ado, making her think he was accustomed to being granted his wishes and whims, no matter what they were. “Then I feel better about going out into the fray.”

“So now you are ready to test the disguise?” she asked to be certain.

“To test the disguise and the cover story, if we can work it in somewhere,” he reminded.

He took a step backward and motioned with one arm for her to take the lead, clearly intending to stay as much in the background as possible right from the get-go.

Even though she had no idea what he’d been referring to when he’d mentioned something rocking both Alyssa and himself, Cassie assumed it had left him serious about blending in. She accepted the role of decoy and left the auditorium with him following close behind.

The lobby was considerably less spacious and with everyone there now, it made for cramped quarters. Still, Alyssa must have been watching for her brother because not long after Cassie and Joshua got there, his sister found them and urged them through the crowd to meet the students and parents she’d been sitting with.

Cassie noted that Joshua was introduced as Joshua Johansen and she watched for signs of recognition in the faces of the other people. But there wasn’t a single indication that any of them doubted Joshua was who he’d been presented as.

That proved to be the case through the entire meet-and-greet and Cassie hoped for his and Alyssa’s sake that that had set the course for the remainder of the week, as well.