Read Online The Sleeping Beauty Proposal by Sarah Strohmeyer - Free Book Online Page B

started out,‘I am a mighty maple, yielding to the sawyer’s whim.’ Personally, I couldn’t get through chapter one.”
    Oh, that’s good. Really good. I’ll have to compliment her later. The thing is, as Patty is well aware, my story’s not entirely without merit. (This is the art of a well-crafted lie, to wrap it around a kernel of truth.) Hugh really did build a post-and-beam house—just not all of it, only a little part. And that part he ended up having to supervise—albeit against his will—because his doctor warned him in no uncertain terms that one wrong move while heavy lifting and his bad back would be out of commission like that. Hugh was devastated. He really looked forward to hammering and mitering and stuff.
    On the bright side, he did get in a lot of journaling.
    Now Nick is grinning like he did the other day. It’s that same I-know-something-you-don’t-know grin and it requires every ounce of my will not to self-combust.
    â€œYou know,” he says, putting one hand up against the doorjamb and sticking his other thumb in his belt, thereby striking the ultimate beefcake pose, “I think I may have heard of this Hugh Spencer.”
    "Really?” I say with shock, before I can catch myself.
    â€œReally.”
    â€œInteresting.” I am trying very hard not to admire the way his shirt hugs his abs or how his bicep is flexed or how the strong slope of his thigh looks under his worn jeans. He is attempting to cast his spell and I must not be tempted like Patty, the million-dollar litigator, who is transfixed, mouth agape.
    "I figured you would,” I say. "He’s famous.”
    â€œOh, I have no doubt. I’d like to meet him and ask him for some ... pointers. Is he around?”
    â€œEngland,” I reply, my mouth suddenly parched. “Won’t be back for the whole summer.”
    Patty blurts, “We hope.”
    Cripes. Her brain really does go south in the presence of a good-looking man.Thank heavens most of the Massachusetts Bar is ugly or this woman wouldn’t have a career to speak of.
    Luckily, before Nick can grill me any more, Todd stomps in, red-faced and out of sorts from his phone call with Cecily. "The day I never speak to that woman again can’t come soon enough. She must call me every hour, on the hour. Talk about the owner from hell.”
    â€œHave you ever heard of this famous Hugh Spencer?” Nick asks.
    "Sure.” Todd gestures to me dismissively. "He’s Genie’s fiancé. Finally asked her to marry him last night after shacking up with her for four years.”
    A kind of dawning realization sweeps across Nick’s face, as if he has just put into place the last pieces of a confounding puzzle. “I see.”
    His expression raises my concern that perhaps he overheard Patty and me talking about my fake engagement. And, if so, then I’ve got a potential problem on my hands. Instead of feeling hot, now I’m feeling nervous. Really nervous.
    â€œThen, may I congratulate you on your upcoming nuptials,” Nick says, extending his hand. “I apologize for accusing your future husband of never really building a house. I was totally out of line.”
    I take his hand and shake it, Nick’s pulse strangely beating against mine. Oddly, he doesn’t let go. I’m not sure I can, either.
    â€œDon’t feel bad,”Todd says. “Hugh’s always telling me how to maintain my car when he’s never once done an oil change himself. Too many carcinogens, he says. Can’t risk getting cancer every four thousand miles or something. He’s just book learning. Lots of tweed and elbow patches, if you catch my drift.”
    I don’t care if Todd’s losing my argument for me. Because right now I have bigger worries—like whether Nick knows I’m not really engaged to Hugh and, worse, whether he’s going to reveal my precious secret to