Celebrity Bachelor

His sister didn’t buy it for a minute. Instead, she did the dance and the song for the third time.

“Okay, that’s getting really annoying,” Joshua informed her when she was finished.

“It’s true, though.”

Younger sisters could be such pains in the neck.

“I don’t even know her,” he insisted.

“You know she’s cute.”

“She’s just okay,” Joshua understated, playing it cool when that one word—cute—was enough to bring Cassie Walker’s image vividly to mind again. And that vivid image made a ripple of something that almost seemed like delight run through him.

“She’s nice, too,” Alyssa pointed out.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

Suddenly Alyssa’s expression sobered considerably. “But Cassie’s kinda like Jennie. Only worse. At least Jennie was…I don’t know, not from Northbridge. But Northbridge is like really, really removed from the kind of stuff that happens around you.”

“Which is why we chose the school here.”

“And the people are all so…you know, regular. Normal—”

“I do know,” Joshua said, feeling a twinge of regret that he and his sister even had to have this conversation, that normal and regular had become novelties to them.

“You wouldn’t risk another Jennie mess, would you?” Alyssa asked as if it worried her that he might be considering it.

But he wasn’t. He wasn’t considering it at all. Which was why he absolutely would not act on this interest or attraction or whatever it was that Cassie Walker had set off in him.

“No. Of course I wouldn’t risk another Jennie mess.” Especially not when just the mention of that name was enough to make him feel guilty and angry and hurt and just plain rotten. “I told you when it happened that that was it for me. That I’d never do that to anyone else ever again.”

“You swore,” Alyssa reminded him, letting him know she was holding him to it.

Joshua understood. The entire ordeal had scarred Alyssa.

“Because I liked Jennie,” his sister added. “And I like Cassie even if I don’t really know her. I wouldn’t want—”

“Relax. It’s not going to happen. I just wondered what you knew about her so I could go in armed. Like if there’s someone special in her life, I’d encourage her to bring him along, make friends with him.”

That was a lie. Well, the excuse he was giving for wanting to know if there was someone special in Cassie Walker’s life was a lie. The rest—the determination not to let anything happen with Cassie Walker—was the truth. Joshua was nothing if not determined to make sure of that.

“It’ll be okay,” he assured his sister.

But Alyssa didn’t look convinced.

“It will,” he said more forcefully. “Believe me, after Jennie, I know better. I don’t want to go through that again and I sure as hell wouldn’t let you go through something like that again, either.”

Alyssa nodded, but she no longer looked as carefree and confident as she had earlier. Now she looked very, very young to him again.

“Hey,” he cajoled. “Have I ever let you down?”

That made her smile, if only slightly. “No,” she answered as if the question were ridiculous.

“And I’m not here to start now. So relax.”

She seemed to. Although not completely.

“I want you to be happy,” she said then. “It isn’t that I don’t. I want you to be with someone nice—like Cassie. Someone who would like you for you and be good to you. I just don’t—”

“I know,” Joshua cut her off once more. “And I’ll find someone nice and things will work out. But that isn’t what this trip or Northbridge are about. They’re about you and your going to college without any hassles. That’s all I’m paying attention to right now.”

Another lie since the image of Cassie Walker popped into his head yet again.

But still, he meant what he said. This trip and Northbridge were about his sister, about his sister’s finishing out her education like any other person her age. It wasn’t about his hooking up with anyone. Let alone with someone who had too many similarities to the second-to-the-biggest catastrophe that had hit his and Alyssa’s lives.

So pretty or not, spunky or not, even dimples or no dimples, Cassie Walker was—and would remain—nothing but the woman Northbridge College had appointed as his guide through Parents’ Week.

But if things were different, he thought as he and his sister finally decided to return to the small town, if things were different, things might be a whole lot different…

Chapter Four

“On behalf of myself as chancellor of Northbridge College and our entire staff, we want to welcome students, family and friends.”

It was the opening line of the chancellor’s speech to kick off Parents’ Week at the meet-and-greet Monday evening. But as Cassie sat on the auditorium stage with the rest of the advisers and administrative personnel, she wasn’t paying too much attention. She’d heard the chancellor make the same speech several times, and she had other things on her mind. Like taking a mental inventory to make sure that tonight—unlike the previous night—when she connected with Joshua Cantrell, she looked her best.

She had on her favorite navy blue pantsuit with the asymmetrical front-button closure on the short, round-necked, collarless jacket, and the matching slacks that she’d been told more than once made her rear end look fabulous. Three-inch heels with peekaboo toes completed the outfit that always made her feel confident. Which was exactly what she wanted.

