Her Fill-In Fiancé by Stacy Connelly Read Free Book Online Page B

call her to say he’s staying with them? With you? That your boyfriend is staying with you? Sophia—”
    Struggling to push aside the blankets with one hand, she said, “I can explain, Theresa.” And she could…only the explanation that still sounded crazy in her own head would likely sound even more so to her cousin. “He arrived before I did, and of course, my parents welcomed him with open arms. They had no reason not to, thanks to me,” she tacked on quickly before Theresa could. “Jake played along becausehe didn’t want to say anything before I had a chance to talk to them.”
    â€œSo how did they take it?” her cousin asked, her voice filled with sympathy.
    Sophia bit her lip before admitting, “We’re, um, kind of postponing that part of the truth until after the party.”
    Anticipating her cousin’s reaction, Sophia held the phone well away from her ear. Even so, she heard Theresa’s response loud and clear. “What do you mean postponing? And who is we? ”
    â€œYou don’t understand, Theresa. For the first time in years, my family is looking at me without a boatload of concern and worry in their eyes. Like they’re seeing me as Sophia instead of as their little Fifi. ”
    Theresa’s mispronunciation of Sophia when they were both toddlers had been the start of the nickname that had followed Sophia well into her teens. She’d convinced most of her family, Sam excluded, to call her by her given name, but she couldn’t help feeling she’d done little to change how they thought of her.
    â€œThe party’s next weekend,” she added, “and I’ll come clean then. What’s the harm in waiting?”
    Theresa’s silence rang with disapproval. “What’s the harm?” she asked finally. “I’d say Jake Cameron is.”
    Â 
    After reassuring Theresa that she would not be foolish enough to fall for Jake’s lies a second time—and making herself the same promise—Sophia slipped out of bed and pulled on the robe Theresa had given her last Christmas. Sophia could hardly miss the irony of the words scrolling across the comfortable flannel.
    You’ve gotta kiss a lot of frogs…
    She couldn’t say two was a lot, but it was two too many as far as she was concerned.
    Cracking open the bedroom door, she listened to the silence for several seconds before rushing into the bathroom across the hall. For a woman who’d only moments ago sworn Jake Cameron was totally harmless, why was her pulse pounding like she’d made a narrow escape?
    â€œI’m just not ready to face him yet this morning,” she murmured as she pulled her toothbrush from her small makeup bag on the vanity. Morning sickness threatened, and catching sight of her bleary eyes and sleep-rumpled hair, she groaned. “Definitely not ready.”
    Following a long, reviving shower, Sophia wrapped a towel turban-style around her wet hair, tightened the belt on her robe and prepared to dash back to her bedroom. It seemed silly now, but one of her big dreams in leaving home had been to finally have a bathroom of her own—no brothers or roommates to share with. Yet like so many of her goals, Sophia had failed to meet that one, too.
    Sophia took a deep breath and opened the door. Soon¸ she thought. Soon she’d be back in Chicago, looking for an entire apartment for her and her baby. She had a new job lined up, too, working with a friend who was about to start her own catering company. She would still be working in the service industry, waiting hand and foot on the rich and impossible, but it was a good job. Plus, along with handling the bookkeeping, Christine’s mother had agreed to babysit for Sophia. And while a catering service might have not be Sophia’s dream, it was Christine’s, and helping her friend achieve that dream would be good enough. She’d have her apartment,