Victoria Pade - Celebrity Bachelor

Cantrell shook his head and Cassie tried not to notice how knock-’em-dead terrific his facial features were. “I wanted to get the lay of the land first, see if anyone seems to know who I am, before people start to associate her with me,” he said in a voice that was soft enough for Cassie alone to hear.

“And if someone does realize who you are?” Cassie asked equally quietly, recalling one of the thoughts she’d had when she’d wondered if he’d disappeared suddenly.

“I’ll take off and hope I get out before too many people have put us together.”

“Ah,” Cassie said. Then, because he seemed in no hurry to go out to the lobby to mingle, she ventured the question that had been on her mind since the dean had made his comment about there having been distractions arranged to keep reporters and photographers from knowing where Alyssa was. “Is the haircut and shave part of throwing people off track, too?”

As if just a low tone might not be enough if they were going to say more about this, Joshua glanced around to make sure no one was near enough to hear them. No one was. They were in the far rear corner of the auditorium where no one else had even been seated. And the place was quickly emptying anyway.

But only when he was sure they wouldn’t be overheard did he answer her question. “It’s something I’ve done in the past—although not to the extent I’ve done it this time. We’ve been planning this since last January when we decided Northbridge might be a place where Alyssa could have the chance to be a normal college kid. I let my hair and beard grow—”

“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.”