She’d had her hair trimmed this morning—not too much, just enough to shape it so it fell to an inch below her chin and swept under at the ends in a way that was neat and professional but had a bit of bounce, too. Plus the style was softened by the bangs that swept over her left eyebrow to add some intrigue.

She’d also been careful to apply a neutral-toned eye-shadow to highlight but not overwhelm her eyes, and two layers of mascara that promised to lengthen and curl her lashes.

The blush she’d brushed across her cheekbones made her look as if she’d spent a day at the beach, and a sort of pink, sort of tawny lipstick had finished her up a mere fifteen minutes before the beginning of the meet-and-greet when she’d left home and come across to the campus.

Maybe not model material, Cassie decided, but she knew she looked better than she had Sunday evening. And that made her feel better about herself—which was her goal tonight, even though she was sure it was obvious that she was dressed to impress. To impress Joshua Cantrell.

Not for any personal reason, of course, she insisted to herself. She simply wanted to put her best foot forward for the sake of the school and the town.

Because if she was going to be forced to represent them both with Mr. Megabucks—whether she liked it or not—she was going to do it at the top of her game. It didn’t have anything to do with the fact that she’d gone home last night and dug through her boxes until she’d found a magazine she’d recalled packing, searching for pictures of him. When she’d discovered one—of him pre-woolly-mammoth stage at some benefit with a drop-dead gorgeous underwear model on his arm—she’d torn out his half of the photograph and spent much too much time looking at it.

Paying special attention to her hair, makeup and clothes tonight didn’t have anything to do with the fact that she’d gone to bed thinking about him being right here in town. A block and a half away in the chancellor’s cottage.

It didn’t have anything to do with imagining how she was going to spend the coming week squiring him around. Getting to know him. Getting to see if he was everything he was touted to be when it came to charm and charisma and intelligence and sexiness. Getting to be the woman on his arm, so to speak…

No, none of that was the cause for making sure she felt good and comfortable and confident about her appearance today.

Where was he, anyway?

She scanned the auditorium, locating Alyssa Cantrell sitting about six rows back. But Alyssa wasn’t with her brother. She had a girlfriend and the girlfriend’s parents to one side of her, and a male friend and his father to the other.

Had Joshua Cantrell left Northbridge before the week had even begun? Cassie wondered.

He could have. He could have been called away on business. Or someone could have recognized him and he might have decided to leave before the media got wind of his being here. Or he—or someone he knew or was related to—could have become ill.

Or he could have hated Cassie on the spot and fled before he had to spend another minute with her.

Cassie shied from that notion because it was too demoralizing to consider. Besides, they hadn’t exchanged more than a few words last night, and the time they had spent together hadn’t seemed to go that badly.

But even if she didn’t allow herself to take any kind of blame, the idea that Joshua Cantrell might have left Northbridge made her feel as if she’d been let down.

Had he left town? she kept wondering as she continued to search for a sign of him in the audience while the chancellor gave the school’s mission statement and outlined its goals. Had Joshua Cantrell found a mere matter of hours in Northbridge and minutes with her to be too tedious, too pedestrian, too provincial to tolerate?

He wouldn’t be the first man….

But just when that letdown feeling was really taking over, Cassie spotted him.

He was sitting in the very last row, in the very last seat to the left of the stage. Alone.

And that one sight of him lifted her dejection and replaced it with relief and something Cassie didn’t want to believe was excitement.

He was sitting off, away from everyone, so she had an unobstructed view of him. For the most part, at any rate—because he was seated, his lower half was hidden. But he had one foot on the armrest of the seat in front of him, causing an upraised knee to be within view where it braced his arm propped on top of it. She could also see that, unlike her, he hadn’t gone to any lengths to dress up for this evening. The leg that poked into the air was encased in denim and it occurred to her that it was possible he was wearing the same butt-hugging pair of jeans that he’d had on when he’d arrived in town yesterday.

He had changed what he was wearing on top, though. He had on a tan sport coat over a rust-colored shirt with the top collar button casually unfastened.

Cassie also noted that he was still clean shaven and that his black-as-night hair, while in slight disarray on top, was in an artful disarray that she thought he might have put some small effort into.

Basically, he just looked good. Relaxed. Rested. Sure of himself. And the very essence of cool.

Everything she felt less of now that she’d laid eyes on him again.

