The Cinderella Deal - Jennifer Crusie [14]
Linc nodded, clearly uninterested. “What else? How do you really earn a living?”
“I told you. Painting. Storytelling. I sell jewelry to an upscale craft store. I used to have some savings from when I was a teacher, but that’s all gone now.”
Linc looked nonplused. “How old are you?”
“I’ll be thirty-five in September.”
“You’re thirty-five and you have no career and no steady income.” Linc shook his head. “Who feeds you? The ravens?”
“I do all right.” Reality was not the story Daisy wanted to talk about. “This is your fantasy,” she told him. “I’m just along for the ride until midnight, when I turn into a pumpkin. Why don’t you just tell me your story, and I’ll memorize it, and we’ll be done.”
“Great,” Linc said, and began to talk. It was so much worse than Daisy had imagined, full of plans for a woman in a designer apron and smiling, apple-cheeked children dressed in Baby Gap and a stuffy career in a stuffy town. The man had no imagination at all, and she was stuck in his story. Thank God it was only for twenty-four hours. If anyone had heard her, her storytelling career would have been over forever.
Linc finished the story, feeling much better about the whole situation. Daisy was obviously a bright woman, and his story sounded pretty good as he told it. For the first time, he thought the whole thing might actually work.
“That is without a doubt the worst story I’ve ever heard,” Daisy said.
Linc bit back a reply. He needed her. He was going to have to put up with her for only one night. “Well, pretend you love it while we’re in Prescott.”
“No problem.” Daisy tilted her head a little, dropped her chin, and opened her eyes wide. “I’m just thrilled to be here in Prescott, the cutest little town in Ohio and the perfect place to raise my two point four children, who’ll all be going to Harvard on full academic scholarships. I can’t tell you how excited I am.”
She leaned forward a little and looked up at him under her lashes. He looked straight down the graceful line of her throat and into the gaping neckline of her ridiculous yellow dress and saw full, creamy curves. He jerked his startled eyes up to meet hers. She had a body. He’d missed that in all the clothes and the scowling, but she wasn’t scowling now. She was smiling at him dreamily, the killer smile that had laid Guthrie low, her lips parted and soft. A wave of lust rolled over him. She’s nuts and she’s messy and she irritates the hell out of you, he told himself, but all he could see were those curves and that wide, lush smile.
“I can’t wait,” she repeated, and Linc said, “Stop that,” and she laughed.
Linc stood up just to get away from her. “Come on, Magnolia. I have to get back to school.”
When they were outside, Daisy rolled her eyes at the car again, but she behaved herself until they were halfway home, which gave him some time to recover. Then she put her hand on his arm and pointed. “Can we stop up there for a minute? Just a minute?”
He looked ahead to where she was pointing, at a craft boutique. It didn’t seem like much to ask, and it would get her out of the car for a few minutes while he got his mind back where it belonged. “Sure.” He checked the rearview mirror and pulled over. “Don’t take too long. I have to teach in forty-five minutes.”
Daisy nodded, took a deep breath, got out of the car, and walked into the store.
Linc watched her through the big plate-glass window and relaxed. When her mouth wasn’t open and irritating him, and her dress wasn’t gaping and inflaming him, Daisy Flattery was cute. He watched her trek up to the counter, her ridiculous long skirt making her look like a kid playing dress-up. She asked for something, and the guy behind the counter leaned on the register, bored, and shook his head. Daisy said something else, and he shook his head again. Linc glanced at his watch and looked back at the guy. He was sneering. What was it with her? First Derek, now this guy. This woman has an absolute affinity for jerks, he thought, and got out of the