August: Calendar Girl Book 8 by Audrey Carlan Read Free Book Online Page A

working for some French guy who painted. And after that, you popped up connected to the Fasanos, the folks who own all the Italian restaurants. Wish they had one close to here. I’ve eaten at one of their locations, and damn, it was good.”
    Again, he had me chuckling and thinking about my time with Tony and Hector and the entire Fasano clan. “They’re an amazing family. I care very deeply about them. Is that all?”
    He shook his head. “You were noted again in the papers as the girlfriend of that Boston Red Sox player. Not sure why in the world you’d get with a guy who played for that craptastic team. Should have been someone on the Texas Rangers. Now that’s a team!”
    “Seriously? You know my entire life history, and you’re worried about the team my client worked for?” I could feel my temperature rising and the wall of frustration right along with it. People shouldn’t know this much about my life, my private life. Especially a client.
    “So that wasn’t your boyfriend?” His head jerked back. “But I saw you kissing him in the papers. That Weston fella, too.”
    I groaned and let out an exasperated breath. “They are all clients. Except Weston. He’s my boyfriend, but he wasn’t then. We just got together recently.” I straightened my shoulders. “Doesn’t matter. What is it that you need from me?”
    He licked his lips and rubbed at his jaw. “Simple. I need you to be my sister so that the investors don’t get to take a stake in the company.”
    “But how would that work? Eventually they’re going to figure it out.”
    “No, I don’t think they will. It’s too close. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Mia Saunders I saw on TV and in that super market magazine not only shared the same name but the birthday my father noted as well. For now, your driver’s license will suffice, and then, by the time we need to get into birth records and DNA testing for the courts, I’ll uh, hopefully have found the real Mia Saunders. My Mia. I’ve wanted nothing more my whole life than to be part of a huge family. Dad never had more children. That’s why I married Cyndi young, and we set about having a baby. I want a brood of children running my family’s company one day. And right now, I need to protect that. It’s why you’re here.”
    Hearing him say, “my Mia” made my heart ache again. I got it. What he wanted—a real family with a mother, father, sister, brother, all of that. I had Maddy, and now I had an extended family in my friends, but it had always just been me and Maddy and Pops, when he was sober enough to even attempt to be a father figure. A real family environment was something I also craved. That deep blood connection with people, what Maddy and I had, meant everything to me.
    “I’ll do whatever you need. Just let me know.”
    “That easy? You’ll agree to help me, share your information, and pretend to be her?”
    The decision really wasn’t that hard. I’d been a girlfriend, muse, fiancée, model, arm candy, and seductress. Why not the sister of a good guy who just wanted to protect his family’s business? I held out my hand. “Agree to name your next daughter after me, and I’ll do it,” I said with the straightest face I could muster.
    “Really? That’s all you want? A namesake?” His eyes turned soft, and once more, I was hit with that buzzing, the sense that I knew him, had seen that exact look before.
    I dropped my hand. “You really would name your kid after me, huh?”
    He shrugged. “You save my family business, I figure it’s the least I can do. Besides, you’re my sister.” He said it with such conviction I almost believed it.
    “I can tell that you’re pretty straightforward. I was kidding though. You owe me nothing. Just give your family a good life.”
    “You don’t want more money? Blackmail me? You know you could. For a lot. This company has billions in revenue every year. I could set you up for life.”
    With a conviction I felt