“Hello. Earth to Deacon.”
Leah’s voice yanked me from the past and brought me back to the present.
“Sorry, what?”
I chanced a glance from the road in her direction to find her watching me closely. “You okay? You zoned out for a second.”
“Yeah.” I mentally shook off the filth of the memory and tried my best to concentrate on Leah, and only Leah. “Yeah, sorry. Everything’s fine.”
“Okay.” The one word sounded skeptical, but fortunately she let it drop. “Look, I know you’re probably tired of listening to me complain. I didn’t ask to come today to start anything. I just… well, I like you, Deacon. And I know how important your friends are to you. I just worry that I don’t stand a chance if they don’t like me.”
Grabbing her hand, I pulled it across the console and rested it on my thigh, using my thumb to rub gentle circles along her wrist. “I like you too,” I spoke honestly. The shit with my friends aside, I had fun with Leah. She was sexy and smart. She made me laugh and was dynamite in bed. Three months wasn’t enough time to really get to know a person, and I owed it to myself to see if there was someone out there I could picture spending my life with. “And I’ll have a word with one of the guys. I’ll get it taken care of.”
Leah lifted my hand and placed a kiss on my knuckles. “Thanks, babe. Today will be great. You’ll see. I’ll win them over.”
Chapter Two
Fiona
Well this just sucks.
What was I thankful for this Thanksgiving? That would be wine. Lots and lots of wine. It was the only thing that would get me through this shit-tastic holiday.
If I had known exactly who all was coming today, I’d have taken my parents up on their invitation to celebrate Thanksgiving with them at their cabin in the mountains. At least then I would’ve been able to see snow and not the crappy slushy rain we were currently dealing with in the city.
But no, once again I allowed my heart to override my head and decided to join my friends at Caleb and Daphne’s house. Firstly, because I wanted as much snuggle time as I could get with their baby girl, Evie. There was just something about babies that turned me to mush. I couldn’t get enough of that little girl. And my other friend Lola was currently pregnant with her and Grayson’s first baby as well, so there was even more goodness to come.
It might have been awkward, spending the holiday with my ex, his pregnant wife and all their friends and family, but Lola was amazing. As soon as she realized I wasn’t a threat to what she and Grayson were building, she’d pulled me into the fold. Her two best friends, Daphne and Sophia, had quickly become my friends as well. I was officially part of their crazy little tribe, and I felt like I’d been a part of it for years. I was comfortable there, I belonged.
But the main reason I decided to spend my first holiday without my folks was because he was going to be here. Deacon Lockhart. The man I’d stupid, stupid, stupidly not realized was the love of my life until it was too late.
I’d been told that it was strictly close friends and family coming to Thanksgiving. Then he showed up with his brand-new girlfriend in tow, effectively shattering my mood and my holiday spirit in one crushing blow.
It wasn’t Deacon’s fault though. I had absolutely no right being upset with him for moving on. I mean, he’d put himself out there after all, took a leap of faith and made his feelings for me known, but I’d been too much of a coward at the time to accept what he was offering me.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have feelings for him, because I did. And that was the problem. I’d dated his brother, for crying out loud. And it had been really serious at one time. I thought Grayson and I were on the road to marriage. What kind of woman bounced from one brother to the next?
I convinced myself that it was inappropriate to move on to Deacon—even though what I felt brewing in my blood for him was so much more intense than it had ever been with Grayson.
As everybody moved into the dining room to eat, I took the chance to suck back more wine before going to join them. Caleb was at the head of the table with Daphne to his right, their little girl in a highchair between the two of them. I sat next to Daphne while Sophia took the seat to my other side. I breathed a sigh of relief, thinking I was in the clear when Grayson sat to Caleb’s left, placing Lola directly across from me. Unfortunately, the chair next to Lola slid out and Deacon sat down, making it so I’d have the perfect view of him from the corner of my eye no matter how hard I tried to avoid it.
Damn. Damn. Double stuffed damn.
