A WEEK HAD passed since Paul’s decision to rock McKenzie’s world. The feeling of being on the verge of constant tears had eased somewhat. Instead, a mounting sense of panic was rapidly taking its place.
In less than two weeks she had to go to Tennessee to be in her cousin’s wedding.
Her cousin with the perfect life that her mother went on and on about. That was, when she wasn’t going on and on about how much she looked forward to meeting McKenzie’s future husband.
Because no matter how many times she’d attempted to tell her mother that she and Paul had broken up, McKenzie hadn’t been able to drag the words from the pits of her being.
She didn’t want to hear the sorrow, the pity, the disappointment in her mother’s voice.
Nor had she been able to tell Reva.
Oh, how she and her cousin had been so close once upon a time. Just for the longest time McKenzie had sensed her cousin’s awkwardness with McKenzie’s unhappy personal life, her guilt that her own love life seemed to always be so perfect when McKenzie’s hadn’t. Until McKenzie had started dating Paul, she and Reva had reached the point of barely talking. Only over the past few months as McKenzie had convinced her cousin that, yes, she had her own perfect life in Seattle, had she and her cousin’s relationship started getting past the awkwardness that had reared its ugly head when McKenzie had taken the residency in Seattle, despite all her family pushing her to stay in Nashville. Mostly, because they worried about her and wanted to fix her up with blind date after blind date.
No thank you.
Her mother had even gone online trying to find McKenzie dates in Seattle.
Meeting Paul and being able to tell her family to back off had been a godsend. Suddenly the tension between her and her mother had eased, the tension between her and Reva had eased.
Even McKenzie’s brother had seemed less worried about her being so far away.
How could she tell them she’d been dumped again?
The pressure to move home would renew, the meddling in her love life—or lack thereof—would start again. You’d think being so far away would keep the damage at a minimum, but McKenzie knew better.
She couldn’t go to Tennessee single.
Nor could she cancel out on being in Reva’s wedding. If Reva ever found out her reasons for doing so, her cousin’s guilt would be tenfold at having the perfect life while poor McKenzie had been dumped yet again.
Getting involved with someone was the last thing McKenzie wanted. Her breakup with Paul was too fresh. Maybe she’d never want to get involved again, but would decide to focus on her career and would dedicate her life to helping heal as many tiny hearts as she could even if she couldn’t do a darned thing to repair her emotionally broken one.
McKenzie didn’t want to meet anyone, didn’t want to start a new relationship, didn’t want the hassle of another heartbreak down the road.
Which explained her rather embarrassing internet search.
She was at the hospital in a small dictation room off the pediatric cardiology unit, waiting on test results on a new admit, and had let desperation take hold during the rare moment of downtime.
She scrolled through her search results for “reputable dating services.” Ugh. How could she be so successful in her professional life and so unsuccessful in her personal?
This would cost her a small fortune but would be worth every penny to keep the focus on her cousin’s wedding bliss and off McKenzie’s latest heartbreak. She’d have to hire someone from Seattle to fly to Tennessee with her, rather than use a Nashville service. She couldn’t risk her family bumping into a purchased date and knowing what she’d done. How embarrassing would that be?
Down the road, once they were past Reva’s wedding and McKenzie was back in Seattle, she’d tell them the truth.
But to keep everyone happy and her own life a lot less stressful, McKenzie needed a wedding date pronto.
“I’m not sure I want to know.”
Oh, flipping pancakes! Ryder!
Face going hot, McKenzie minimized the computer screen and wished she could hide her mortification as easily as she turned to face him.
He leaned against the doorjamb, his brows drawing together, and an odd look on his face. “Did something happen to you and the guy you’ve been seeing?”
What was he doing there? Okay, so she was at the hospital in the dictation area, but had he forgotten he didn’t like her and kept his distance?
Too bad he hadn’t avoided her just now.
“You could say that,” she admitted, taking a deep breath and not meeting Ryder’s intent gaze. Maybe if she didn’t look directly at him, he wouldn’t see how horrified she was that he’d caught her looking at escort services. Desperate times called for desperate measures.
“I thought you two were long-term.” He studied her as if he was trying to solve some great mystery.
McKenzie sighed. He’d already caught her looking at dating agencies, had seen her raccoon-eyed last week. What more could it hurt to admit she’d been dumped? She could hide the truth for only so long before word got out among her coworkers, anyway.
“We were, only now, we’re not.” She shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. As if she hadn’t spent the last week trying to figure out what it was about her that eventually always drove away the men in her life.
“Good riddance. He wasn’t right for you.”
McKenzie’s jaw dropped at Ryder’s unexpected and rather forceful comment. The two men had met only a couple of times and had never had a conversation as far as she knew. Why would Ryder have thought Paul wrong for her?
