Best Fake Day Read Free Page A

convenience?”
    “Yes,” he said through gritted teeth, although he failed to see the convenience of it.
    “Oh, this gets better.” She laughed as tears spilled over her cheeks, tracking through the dust on her cheeks. “Jeez, what century are you living in?”
    “This was Ellie’s idea not mine.”
    “And you were stupid enough to go along with it?”
    “I have to.” He paused as he gripped the chair until his knuckles whitened. “And if I can’t find Ellie then you will have to take her place.”
    And just like that she was silenced.
     

Chapter 2
     
    He was clearly delusional.
    “You are joking, right?” Izzy asked, although Jack’s unflinching mask of granite face and fixed gaze already confirmed the answer she didn’t want to hear.
    He shook his head.
    “So what the hell did you two get yourselves into this time? Or did you change your mind about marriage being worse than death?”
    Those steely eyes flared to life. “You really do have a good memory, except I actually said that marriage is a death sentence. And,” he growled, “you mean what did your sister get me into this time.”
    “And you let her? Did she steal your big boy pants?” she scoffed. Since when did anyone get the upper hand on Jack?
    “Thanks for the sympathy. Sleep deprivation doesn’t become you, Izzy. Makes you as grumpy as hell.”
    “What? My mood has nothing to do with sleep. Maybe I resent the fact that I haven’t seen or heard from you in years, and when I do it’s only because you’ve got into another mess with my sister!”
    He straightened from the chair and folded his arms, drawing attention to his height and the breadth of his shoulders. It was a fine view but she hated looking up at him, it multiplied his presence ten-fold, distracting her as she tried to retain her anger toward him.
    His face softened and he smiled. “You missed me, Iz,” he said in a husky voice that she couldn’t decide if it were laced with question or smug satisfaction. She guessed it was the latter.
    “No,” she snapped. “Yes,” she admitted with a grudging sigh. “I did miss you. You left without saying goodbye. I know you and Ellie were close but I was your friend too.”
    “I had to leave,” he said softly, his gaze breaking away and fixing itself on the floor.
    “I know. I understand that, but you kept in touch with Ellie, bailed her out a few times too she told me.”
    “It wasn’t intentional. I thought you would be better off without me.”
    “That should have been my decision. I would rather have heard about your life from you , instead of reading about it in some glossy magazine and from Ellie’s words.”
    “You read about me?”
    “It was hard not to. If you wanted to keep a low profile, modeling probably wasn’t the best career choice.” In fact, it was a surprising one. Despite his couldn’t-care-less attitude about school, he always proved to be studious and continuously got excellent grades. She often imagined him as a lawyer, or an architect…anything he put his mind to really. He certainly never cared about his looks. He didn’t need to, the girls in school paid attention to those for him. And sometimes he didn’t seem to like that attention.
    “It was necessity, not choice. I left here with barely a penny in my pocket and nowhere to live.”
    The harshness of his tone deflated her temper, dragging her taut shoulders down with it. “You could have stayed with us,” she said in a thickened whisper.
    He shook his head. “No. No, I couldn’t. So when I was approached by a modeling agent offering me much needed money, I took it. I hated doing it, but along with a multitude of other jobs, I earned enough money to finally be where I am now. My own boss. Dependent on nobody but myself.”
    “And that makes you happy?”
    “Happier than I was living here with my family .”
    “You know they don’t live here anymore, don’t you?”
    His nod told her he knew and didn’t care.
    “And you’re