Free Man Trouble by Melanie Craft Page A

fallen madly in love with her, but he hadn't ignored her, either. It was possible that she was not a complete loser at the flirting game. Of course, the Sandra suit had had everything to do with it, but still…
    “Why didn't you wait for me to come with the doctor?” Carter repeated. “Jake would have waited with you. He wouldn't abandon a woman in distress. It was a perfect plan.”
    “No, it wasn't,” Molly said. “Maybe your own personal fantasy is to have a pneumatic blonde landing on you like a leopard out of a tree, but I'm sure that Jake is used to being chased, and he's probably very tired of fending off women. Did you see the look he gave me when you started fussing about my ankle? He was suspicious. It was the wrong strategy. We need to slow down.”
    “Slow down!” Carter exclaimed. “We can't slow down. This is my only chance, and we have less than a week.”
    “I know,” Molly said. “But if you make this look too obvious, it's not going to work. You don't want to ruin your only chance, do you?”
    Carter stared at her. “How can you be so sure?”
    “Instinct,” Molly said.
    “You told me that your feminine wiles dried up and blew away while you were in grad school.”
    Molly smiled. “It seems,” she said, “that I have a few left.”
    Molly took the rest of the afternoon off of being Sandra, and ended up in the Gold Bay gift shop, looking for something to read. She was also—though she would never have admitted it to anyone—curious to know if the shop carried the recently released paperback version of
Pirate Gold.
    It did. She sidled over to the book rack, feeling as self-conscious as a teenager buying pornography. She lifted one of the hefty paperbacks, running her finger over the raised gold lettering of the title, and stared down at it. It was very thick, she thought, oddly pleased. The size and weight of the book made it seem like a tiny brick. And the cover art was really much better than the other books on the rack…
    “Excuse me, Professor Shaw?” said a female voice behind her. Molly jumped and dropped the paperback. It thudded to the floor, landing on its spine with the pages fanning out.
    “Oh! I'm so sorry,” said the owner of the voice, a young woman in a Gold Bay uniform. “I didn't mean to scare you. I'm Jennifer Martin, the assistant activities director. I've been hoping for a chance to say hello. I wanted to tell you that I totally enjoyed your book!”
    Molly's mouth dropped open in horror. She stared at the young woman, unable to speak. It was happening, just as she'd feared. There was no way to keep this kind of secret from the resort staff. They were everywhere! The butler had figured it out, or else one of the housekeepers had found the Sandra wig hidden in her closet. If Jennifer Martin knew the truth, then surely everyone knew. It was only a matter of time until the media heard about it, and her whole life was ruined.
    Molly tried to take a breath, but her throat had closed up. It was just like the recurring nightmare that she'd had right after the publication of
Pirate Gold
—the one where she walked into her freshman lecture class and found every seat occupied by the trustees of Belden College, all wearing British judicial wigs, and pointing accusingly at her. In the dream, her father had been in the crowd, and he had refused to acknowledge her.
    “Here, let me get that,” Jennifer Martin said, bending to pick up the copy of
Pirate Gold.
She handed it back to Molly. “Well, it's good to see that even professors do a little light reading on vacation.”
    “What?” Molly croaked.
    Jennifer pointed to the paperback. “I thought it was good, but I don't know if you'll like it.” She widened her eyes. “Did you know that Sandra St. Claire is here this week? I've been looking for her, but I haven't seen her yet.”
    Molly was having a very hard time processing the conversation. “I'm sorry,” she said weakly. “I thought you said that you read…my