“Paul is a nice man. I will win him back,” she murmured, then blushed when she realized she’d made the claim out loud. Why had she? Yes, she was distraught at the breakup, cared for Paul and had thought they’d marry, but win him back? They’d barely spoken since his devastating text.
“You weren’t the one to end the relationship?” Disbelief filled Ryder’s voice.
Yeah, right. McKenzie had never been the one to end a relationship. Not ever.
Ryder had straightened from the doorjamb, had moved further into the tiny room.
McKenzie’s heart rate sped up and she swallowed as she stared up at him.
She wished she could just disappear. Poof. Be gone.
Ryder gestured to the computer where he’d seen her search results. “Are you planning to try to make him jealous?”
She glanced at the screen, no longer lit with her escort service search. She hadn’t, but his thinking that was better than his knowing the truth. “Do you think it would work?”
Maybe if Paul thought she was moving on he’d come to his senses, realize he didn’t want to lose her, and they could get back to their normally scheduled lives.
Ryder’s dark brow lifted. “Is that really what you’re doing? Hiring a date to make your ex jealous?”
Ugh. She sounded pathetic. Would admitting the truth, that she needed a date for her cousin’s wedding be more, or less, pathetic?
“It’s really none of your business,” she reminded him, then blurted out something so crazy she couldn’t believe she’d said it. “Unless you’d like to make it your business by being my boyfriend for a weekend?”
Ryder never sought McKenzie out. Never.
But he hadn’t been able to get her sad eyes out of his mind no matter how he tried.
Which explained why he’d hung around the hospital despite that he’d just finished checking his last patient consult that evening. Normally, he’d have taken off to make sure his path didn’t cross with McKenzie’s when he knew she was at the hospital.
Tonight, when he’d spotted her in the dictation room on his way out, he’d been drawn to her, meaning to just walk by and get a glimpse, maybe say hi and assure his mind that she was, indeed, fine as she’d claimed so that maybe, just maybe, her tear-streaked face would quit haunting him.
Not since finding out she was taken had she occupied so much of his mind. Prior to that, he’d thought about her almost constantly.
The past week he’d reverted to doing so again and hadn’t liked it.
You knew something had upset her, he reminded himself. Had told himself she’d probably had to give bad news to a family during her hospital shift and that had been what upset her. Lord knew there were times when doing so gutted him enough that he fought tears.
The thought that something personal might have caused her tears had crossed his mind, but he’d dismissed it. Even if McKenzie and her man were having issues, the last thing Ryder wanted was to be a rebound guy.
Been there, done that, had the scars to prove it.
“You want to use me to make your ex jealous?”
“Maybe,” she surprised him by admitting. “Are you seeing anyone?”
“No, but—”
“Look,” she interrupted. “I’m not hitting on you. Nor do I want to date you,” she clarified. Her tone conveyed that she found the idea preposterous. “Not for real. I just need someone to go with me to my cousin’s wedding. Someone who won’t take things wrong or have any relationship expectations and if Paul gets jealous in the process...” She shrugged.
McKenzie wanted to use him.
“I don’t think it fair to invite someone who might get the wrong idea,” she continued, perhaps to fill the silence as words failed Ryder.
He liked to think he rolled with the punches, but McKenzie asking him to be her pretend boyfriend for a weekend had him speechless.
“I’m not interested in replacing Paul.” She took a deep breath. “But going to my cousin’s wedding alone isn’t a viable option.”
The desperation that must have driven her to ask him to go with her kept Ryder from walking away.
Not that he’d say yes.
Her suggestion was ridiculous. Playing McKenzie’s pretend boyfriend appealed about as much as the thought of torture.
His gaze narrowed. “When is the wedding?”
“Not this weekend, but next.” At his widened eyes, she rushed on, “Short notice, I know.”
“You want me to go with you to a wedding next weekend? As a pretend date? No strings attached?”
If not for her serious expression, he’d think she was pranking him.
“Want is such a mild word. I’ll gladly repay the favor.”
Ryder arched his brow. “You mean when I need someone to pretend to be my girlfriend?”
“Please say yes. I’m desperate.” She pointed at the computer screen, reminding him of her escort service search. “Obviously.”
“Being a pretend boyfriend for a wedding isn’t on my bucket list. Sorry.”
Her disappointment had him momentarily reconsidering, then he shook off the notion of saying yes just to ease the desperation in her big green eyes.
Once upon a time he’d have loved the excuse to spend time with her. Fortunately, he’d put that behind him.
Just as he planned to put this conversation behind him.
