Free Rock Solid by Samantha Hunter Page A

unannounced.”
    That stopped the reporter in her tracks, and she felt Brody stiffen beside her, as well.
    “You’re engaged? And when did this happen?” the reporter asked sharply, her whiplike gaze snapping to Brody.
    “Um, well...it’s still unofficial,” he stuttered, trying to catch up. “It’s brand-new.”
    Hannah held her breath. He obviously hadn’t expected her to go that far, but there was no going back now.
    “How romantic! So you only just proposed! I guess that’s why you look so...flustered.”
    Hannah smiled. “It was a spontaneous kind of thing. We’re still getting used to the idea ourselves.”
    “Well, this is my lucky day, then,” Marsha said, as though she was licking the cream from the bowl. “I get the scoop.”
    Brody took a deep breath, swallowing hard as his eyes met Hannah’s.
    “I guess you do.”
    * * *
    “W HAT WERE YOU THINKING ?” Brody said, shoving his hand through his hair as he paced the kitchen.
    After talking to them for a while longer, forgetting her other stories and getting the scoop on the wedding—they wanted something small, simple and as soon as possible, it turned out—Marsha left, only agreeing to hold the story for one day. Why not share his good news? she argued. He’d begged off, saying he needed time to tell his family and friends first. Amazingly, Marsha, so happy with the story, had agreed to give them until the end of the weekend.
    Brody was not as happy.
    How was he going to explain this to his parents? They’d been hoping, secretly, that he’d find someone and settle down. But this was only more lies.
    “I’m sorry, I couldn’t stand how she kept twisting everything and being so snotty. It made me mad,” Hannah explained. “When she asked, I thought... It seemed like the best way to discourage her, I guess.”
    “Well, we certainly made her day, but what are we going to do now?”
    “Well, this works, right? Your sponsors wanted you to appear like you were putting down some roots, and now women will stop bothering you. It’s not real, Brody. I know that. There’s no need to look so panicked.”
    “It was fine to say we were together, Hannah, but now we’re supposed to be getting married, and as soon as possible? When we don’t go through with that, Hannah, I’ll be a liar, or they’ll say I dumped you, cheated on you or never meant it in the first place—and I’d like to know where she heard that bit about the sponsor. No one should know about that.”
    Hannah’s smile faded. “She might have been guessing. Seeing if she could hit a nerve. But we can stall. Weddings take time.”
    “Not small, simple ones.”
    Hannah put a hand to her brow. “True. I don’t know where that came from. She brought out the worst in me. It seemed as though the more details we had, the more believable it would be, and that one slipped out.”
    “Well, she sure believed it. Now we’re stuck.”
    “We’re not, not really. People change wedding plans all the time. We can say we wanted to do it in fall instead, and then—”
    “And then I’m back at square one. You don’t have anything on the line here, Hannah, but it’s my whole freakin’ life.” He regretted the words as he said them, but still, they were also true.
    Hannah sat at the kitchen table, her head dropped into her hands.
    “You’re right. I’m so sorry. I really backed us into a corner. But we did tell her it was impulsive. Maybe it’s not too late to contact Marsha and tell her we spoke too soon, and that we’re not sure what we’re doing yet, for a wedding?”
    “She’d sense something is off—it would make things worse.”
    He’d had a glimpse back in the glade of who Hannah wanted to be—the Hannah who existed under the gray suits and dark-rimmed glasses. He’d seen glimpses of her before, but he’d also always liked her exactly for who she was.
    Brody walked to the sink, leaning on it as he stared out the window, trying to focus. Panic was what killed you,