Best Laid Plans

“To mind her own business,” she said since he’d invited her to do so. She felt a stirring in her stomach as she watched him when he placed the bottle back down and wiped any lingering liquid from his mouth with the back of his hand. Why did seeing him do something like that affect her?

She pushed back those sensations, refusing to let them overwhelm the feminine side of her. There was no place for them here now, and definitely not with the man standing across the room from her. No matter how handsome he looked, and he did look handsome. “I honestly don’t get it. I’m sure you’re capable of choosing your own wife.”

“Just like I’m sure you can choose a husband.”

His words reminded her of Damien. She had honestly thought he was the one, but he had revealed his true self eventually. Considering her parents’ marriage, she figured it was best she had learned that before saying “I do.”

“I don’t plan to marry. Ever,” she said, knowing a cutting edge was in her voice.

From the lifting of his brow she knew he’d picked up on it. “Any reason why?”

Strands of curly hair danced in her face and she brushed them back before saying, “My reason doesn’t concern you.”

* * *

SHE WAS RIGHT, Nolan thought. Her reason didn’t concern him. “Sorry—it’s none of my business.” The sooner she left, then the sooner he could begin enjoying his week here. Alone. Without any interruptions. He definitely needed a break from women. All women. Even those in his family who were supporting his great-grandmother in her shenanigans.

But he was forced to admit for the most part, under any other circumstances, he could see himself becoming friends with Ivy. But they weren’t. Instead, they were victims of manipulation of the worst kind. He would place the blame where it rightly belonged, and that was at her grandmother’s and his great-grandmother’s feet.

Giving in to his curiosity, he asked, “Does your grandmother know you’re antimarriage?”

“Yes, she knows.”

Nolan frowned. “Then why would she waste her time trying to get us together, knowing you feel the way you do?”

She released a frustrated breath. “I guess she’s hoping I’ll change my mind. I honestly believe your great-grandmother has convinced her that we are supposed to get married and have lots of babies. She’s said so many times.”

That sounded just like Mama Laverne. “That won’t be happening,” Nolan said with strong conviction in his voice.

He wasn’t antimarriage like she evidently was by any means. He knew for a fact that true love did exist for some people. All he had to do was look around during any Madaris family gathering to see that for himself. Most marriages in the Madaris family were strong, solid and based on love, and lasted a lifetime.

His parents’ and grandparents’ marriages were good examples, as well as those of his other family members. The only exception had been Jake’s first marriage. But from what he’d heard, the marriage had been doomed from the beginning since the woman tried making Jake into something he wasn’t.

Nolan’s major problem was his great-grandmother trying to shove the woman she’d chosen for him down his throat. When and if he ever married, it would be to a woman he selected and not one who’d been selected for him.

“I can’t wait until Nana gets back to town.”

He discovered that looking at her chest instead of her legs was just as bad. He liked the way her blouse fitted. “Where is she?”

“She went to Lake Charles for the weekend to attend a gospel revival.”

“Umm, so did my great-grandmother. If they’re together, then you know what that means. They’ll work on the next plan when they get wind that this one didn’t work.”

“They’ve got to be stopped,” she said, all but stomping her foot. He thought she looked cute when she did that.

“Any ideas on how to do that since talking sensibly with them doesn’t seem to work?” he asked her.

“None that I can think of.” She checked her watch. “I need to pack up now and leave before it gets dark. I’ll be seeing you.”

He nodded. “Drive safe.”

When she left the kitchen, he drew in a deep breath, refusing to feel bad that she was leaving. He could do the decent thing and leave since she was here first, but he did own the place and there was no reason to give up his week for her. But he could invite her to stay the night and leave in the morning. It was an hour’s drive back to Houston and it would be dark before she got there. And he did have two bedrooms.

“I got it!”

He quickly turned around. She had returned to the kitchen and stood there with a huge smile that stretched across those lips he’d been mesmerized by earlier. “You got what?”

“An idea on how to best Nana and Ms. Laverne. And I think it just might work.”

She had him curious. “What is it?”

