Gamble on Engagement Read online

  I changed into my swimsuit and cover-up, and flip flopped my way out to the beach, which was private for hotel guests only. I found a lovely umbrella to lie under and waited quite contentedly until a man came to offer me a drink. I hadn’t even known the place was all-inclusive, but was more than happy to oblige him with a drink order. And let me tell you, he was certainly something to look at. I tried not to stare as he walked away, really I did, but it was like my eyes were made of metal and his butt was a magnet.

  He brought back my drink within minutes and I wiggled deeper into the lounge chair, getting more comfortable than should be allowed, and sipped. The drink was to die for, fruity and creamy and all around heavenly. I leaned my head back and let out a long, content sigh, unable to stop myself from smiling.

  Life was good.

  Until, that is, the international cell I’d picked up on my way out of the states began to buzz.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey girl, I certainly hope you’ve been so busy with the famous people of the UK that you haven’t had a minute to call, otherwise I will kick your ass from London all the way back home. You better not have forgotten about me already.”

  “Mattie!” God, it was so good to hear his voice. Any voice from back home, really, but of course, Mattie was one of my favorites. “Don’t you know it’s impossible to forget about you?”

  “Of course I know, but my God, it was like you’d fallen off the face of the Earth.”

  “I know, I’m sorry. I really have been busy though. You would not believe the place I’m staying.”

  “Tell. Me. Everything!”

  I groaned. “I can’t.”

  “Josie!”

  “I’m serious Mattie! I had to sign a confidentiality thing and everything. I could lose my job.”

  He scoffed. “Come on McMaster, you’ve got to give something up. Just give me a hint. What type of profession do they have? Is it a guy or a girl? Come on, give me something, I’m dying here!”

  “Seriously, Mattie, I can’t! If I could, I would, you know that.”

  “Josie…”

  I sighed. “Fine, I can tell you one thing. It’s not a movie star.”

  “Okay,” he said, willing to play. “So it’s a TV star then?”

  “No.”

  “A musician?”

  “No.”

  “A model?”

  “Mattie! Come on!”

  “Josie, seriously, am I going to have to come over there? ‘Cause you know I will.”

  “Mattie, stop it. That’s all I am going to say.”

  He sighed. Heavily. “Fine, but you know I’ll get something out of you sooner or later.”

  “Whatever Mattie,” I said. “You may think you know how to manipulate me, but you don’t.”

  “Whatever you say my dear.” I could practically see his smirk all the way across the ocean. “So what is the place you’re staying at like.”

  “Oh my God, the castle is so amazing! You would not believe it. It’s like a maze inside; I totally keep getting lost. And it has all these cute little rolling hills, and the biggest garden you have ever seen.”

  “Did you just say castle?” He gasped. “Oh my God, it’s a royal!” He let out a squeal and I could tell he was jumping up and down.

  Crap.

  “Mattie, you cannot say anything to anyone!” I warned, glancing left and right, making sure no one could hear my conversation. Not that they’d have a snowball’s chance in hell to figure out what I was talking about… unless they were the paparazzi or something.

  Oh God. If Mattie figured it out that quick, who knows how quick a paparazzo might figure it out. Except they didn’t know I was ghostwriting a biography. At least I didn’t think they could know, but then again, I didn’t think my Disaster Diary could get out either. All it took was one friend to turn their back on me and sell it to the press.

  I glanced around again, wondering how easily my calls could be recorded. Or how far a listening device might be able to catch my conversation from.

  I shook my head. God Josie, get a grip. You are not that important. Sure, you may be dating someone famous, but it’s not like you’re actually famous.

  “Don’t worry so much,” Mattie said. “I can tell those cute little wheels in your head are turning a mile a minute. I’m not going to pull a Calla, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He actually sounded a bit hurt.

  “Mattie, I would never think that,” I said, although I was thinking I had actually known him for a lot less time than I’d known Calla. Plus she had been the person who I’d thought of as my best friend, and look how badly that ended.

  But still, Mattie wasn’t going to betray me, he was better than that.

  Of course, if you’d asked the same thing about Calla a month ago, I would have said the same thing.

  God. What if I’m just really bad at picking friends?

  But I didn’t get much time to think about it because my call waiting was going off.

  “Shit. Sorry Mattie, I don’t know who it could be, but I’ve got another call coming in.”

  “Well, aren’t you just Miss Popular all over again,” he teased. “It’s probably just another member of the royal family, asking if you could write them up a quick biography.”

  “Mattie! Shhhh. What if someone can hear you?”

  “And how very paranoid we’ve become,” he teased even more.

  I sighed. “I gotta go.”

  “Don’t be a stranger, and be safe.”

  “Thanks Mattie, I’ll call you soon.”

  I quickly pressed the button to accept the other call. “Hello?”

  “Miss McMaster? This is Miss Steeves.”

  Oh right, Steeves, that’s what Miranda’s last name was. She didn’t sound any friendlier over the phone. “Oh, um, hello.”

