Single Dad Agreed to Pretend to Be Her Date for One Weekend—Then Discovered She Was a Millionaire
Chapter 1
“Please pretend to be my boyfriend for one weekend.”
Ethan Carter almost choked on his coffee.
He looked across the small café table at the woman who had just made the strangest request he had heard all year.
“You’re serious?”
“Very.”
She was sitting perfectly straight, hands wrapped around a cup she hadn’t touched.
Her name was Olivia Bennett.
At least, that was what she had told him.
Ethan glanced at his watch.
“I don’t think you’ve thought this through.”
“I have.”
“You approached a complete stranger.”
“Yes.”
“You’ve known me for less than twenty minutes.”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to pretend to date you in front of your family?”
Olivia nodded.
“This weekend.”
Ethan leaned back.
He should have said no.
He had a nine-year-old daughter waiting at home.
His life was complicated enough without pretending to be someone’s boyfriend.
But then Olivia placed an envelope on the table.
Ethan didn’t touch it.
“What is that?”
“Your compensation.”
“I don’t want money.”
“I know.”
“Then why offer it?”
“Because I need you to understand how important this is.”
Ethan looked at her.
She seemed nervous.
Not fake nervous.
Actually nervous.
“What’s happening this weekend?”
“My grandmother’s birthday.”
“And?”
“My entire family will be there.”
“So?”
“They’ve spent years trying to arrange my life for me.”
Ethan smiled faintly.
“Sounds familiar.”
“They think I’m incapable of choosing someone for myself.”
“And you want to prove them wrong.”
“Exactly.”
He sighed.
“Why me?”
Olivia looked toward the café window.
“Because you were kind.”
Ethan frowned.
“What did I do?”
“You helped that old man outside.”
Ethan glanced through the glass.
An elderly man was struggling with two grocery bags.
“I just carried his bags.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Ethan looked back at her.
Olivia smiled.
“I thought someone who helped a stranger without expecting anything might be convincing.”
Ethan laughed.
“You’re asking me to lie to your family because I carried groceries?”
“Pretty much.”
He should have walked away.
Instead, he asked:
“How much time?”
“Friday evening through Sunday night.”
“And what happens Monday?”
“We go back to being strangers.”
Ethan looked at the envelope.
Then at her.
“One weekend.”
Olivia smiled with relief.
“One weekend.”
Neither of them knew that by Monday, neither would want to go back to being strangers.
