Read Over the Line for Free Online

me.” He rolled his eyes at her.
    “Hey, you never know. Or I could totally have to tear some scheming woman of your father’s off you. Or stop a jewel thief, or…”
    “I have a nasty suspicion you think going to the wedding is going to be more of an adventure than it will be. It’s likely to be boring, embarrassing in one way or another, and filled with mildly to moderately annoying people. At best we’ll just need to beat some sense into Sadie, and watch after Maisie.” He turned to her, flicked off the hazard lights, and shifted into gear. But before he released the clutch, he asked, “Do you really want to do this?”
    She stared through the windshield, but he could see the wheels turning in her head. “My only problem is that I don’t have anything to wear,” she said finally.
    “Neither do I. We’ll hit the mall before we get to my parents’ house. It’s on me. You can buy whatever you’ll need.”
    She grinned. “All right then. Wedding it is.” She rubbed her hands together as if she was a super-villain. “I can’t wait. A weekend in a telenovela. It’s like a dream. Tammer won’t believe it! Oh. I can pretend to be your girlfriend. Will that keep away the predators?”
    He laughed. “Hell, yeah. Dream come true.”
    A startled expression appeared on her face, so he covered. “I mean, having a girlfriend as a buffer zone.” He shook his head at himself. He needed to rein himself in.
    “I don’t have a credit limit. So you can go telenovela-clothes mad.” He smiled. He was psyched to see her so excited and up for anything. Swallowing, he put the car back on the road and shot back down to the interstate.
    “So I’m your girlfriend for the weekend,” she said in a breathy voice. “I kind of like that. It’s fast, and unexpected, exciting… and blissfully short.” She laughed out loud as she came to the end of her sentence.
    He groaned. “You might not want short. You might end up wanting long. Like, really long.”
    “Keep dreaming, stud. I like everything short, even my drinks. And don’t you forget it.”
    “Yes, ma’am.”
    “But if I’m going to be your girlfriend,
for the weekend
,” she said meaningfully, “I need to know more about you.”
    He gave her the highlight reel of his previous girlfriends, the nightmare with his own father’s ex, and what the family absolutely didn’t need to know. At the end, he gave a sigh and relaxed back into his seat. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
    “I won’t let you down, Senior. I’m going to be the best girlfriend you never had.”
    He didn’t doubt it for a second.
    “Just so you know, Henrietta will be there. The ex who my parents adore? She’s Sadie’s maid of honor.”
    “Henrietta? Lovely name.”
    “Lovely girl. Just not for me,” he said with a rueful smile.
    “So what kind of girlfriend will pass muster, do you think? Who do I have to be? It doesn’t sound like an army sergeant is going to be a suitable fiancée for your parents. I mean girlfriend. Sorry, I have no idea where that came from.”
    “You know what? This morning I wasn’t even going; just the fact that we will be there is enough. You can be you, or anyone you want to be. I actually can’t believe you’re being so cool about this.”
    “Short of having me kill someone for you, I guess I kind of owe you, you know.” Her fingers plucked at the tights over what he knew to be her inner thigh scar. “And I can’t have you not see your sister get married.”
    “Don’t say that. You don’t owe me anything. I didn’t do anything for you that I wouldn’t have done for someone else. That I haven’t done for someone before. You think you were my first near-death experience?” She hadn’t been, but nearly losing her had done a number on him from which he still hadn’t totally recovered.
    She didn’t say anything, and more, her eyes seemed to be welling up. So he tried to break the tension. “Although I will say that yours were