Love For Hire: The Helena's Grove Series Book 2 Read Free Page B

suddenly felt bad about not wanting him to come to dinner. She sneaked a look at Amelia who looked like she’d taken a bite of something nasty.
    “Why don’t you bring him during the Christmas holidays?” Aunt Gabby offered.
    Annie heard the words but hoped against hope that if she ignored them, they’d go away.
    “Annie,” Aunt Gabby said tapping her shoulder.
    Annie winced internally. “Yes?” she said, smiling as brightly as she could.
    “I said, why don’t you bring Marcus with you during the Christmas break?”
    Annie stared at her blankly and then she heard Jen. “That’s a great idea! My dad is coming out here to be with us for Christmas. It’ll be great to have everyone here.”
    Annie couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe; her life was careening out of control and she had no idea how to stop it.
    “It’s settled then,” Aunt Gabby said as she thumped the table with her palm. “Do you think Marcus will be able to come?”
    Annie stumbled and squeaked a couple words before just nodding and smiling feebly.
    While the rest of the people around her continued with the celebration of their Thanksgiving meal, Annie sat quietly, her mind reeling. Did that really just happen? How had she gotten herself into this mess? How in the world was she going to find a boyfriend in the next month and convince him to go home with her for the holidays? Suddenly, she couldn’t wait for this dinner to be over and couldn’t wait to be back at Penn State, but at the same time dreading the time going by any faster than it most certainly would.
    “I hope your boyfriend is up for Aunt Gabby’s homemade eggnog,” Zack teased.
    “Oh Zack, I made that one time.”
    “No, it was more than once...”
    Their voices faded as Annie sank deeper into her thoughts. I am such a liar! Why would I do such a thing? Don’t panic, a month is plenty of time to find someone and bring him home with me… Don’t kid yourself Annie; you’ve never dated anyone that wasn’t from your home town; you don’t even know how to talk to men you haven’t seen for years and years! As her thoughts continued to berate her, Annie suddenly realized there were two things that she absolutely had to do. One, she had to get back to school so she could think more clearly, and two, she had to find herself a boyfriend.

Chapter 3
     
    Annie lay staring at the ceiling in her dorm room. The Thanksgiving holiday had been great… except for the lead boulder that had settled itself in the pit of her stomach. Several times she had gone to tell Zack she’d lied about having a boyfriend, but she just couldn’t seem to get the words out. When Annie left Jen had hugged her and exclaimed how excited she was to meet ‘Marcus,’ and even then it took Annie as few seconds to remember who Marcus was. Oh yeah, my imaginary boyfriend that I lied to everyone about? I think you’ll really like him. Annie shook her head as if trying to rid herself of the entire ordeal. Whatever happens, you deserve what you get. You’re the one that made up the whole thing so whatever happens, it’s your fault. Annie sighed heavily, she was stuck.
    “Okay, what the crap is your problem?”
    Annie sat up; Roxy was looking at her, one eyebrow raised, her face bored and annoyed.
    “I’m a horrible person,” she told her in a pathetically sad voice.
    “Oh. Shut. Up.” Roxy rolled her eyes. “If I believed in heaven I would definitely say it was filled with people like you.”
    “I lied to my family,” Annie said woefully as she played with the stitching on her comforter.
    “So,” Roxy scoffed. “I lie to my family all the time.”
    “I told them I have a boyfriend! They were all arguing about me and my love life, or lack of and…” She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “Before I knew it I had created a fictional boyfriend named Marcus.”
    Roxy stared at her with a blank look. “I don’t see the problem.”
    “I told them I have a boyfriend and I don’t, Roxy. And I told