Everyone else took their seats, and the room quickly filled with the chatter of conversation and the clinking of utensils against plates. The food looked absolutely delicious, but unfortunately my appetite seemed to have escaped out the very door Deacon and Leah waltzed through earlier.
What I was feeling wasn’t rational, I understood that, but I couldn’t shake the instant dislike of the woman on Deacon’s arm. It was nothing that she’d done to me personally. If I was being honest with myself—which was something I’d been avoiding like the plague lately—she was actually a really nice girl. But she had what I’d so carelessly tossed away. I was a woman, after all; we tended to be ruled by our emotions the same way men were ruled by their dicks.
It was science. So even though I had no reason to hate Leah other than pure unadulterated jealousy, it was completely unavoidable. The feelings were beyond my control. At least that was my excuse for wanting to stab her in the eye with a turkey leg.
Not that I’d ever act on that impulse.
“So, Fiona, darling. Your father tells me the Fall line was a huge success.”
I looked from the frowny face I’d been drawing in my mashed potatoes with my fork down the length of the table to Nolan Lockhart, Grayson and Deacon’s father. He and my dad were best friends. That was why I’d grown up so close to the two Lockhart boys. The three of us had been thrust together practically since birth. The Lockharts were basically an extension of the Prentice family, and vice versa.
Pasting a smile on my face, I spoke to the man who was, for all intents and purposes, a second father to me. “Yes, it was very successful. Everyone’s geared up to push the Spring line in a few months. We’re hopeful it does just as well.”
“We’re all so proud of you,” Nolan’s wife, Cybil, said. My smile turned genuine at the heartfelt compliment. They’d always treated me just like a daughter, so hearing that she was proud of me warmed me from the inside.
“Thanks, Cybil.”
“Of course, I’ll be thrilled when you stop concentrating so much on work and find a nice young man to settle down with,” she continued. “Give us more little babies to keep us old folks feeling young.”
I promptly choked on the water I’d just taken a sip of and started coughing uncontrollably.
Sophia and Daphne started patting my back in an effort to help me breathe again while Grayson grumbled, “Jesus, Mom.”
“What?” Cybil asked innocently. “I’m just saying. We’re getting up there in age, son. And I know Evelyn agrees with me. She’s been going on about grandbabies ever since you and Lola announced you were pregnant.”
Sweet baby Jesus in a manger. She’d been talking to my mother? That wasn’t good.
One of the many curses of being a redhead was my fair skin’s tendency to blush a furious shade of pink. And if the way my face was burning at that very moment was anything to go by, by cheeks were currently the color of fire.
“Mom, will you please lay off?” Grayson grunted. “There’s nothing wrong with Fee focusing on her career right now.”
I shot him a thankful look across the table while silently praying for the floor to open up and swallow me.
“Is there more wine?” I asked, scanning the table for the closest bottle. Sophia’s fiancé, Dominic, reached across her, bottle in hand.
“Of course there’s nothing wrong with that, dear,” Cybil said. I hoped that would be the end of the painful conversation.
; No such luck.
“But a woman needs to be mindful once she reaches her thirties. Our eggs are only good for so long.”
Dear Merciful Lord who art in Heaven, if you care for me at all, you’ll send down a bolt of lightning to kill me right now.
“For shit’s sake,” Grayson cursed.
“Cybil, darling, that’s enough,” Nolan stated sternly.
“She could always go to one of those banks that keep all the sperm,” Nana Lockhart said loudly. Nana was Grayson and Deacon’s eccentric grandmother. I loved the woman to death, but she only had two settings: hilarious and humiliating. There was no middle ground. “You know, the ones that use those turkey baster thingies?”
I turned to Daphne and held out my butter knife. “Will you do me a favor and plunge this into my neck?” I tipped my head and pointed where I wanted to be stabbed. “Right here in the jugular.”