  “I just wanted to confirm with you that you would be back at the castle in a timely manner. We are, after all, paying you to work.

  What the hell? I thought. “Well, um…” Suddenly I felt like I was a kid being punished for something they didn’t know they’d even done. “I just thought… you know, that with Prince Leo being away and everything…”

  “Miss McMaster,” Miranda interrupted. “Just because the Prince is away does not mean you get to take a vacation. We are on a deadline here! The publisher is expecting a book.”

  “Of course, but…”

  “There is plenty we can do without the Prince. You are to shadow me for the rest of the week.”

  Oh my God, it would take me a while just to get back to London. “Of course. No problem,” I lied. “It’s just that...” Come on brain, think! “Well, you see, I’ve been doing a little research on my own here and I’m coming up with some great material. I would hate to lose such a tremendous opportunity.”

  Good Lord Josie, what are you even talking about?

  “Well,” Miranda said. “I assume you’re researching his alma mater, but I really don’t think it will be of much help. Those really weren’t the Prince’s most… formative years. There are things, of course, that he will not want in the book.”

  “Yes, of course,” I agreed. “But I do feel like I’m getting to know him a bit better, and after all, isn’t that the most important thing?”

  My heart was beating so fast that I could barely even hear Miranda anymore. I could only hope I was talking normally. Goodness knew I had a tendency to babble when I got nervous.

  She sighed. “I suppose. But be back by early Friday. You really don’t have any more time than that to waste.” The phone clicked.

  And I swear, at that exact moment, I caught a glimpse of a very familiar outdated moustache and aviators ducking behind a bush down at the other end of the beach.

  So much for my vacation getaway.

  ~ 6 ~

  I couldn’t stop the words ‘what a waste of time and money’ from flowing through my head over and over. It really did put a downer on the whole relaxing vacation thing. Not that I was on vacation ap
parently. No, even when the Prince was away, the biographers could apparently, not play. I went back to my hotel room and started slogging through the net again, checking out the Prince’s former school, sports teams, and other organizations until I passed out from sheer boredom.

  ~~~

  I was startled awake by a shocking noise, blaring loudly from somewhere in the dark.

  After I bolted upright, screaming and brandishing my… well, what turned out to be a very non-lethal bath towel that I had scrunched up, pretending I was cuddling Jake. I did not fully understand where I was or why it was so dark. It took me several seconds to remember I’d put on one of those cute little sleeping masks with eyelashes embroidered on, compliments of the hotel, and that the blood-curdling noise was actually my cell phone, alerting me to a call.

  I flung the eye mask off, feeling around frantically for the phone, cursing myself for not leaving it nicely on the night table like I should have. Of course, I hadn’t planned on a middle of the night call, but still.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey,” came Jake’s sexy voice from the other end of the line. “I’m sorry it’s so late.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, still half in a daze. “I want to always talk to you, no matter how late it is.”

  “You were sleeping.”

  “Is it that obvious?” I asked. I set my bath towel slash ‘deadly weapon’ down on the bed, not sure who I was trying to kid.

  Jake just chuckled. “I’ve been missing you like crazy,” he said.

  And of course I couldn’t help but smile, cuddling back down into bed and feeling more content than I ever remembered being. “Me too. I can’t wait to see you.”

  There was a bit of a pause. After a few seconds, I sat back up, feeling that something was wrong.

  Jake cleared his throat. “That’s kind of why I’m calling. It’s looking like I’m not going to be able to fly out as soon as I hoped,” he said.

  I could literally feel my heart dropping out of my body.

  Okay, not literally, that would be gross.

  After my extremely unsatisfactory call with Miranda earlier, I certainly did not need any more bad news. “Are you serious?” I said, trying not to sound too whiny.

  I’m pretty sure it didn’t work.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said quickly. “It’s just that the shoot isn’t going well, and well… my costar is kind of new to the whole acting thing and needs way more of the director’s time than usual. It’s going to last at least a few weeks longer than we thought.”

  I groaned. I mean, I tried not to, but it just came retching out. “I have to be here all by my lonesome for an extra few weeks?” I wasn’t even trying to hide the whiny-ness anymore.

  “I know it sucks, believe me, I want nothing more than to come and see you.”

  I sighed. “I know.”

  “Seriously Josie, just think how great it will be when we do see each other again.”

  “I’m going to forget what you look like by then.”

  He laughed. “I doubt that.”

  “I guess I can always just watch one of your movies. Of course, you’re always kissing other girls in those movies.”

  I could practically hear him cringe from the other side of the ocean. “Please, do not do that. I want you to always remember that I’m with you. Not some silly actress.”

  “I’m sure not all actresses are silly,” I said, though secretly thrilled that he actually thought I was less silly than… well, I’d be happy if it was anyone really. In my mind, I’d always been about as ridiculously silly as a person can get.

  “Believe me, some of these shoots are no picnic.”

  “Ah yes, life as a movie star. Such sacrifice,” I said, smiling.

  He chuckled again. “Just go back to sleep. I promise, I’ll call you soon.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, Josie,” he said, and I just couldn’t help but love the way he said my name.

