The Cinderella Deal Read Online Free PDF Page B

paying enough for it. “Yes, that one is nice.” She smiled at him. “But I like this one.” She pointed to the silver band. “I like freshwater pearls.”
    ‘“Forget it. The daisy ring,” Linc told the salesclerk.
    The clerk frowned at Linc, and Daisy saw it. The light was dim in the store, and while he took her ring size, the clerk treated her as if she were an abused child. People had mistaken her age in dim light before, maybe she could get away with it here too. It was worth a try, if only to show this control freak she was nobody to mess with. She slipped her hand through Line’s arm. “All right, we’ll take that ring now, honey.” She beamed up at him innocently. “But when I’m eighteen, can I have the other one? Please, please?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
    The clerk frowned even harder, and Linc looked dumbfounded.
    Daisy transferred her beam to the clerk. “He’s so good to me. I can’t think why Mama and Daddy don’t like him.”
    The clerk shook his head in disgust and went to ring the sale.
    Daisy met Line’s eyes as innocently as she could.
    He wasn’t amused. “Listen, cupcake, you’re cute, but there’s no way you can pass for eighteen. Stop causing problems.”
    Daisy smiled at him sunnily. “You haven’t seen anything yet. That guy thinks I’m underage. You pervert.”
    Linc scowled harder. “Part of the deal is that you cooperate.”
    “In Prescott,” Daisy pointed out. “We’re not in Prescott yet.”
    Back at the car, Linc held the door for her and checked his watch, frowning. Evidently they were off his timetable. Daisy gritted her teeth; she hated schedules because all they produced was efficiency and guilt, two of her least favorite things. And Linc didn’t help things any when he got in the car and said, “Can we get a dress without you losing your grip on reality?”
    Daisy met his eyes. “You never know.”
    “That’s what I hate about this,” Linc said, and put the car in gear.
    Shopping for a dress took exactly fifteen minutes. Daisy pulled Linc into a thrift shop and took a white-on-white embroidered rayon dress off a sale rack at the back of the store. She walked toward him, watching as he surveyed the place, realized everything in it was used, and said “No,” but she was ready for him. She’d been hanging out with him for only a very short time, but already she knew him like a book.
    “Trust me,” she said. “I tried this on once and put it back because it makes me look like a dweeb-brained virgin. It’ll go great with the ring.” She surveyed him with contempt. “It’ll fulfill all your fantasies, Daddy.”
    The thrift store clerk looked at Linc with disgusted interest.
    “Stop that,” Linc told her, and bought the dress, as she knew he would, just to get them out of the store.
    From there they went to a basement deli near the college for sandwiches. Daisy sat across from Linc and watched him eat, exasperated with him because of all he stood for, including white clothes and daisy rings. “So, tell me what I need to know to be your fiancee. What were you like as a kid? Where did you grow up?”
    “A little place in Ohio. Sidney.” Linc bit into his reuben sandwich with a great deal of enjoyment, and Daisy suddenly remembered Julia talking about how enthusiastic he was in bed.
Stop it,
she told herself. Remember the car. “Sidney who?”
    Linc shook his head and swallowed. “No, that’s the name of the town. We were the Sidney Yellow Jackets. I still have my football jacket if you want to wear it. Crawford would think that was great.”
    Daisy frowned. “Yellow Jackets? Like bees?”
    He nodded. “Our colors were black and yellow.”
    Daisy stared at him, incredulous while he attacked his sandwich again. “The Killer Bees from Sidney, Ohio?”
    He was unperturbed. “Hey, I got a football scholarship.”
    Daisy shook her head and picked up her own sandwich. It was turkey on sourdough and much healthier than Line’s reuben,