Body Double Read online

  Blake called the limousine company to pick them up at Sarah’s and take them to his house. He asked his butler, Sam, to see her to the theater room to watch TV while he showered and dressed.

  When he came downstairs, clean and shaven, his housekeeper met him at the landing. “Benjie, forgive me for speaking out,” Isabelle said in a near whisper, “but something is... wrong with Dr. Gentry. One minute, she has an accent, and the next minute, she doesn’t. Dr. Gentry has been here before, but now she acts like this is a palace she’s visiting for the first time.”

  “No need for concern. She’s under a lot of stress with the wedding. It’s made her a little jumpy and forgetful.”

  Isabelle shook her head, as if denying his explanation. “That doesn’t seem like stress to me. She’s different, Benjie. What is going on?”

  Though he’d known his housekeeper and cook for most of his life and thought of her as a second mother, he needed her to drop the matter for good. “My marriage is a personal matter, Isabelle. You don’t have to like her, but you do have to accept her.”

  “Please don’t misunderstand. I like Dr. Gentry just fine and I accept your choice, but she’s not herself. I don’t even think that woman in there is Dr. Gentry. She might be an imposter.”

  “Isabelle, stop. That’s ridiculous. Please keep your opinions and concerns about my bride to yourself.”

  “But I—”

  “I need your word, Isa. You don’t share these silly suspicions with anyone.”

  Having swaddled him as a baby and watched him grow from a child to a man, she tended to balk when he gave her a command, but she accepted a paycheck for her work, which made him her employer, not her son. With a huff, she said, “Yes, sir. You have my word.” She thrust out her chin defiantly and shook her finger at him. “But I will keep an eye on her—and your valuables.”

  He laughed disarmingly, put his arm around her shoulders, and guided her toward the kitchen. “I appreciate you looking out for me, but everything’s fine. Now, what do we have to eat around here? We’re in a hurry, and I burned breakfast at her place. Just something light.”

  Blake and Andrea moved to the table in the breakfast nook, and Isabelle set out a light breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and muffins with coffee, tea, and apple juice. She was nothing but warm and welcoming to Andrea, though she occasionally shot Blake a surreptitious warning glance.

  “Your home is lovely,” Andrea said in her best Southern accent. “What I saw of it, anyway. I’m sure the upstairs is just as splendid.”

  He cast a glance at Isabelle, who glowered as she put items into the dishwasher. “I can’t wait to show you my—our bedroom,” Blake said with a wink.

  “After we’re married,” she said with a self-satisfied grin.

  Once they finished eating, they had the driver take them to a jewelry store on the way to the restaurant so that Andrea could buy a gift for Charlotte. And a ring. People stopped and stared when the limo pulled up to the curb, no doubt waiting to see if a celebrity got out. Blake was used to disappointing the gawkers and would-be paparazzi. He was nobody they would recognize, though he sometimes noticed women in their twenties stared a little longer, twirling their hair with a flirtatious smile. “Stay put, Steven. I’ll get her door.” He went around and opened Andrea’s door and offered her a hand as she got out.

  “I can open a car door,” she murmured.

  “Of course you can,” Blake said, putting his hand on the small of her back as he ushered her through the store’s glass door. “I’d like to show you how a gentleman treats his lady, if you don’t mind.”

  Her smile told him she didn’t.

  A pair of salespeople looked up eagerly when they entered, but it was the woman who greeted them first.

  “Welcome to DeMarco and Son. What can I help you find?” She was an immaculately dressed woman with perfect posture and sculpted red hair. Her eyebrows looked to have been plucked completely away and redrawn with a matching red pencil.

  He browsed the men’s rings in the display case at Andrea’s request while she looked at bracelets for Charlotte. She needed a ring to put on his finger at the wedding, but he didn’t have to like it. She might as well buy him some fifty-dollar piece of junk, for all it meant to Sarah. In fact, no matter what ring she bought, wearing it would only remind him of his impending divorce. He might as well find something suitably cheap to use in the ceremony and stash in a drawer until the divorce.