“It means there has to be a lot of pretending on our part.”

He lifted a brow. “Pretending about what?”

“In order for the plan to work we need to pretend to be lovers.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I THINK YOU need to explain just what you mean, Ivy.”

Good Lord, Ivy was certain he thought she’d lost her mind. Maybe she had, but the one certain thing was that something had to be done to stop Nana and Ms. Laverne. While repacking, the idea had come to her as clear as glass. Her grandmother and his great-grandmother wouldn’t let up until they thought they’d accomplished their goal. In that case, let them believe that.

“Ivy?”

“Yes?” She couldn’t help noticing how his voice sounded even deeper and huskier and how nice her name sounded off his lips.

“I think you need to explain what you meant.”

Yes, she did need to explain. Otherwise, he would think she was stone crazy. First of all, she knew that she didn’t have the look or style of a woman he would take on as a lover. But she would worry about that later. It would be a work in progress. “Okay. But you need to promise you’ll keep an open mind.”

He didn’t reply and the look he gave her at that moment all but said he wouldn’t be promising anything but she couldn’t let that look deter her. “I suggest that we sit down and share a glass of wine while I tell you. I really could use something to relax me right now.”

She really could. Normally she didn’t get this excited unless it had to do with a project she’d been working on and had discovered a technological breakthrough.

“Okay. I’ll get the glasses,” he said, moving toward the kitchen cabinet.

Nerves suddenly tightened her stomach. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t too bad of an idea. At least she’d come up with something. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She hoped that he believed that. “And I’ll grab the wine.”

She left the kitchen to grab a bottle from the welcome basket. By the time she returned, he had placed two wineglasses on the table. In his hand was the wine opener. “Let me,” he said, reaching for the bottle.

She gave it to him and then sat down at the table. She watched as he filled both their glasses. “Not too much,” she said when she thought he’d poured enough. “I still need to drive.”

He put the wine bottle down before easing into the chair across from her. “So...?”

She took a sip of her wine. He was staring at her expectantly, waiting to hear what she had to say. What if he thought her idea was the stupidest, most insane thing he’d ever heard? “We already know that once Nana and Ms. Laverne get wind their plot failed again, they’ll put their heads together to come up with another plan, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I suggest we be one step ahead of them. Let them assume their plan worked. That when we got here, although we were upset about it, we discovered we’d give it a try anyway. Trust their judgment so to speak.”

He kept staring at her and she wondered what he was thinking. “Go on,” he finally said.

“Our job is to do everything in our power to convince them their plan worked for this week and we decided to begin dating. That means that we will need to do what regular people who are dating do while getting to know each other. Going to dinner. A movie. Walks in the park. Those sorts of things.”

He didn’t say anything and the room got quiet. He just sat there and stared into his drink. She wondered if already he saw her plan as a failure because it was quite obvious she wasn’t the type of woman he dated and no one would believe that he would. He liked flashy women and she didn’t have a flashy bone in her body.

Men found her too techie to be desirable. Even Damien had admitted that. Most men saw her brain and passion for her work as turnoffs rather than turn-ons. Boring instead of interesting.

“And how exactly is that besting them? Sounds like we’ll be giving in to them,” he said, lifting his gaze to stare over at her.

“We won’t be giving in to them. We’ll just let them assume that we are and that’s the beauty of the idea. Let them think what they want, but we will know the truth. Then when they think we should be planning for a wedding, we will tell them we tried to develop a relationship but discovered we weren’t compatible.”

She paused to give her words time to sink in before saying, “What we’re dealing with are two women determined to marry us off. As long as we fight them on that, they will continue to come up with these crazy ideas to get us together. And from what I can see they will stop at nothing. However, if they think we gave in to what they see as their best-laid plans, and then ultimately reached the conclusion that there’s no way we can spend the rest of our lives together, then I think they will accept our decision.”

When he didn’t say anything, Ivy asked, “So, what do you think?”