God, please let Ryder go back to avoiding her, McKenzie prayed. Because she was absolutely mortified at her blurted plea.
Had aliens taken over her brain? How could she have asked him something so insane?
Desperation really had turned McKenzie’s mind to mush.
Ryder didn’t even like her, so the very idea of his going with her was ridiculous.
No more ridiculous than hiring an escort service.
She dug her fingertips into her clammy palms.
At least she knew Ryder. He wouldn’t get the wrong idea or be some criminal who’d slipped through the company’s background checks.
She raked her gaze over his six-foot frame. Chestnut hair, strong nose and cheekbones, honey-colored eyes, dark, thick lashes, full lips framed by deep dimples. Ryder was gorgeous.
She’d thought it the day they met, and that hadn’t changed with time.
Of course, Mr. Gorgeous had said no. He avoided her like the plague. Why would he bail her out of an unpleasant situation?
Only why was he still standing in the doorway?
He’d said no. Okay, fine. He should go away and let her get back to her internet search before she was notified regarding her new patient’s test results.
“I didn’t expect you to say yes.” Shut up, McKenzie. “I mean, why would you go to Nashville with me?”
He blinked. “You wanted me to go to a wedding with you in Nashville, as in Tennessee?”
Yeah, that was a long way away from Seattle.
Nineteen hundred and seventy-four miles by plane.
Oh, how she knew every long torturous mile of that five-hour flight and how she dreaded every moment.
Just thinking of it had her heart flip-flopping.
Or maybe it was the way Ryder was looking at her that had triggered her cardiac acrobatics.
Perhaps he didn’t like flying any more than she did.
“I would have paid your way,” she defended, just in case he’d thought she’d meant for him to dig into his own pockets to help her.
He looked insulted and gestured toward her darkened computer screen. “I’m not for hire.”
Her face heated. “That’s not what I meant. My covering your expenses would only have been fair. You shouldn’t have to pay to bail me out of a bad situation.”
His expression became pensive. “Is that what this is? A bad situation?”
The worst.
“Spending the weekend with my family will be torture if I go home alone.” For so many reasons. “They’ll be beside themselves with worry that Paul and I’ve broken up. The last thing I want is to have everyone focused on my broken heart instead of my cousin’s happy day.” She sighed. “Plus, I’m in the wedding. I have to go. Yeehaw.”
Feeling tears she’d have sworn she didn’t have left fill her eyes, McKenzie turned toward the computer. She moved the computer mouse, lighting up the screen again.
“I just want to go home, celebrate my cousin’s wedding and enjoy spending time with my family.” A tall order, under the best of circumstances and perhaps impossible while trying to forget about her breakup with Paul. “But, no worries, I have a plan.”
Not necessarily a great plan, but one that would hopefully suffice to keep her first trip home in eons from being completely ruined.
Maybe it would work.
Were those tears in McKenzie’s eyes?
He’d stopped by the dictation room because he’d wanted to assure himself she was okay. Not to cause fresh tears in her beautiful eyes.
Which was what he’d managed to do.
He should have just kept walking, kept with the status quo of going the opposite direction when she was near.
But he hadn’t. Now how was he supposed to quit being haunted by memories of her tears when he had another reminder?
When he’d triggered her tears with his prying?
Seeing her upset undid his insides, made him feel as if he’d wronged her by saying no.
McKenzie’s breakup with Paul wasn’t his problem.
Her trip home wasn’t his problem.
So, why were his feet refusing to walk away?
Why was he wondering how difficult it would be to rearrange his hospital and clinic schedules?
“You’re sure hiring a date for a weekend away is safe?”
Because he did not like the idea of a hired stranger being with her for an entire weekend.
Without turning to look at him, she shrugged. “It’s not something that I’ve any experience with, but I plan to do my homework prior to finalizing which company and escort I go with.”
Ignoring that he still stood there, she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number from the computer screen.
“Hello? I’d like to make an appointment to possibly hire a date for next weekend.” Pause. “Yes, for the entire weekend. If I decide to go with your company, it’ll involve being with me around the clock and traveling out-of-state.”
Hearing her say the words out loud, hearing the break in her voice, the resigned desperation but determination to proceed with this crazy idea of hers in her tone, left Ryder’s insides cold.
He couldn’t let her do it.
No way could he walk away and leave her at the mercy of whomever the agency set her up with. What if the guy exploited her vulnerability? Or was a serial killer?
Ryder didn’t consider himself any sort of a white knight, but his mother had raised him better than to stand by and watch a woman set herself up to be taken advantage of.
Nope. Not happening.
Walking over to her, heart pounding at what he was about to do, he took the phone from her and disconnected the call.
