Some Like It Hopeless (A Temporary Engagement) Read Online Free PDF Page A

when they looked droopy so Shane wouldn’t yell at her.
    And second of all, Brady’s car was a Nissan Z and it looked fast .
    Fast and small, and Cassandra didn’t know how Brady fit inside it. He ducked his head to get out and she watched him. Forgetting the flowers, forgetting the car.
    She’d told Shane that Brady was a man who had been beautiful once. Had been favored and adored.
    And now he wasn’t.
    His scar, and his eyes, told the world that he’d lost. Everything.
    She said, “I want to drive your car.”
    “You can, if that was a euphemism.”
    She laughed. “It wasn’t.”
    He stepped into her space and she looked up into his face. His dark eyes close. His hot body warming hers.
    She pointed the hose away from his shoes. “Did you bring me dinner?”
    “I did, if that was a euphemism.”
    He smiled, his lips spreading across his face, his eyes wrinkling. Cassandra forgot where she was for a minute, surprised by how it transformed his face.
    She shook her head. She was on a mission and wouldn’t be distracted by how close he was or that it would only take them a minute to get to her bed.
    “Then let’s go get dinner. We’ll take your car.”
    He let out a long breath and pressed his body against hers. He smelled like a rich man and she closed her eyes, tried not to be seduced.
    She put her cheek on his and whispered, “Come on. Let me take it up Mulholland Drive. Zip around those curves like it was made to do.”
    He opened his mouth and she said, “And yes. That was a euphemism.”
    “Are you going to drive the speed limit?”
    She pursed her lips. “What is a speed limit?”
    His body clenched and silence ticked between them. She wouldn’t tip-toe around him, wouldn’t pretend she didn’t know what had happened to him, to his family.
    She knew one thing about living with hard truths.
    You brought them out into the light, acknowledged them. Acknowledged that whatever “it” was, it bit the big one. Hiding wouldn’t make it any better. Hiding only made it shameful.
    And shame was ugly. Shame destroyed. It destroyed all happiness, all life. It destroyed the future. It destroyed all hope.
    Cassandra opened her eyes and pulled back from him. “I’m going to drive fast and I know you’re not going to like it. I also know that this thing we’ve got going on will end, and if I know anything about rich men, it will end sooner rather than later. I’ve driven you. I want to drive your car.”
    He gave her the car keys. “You can go without me. The Z likes to go fast; I don’t.”
    Cassandra laughed. Closed her eyes, tipped her head to the rapidly darkening sky and laughed. “Brady, if I get in that car without you, I am never coming back. The next time you’ll hear from me, I’ll be in Argentina.”
    She only briefly wondered if you could drive all the way to Argentina, then decided she could at least try.
    He said, “Brady?”
    “You’ll still be Shane in the bedroom.”
    He said, “As long as it’s still in the bedroom,” and he sounded completely serious. Sad and serious.
    “Rich man with a fast car who wants me to call him Shane.” She patted his cheek. “Maybe your money isn’t going to complicate things.”
    He grabbed her wrist. “I don’t think you know anything about money. Or rich men.”
    “I know that you never give a rich man what he wants. Not until he’s worked for it.”
    She’d learned that from Mackenzie, who’d found her own rich man and wrapped him around her finger. Without even realizing she was doing it.
    Brady smiled slightly. “It’s not a bad philosophy, actually.”
    Cassandra didn’t want to wrap Brady around her finger. She knew this thing they had going on wouldn’t last forever, she didn’t want it to.
    But she didn’t mind poking him a little, maybe bring him back to life a little. She could do that for him.
    She could thank him for distracting her. For giving her a little bit of fun now, when she needed it.
    She turned off the water,