* * *

IN TRUTH, NOLAN didn’t know what to think. He knew any further talks with Mama Laverne were out of the question. He’d tried it and she had completely ignored what he’d said. He’d thought about calling a family meeting when he discovered her matchmaking schemes that involved Victoria. However, after talking with his sister, who welcomed their great-grandmother’s interference into her life, he knew calling such a meeting was pointless. He had to figure out a way to handle her himself. Fight his own battles. He was on his own. He looked at Ivy. Or was he?

He knew Ivy was waiting for him to say something, so he told her the truth. “I’m thinking.”

And he was thinking, considering her plan. At least it was a plan, something he had refused to implement himself. Instead he had dated a lot of women to give Ivy the impression that he wasn’t husband material. That ploy had worked at least, but from what Ivy had shared with him, she didn’t intend to get married. Ever. So unbeknownst to him, the strategy hadn’t been needed.

“Tell me again what we have to do,” he said. Already he could see problems arising. Mama Laverne could see through mud, so there was a good chance she would see through this ploy.

“We’ll hang out together on occasion. Pretend we’re dating. And to make things believable you’ll have to stop dating other women for a while.”

She’d spoken as if she assumed him doing so would be a hardship. Little did she know how wrong she was about that. “For how long?” he wanted to know.

“It will depend on us and when we think we’ve had enough time to convince them. This is the end of March, so I think breaking up before the summer would work. By then they should be convinced that we really gave a relationship between us a try and things didn’t work out the way they’d expected.”

Nolan wished it could be that easy. “I know my great-grandmother. She would expect us to hang in longer than that. Otherwise, she’ll think it’s something she could fix.”

He could tell from the frown on Ivy’s face that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. He had to be up-front with her. She wasn’t dealing with just anyone, but with a ninety-something-year-old woman who was determined to see each of her great-grands married before she took her last breath.

“Trust me, it’s going to be hard to convince Mama Laverne that she made a mistake about us.”

Ivy threw up her hands in frustration. “So what are we supposed to do? Give in and let them control our lives? I refuse to do that, Nolan.”

She stood and he watched her pace. He tried to keep his gaze from roaming over her and found it difficult to do so. It was also difficult to think about how she was wearing the hell out of those cutoffs. Way too sexy for his peace of mind. It was obvious that she was agitated and he understood the feeling. Under any other circumstances her plan would be doable. But they were dealing with Felicia Laverne Madaris who couldn’t easily be outsmarted. He and his cousins had learned that the hard way over the years.

She stopped pacing and turned to him. “Are you saying there’s nothing we can do but continue to allow ourselves to be manipulated?”

“Pretty much.”

“And you’re going to settle for that?” she snapped. “Why don’t you just be honest and admit that you don’t like my plan and the reason you don’t like it.”

Nolan frowned. Had he missed something? Why was her anger now directed at him? And what was she talking about, all but accusing him of having an ulterior motive for not wanting to go along with her plan?

“Would you like to explain what you’re accusing me of?” he said tightly.

She came back to the table and placed her hands palms down and leaned closer to him as if she demanded his attention. She didn’t have to demand it because she had it. He noticed the way the mass of curly hair on her head was sliding over her shoulders. Her glasses seemed off center on her nose and he was tempted to reach out and straighten them. But she was already fired up and there was no need to add kerosene to the fire.

“I read the papers. I see photographs of the kind of women you date. The women constantly on your arm,” she said. “I’m well aware of the type of women that claim your attention. And it’s quite obvious I’m not like them. I don’t even come close. I know that. But can’t you put those types of women aside for less than eight weeks and pretend you could settle on someone like me?”

Settle on someone like her? Nolan was stunned into silence. As far as he was concerned, any woman she had read about or seen him with was all flash and no substance. Although he didn’t know everything there was to know about Ivy, he believed she was right in saying that she was not like them. Personally, he saw that as a good thing.

“The type of women I date have nothing to do with why I have doubts about your plan working. I know my great-grandmother. The only way we can pull it off is if we’re totally convincing. And the only way to do that is for us to pretend we’ve fallen hard for each other.”

