Marriage by Mistake

it.
    "They aren't." Kerrin seemed to catch herself, and added, "That is, a special committee came up with the cash. We're very lucky."
    "Right. Lucky." Matt slammed his fork onto the table. "Forget it, Ker. I'm not going to summer school."
    The argument was familiar and Kerrin seized on it. Anything to change the subject from her trip to L.A. "Sure you are. By taking Health this summer you'll have a free period to take Driver's Ed in the fall."
    "Driver's Ed? Are you crazy?"
    "One way or another you're going to be driving."
    His lips thinned and his golden eyes bore into her. Considering the fact that she'd just been lying her head off, Kerrin thought she handled the searching look well. Besides, Matt wasn't trying to find out about the alleged summer school teacher any more. No, now he was busy doing what he'd been doing the past three years of his life. He was trying to get out of having to spend time with the other, able-bodied kids his own age.
    "You just don't get it, do you?" he said, his voice soft.
    Kerrin gave him a guileless look as she forced some spaghetti into her mouth. "Get what?"
    His straight mouth quirked into a smile. "Mom and Dad won't make me."
    This was most certainly true, so Kerrin didn't bother to refute it. "I suppose you have something better to do?"
    "As a matter of fact, yes." Matt grew a smug smile. "Private research."
    "Oh, brother. Not about that pyromaniac, Mr. Holiday?"
    Matt raised his brows. "Mr. Holiday is not a pyromaniac. Pyros merely set things on fire. Blowing them up requires a great deal more sophistication."
    "I see."
    "And he takes photographs of his successes." Matt picked up his fork and gamely shoved it into the noodles. "At the instant of explosion. I showed you the one of the dam on the Columbia River. He sent it to the AP wire service. Ballsy, huh?"
    "If you say so." Kerrin got up from the table, hoping Matt didn't remark how little she'd eaten. She could never eat when she was nervous, and nervous was a pale word for how she felt about her trip to L.A. tomorrow. Summer school teacher? Hardly. The man she was going to meet in L.A. was about as far as you could get from anyone Kerrin would hire to teach young minds.
    At the sink Kerrin stopped and wondered, for the hundredth time, if she were doing the right thing even meeting the guy. For the hundredth time she closed her eyes and assured herself this was her only possible course.
    Tomorrow she would meet that man and...she'd talk him out of taking the job in Freedom. He'd never even set foot in her town.
    "Hey, Ker, you okay?"
    She flinched. God, Matt was quick with that wheelchair. He'd slipped up right behind her.
    "Fine," she pronounced automatically. "I'm just fine."
    But Matt looked up at her, still concerned. "Because if you're nervous about meeting this, er, summer school teacher, I could give you a few pointers."
    Not back to the summer school teacher . Buying time, Kerrin shook her hands free of water, then turned to give her brother a raised-eyebrow regard. "Could you, now?"
    "Sure." Matt's concerned expression eased into a grin. "Hey, I'm a guy, aren't I?"
    "I told you, this is a job interview." She barely stumbled over the lie this time. "It's not about guys ." Matt had to be the only male in the world who thought Kerrin had a chance for romance in her life. Unfortunately, he thought so with single-minded determination.
    "Right." Matt rolled half a wheel back and looked down her slight figure. "But just pretending for a minute that it is about, ya know, guys, there's a few things you could do. To encourage the fellow."
    A brief, harsh laugh escaped Kerrin and she quickly closed her mouth. The only thing she wanted to 'encourage the fellow' to do was leave them all alone.
    Matt shook his head. "For starters, Ker, you could dress a little more...open. Like you're not afraid to show your skin?"
    "Ahem. Could I?"
    "Hey." Matt reached out to tap her jeans-clad knee. "It's nice skin."
    "Thanks." Nice skin . Well at least she had something going for her.
    "Of course that skin could use some rounding out," Matt went on, rubbing the chin he'd had to start shaving the year before. "How about some ice cream?"
    "Right now?"
    "Sure. You didn't eat much dinner, anyway, did you?"
    So he'd noticed. Kerrin bit the inside of her cheek and felt another stab of guilt, just as she had at the sink. Was it normal, she wondered, for the victim of blackmail to feel guilty? For she'd been blackmailed by those people in Los