But she wasn’t going to let him do this to her, she lectured herself with what she’d decided through an entire night and day of thinking about him. She wasn’t going to be a basket case around him just because he was some kind of great-looking, sexy celebrity. She was going to remember that she was a well-educated, respected person in her own right, and that he was nothing more than a tennis shoe manufacturer, regardless of how successful a tennis shoe manufacturer he might be.

Still, the reminder didn’t keep her heart from beating faster when he seemed to meet her eyes from the distance. It didn’t keep her from looking away in a hurry. And it didn’t keep her from thinking that this was going to be one very difficult week to get through…

The chancellor wrapped up his speech then. The dean took the podium to read from the handout that everyone had been given as they’d entered the auditorium, outlining the week’s events. Once he’d finished that, he invited the audience to have cookies and coffee or tea in the auditorium’s lobby.

If Cassie had had any thoughts whatsoever about delaying her second encounter with Joshua Cantrell, it was nixed when the dean’s return from the podium brought him directly to her.

“Do you see him?” the dean asked in a confidential voice.

Cassie knew exactly who him was, and didn’t bother playing dumb. “Yes, I see him.”

“Don’t leave him cooling his heels. He’s important to us,” the dean told her needlessly.

“I know, I know,” Cassie said, standing with everyone else and following her coworkers off the auditorium stage.

A few people were waiting to talk to someone on the stage as they descended, but most of the parents, friends and family were filing out to the lobby. Joshua Cantrell, on the other hand, had left his seat to stand behind it, but didn’t seem intent on going anywhere else, not even to be with his sister. And his eyes were honed in on Cassie as she made her way from the stage to the rear of the room.

“Hi,” she greeted as she joined him, sounding somewhat reserved to her own ears and regretting it.

Joshua Cantrell responded by giving her the once-over from head to toe and then smiling with only a single side of his mouth. “I see we didn’t pull you away from moving today,” he said with appreciation in his voice.

“Monday is a workday,” she countered, wanting him to believe she dressed like that every day rather than realize that she would ordinarily have done herself up with such meticulous care only for something much bigger than a Parents’ Week meet-and-greet. But she regretted that her reaction to what had been a subtle compliment made it seem as if she were reminding him that being with him was only her job.

Which, of course, was the truth. She just didn’t want to offend him by almost blatantly saying that if that wasn’t the case, she wouldn’t have gone within ten miles of him. So she added, “And you know, tonight is the kickoff to Parents’ Week, so we want to make a good impression.”

“Done!” he decreed, apparently not having taken offense.

Cassie didn’t know what to say to that and opted for moving on. She glanced in the direction his sister had been sitting and said, “Alyssa was over there. Were you late getting here and missed connecting before the chancellor’s speech started?”

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.”

She didn’t want him to know she could be unnerved by anything so small—which was ordinarily not true. She didn’t understand why she had been unnerved by something so small when it had come from him. So without much delay, she said, “No, it’s okay. It’s probably a good idea, even,” she admitted, keeping her fingers crossed that when his pretend attentions didn’t come unexpectedly she would be impervious to them.

“And actually,” she continued, “the story might help appease my family, too. We’re very close and I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain to them why I needed to concentrate on you this week when they know I planned to duck out of as many Parents’ Week activities as I could to unpack and set up the house.”

“Great!” Joshua said without further ado, making her think he was accustomed to being granted his wishes and whims, no matter what they were. “Then I feel better about going out into the fray.”

“So now you are ready to test the disguise?” she asked to be certain.

“To test the disguise and the cover story, if we can work it in somewhere,” he reminded.

He took a step backward and motioned with one arm for her to take the lead, clearly intending to stay as much in the background as possible right from the get-go.

Even though she had no idea what he’d been referring to when he’d mentioned something rocking both Alyssa and himself, Cassie assumed it had left him serious about blending in. She accepted the role of decoy and left the auditorium with him following close behind.

The lobby was considerably less spacious and with everyone there now, it made for cramped quarters. Still, Alyssa must have been watching for her brother because not long after Cassie and Joshua got there, his sister found them and urged them through the crowd to meet the students and parents she’d been sitting with.

Cassie noted that Joshua was introduced as Joshua Johansen and she watched for signs of recognition in the faces of the other people. But there wasn’t a single indication that any of them doubted Joshua was who he’d been presented as.

That proved to be the case through the entire meet-and-greet and Cassie hoped for his and Alyssa’s sake that that had set the course for the remainder of the week, as well.

After about an hour and a half people began to drift out, ending the opening of Parents’ Week. Alyssa announced that she needed to read three chapters of biology for her next day’s class and when Joshua encouraged her to go back to the dorm to do that, she bid her brother good-night.