Page 14 of His Fake Fiancé

“Thank you for staying and answering my questions,” Noelle said, pulling out a pair of glasses and perching them on the end of her nose. She flipped through the papers in her folder. “How long have you been engaged?”

Jake cleared his throat. “I popped the question last Saturday night. Right, angel?” He turned to Claire.

She was pale, maybe even a little green. She licked her lips and nodded. “Yes, that’s right.” Her voice was small and weak.

Noelle made a note in her file. “And how long have you been together?”

“Umm…” Shit, this wasn’t something he and Claire had talked about. Why the hell hadn’t they talked about it? Of course, it was a question someone evaluating their relationship and their ability to provide a good home for Olivia would ask. He glanced at Claire again.

“We’ve been friends since we were kids.” Claire’s voice was more solid, less timid this time. She must have seen the panic in him, because she placed her free hand over top of his, which still held hers between them. “But things turned romantic just over a year ago.”

Noelle scratched more notes in her file. “And are you currently living together?”

Jake cleared his throat again. “No, not c-currently. B-b-but we are next d-d-door neighbors. Well, as much as two cattle ranches can be considered next door to each other.” What the fuck? He hadn’t stuttered since he was a kid. He gave Noelle one of his grins, the charming one that hadn’t failed him since he was fourteen years old.

Noelle didn’t seem the slightest bit swayed, by either the lame attempt at a joke or the patent pending Jake Callahan grin. She just raised her eyebrow and stared at him.

Heat prickled his cheeks and the back of his neck. He cleared his throat, and nodded, although what he was nodding for, he didn’t really know.

Apparently, she chose to ignore his idiocy and moved on. “And what is it that you do for a living, Mr. Callahan?”

He swallowed, thought hard about what he wanted to say. “Umm, I work on my family’s cattle ranch.” He said the words slowly, keeping the stutter at bay.

“And how long have you been doing that?”

“Since the day I was born.”

Noelle gave him another of her raised eyebrow looks. It reminded him of the one Mama had been throwing his way for as long as he could remember. Guilt splashed through him.

“Do you make a regular salary at your job?”

The back of his neck burned hotter. The urge to rub at it swamped him, but he held back. “I do. I get paid $3500 semi-monthly.”

He felt Claire stiffen beside him. He knew the amount was ridiculous, especially considering the work he did at the ranch. Or, more like the work he didn’t do. His salary was part trust fund, part tax write-off. He wasn’t fooled. And until this moment, he’d never been embarrassed by it, or the fact he was a huge slacker. A huge, directionless slacker.

More notes and tense silence. He wanted to look at Claire, get a gage on what she was thinking, feeling. But he couldn’t. He didn’t exactly know why. So, he kept his gaze on Noelle and whatever she was writing in her file.

The word coward echoed through his head. At the moment, he was hard pressed to disagree.

After a second, she turned her gaze to Claire. “And what is it that you do for a living, Ms. McKinney?”

“I also work for my family. At the ranch. In the office.” Claire reached up with her free hand and smoothed her hair, which was pulled back in a twist of some sort. The move was completely unnecessary, since she didn’t have a hair out of place. If it wasn’t for the softness of her voice, he would have thought she was the epitome of calm, cool and collected.

“And do you make a salary?” The scratch of Noelle’s pen didn’t stop.

“I do. I make $1000 a month, before taxes.”

Jake’s stomach plummeted into the basement. He could tell by Claire’s voice, by the hesitancy, that she was embarrassed. Which was ridiculous. She had nothing to be embarrassed about. She worked hard for her family, was there in the office all day, just about every day. He was the one who needed to be embarrassed.

He finally glanced at her. Her cheeks were red, her lower lip clamped between her teeth. She kept her eyes down, clearly refusing to meet his gaze. He hadn’t known things over at Stone Creek were quite so rough. There was no way she should be making so little. He also knew, if her dad could, he would definitely be paying her more. What kind of a friend was he to not notice that she was struggling?

More notes, more scratching. “And you have a nanny that comes in and looks after Olivia?”

Jake swallowed hard, suddenly feeling like he was being judged. “Y-y-yes.” He cleared his throat, hoping to curb the severity of the stutter, if not kill it dead.” Sabrina Torres. She comes in four t-times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And half a d-day on Saturday.”

“And how long has she been with you?”

“Since September. She has excellent r-references, if y-y-you’d like to see them.”