  A ring caught his eye, a gaudy yellow-gold thing shaped like a lion’s head with emeralds set into the eyes and a ruby in the mouth. It was hideous, with a price tag about ten times higher than its worth in materials. He hated it.

  “Let me see that one,” he told the salesman.

  The salesman shadowing his movements, whose name tag read R. Reynolds, looked confused by his request. “Which one?”

  “The ugly lion’s head.”

  “Certainly, sir,” he said, sliding the rear cabinet door open. It wasn’t even locked. “Although judging by the Rolex Oyster on your wrist, I’d say your tastes run significantly more distinguished than this. Perhaps I can show you—”

  “No. The lion.”

  “Of course, sir.” Reynolds lifted the tray of rings out and pulled the ugly ring from its velvety socket. “I believe this ring is actually silver with ten karat gold plating and synthetic gemstones.”

  Blake took the ring and slid it onto his left ring finger. It was horrific, but it fit.

  Andrea walked up, smiling victoriously. “I found the most beautiful white-gold-and-sapphire bracelet for Charlotte. Did you pick—” She gasped when her gaze settled on his left hand.

  “We’ll take it,” Blake said, pulling the ring off. He handed it to the salesman. “It’s only a hundred fifty bucks, so she won’t even have to spend much money on it.”

  “Blake,” Andrea said with a horrified expression, “that’s not the one you’ve chosen, is it?”

  He put one arm around her and followed the salesman to the counter where the cash register sat. “It’s perfect,” he said quietly. “That’s the ring that best symbolizes my dear bride’s love and commitment, don’t you think?”

  She blanched, blinking up at him. “I don’t think that’s the one she would’ve chosen for you. Maybe one of those over there? Platinum is nice, right?”

  “No, I choose this one.”

  “Please? Just take a look.”

  He refused, recognizing that his stubborn streak was more like a stubborn freeway, but unwilling to consider a different ring. His only regret would be making Andrea put that dreadful thing on his finger instead of Sarah.

  Andrea sat quietly in the limo, trying to understand why Blake had chosen that awful ring as his wedding band. He clearly hated it. Did it reflect his feelings for Sarah? How had he gone from “love you” on the phone in front of everyone to... this? The text message that Sarah had forgotten to buy his ring had wounded him deeply, but surely not enough to make him hate her.

  “Andrea,” he said after a few miles riding in silence, “about the ring. Sarah never had any intention of trying to make this marriage work. I didn’t see the point in spending thousands on a ring that I’ll just end up selling for a fraction of its price.”

  “Choosing a wedding band that you obviously loathe is so hostile, so passive aggressive,” she said. “Is that who you are? A spiteful man who flings hurtful barbs instead of talking out his problems? Because—let me tell you as a social worker—if that’s the approach you plan to take in this marriage, it wasn’t going to work anyway. You’re just as guilty of destroying it before it starts as she is.”

  Blake’s face reddened, and his brow furrowed. He looked like he was about to say something but stopped. Andrea waited. She’d said what she had to say, and until he had a response, she would just let him chew on that for a bit. The dope.

  She uncurled her hands, realizing that his bitterness had added to her own stress, something she certainly didn’t need two days before the wedding. S
he needed him to be her anchor, her rock, as she approached what was perhaps the scariest thing she’d had to face since being jilted two years earlier. Instead, he’d been selfishly dwelling on his own feelings of being unloved and undesired by the woman he was marrying.

  Oh, God. Who could blame him? No matter how hard he’d intended to try making the marriage work, it wouldn’t. It couldn’t. He probably felt trapped, unable to back out without crushing his mom’s dream. If his mother knew the truth, she wouldn’t go through with it. No mother would want this for her son, to sacrifice his happiness for the sake of a business deal, no matter how much she’d been looking forward to it.

  Andrea felt sick. She’d been too hard on him, heaping accusations of inadequacy atop what Sarah had already burdened him with. What in the world had she been thinking?

  He was staring out the window, his face stony and his jaw clenched. The faint smile lines around his eyes looked deeper, darkened by the pain he must be feeling.

  “Blake, I’m sorry. I should never have said that to you. I was out of line.”

