Hired Bride by Jackie Merritt

asked him to bring me to dinner at her house, and he came by to ask if I’d go.”
    â€œWell?”
    â€œWell, what?”
    â€œGwen, what did you say to his dinner invitation?” Ramona sounded a trifle impatient.
    â€œI said no, what else would I say? And after he kissed me, I was darn glad—”
    â€œWhoa, there. He kissed you?”
    â€œYes, he did, and I should have slapped his face. I’m furious with myself because I didn’t. He’s much too bold, Ramona, and I’m sure he thinks he can do anything he wants just because he’s a Fortune.”
    â€œGwen, where did he kiss you?”
    â€œOn the mouth.”
    â€œNo, no, I meant where? In your driveway?”
    â€œUh, no, we were in the house by then.”
    â€œYou invited him in?”
    â€œOnly because he asked to use the bathroom. I could hardly say no to that.” Ramona fell silent, until Gwen said, “Ramona? Are you still there?”
    â€œGwen, have you considered the possibility of Zane Fortune genuinely liking you?”
    â€œOh, really, Ramona,” Gwen said with a derogatory sniff. “If Zane wants anything at all from me beyond my help in deluding his family, it could only be one thing. And I am not going to have an affairwith any man, especially not with a man who’s had everything his way since the day he was born.”
    â€œAnd that’s how you see Zane? How you feel about him?”
    â€œYou’d feel the same way if you met him. He’s just too…perfect.”
    â€œOh, I can see why you wouldn’t want him,” Ramona said with a small laugh. “I mean, what woman would want a ‘perfect’ man?”
    â€œI didn’t say his character was perfect—his reputation with women would make a soap opera.”
    â€œSo what’s perfect about him, then?”
    â€œHis…his looks, I guess,” Gwen stammered. She laughed awkwardly. “Can you believe that I’m finding this conversation embarrassing? You and I have been able to talk about anything for a long time, and now because a man kissed me I’m all red-faced and tongue-tied. Silly, isn’t it?”
    â€œIt might not be silly at all,” Ramona said gently. “But let’s talk about something else and let you off the hook for now.”
    They talked for another hour about other things. But when Gwen finally went to bed, she lay there for a long time and thought that Ramona could possibly be right: Her feelings for Zane might not be silly at all. They could be…serious!
    â€œNo,” she whispered as panic rose in her throat. “No, no, no!” How could she label feelings that even she didn’t fully comprehend as either silly or serious? She had to stop trying to figure herself out where Zane was concerned, she thought a bit frantically. She hadn’t suddenly turned into someone else, after all. She was just plain Gwen Hutton, and Zane Fortune was miles above her in looks, money and position.
    She’d be wise to keep that one crucial fact firmly fixed in her mind.
    Â 
    By the following Friday, Gwen was uneasily wondering why she’d heard nothing from Zane about the repairs to his car. She returned library books for elderly Harry Adkins, shopped for a birthday gift for Tom Cunningham’s secretary, bathed two cats and a dog for Elizabeth Rondell, and literally ran from job to job all day—only taking one unscheduled break when she drove past a garage sale and stopped to check the merchandise. All the while Gwen kept thinking it was peculiar that Zane hadn’t contacted her about the repairs to his car.
    Three times she dashed home to check the messages on her machines. She knew there were much better models on the market—ones that would allow her to retrieve her messages by phone—and that hers were very outdated, but they were just one more example of how she had to make do with things she already owned.