The Fiance Thief Read Free Page B

secret any longer than it took it to go from her ears to her lips. But both of them had some sparkling quality that made it easy to forget how unreliable they were.
    Lissa waved the waitress away, and leaned across the table towards Claire. “He’s not worth it,” Lissa said. “No man is worth all this trouble.”
    Claire sighed and pushed her half-eaten salad away. “I know. It’s ridiculous to go through this. Even if I couldn’t get another job with a paper here, I could go back to school, become qualified to do something. And I’ve always got waitressing experience.”
    Lissa was staring at her. “Do you think I’m talking about Alec?”
    “Aren’t you?”
    Lissa shook her head. “Of course not. You need this job with Alec. I’m talking about Scott.”
    If Mick was right, and spunk really was a tangible thing, then hers had been stolen by Scott. If it had existed at all, then it had long ago been hocked in some New York City pawn shop, probably to pay his rent.
    Miranda had been the only person who understood how much she loved Scott. Although that had proven to have its disadvantages, the good part of it was that no one else ever thought to mention him. To her other friends and relatives, he blended in with the string of boys Claire didn’t marry. Today was the first time anyone had spoken his name to her in a while, and she was flooded with memories.
    Their first meeting, in fact, had been too much like her first meeting with Alec. She hadn’t shut his tie in an elevator, but she’d exploded a canned cola on his white oxfordshirt on the first day of class, managing to get all food and beverages in the classroom banned by the professor. The other students were a little upset, but Scott hadn’t minded. Whatever she did only seemed to endear her more to him. Back then, in her early twenties, she’d had the confidence that came with knowing she was loved. Now, at twenty-six, she had the skittishness that came with knowing she’d been dumped and betrayed.
    “Claire.” Lissa snapped her fingers. “Come out of fantasy land and decide what you’re going to do. You cannot let this shallow, arrogant, deceptive scum keep you from participating in one of the singular experiences of your life.”
    “Scott’s not…” Claire started to say. “Well, he is, actually, all of those things. But there was more to him than that.” There was no way, she knew, that she could communicate his charms to Lissa. How could she describe his killer smile, or the way his eyes used to light up every time he saw her? Considering what he’d done to her, what could she say to redeem him? He indulged all of her whims. He never found anything about her to criticize. He seemed to love her completely right up until the day he left.
    “I’m sure he had his good points,” Lissa said soothingly, “Before his betrayal of you made you forget them. My point, though, is that you now have an opportunity other people only dream about.” At Claire’s questioning look, she said, “Okay, let’s do this. Imagine you’re looking at a group picture from the third grade.”
    Claire obeyed. She could see them all, lined up on the gym bleachers. Wild print shirts and wide-legged jeans were in style, and half the girls wore their hair like Princess Leia’s.
    “What were some of their names?” Lissa asked.
    “Shelly, Darrell, Starr, Kelly…” Her voice trailed off. “What’s the point of this?”
    “Wherever those kids are, they’re telling everyone they know that they went to school with Miranda Craig. In this town right now, someone’s claim to fame is that he pulled Miranda’s pigtails.”
    “That would be Joey Bradley,” Claire said.
    “Right now, old Joey’s down at the auto store, bragging about Miranda being his childhood sweetheart. Shelly and Kelly are gossiping about her at the Laundromat. But do they have invitations to this retreat?”
    “I see your point,” Claire said. “But I can’t go. I don’t want to