He paused for a moment and then added, “But then on the other hand she could use that same premise against us. If she thinks we fell hard for each other in the beginning that would make her more determined to save our relationship when we decide to go our separate ways.”

Ivy came to sit back down at the table. “Unless you did something I would consider unforgivable.”

He raised a brow. “Like what?”

“Like if I was to find you in a compromising position with a woman.”

Her suggestion made him angry. “You want people to believe I betrayed you?”

“Why not? It wouldn’t bother me if you did.”

He leaned toward her over the table. “But it would bother me. It will bother my family. It will bother anyone who knows me. What you’re suggesting will be a direct hit on my character.”

“You, a man who doesn’t believe in getting serious with any one woman. Who is known around town as Mr. One-Night Stand? A bona fide womanizer? Are you saying you don’t play women?”

“That’s exactly what I am saying. I don’t play women. I date them. And when I do, I make it clear where I stand. I don’t do serious relationships nor am I looking for one. I make that understood up front. If there’s a communication problem, it’s not on my end, so there shouldn’t be a woman out there who has the right to feel cheated on by whatever I do.”

He stood and leaned over the table, wanting to make sure he had Ivy’s absolute attention. “Your plan calls for me to engage in what will appear to be a very serious relationship with you, and then you want to end things when you catch me cheating. That won’t work because if and when I ever decide to get involved in a serious relationship with a woman I would never betray her.”

“It will only be pretense, Nolan. You and I will know the truth.”

He glared at her. Did she not understand the lasting effect of what doing something like that, pretense or otherwise, could do to his character? Did she think most men wouldn’t have a problem doing something like that? He wondered what type of men she associated with.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said in a tight voice. “Come up with another unforgivable act. Infidelity is off the table.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared back at him. “Fine. I’ll come up with something else.”

“You do that.”

As they continued to glare at each other, he wondered if she understood what he’d told her about his great-grandmother’s expectations. Just saying they were involved wouldn’t be good enough to appease Felicia Laverne Madaris. She was a “show me” person and was used to displays of open affection, something that was in abundance in the Madaris family. There was no faking that. Could she handle it?

He sat down and leaned back in his chair, still holding her gaze. “So, if I agree to go along with your plan, assuming you come up with an acceptable reason for breaking up, how far are you willing to go to be convincing?”

She lifted a brow. “What do you mean? We won’t be sleeping together if that’s what you’re getting at,” she said in a firm tone.

A smile touched his lips. “I didn’t think we would be. But we need to give the impression we are.”

She frowned. “Why? Your family doesn’t know me. For all they know I might be someone who plans to save myself for marriage.”

“They might not know you, but they do know me, and my family wouldn’t believe I’d be serious about a woman and not sharing her bed.”

“Which means?”

“Which means to make things look real, whenever we’re out in public there needs to be hand-holding, touching, whispering sweet nothings in your ear and kissing.” Heat invaded his midsection at the mention of them kissing. At that moment her tongue swiped across her bottom lip.

“Kissing?” she asked in a low voice, like it had taken everything within her to say the word.

He looked into the eyes staring back at him and took note of their color. They had darkened. But then he was certain his had as well. “Yes, kissing.”

She lifted her chin. “I don’t kiss in public.”

“I do. So I guess that’s something you’ll need to take into consideration, Ivy Chapman. In fact, just short of making love, kissing is one of my favorite things.”

Nolan thought the scowl on her face was priceless. “Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear but now is the time to be honest. And since I’m in such an honest state, I might as well come clean and say that regardless of what you might think, Ivy, I think you are sexy as hell.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

IVY NEEDED TO take a drink of her wine. Not a sip, a full gulp, but she took just a sip instead. This idea of pretending to be lovers was hers, but it seemed she hadn’t thought through all the ramifications. Maybe he was just messing with her.

“I take it you don’t believe me,” Nolan said.

Of course she didn’t believe him. Sexy? Her? Please. It wasn’t that she thought poorly of herself but she knew most men didn’t see her that way. They couldn’t get beyond the fact that in most cases, she found computers more fascinating than men. If he thought she would fall for the kinds of lines he fed the women he normally dated, well, she had news for him. She wasn’t that hungry. “You don’t believe yourself, Nolan, so can we get serious and decide what we plan to do?”