  “No,” he said, his eyes hard. “You were right. Picking that ring was the wrong move. I was punishing myself as much as I was Sarah. Hell, she doesn’t have to wear it.”

  “I’ll take it back later and get something else.”

  “No, don’t. I won’t wear it anyway. There’s no point. It’ll only take a few weeks for the business deal to be finalized, and then it’ll all be behind me. I can throw the damned ring into the ocean for some scuba diver to find.” He reached over and took her hand. “I appreciate how honest you are. Even if the truth hurts to hear, I prefer it over the deceit I’ve been getting from my real fiancée. Promise you’ll always be straight with me?”

  “Of course I will,” Andrea said, cupping his hand in hers. “Remember, I’m an objective third party in this.”

  Blake smiled dimly. “You were hired by Sarah to represent her. Maybe you’re not as objective as you’d like to believe.”

  She blinked in surprise. Was he right? “I signed the amended prenup because it was fair and reasonable.”

  “You did,” he said with a conceding nod.

  “Have I done anything that would make you question my objectivity?”

  He thought for a moment with his eyes directed upward. “No, not yet, but I’m keeping my eye on you.”

  They shared a smile, and his face mirrored her relief that their first argument was behind them. That he could see her perspective in spite of his pain and admit he was wrong impressed her.

  The limo pulled into a parking lot. Andrea realized she didn’t know anything about Blake’s best man. “Quick. Tell me about Joe—has Sarah met him?”

  “Twice, but only briefly. You’ll be fine. Don’t forget the accent.”

  “Right.”

  As before, Blake had the driver stay put while he ran around to help Andrea out himself. She had Charlotte’s gift-wrapped bracelet in her purse, and Blake had an unwrapped gold and black box in his free hand. They walked hand-in-hand through the outdoor shopping center past a few shops. Even though she knew he was holding her hand to keep up the pretense that she was Sarah, she liked the feel of his strong hand grasping hers. His height and broad shoulders, his gentlemanly yet watchful demeanor made her feel the safest she’d felt since she was a child.

  Inside the restaurant, a brewery with a high, unfinished ceiling and a strong smell of hops, Charlotte was already seated across from a handsome, dark-haired man at a square table. As Andrea and Blake approached, the man stood and met her gaze with a warm smile. If Blake was handsome, this guy was drop-dead gorgeous. He had a perfectly proportional face, blue eyes, and a knock-’em-dead smile armed with straight, brilliant white teeth. The family resemblance was there, but this guy could be a model or movie star.

  Charlotte stood and embraced Andrea, calling her Sarah as expected.

  Blake likewise greeted Charlotte before gesturing to her dark-haired companion. “Sweetheart, you remember my cousin Joe,” he said.

  “Of course,” Andrea said, leaning in to give Joe a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Nice to see you again.” This was the guy he’d promised to set her up with after Sarah got back and no longer needed Andrea’s services, and she was interested to see whether he was as beautiful on the inside as on the outside.

  They started to take their seats, but Blake asked Joe to switch with him, putting Blake to Andrea’s left and Charlotte to her right. He reached under the table to take her hand.

  “Did you change your hair?” Joe asked, squinting at her.

  Andrea shrugged. “Not really. It needs a trim, why?”

  He studied her face, his lips pressed together in thought. “Something’s different about you, but I can’t put my finger on it.”

  Blake and Charlotte looked at each other and snickered. “Should we tell him?” Charlotte asked.

  “Let’s give him a while,” Blake answered. “See if he figures it out.”

  “Figures what out?” Joe asked. “Tell me. You didn’t wear glasses last time, so that’s not it.”

  Andrea did her best to maintain the Southern accent through the meal. The turkey sandwich she ordered was one of the best she’d ever had, answering her unspoken question about why they would choose to have lunch at a brewery when none of them ordered beer. Even the side salad was excellent.

  At first, the conversation was light and put Andrea at ease. Blake told her Joe was a detective and inquired about some of his recent cases, which Joe proudly announced had been closed with arrests of the perpetrators. To her dismay, the topic of the conversation eventually settled on the upcoming wedding. Anxiety put a tremble in her hands and dried her mouth. No matter how much water she guzzled, Andrea couldn’t shake the feeling of having been there before, two years earlier.

