Free Pretend for Me by Sam Crescent Page B

the men through?
    They were so going to have a laugh over this in the
next few months.
    Carrying the meat out, he placed it in the cool box away
from the sunlight.
    He saw Danny go back inside. Through the window he
watched as the older brother picked up the check.
    Whistling he walked down the steps to the edge of the
garden. He saw a waterfall and took time to admire it. Several pairs of hands
were in cement molds. Leaning down he saw Sara’s name on one of them.
    “The kids wanted this feature. Sara was the youngest,”
Martin said, standing beside him.
    “Her hands are so tiny.”
    “She was six when they did them. Wow, over twenty
years ago. I can still remember her running about this lawn. Her red hair
trailed behind her. She refused to get it cut.”
    Andy listened to Martin talk as he looked at the
handprints. Thinking about a tiny red haired Sara with her fiery spirit put a
smile on his face. He knew her children would be the same. His thoughts brought
him up short. Children?
    “You left this on the counter,” Martin said.
    The older man presented him with the check he’d seen
on the counter.
    “I didn’t leave it, sir.”
    “Why? Every other man has left her alone,” Martin
asked.
    “You’ve got the wrong idea about me. I’m not here for
Sara’s money. I’m here for her. You can keep offering me money, but I won’t
take it. I’m not like most men.”
    He brushed past the man and made his way back to his
room. Sara really hadn’t been kidding about her family. If this is what every
date had to look forward to then he wasn’t surprised by her single status. For
a Friday afternoon he’d been bribed and challenged not to mention the kiss he’d
shared with Sara.
    Running his fingers through his hair he tried to put
the feel of her out of his mind. He couldn’t do it. That kiss had opened
something inside him that he couldn’t simply shut off just because he wanted
to.
    His feelings for her were growing.
    The sound of his cell phone ringing filled the
silence. He saw Travis’s name on the caller ID.
    “Hi,” he said when he clicked the accept call button.
    “I thought I’d find out how dated bliss was.”
    Lying back on the bed he let out a sigh.
    “That bad?” Travis asked.
    “Let me put it another way. Sara is loaded with money,
and she’s the baby of the family.”
    “Ouch. You’re enemy number one then?”
    “In a big way. I’ve been bribed by her father, and her ex is here letting me know
he’ll win when it comes to her.”
    Silence descended over the line.
    “What’s the matter?” Andy asked.
    “Do you want to win her over?”
    “What do you mean?”
    He heard Travis mumbling over the line. “You’re there
at this woman’s house. She’s been living in the same apartment block for the
past five years. You clearly have feelings for her, Andy. Do the math.”
    “I’m not the marrying type.” He argued his point. Andy
didn’t want to get married. None of his friends wanted to get married. They all
had a mutual desire to play the field.
    “You may not have been the marrying type. Even I can
see this girl is different. You’ve never put off introducing us to one of your
women. You kept Sara to yourself. I saw the way you were with her at your
apartment. There is something there between you. You can’t deny it.”
    He couldn’t deny anything. Andy had kept her to
himself because he didn’t want them to get to her. In his own way he’d been
protecting her himself.
    What did it all mean?
    ****
    “Stop checking your phone, Sara. You’re making me
nervous,” Harmony said. Sara glanced down at her phone wondering what was
happening back home.
    She stood in the center of the room while a woman
knelt at her feet fixing the floral pink dress. Amazingly, the pink didn’t
clash with her hair, which shocked her.
    “You don’t think they’ve killed him and stuffed him in
the pond, do you?” she asked her family.
    “This is such a lovely color on you, Sara. I’m