From Fake to Forever Read Online Free

Yeah, she definitely looked like a Sandra-don’t-call-me-Sandy kind of person, all coolly poised yet full of attitude—like a drama queen herself. He should know. He’d been around enough of them in his line of work. He didn’t know why, but the thought that she was like the rest of the women out there had him feeling a little disappointed.
    “Okay, Miss Sandra,” he bit out. “I think you’re overreacting, big-time. I wasn’t trying to be funny or scary. I was playing with my nephew. Besides, I don’t think I look that bad.” His agent might have told him he looked like a hermit, but Denise hadn’t said anything about being at ax-murderer status.
    She snorted. “Please. Pretending to be stuck in a slide, playing knight in distress, is a desperate way to meet women. What’s the matter, your ego bruised because your last costar didn’t fall under your spell, or has Hollywood run out of women to play up to?”
    “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He shot up his index finger and held it in front of her face. “Wait a damn minute. I don’t need to come up with any excuses to meet women. I do just fine on my own. Just fine.”
    Missy shook her head in wonder. “This is so cool. My sister and Ben Capshaw are having an argument right in front of me. Where’s my video camera when I really need it?”
    Sandra ignored her sister and proceeded to turn that perfect nose of hers right up in the air at him. “I saw you looking at me at the playground. Did you honestly think I was going to fall for what you were doing? I mean, really, what kind of idiot gets himself stuck in a children’s slide?”
    He looked down and faked a cough, hoping it was before she saw him blush. When did he become such a pansy? He couldn’t believe he was actually blushing. Could things get any worse?
    “Wait a minute,” she said, sounding skeptical. “You…you were really stuck?”
    Things were starting to get worse.
    Her mouth dropped open, and she began to laugh—the kind of laugh that would have been music to his ears if she were laughing with him and not at him.
    Things were definitely worse.
    He folded his arms. “It could have happened to anyone.” Yeah, right. It could have happened to any idiot. “That tube looked a lot bigger than it really was.”
    Missy’s face contorted, and she made the time-out sign. “Wait. How did you get stuck in a slide again?”
    “Can we just drop the slide thing?” he asked between his teeth. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a huge rush of air. “Let’s just get back to why I’m here.”
    Sandra wiped the tears from her eyes and tried for a more composed face. She failed three seconds into it. “Okay. But I’m not sure what a Hollywood type like you is doing here, exactly. I mean, besides working on your Houdini tricks,” she said with a chuckle.
    Missy clasped her hands together. “Sandra, brace yourself. Ben Capshaw wants to use our little preschool for research for a movie role he’s up for. Isn’t that so cool?” she said, beaming.
    Sandra immediately sobered. “Research? In this small town? In our preschool? Why would Ben Capshaw want to use our facility? There are plenty of other ones with a much higher enrollment.”
    “Well, that’s just it,” he explained. “My agent set this up because one, I don’t have a lot of time to waste. I read for the role but don’t know if I have it yet. I want to be ready if and when I do. Plus, with just the handful of you here on staff, it’s going to be a lot easier to keep my anonymity.”
    She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but we can’t help you.” She walked away from him and into her office, dismissing him like an unwelcome solicitor. She turned around. “Thanks for the laugh, though.”
    He shot out his arm and blocked her from closing her office door on him again. He was close enough now to catch a subtle scent—he wasn’t sure what. Maybe some kind of fruit. Whatever it was, it was way too sweet for a woman this sour.