Her eyes flashed with genuine concern before something unsettling started working in their depths. I didn’t like that look. Not one damn bit. “Um, well… uh, Fiona’s actually… what I mean to say is…” I could practically see the light bulb flick on about her head as she finished with, “dating! She’s dating!” she said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Or she’s going to, anyway. I set her up on a blind date.”
Eff my life. Eff it so damn hard.
I gave her a squinty-eyed look and screamed with my eyes, What the hell are you doing?
I’m sorry, I panicked! her eyes returned.
Have you lost your mind? my glare asked.
I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do!
Caleb broke into our mental argument. “Fee’s going on a blind date? I didn’t know that.”
A thunk sounded from beneath the table, and Caleb winced at his wife’s well-placed kick, muttering a string of curses under his breath.
“She totally is!” Sophia joined in, clearly having taken the same crazy pills as Daphne that morning.
“And he’s totally a great guy!” Lola chimed in. My friends were dead. I was smothering all three of them in their sleep. “He’s… a surgeon!”
“Yeah!” Sophia added. “He works on babies. And he’s totally cute.”
Dominic gave Sophia a quizzical look, clearly not buying the shit she was shoveling for a second. “He works on babies?”
“Yeah,” she replied. I couldn’t tell by the back of her head, but I was pretty sure she was giving her man the stink eye. “He’s a pediatric surgeon. A super-hot pediatric surgeon.”
“He sounds like a catch!” The four of us turned our attention to Leah. “Don’t you think, babe?” she asked Deacon, wrapping her hands around his arm and leaning against his shoulder. “I mean, a handsome doctor who takes care of teeny tiny babies? He sounds like Prince Charming. Isn’t that great?”
“Yeah,” Deacon said in a flat, emotionless tone before lifting his beer bottle to his lips and taking a long pull. “Just great.”
Something glittered behind his eyes as he stared at me over the amber glass. I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing, but whatever it was twisted my stomach into knots.
“Oh, how lovely,” Lola’s mother, Elise, stated happily. “Every woman wants to land herself a doctor.”
Her husband, Maury, shot his wife a bland look. “Good to know, darling.”
Before taking it upon herself to come to Seattle and interfere in her daughter’s life, Elise had been a single woman, still bitter over her divorce from Lola and Dominic’s father years ago. Then she met the doorman in Lola’s building. It was kismet. The two of them married shortly there after, and have been acting like randy teenagers ever since. It was sweet… to anyone who wasn’t Lola or Dom.
Elise rolled her eyes at her husband. “Oh, you know what I mean. Young women want stuff like that. I’m perfectly content with you, sweetheart.” She kissed his cheek, and it was his turn to roll his eyes.
“Just what every man wants to hear, that his wife is perfectly content. Warms my heart,” he teased good-naturedly. Meanwhile, I was busy aiming deadly eye lasers at each of my girls.
Grayson gave Lola a curious look. “This is the first I’m hearing of it. When did you guys set this up?”
“Uh, recently,” she answered quickly. “Like really recently. They’re not going on their date for a couple weeks. You know, because of his busy surgery schedule and all.”
“Yeah,” I deadpanned. “Busy, busy, busy.” I emptied my glass and held it out to Dominic for a refill.
What had started as a tiny white lie had quickly snowballed out of control, as was wont to do when it came to those three women.
The more they talked, the more elaborate the lie became until the man they’d dreamed up became some modern-day prince who could do no wrong. I wasn’t sure if men like the one they were describing even existed. There was such a thing as too much perfection. And they’d really laid that shit on thick.
Everyone seemed to think it was a brilliant idea, excited for what could come from my upcoming date with Dr. Wonderful. All the while I was silently planning my escape from the country before this insanity could actually take place.
Thanksgiving could officially suck it.
Chapter Three
Fiona
The parents had all cleared out shortly after dinner was over. Talk of my impending date had thankfully died off when the tryptophan started to hit everyone. Lola had laid down for one of her many pregnancy naps, and everyone else scattered to different parts of the house. I’d taken the opportunity to snatch up the baby and escape to the quiet sanctuary of the nursery upstairs to prevent any more questions.
