What in the hell was he going to do?
First things first—he had to deal with this crisis. He knocked on the door and called out softly, “Megan?”
The door cracked and Libby’s face filled the opening. She grimaced at the sight of him.
“That bad?” he whispered.
“Worse.” She swung the door open wider and stepped out of the way. “She’s in the bathroom, but she’s decent.”
“Okay.” He started toward it, but Libby grabbed his arm.
“She likes you, Josh. Fight for her.”
Libby’s trust in him added to his guilt, but he needed her as an ally. Which meant pretending his only motive was to make a relationship work with Megan. “Thanks, Libby.”
“I’m going downstairs to talk to your brother.”
“He’s busy flirting with Megan’s grandmother.”
She laughed as she slipped into the hallway. “Then maybe we can share him.”
“Libby.” He followed her into the hall, closing the door behind him. “Regarding my brother . . .” He didn’t want to ring any alarm bells, but he genuinely liked Libby and didn’t want to see her get hurt. Noah always left behind a string of broken hearts; it was his MO. “Let’s just say he’s here for the wedding, and then he’ll be gone.”
She stopped and turned around to face him, her face softening. “You’re something else, Josh, you know that?”
He froze, unsure of what she meant.
Her face lit up with amusement. “You’re really sweet to be worried about me, but I’m a big girl, and I’ve fooled around with my share of guys like your brother. If I decide I’m interested, I know what I’m getting into.” Then her eyes turned serious. “But Megan’s different than Blair and me. She wears her heart on her sleeve, and a lot of people take advantage of it.” She stepped closer, an unfamiliar look filling her eyes. “I’d rather not go there, but let’s just say if Blair’s right and you’re really here to hurt her, you’ll find out that Blair isn’t the only one with claws.”
He resisted the urge to swallow, which he was sure would make him look guilty. Instead, he spread his hands wide and gave her a gentle smile, lifting his eyebrows to assert his sincerity. “Libby, I will do everything in my power to help her.”
Not a lie, but not the complete truth either.
She studied him for a second. Then that strange glint in her eyes disappeared and her soft smile returned. “Yeah, I think you will.”
He reached for the doorknob and let himself back into the bedroom. After closing the door behind him, he studied the bathroom door, struggling with what to say.
The bathroom door opened and Megan stood in the opening, wearing a white sleeveless dress dotted with tiny pink and blue flowers, her dark hair tumbling over her shoulders. Even if he’d had a perfectly planned-out speech, it wouldn’t have helped him. He was struck dumb by the sight of her natural beauty. She wasn’t made up with lots of makeup and fancy clothes, although he had no doubt that she’d be beautiful that way, too. She was the kind of woman who was beautiful no matter what she was wearing. And in that moment, he knew he was struck with a strange certainty: he might actually want to marry this woman someday.
Where the hell had that come from?
But more importantly, what the hell did he do with that, with the knowledge that he had less than forty-eight hours with her? Because fake fiancé aside, once she knew the details of his little business problem, they would be done. And for him to give up his quest was impossible. What he was doing went beyond him personally. His employees were counting on him.
He would have to make the most of the time he had with her. If they survived this part, anyway.
Irritation was written across her face, and he braced himself. He needed to stop drooling over her and put out this fire.
She pointed to the door, anger darkening her eyes. “I don’t know who is down there in my mother’s kitchen, but you have some explaining to do.”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Just give me a chance.”
She crossed her arms and glared at him. “Is he even your brother?”
“Yes, that’s Noah, my brother who Blair talked to last night.”
“What is he doing here?”
Josh sighed and motioned to the bed. “Can we sit down while I explain it?”
She glanced at the bed, seemingly unsure, wrapping her arms tighter around her torso.
He sat tentatively on the edge. “I didn’t ask him to come.”
“Then why is he here?”
“He knew I was coming to Kansas City . . .” Dammit. He got to his feet and began pacing. Why had he been stupid enough to believe that Noah, who’d gotten him into this situation in the first place, could help? “He’s worried about me.”
She pointed her finger at him. “That’s a bullshit answer!”
“Megan, I’m sorry! I didn’t ask him to come.” When she didn’t interrupt him, he continued. “He knew I was coming to Kansas City, and when we spoke last night, he asked me where I was staying.”
“And you told him?”
He ran a hand through his hair. Shit. This whole trip had been one ill-thought-out decision after another, which was the exact opposite of the precedent that Josh liked to set for himself. No wonder he was floundering. “He didn’t want me to come to Kansas City this weekend. Like I said, he was worried about me.”
“Let’s go back to the part where you told him you were here!”
Josh sat back down and leaned his elbows on his knees. He looked up at her, pleading. “I told him that I was helping you. He wanted to know how exactly I was helping you—”
“I bet he did,” she said sarcastically.
“—so I told him you were in a desperate situation.”
“You told him that you were posing as my fiancé?”
He nodded, unable to look her in the eye. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”
“Didn’t he want to know why you were helping me?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
He took a deep breath, then looked up at her. He needed to tell her the truth. Or at least the part of it that directly impacted her. “Look, I wasn’t lying when I said I never meant for this to happen. Your mother heard me say I was your fiancé. I wasn’t myself . . . you saw me on the plane when I boarded. So when your mother assumed I was Jay, she swept me along in her cloud of . . . Knickers-ness . . . Well, the next thing I knew, I was still carrying you and we had wandered to baggage claim. How could I correct her at that point? I was in dire straits with my business, and like I told you, I’d decided to hand it all to fate, so I figured if I did a good deed, the cosmos would do one for me in return. Stupid, I know.”
She turned to the side, and he could feel that he was losing her. “Megan, this isn’t coming out right.” He groaned in frustration, then stood and moved in front of her. “When I decided to go through with this, I admit I did it for selfish reasons, but then I got to know you.” He slowly lifted his hands and placed them gently on her upper arms. “As stupid as this sounds, I like you. Like really like you. I’ve never fallen for someone this quickly, and while it kind of freaks me out, I’m not ready to end this yet. At least not like this.”