The Boss's Fake Fiancée. Susan Meier

perfect. Elegant in its simplicity. “That would have been nice.”

      “Yeah, if I hadn’t caught her with my brother.”

      She laughed, then stopped herself. How was it that he could make her laugh over something that had probably broken his heart—even though he seemed to be over it?

      “Well, it was a great proposal idea.”

      “I thought so too. But apparently my brother did some grand gesture on the yacht.”

      “Oh, I get what Riccardo’s doing. He’s making sure our proposal keeps up with Alonzo and Julia’s. But maybe he’s making things suspicious by thinking you need to compete with Alonzo.”

      “I’m not like my brother.”

      “Plus, simple is better sometimes.”

      He met her gaze. “Exactly. He should have said something more me. Like I gave you the ring, then stripped you naked and we spent the weekend in bed.”

      This time her breath froze. If Riccardo had come up with that scenario for their engagement story, she wouldn’t be able to breathe anytime anyone told it. Better to stick with the fake one.

      “So maybe the hot air balloon idea is a good one.”

      “It’s not me.”

      “We’ll try not to tell it too often. We’ll use the ‘this is Julia and Alonzo’s celebration’ excuse.”

      He nodded. “Good idea.”

      He focused his attention on the sheet of facts Riccardo had written up, but stopped reading out loud. Her gaze swept the five o’clock shadow growing on his chin and cheeks, then rose to his nearly black eyes and up to his shiny black hair. Her fingers itched to run through the thick locks, and it suddenly struck her that maybe sometime in the next two weeks she could.

      Just as her heart stumbled in her chest, his gaze rose and he smiled at her. “Riccardo also says this flight would be a good time for us to exchange stories.”

      “Exchange stories?”

      “He thinks I should tell you about things like the time I jumped off the roof of one of the winery’s outbuildings, thinking I could fly.”

      She didn’t know whether to laugh or gape at him. “Why would you think you could fly?”

      “I was eight and I had a cape.”

      A laugh burst from her. “That’s hysterical.”

      “Didn’t you ever do anything stupid?”

      Her earliest memories were of her mom sleeping on the couch. She’d sit on the floor in front of the sofa and watch her mother’s chest rise and fall, being scared silly because technically she was alone. Four years old and all alone. She was six or seven before she realized her mom kept sleeping because she drank too much alcohol. And it wasn’t until she was ten that she understood what a hangover was.

      The only stupid thing she’d done was mention that to a social worker.