He took a sip of his drink, and continued to stare at her. “I’m being honest with you, Ivy. I can only give your plan real consideration if I think it will work. Like I told you, I have my doubts.”

“Just because you don’t think we can make it look real enough.”

“Yes.” A smile touched his lips. “But only on your part.”

“My part?”

“Yes. There’s no doubt in my mind I will be able to make it look real. But the question of the hour is will you go along with me whenever I do so?”

Ivy frowned. “There will have to be limitations on any public displays of affection,” she said, negotiating. She didn’t like how he was complicating things.

* * *

“LOOK, IVY, I believe your plan has merit but it has to be our best-laid plan.”

“Our? Does that mean you’re going to do it?”

“Only if I think we can get a sure win out of it. Otherwise, we’ll be wasting our time. Are you willing to do whatever needs to be done to convince everyone we are truly serious about each other? And before you answer, I know about your limitations. To rest your mind, we won’t be sleeping together. We’ll just give the impression that we are. The only persons who will know that we aren’t are you and me.”

Why did he make it sound like they would have a little secret? And why did the thought of sharing a secret with him suddenly make her feel giddy inside? Snap out of it, her brain admonished. Remember, this is not the man for you, no matter what Nana thinks. Didn’t Damien prove that she was better off without a man? They deliver fake love before the very real heartbreak. But she would admit it was hard to remember the bad Damien while sitting across from a man who looked so darn good. Billboard model, tall, dark and handsome personified.

Nolan waved a hand in front of her face and she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Now that I have your attention,” he said, looking at her with an intense expression on his face, “will you answer my question?”

Ivy hoped the reason she had his rapt attention wasn’t because she’d been caught drooling. She swallowed deeply before asking, “What was your question?”

“When do we start?”

Suddenly she felt like she was on the edge of her seat. Was that excitement? Or was it anxiety? There was no room for either. They were on a mission to free themselves of the interference of two people who thought they had some God-given right to run their lives under the pretense of knowing what they needed and what was best for them.

“I guess now is as good a time as any,” she heard herself say. “Nana and Mama Laverne know because of their manipulations that we’re here together.” She couldn’t believe what she was about to suggest. “It might look suspicious if I go back to the city right away.” He took another sip of his wine. She watched him, thinking how perfectly his mouth fitted the rim of the glass. She’d been drawn to his mouth a lot tonight; especially when the subject of kissing had come up.

“I agree. Hand me your phone.”

“Why?”

“Because it would look rather odd if we didn’t have each other’s phone numbers. Don’t you think?”

Yes, he was right. She stood and pulled her phone out of her pocket to hand to him. “Here.” Moments later his phone rang.

“Now I have your mobile number and you have mine. And to make our affair believable, especially since there’s no doubt in my mind there are allies out there who will report to Miss Chapman and Mama Laverne of our activities, I think it would be best if you stayed here.”

“Just for the night, though,” she clarified.

“No, for the week.”

The bunched nerves inside Ivy’s stomach kicked. “For a week?”

“Yes, a week. You had originally planned to do that anyway, before you discovered we’d been set up, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.” She nervously licked her bottom lip. “But...”

“But what?”

“Where will you be?” she felt the need to ask.

“I’ll be right here with you.”

* * *

NOLAN THOUGHT THAT if the situation wasn’t so serious, he would find the look on her face downright amusing. In just the short time he’d been with her, he had noticed several things. Like how her brows would bunch tight when she was annoyed by something, how she would push curls away from her face when she wasn’t sure about something, how she would lick her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue when she became nervous. Then there were the times she would push her eyeglasses back on her face whenever they slipped down that cute little nose of hers. The gesture usually preceded a strong rebuttal. He didn’t mind. Women who thought it would be in their best interests to agree with anything he said irritated him. It was as if they couldn’t speak or think for themselves. Obviously Ivy had no such hang-ups.