A Convenient Proposal(21)
He turned his head to give her a big grin. “Not so hard to say, was it? What happened when you were nine?”
“We moved around quite a bit.” Because she was performing in Europe and Asia.
“Where did you graduate from high school?”
“I was homeschooled.”
“Ah. And college?”
Now she’d reached her limit. “New York.”
“Does that meant New York State University? New York University? Or a college which shall remain nameless in the city of New York?”
“Does it matter?”
“Are you trying to drive me crazy?” With a twist of his wrist, bluegrass music blared into the space between them, painfully loud.
But Arden endured it without comment, refusing to give him the satisfaction of admitting it bothered her. Griff drove for an hour without changing the volume or glancing in her direction. Though she regretted the hostility between them, she couldn’t bring herself to admit more.
Because admitting that she’d attended Julliard would lead him to ask about her musical career. If she told him the truth, he’d pry into the reasons she wasn’t playing now. She’d have to reveal her approaching deafness, and from there move on to her gullibility and foolishness. As hard as she’d worked to bury those memories, telling Griff about them would bring everything back to the surface.
Why put herself through that?
Finally, he turned down the radio volume. “I’m sorry I yelled,” he said. “Maybe I’m not as even tempered as I claimed to be.”
“I can understand your frustration.” She turned slightly toward him. “Just believe me—nothing in my past matters today, and none of it affects you in the least. As far as we’re concerned, history started on New Year’s Eve.”
“I’ll try.” He swallowed hard. “So what details shall we concoct for the benefit of the nosy people in Sheridan? Let’s make up a really good story, so they’ll be suitably impressed.”
Arden hadn’t even begun to think of a story when Griff snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. How about we say you’re a lost relative of the last Russian czar?”
WITHIN AN HOUR OF THEIR arrival, Arden decided that her current predicament made press conferences look like quiet time at the public library.
The Campbell family proved to be huge, comprised of not just Griff’s parents and three sisters, but their husbands and children, too, all of whose names she was supposed to remember. Plus his cousins—at least five of them, with their own spouses and kids.
“I’ll make you a cheat sheet,” Griff whispered shortly after they arrived. “You can study in bed tonight.”
Was it his breath on her ear that sent a shiver up her spine? Or just the prospect of having to know this many people by tomorrow morning?
Seated at the long table in the Campbells’ dining room, Arden managed to taste, chew and swallow exactly one bite of a delicious potato casserole before the questions started.
Griff’s oldest sister, Dana, sat on her right. “So, where did the two of you meet?” She resembled her brother, with the same curly blond hair, pinned into a loose knot at the back of her head, and those beautiful blue eyes. Both of them were the image of their father, whose piercing gaze had already flustered Arden more than she wanted to admit.
“We met in Miami.” Arden took a sip of iced tea, trying to recall the story they’d decided to tell. “On the beach, actually.”
Dana’s eyes narrowed. “Most people don’t talk to strangers on the beach.”
“My dog had slipped his leash.” They’d introduced Igor to the crowd, then put him in the laundry room with a blanket and his dinner. “Griff caught him and was walking along the shore looking for his owner.”
“Sounds like him.”
Arden gave a silent sigh of relief.
“But Igor still isn’t too friendly with Griff, is he? I mean, he doesn’t try to play with him or anything.”
“I’m afraid not.” Time for improvisation. “But you’ll notice that Igor isn’t friendly with men in general. The shelter where I found him said his previous owner was, to put it mildly, abusive, and had left Igor with a real grievance against males.” She offered what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “We’re working on it, though. I think Igor will come around in time.”
The youngest Campbell sister, Kathy, spoke from across the table. Arden turned to watch her lips, but the competing conversations in the room muddled the beginning of her comment.