“Your mommy is a nutter,” I cooed in a baby voice as I bounced Evie on my hip.
She let out a little baby squeal before shoving her whole fist in her mouth.
I giggled down at her, unable to keep a straight face when the cute, pudgy little girl gave me that gummy grin. “That’s right, a nutter. She totally screwed Aunty Fee.”
In response, Evie leaned in and tried to suck on my chin while smacking me in the chest with her tiny balled-up fist.
“Who’s Auntie Fee’s special girl? Who’s her little angel?” I baby-talked, nuzzling her neck to make her giggle again. I inhaled deeply, pulling that soothing baby smell into my lungs.
“You’re good with her.”
My head shot up. Deacon stood in the doorway, watching me and Evie closely.
“Uh, thanks.”
He stepped farther into the room, and the air around us grew uncomfortably thick. I hated that being in such close quarters with him felt so weird. Deacon had been the most important person in my life for so long. Growing up, he meant everything to me. Still did, honestly. And now there was this huge chasm keeping us apart. It was like I was standing in front of a stranger. It broke my heart.
“So,” he started slowly, “a blind date with a doctor. That’s….”
“Insane?” I asked with an awkward laugh. One corner of his mouth hitched up in a crooked smirk, and my belly instantly warmed at the sight of it. In an attempt to keep myself grounded, I held Evie even closer to my chest.
“I was going to say out of character.”
My mouth curved into a slight confused frown. “How so?”
Deacon’s shoulder lifted in a casual shrug. “It’s just… the way they went on about the guy you’d think he created a cure for cancer or something. It was almost like they thought his occupation was the most important thing about him. You just never struck me as the type of woman to give a shit about that kind of stuff.”
I couldn’t help but feel offended at the implication that I could be that shallow. “I don’t,” I snapped somewhat bitterly. “I couldn’t care less if he was a surgeon or the dude who shoveled roadkill off the highway. Are you saying I’m conceited?”
His head jerked back infinitesimally. “Shit, no. That wasn’t what I meant. You know me better than that. I was just surprised is all. You’ve always been kind of private. A blind date is really out of
the ordinary for you.”
My shoulders drooped with relief once I realized he wasn’t insulting me. “Oh. Yeah. Well, you know the girls. When they get something in their heads, there’s no talking them out of it. All you can do is brace.”
He chuckled, and I felt that down to my core. “Yeah. I get that.”
Why is this so freaking hard?
It had been more than a year since that night he laid it all on the table. More than a year since I lost him all over again, all because I was scared. Daphne had once told me that the ball was in my court. He’d taken the first step and I shot him down. If there was any hope of having him back in my life, it was up to me to take the next step.
I’d wanted to. God, how I’d wanted to.
I tried my hardest to explain. I wanted him to know that I felt the same way he did, that he was it for me. I wanted to apologize for not seeing it, for being so goddamned blind. I wanted to tell him just how badly I wanted him, how he’d consumed my every thought since that kiss on my porch. I wanted to make it right so I could finally have him.
But when Deacon said he was done, he’d meant it in every way possible. He shut me out completely. Any attempt I made failed so epically that it actually caused physical pain. Then Leah entered the picture a few months back.
I could count on one hand the number of times Deacon and I had been in the same room together over the past year, and this was the first time we’d actually spoken.
I had been dreaming of this moment, craving it. Missing Deacon was like missing a crucial piece of myself. But now that the moment had actually arrived, I was so overcome with nerves that I couldn’t manage to think of anything to say.
We stared at each other, the discomfort growing palpable. Thank God for Evie. She chose that very moment to let out a shrill scream, announcing to the room that she wasn’t happy with the lack of attention on her, and smacked my cheek.
“Guess she’s used to being the center of attention,” Deacon joked, moving further into the room and extending a finger in her direction. Evie quickly latched on and tried her best to shove his finger into her mouth.
Charming Fiona Page 2