“Hey!” she fussed, reaching for her phone back. “What did you do that for?”
Hoping he didn’t live to regret what he was about to agree to, Ryder handed over her phone. “You’re not hiring someone to take you.”
Her chin lifted. “Excuse me? I’m a grown woman and can do whatever I choose.”
Ryder admired the flash of fire in her green gaze. “Sorry. I should rephrase that.”
He took a deep breath, assured himself that he was doing only what any decent person would do, that he had no residual feelings for McKenzie, and that he was completely safe from falling under her spell again because he didn’t do rebound relationships.
No getting involved with someone who was already emotionally involved with someone else, whether that was an active relationship, or one recently ended.
Not ever.
He’d go, keep her from possibly risking her safety by hiring a date, pretend to be her boyfriend to keep from spoiling her trip to Tennessee then he’d come home, and they’d go back to ignoring that they even knew each other.
“You don’t need to hire anyone—” here went everything “—because I’ll go with you to Nashville.”
McKenzie couldn’t have heard Ryder correctly. Had he really just said he’d go with her?
“I’ll need details.”
Hands shaking as she gripped the phone, he’d given her back, McKenzie couldn’t hide her shock. “You’ll go.”
“If it means not having to worry about you traveling with a date you know nothing about—” his tone said that she’d been willing to do so was ludicrous “—then, yes, I’ll go.”
Disbelief filled her.
“Why?” She wasn’t sure if she meant why would he worry about her or why would he be willing to go. Both, she decided. She didn’t understand his reasons for either.
“Quit looking a gift horse in the mouth, McKenzie.” He gave a low laugh, as if this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and she was making a big deal out of nothing. “Just tell me what I need to know so I can get my schedule rearranged.”
Because he was going to go with her.
He’d save her face regarding her breakup with Paul, ease any uncertainties her family had regarding her not being happy in Seattle and regarding Reva being the first to marry and McKenzie’s suddenly single status. His being there would keep her family from playing pity party and matchmaker.
It could work.
“I’m flying in on Thursday—” saying the word flying had her stomach lurching “—so I can be there for the rehearsal on Friday and whatever else my cousin has planned. If you’re sure—” she couldn’t believe he was “—then, I’ll purchase a ticket for you to fly up on Friday afternoon and to leave after the wedding on Saturday night.”
“Is Saturday night when you’re coming home?”
She shook her head. “I’m not headed back until Sunday.”
Regarding her, Ryder shrugged. “I’ll take off a few days, go with you on Thursday, and fly back with you on Sunday evening. I’m overdue a minivacation.”
She’d never expected him to say yes, much less rearrange his work hours to accommodate her trip.
“Where will you stay?” She blurted the question without thought, much as she had her initially asking him to go with her. She especially hadn’t considered how his next words would turn her insides outward.
“Wherever you are, girlfriend.”
Girlfriend? McKenzie’s eyes widened and her teeth sank into her lower lip. Hello, crazy heart rhythm.
Heaven help her.
Her stomach flip-flopped much as it did at the thought of boarding a plane and being trapped inside for hours on end.
His answer shouldn’t send her into panic mode.
His intent eyes shouldn’t have her heart racing.
But they did. Maybe she hadn’t thought this out as well as she should have.
Ryder was an attractive man. Perhaps she shouldn’t toy around with dating him, not even when it wasn’t real.
“I’m staying at my mom’s.”
“Fine. I’ll stay there. I can sleep on the sofa, if needed.” He didn’t look concerned. “Unless you think your mother isn’t going to like me and will throw me out?”
He was going. Never in a million years would she have thought he’d be who rescued her.
“My mother would like any man who was keeping me from spinsterhood.”
It was the truth, but even the pickiest of mothers would leap for joy if their daughter brought home Dr. Ryder Andrews, pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon extraordinaire and gorgeous to boot.
“Spinsterhood?” Ryder’s brow arched. “Your breakup with computer guy doesn’t catapult you into fear of spinsterhood, surely?”
“You’d think, but try explaining that to my mother.”
“If you want me to.”
Because he’d be in Tennessee and would meet her mother. Something none of her Seattle friends had ever done, including Paul.
Had she not been so afraid to fly, they’d have gone home to meet her family. Her brother, Mark, had been to Seattle several times and seemed to like Paul well enough. Funny how childhood tragedy could leave one child terrified to board a plane and have another facing his past by becoming a pilot.
“You’re really going to Tennessee?” she asked, wanting to make sure she wasn’t misinterpreting. “That is what you’re saying? You’re going to pretend to be my boyfriend for my cousin’s wedding weekend, so my family won’t start using spinster hashtags when discussing me and I can enjoy my trip home without their pity or matchmaking?”