  ~~~

  I sighed as I packed my last, unused swimsuit into the crammed suitcase, feeling ridiculous for having packed so much in the first place. Especially for my epic stay of one whole night, since, in order to get back to London on time, I’d have to take the train that night and check back into that hotel where I’d told Lance to drop me off.

  God, I hoped Miranda wouldn’t ask a bunch of questions about my research, because believe me, there was not that much available on the Internet about Leo’s school years. I’d found a couple articles about sports achievements, but that hardly gave me an insight about what the real Leo was like.

  I heaved the suitcase off the bed and pulled it along as I said goodbye to one of the most beautiful rooms I had ever stayed in. Prince Leo did have good taste, that was for sure.

  Just as I was about to step out of the room, something out my patio door caught my eye. Well, actually, someone.

  Prince Leo.

  At least, it sure looked like Prince Leo from where I was standing. I quickly made my way across the room and flung open the patio doors, shading my eyes with my hand to cut the glare. I squinted as hard as I could.

  I was no world traveler, but I was pretty sure that Australia was a long way from Spain.

  But then the strangest thing happened. The guy that I was sure was the Prince, at least as far as I could tell from my hotel room, which, admittedly was quite a ways away, suddenly turned, as if something had caught his attention from the other direction. A kid came running up, jumping into his arms like he was his long lost favorite uncle or something. And then the woman strolled up behind the kid, and she was one of the most beautiful, exotic looking women I’d ever seen, you know, except for in magazines. And maybe even then.

  The guy kissed her on the cheek and they stood smiling at each other for a long time. I looked closer at the man who, two minutes ago I’d been so sure was Leo. But now I was questioning how I’d even thought that in the first place. Sure, the man was a similar height and build to Leo, but that was pretty much where the similarities ended. This man had hair darker than Leo’s and he was wearing large aviator sunglasses, so I couldn’t even see his face that well.

  It might have been the way he stood, the way he walked that made me think of Leo, but now I was just as sure that it was not him.

  Which was weird, right? I mean, why had I been so sure it was him when I was across the room? Sheesh, I certainly hoped I wasn’t going to start thinking I was seeing Leo all over Europe. I mean, I was certainly flattered that he thought I was good enough to flirt with or whatever it was he’d been doing since I met him, but seriously, I was head over heels for Jake.

  Of course, I could just be paranoid since, you know, I wasn’t even supposed to be in this country and all, and one of the only people who could possibly catch me here was Leo. Yes, that had to be it, just the residual guilt playing tricks on me.

  I shook the thought out of my head as I took one last look at the beautiful room and went outside to hail a cab.

  I tried to get more research done on the way back to London, but I was having the hardest time concentrating on anything. Jake dominated my thoughts of course, but for some reason, I also could not get the sight of that beautiful woman with the child on the beach, jumping into the arms of the guy who was not Prince Leo. It was quite annoying really, since it was messing with my concentration on trying to find someplace on the web that might miraculously give a detail or two on the Prince.

  But no. Nothing but charitable events, sports appearances, and a few party scenes in the tabloids, and even those were mostly older. I sighed. Maybe the people at the hotel in London would have a good scoop.

  I couldn’t help but wonder how on Earth people were supposed to write biographies anyway. I mean, I had lots of writing experience, but where the heck do these people get their information to start with? Especially when the subject is less than enthusiastic in answering personal questions.

  I had no choice, I needed help.

  And as I�
�d done so many times as a kid, I went to the library for rescue.

  Well, after I’d dropped off my luggage at the hotel, that is, then found out where the library even was, then, once I got there I had to call Miranda (ugh) to vouch for me so that I could actually check some books out under the castle’s address.

  I picked the two books that looked most suited to me: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Biographies, and Autobiographies for Dummies.

  If nothing else, at least I could get a feel for what format the book needed to be in. For some reason, when I’d first received the job offer, I had no doubt that I could crack out a ghostwritten autobiography like it was nothing.

  What the hell had I been thinking?

  But the two books actually looked pretty good. I mean, the titles may have made me feel even stupider than I already was, but there was something to be said for simplicity and breaking things down into easy, step-by-step instructions.

  I spent the rest of the evening reading and started to actually feel like I might be able to pull this off after all.

  ~~~

  Until, that is, the next morning when I went down to grab a coffee at the shop just down from the hotel and saw a picture of myself lying in a beach chair, looking rather… vacation-y.

  My stomach seized instantly as visions of that mysterious (a.k.a. creepy) moustache guy popped into my head. I wanted to scream something along the lines of, “Argh! Foiled again!” but I decided I probably shouldn’t draw any more unwanted attention than I already had.

  BRIDESMAID VACATIONS ALONE was the headline.

  I skimmed the article, furious that they were implying that Jake had left me high and dry and I was stuck all by my lonesome at some romantic getaway. They also warned people to be wary of betting on me in the now apparently famous Jake Hall engagement wagering all across the country.

  God, these guys would do anything just to sell a couple of papers.