  At her own wedding party lunch, Sean hadn’t given any indication that he was having second thoughts. He didn’t get drunk, didn’t avoid the topic of the wedding, and he even expressed excitement over seeing her in her gown and putting the ring on her finger.

  Once the lunch dishes were cleared away, Andrea and Blake presented Charlotte and Joe with their gifts. Charlotte gushed over the diamond and sapphire bracelet she’d chosen. If she didn’t have to tell Charlotte that Sarah had forgotten to buy her a gift, she wouldn’t, and a quick glance at Blake warned him not to tell her, either.

  Joe was duly impressed with his new watch, though Blake fell sullen and quiet, nodding his acceptance of his cousin’s thanks. Joe put the watch on and admired it on his wrist. “I’m going to look sharper than you at your own wedding.” He punched Blake’s shoulder playfully.

  “We’re all going to look gorgeous on Saturday,” Charlotte said as she draped the bracelet over her wrist. Andrea worked the clasp for her. Against her brown skin, it looked truly spectacular.

  “You’re going to show up, aren’t you, Blake?” Joe asked. “Because if you don’t, remember—I have Sarah’s wedding ring. I might just put it on her finger myself.” He winked at Andrea.

  “Do I look like a complete idiot?” Blake asked. Under the table, he took her hand and used his thumb to play with the engagement ring on her finger. Just like Sean had. Déjà vu.

  The air in the room became thinner, harder to breathe. “Excuse me,” she croaked, standing. “I need to find the ladies’ room.”

  “It’s that way.” Charlotte pointed toward the rear of the restaurant. Andrea hurried away, desperate to distance herself from the talk of weddings and vows and grooms jilting their brides. “Are you okay? Sarah?” Charlotte called after her.

  Andrea reached the commode just in time, emptying the contents of her stomach. She knelt on the floor for a minute longer, trembling, while sweat poured down her face. This was all a mistake. She should never have agreed to be Sarah’s stand-in. It had been two years, and she hadn’t thought about Sean in months. She thought she’d gotten over it. Rising, she flushed the toilet and blew her nose with a length of toilet paper, then went to the s
ink and splashed cold water on her face. She patted herself dry with stiff, brown paper towels. With deep, steadying breaths, Andrea studied herself in the mirror. Calm down. Blake isn’t Sean. He wouldn’t leave me there. Not again.

  The door opened, startling her. “Hey,” Charlotte said in a tender voice. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” Andrea said, pushing a smile onto her lips. “I got a little overwhelmed with all the wedding talk. I don’t know how I’m going to get through the rehearsal tomorrow and meeting Sarah’s father.”

  “I’ll be right there with you,” Charlotte said. She stroked Andrea’s shoulder and arm. “Talk to me. Lean on me. Don’t try to bear all this on your own. You have my cell number. Use it. I should’ve called you to check in, and I’m sorry I didn’t. I thought Blake was taking care of you.”

  “He is. Don’t get me wrong. He’s been wonderful.” Andrea didn’t really want to tell Charlotte about Sean and her failed wedding, but as a social worker, she knew that sharing her experience would help those around her understand her needs and her issues. “It’s just that I’ve been engaged before.”

  “Oh. I didn’t know. What happened?”

  Andrea recounted the horror that had been her wedding day, unable to stop the tears from flowing.

  “Oh, honey. I’m so sorry,” Charlotte said. She pulled some toilet paper from the first stall and handed it to her. “Does Blake know?”

  “Not yet,” Andrea said, dabbing at the tears. “I thought I could handle it, but I guess I’m not as over it as I thought I was.” She blew her nose again.

  “It was Joe’s joke that pushed you over, wasn’t it?”

  Andrea nodded. “It’s not his fault. He couldn’t have known. He doesn’t even know I’m not Sarah.”

  “It’s about time we come clean, then,” Charlotte said. “Let’s get some more cool water on your eyes before we go back out there, shall we? You’re a mess.”