Test Drive - Samantha Chase Page 0,1

much were you bleeding?” she asked, sounding horrified.

“I wasn’t. I was just afraid that I might and…” Willow paused and put a hand to her forehead. “Can we change the subject? I’m feeling woozy.”

“From just talking about blood?”

“Gammy!”

“Okay, okay, okay…what if you found a full-time job to tide you over? There’s waitressing?” But before Willow could answer, her grandmother said, “No. You’re a bit accident-prone.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Need I remind you about the Japanese tea set incident?”

Groaning, Willow closed her eyes. “No. But in my defense, your cat tripped me.”

“Mr. Marshmallow would never do such a thing, and he doesn’t appreciate you pointing the finger at him.”

“He’s a cat, Gammy. He has no idea about any of this.”

Gasping dramatically, she replied. “Nonsense. Mr. Marshmallow understands everything I say to him!”

“Right.”

“He’s also an excellent judge of character. Why, just the other day, we were talking about the Romeos and…”

“The what?”

“Not what, who.”

“What?”

“Willow, focus!”

“On what?”

“The Romeos aren’t a what, they’re a who. Actually, they’re a group of whos.”

“You’re literally making no sense right now.”

“Romeos – retired old men who eat out,” Gammy explained.

“That doesn’t spell Romeo, that spells Rom-we-o. You’d think for an English teacher…”

“And you’d think at your age you’d learn not to sass your grandmother,” she huffed.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right, dear. I know you’re stressed.”

“You have no idea.”

“Well, when you come to visit at the end of the month, we’ll carve out some time just for the two of us. You know I prefer talking about things like this in person. Oh, and are you bringing that boyfriend of yours with you?”

Oh. Crap.

“Um…”

“I’m very excited to meet him, Willow. He sounds wonderful. Plus, I’d love to get his input on what career path you should be taking. You’re far too smart to be wandering like this, and I hate hearing you sound so sad.” She paused. “Why isn’t this young man perking you up more?”

“Perking me…?”

“Back in my day, a man knew how to keep a smile on a girl’s face.” Then she giggled.

Seriously. Giggled.

“Then again, the Romeos are pretty good at that too.”

Oh, dear Lord…

“Now I’m not going to be a prude while you’re here and insist that the two of you sleep in separate rooms or anything,” she went on. “Your folks are staying at that little boutique hotel down by the town square that they love so much because I told them I promised you the room here.”

“Gammy, you didn’t need to do that.”

“Well, you know how they prefer their privacy and how much I enjoy sitting and talking with you. I’m getting up there in years and there’s only so much time left for me to impart my wisdom onto you.”

Here it comes…

“I see so much of myself in you, and talking on the phone is all fine and well for casual stuff–you know, basic blah-blah stuff–but I want to see the look on your face when we talk and laugh. I hope your young man won’t mind giving us some girl time.”

“Yeah, about that…”

“Oh! We can send him out with the Romeos! I bet he’d have a fabulous time!”

“No, Gammy, you don’t understand…”

Off in the distance, she heard a doorbell ring and knew their conversation was about to end.

“Willow dear, I need to go. That will be Donald. He’s a Romeo. Sweet man, really. He has the eyes of a wolf and the hair of a silver fox!”

“There’s an image for you,” she muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing! Go and enjoy your date! We’ll talk soon!”

“Yes, we will! Now don’t quit our game! Let’s finish it up! And who knows, maybe you will beat me! Love you!”

“Love you, too!”

This time she did toss the phone aside with a groan of disgust. Willow knew she was many things, but she wasn’t normally a liar. Unfortunately, sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures.

And listening to her grandmother go on and on about her romantic social life definitely qualified.

It had seemed like a harmless thing to do–make up a boyfriend! And with Willow living eleven-hundred miles away, she really didn’t think it would ever be an issue.

Like now.

Gammy was turning 75 and wanted her whole family to come down to celebrate with her. That meant her fake boyfriend was either going to have to break up with her or become miraculously real.

Well, crap.

Her phone chimed with a reminder that she was due to meet up with the girls at McGee’s Pub for their end of the workweek roundup.

Seriously, she felt like a fraud going since she was the only one not really working. Well, she