Body Double by Alane Hudson Read Free Book Online Page A

Blake said. “See you there.” Sarah was about to punch the end call button when he said, “Love you.”
    Sarah stiffened, her finger hovering a fraction of an inch from the phone’s surface. “Um, bye.” Her face turned crimson, and she disconnected. “That was awkward.”
    “You’re sure about this?” Charlotte asked.
    Sarah nodded. “It’s not too late to say no.”
    Andrea took a deep breath. “I’ll do it. For those girls.”
     
 

     
 
    Sarah squealed and reached for Andrea with both hands. Andrea stood, and the two women embraced. “Thank you so very, very much. You can’t know what this means to me. You’re my savior as much as you are those girls’ in Colombia.”
    Andrea loved helping others—it was what made her happy—but most of the time, gratitude wasn’t given so effusively. “I’m glad I can help. I’m pretty nervous though.”
    “Let me get the paperwork.” Charlotte left the room.
    “I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to this crazy plan. Listen, hon, if Blake refuses to go along with this, then go ahead and postpone the wedding. I’ll deal with my father’s wrath when I get back.”
    “I hope I can convince him,” Andrea said. “I really could use the bail-out.”
    Sarah laughed. “He’s a reasonable fellow. I’m sure you’ll make him see the wisdom of the plan. You’ll be meeting a lot of strangers who know me, so try to keep to general topics in conversation—how excited you are, how happy, and so on. You can claim nervousness if you think you’ve said the wrong thing.”
    Andrea thought about her own parents and how they would feel if the situation was reversed. “What about your father? Don’t you hate having to deceive him?”
    “The bastard deserves it,” Charlotte said, returning.
    Andrea goggled at the VP. For her to say that in front of her boss was bold and disrespectful.
    “I didn’t want to tell you this before,” Sarah said, “because I thought it would unfairly influence your decision, but my father is the reason you lost your job at Delmar.”
    “What?” That didn’t make sense. What did he have to do with it? Andrea gasped, remembering that Delmar was closed because of a corporate sale. “He bought our parent company?”
    “Yep. He’s the one who ordered Delmar be shut down. That sorry bastard is so stingy, he wouldn’t pay a dime to see a pissant pull a freight train. If I died or somehow became incapacitated, he would shut down The Lighthouse without a second thought. He calls organizations like ours ‘financial sink holes.’”
    “Why didn’t you tell me?” Andrea asked, scowling. Her hands curled into fists, and her upper lip stiffened. She was about to take a job that would bring her face to face with the man who’d put her in the unemployment line and a bunch of runaway teenagers into who-knew-where, and she would have to be civil to that jerk.
    “Like I said,” Sarah replied, “I didn’t want to use your personal situation against you. That would’ve been unfair. It’s bad enough I had to tell you about the trip to Colombia. I’d have preferred to offer you the job straight-up and let you take it or leave it on its own merits.”
    “I don’t think of myself as a vengeful person, but I’ll tell you, I don’t feel as bad about it now as I did a minute ago.” The three women laughed.
    “That’s the spirit,” Sarah said. “Listen, it’s really important that he believes you’re me. If he thinks my marriage to Blake isn’t real, he’ll pull the plug on the business deal, not to mention funding for The Lighthouse.”
    “I understand, but won’t he know me for an imposter the second I speak to him? I don’t have your Southern accent or your colorful way of putting things.”
    “You won’t really have to talk to him,” Charlotte said. “Sarah calls him Father when she must, but mostly she ignores him.”
    “To his face?” Andrea asked, shocked.
    With a wry smile, Sarah shrugged one shoulder.
    “I