by Janice Lynn
He wouldn’t be doing that. At least, not for real.
The couple ran through a mock ceremony with the wedding coordinator stopping them time and again to redirect anything not exactly as she and the couple had previously discussed. When they’d finished and the last of the wedding party had exited the area, she clapped her hands and the handful of people sitting in the pews followed suit.
“Now, this time, we’ll run through without interruptions,” the coordinator instructed. “If you mess up, just keep going as if this is the real deal. No stopping. Pronto.”
The petite woman might have been a drill sergeant in a previous life.
As everyone was resuming their previous places, Ryder moved to one of the pews near the front. Several family members and friends of the wedding party sat in the area, chatting while they waited for the rehearsal to begin again.
“You must be McKenzie’s Dr. Andrews.”
Ryder glanced up at the man who slid into the pew next to him and nodded.
The man stuck out his hand. “I’m McKenzie’s big brother, Mark.”
Ryder shook the man’s hand. “Ryder.”
“I grilled her on you over the phone, but she didn’t have a lot to say. Just that I’d like you. She said that about the last guy, too.”
“You planning to grill me now to see if you have better luck?” Ryder guessed.
The man gave him a stare down that belonged on a certified interrogator. “It’s a big brother’s job to look out for his little sister. For the record, she was wrong. I didn’t like the last guy.”
“Fair enough, and to be honest, I wasn’t crazy about him, either,” Ryder admitted, earning a quick snort from McKenzie’s brother. “What do you want to know?”
“How long have you been seeing my sister?”
“A few weeks.”
“Yet she brought you to Tennessee to meet her family? That seems fast.”
“Bringing me here may be why she’s with me at all,” he admitted, sticking with the truth. “I got the distinct impression coming alone wasn’t an option she was willing to accept.”
Her brother studied him. “You might be right. My mom worries about her.”
“As does her brother?”
“Yeah, he does, too, although she’s seemed happy enough when I’ve visited Seattle.”
“You get out to see her often?”
“A few times a year. Enough to have my opinions on the guy you replaced. Good riddance.”
Ryder waited for him to say more.
“I’m glad she finally saw the light.”
Ryder wouldn’t correct his assumption that McKenzie had ended the relationship. He’d made the same mistake.
“All of which worked to my advantage,” Ryder acknowledged. “If she’d been happy with the last guy I wouldn’t be in Tennessee.”
“True that.”
Both men turned to watch McKenzie slowly make her way up the aisle to the front. When she passed them, her gaze met Ryder’s, lingered a moment, then lit on her brother and she grinned.
Ryder almost thought she was going to bail on the wedding procession so she could fling herself at her brother, putting to rest any notion that the two weren’t close.
The wedding party went through another mock ceremony, without the bride and groom saying actual vows, then exited as they would the following day.
Ryder wasn’t surprised when McKenzie came barreling toward them and flung her arms around her brother.
“Mark! I didn’t know you were here.”
“Hey, squirt. Miss me much?”
“How embarrassing?” She wrinkled her nose. “Do. Not. Call. Me. That.”
He laughed. “Outgrown your nickname?”
“That has never been my nickname. Only you have ever used it and I’ve always hated it.”
Ryder watched the interplay between siblings and could see the closeness that as an only child he’d never experienced. Would he and Chrissy have shared such a bond if she’d lived? He’d have done anything for the chance to know.
Turning her big green eyes toward him, McKenzie smiled and unlike earlier, her smile was real. “Ryder, let me introduce you to the bane of my childhood and for the record if you ever call me squirt, you’re history.”
Her brother arched a brow. “That sounds painful on a lot of different levels.”
“Having you for a brother was painful.” But McKenzie was laughing as she said it.
The wedding coordinator clapped her hands and called for everyone to head toward the rehearsal dinner hall.
“As that woman is the bane of my present,” McKenzie sighed. “She is so organizing.”
“It’s her job. Dealing with bridezillas day after day, no doubt she has to be,” Mark suggested.
“Reva isn’t a bridezilla.”
On cue, their cousin burst into tears and sat down on one of the pews.
Mark gestured to their cousin. “You sure?”
“Positive, but that’s my calling card to go check on her.” She gave her brother a hug, then turned to walk away, and as if an afterthought, turned back, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed the corner of Ryder’s mouth.
That was twice she’d kissed him. Once had been for the benefit of the women watching her greet them. That one must have been for her brother because Ryder wasn’t sure anyone else had been paying them the slightest heed.
He wasn’t complaining. This pretend boyfriend gig came with amazing perks.
Their eyes met, held.
“Sorry you keep getting abandoned.”
“You can make it up to me later,” he teased.
Her eyes widened with surprise, then after a nervous look toward her brother, she slowly smiled. “We’ll see.”
Both men watched her rush over to the bride-to-be and kneel next to her, along with the groom and two other bridesmaids.
“That was interesting,” Mark mused.
“Your cousin having prewedding nerves?”
“My sister having pre-you nerves,” Mark clarified. “Despite the fact my mother threw you in the same bedroom, you’ve not had sex, have you?”
Leaning back a little, Ryder eyed the man. “With all due respect, whether I have or haven’t had sex with McKenzie really isn’t your business.”
Mark laughed and play punched Ryder’s shoulder with a little more zest than just for fun but not meant to truly inflict much pain. More of a warning shot.
“For the record,” he cautioned. “Everything to do with McKenzie is my business. I wouldn’t take kindly to anyone hurting her.”
Admiring McKenzie’s brother for his protectiveness of her, Ryder nodded. “Noted, but I don’t foresee that being a problem.”
After this weekend of pretense, they’d likely go back to rarely seeing each other.
“Also, for the record,” Mark continued, his eyes glittering as if he was about to impart great knowledge, “that wasn’t boredom flashing in my sister’s eyes just then.”
Ryder’s heart pounded harder than usual at her brother’s observation. She was just acting, keeping up the pretense, he tried to tell himself, but didn’t believe.
Which meant he needed to be all the more diligent in keeping their boundaries in place when they were alone.
He watched as she wiped a tear from her cousin’s now-smiling face. Within seconds, bride and groom were hugging and McKenzie was shooing everyone still there to leave.
“Come on. Let’s go find some of this overpriced food,” Mark told him as McKenzie rejoined them, giving them curious looks as if wanting to know what they’d been discussing.
“Sounds good.” Ryder placed a possessive hand on McKenzie’s lower back as they headed in the direction the others had gone. “I’m starved.”
He’d meant for food and not McKenzie, right? But the smile she was
giving him had him wondering if he was just fooling himself, if he’d just been fooling himself from the beginning, that he could spend a weekend with McKenzie and it all be pretend.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MCKENZIE HADN’T THOUGHT about how much Ryder would have to be alone due to her duties as part of the wedding party.
Now, for instance, she was seated at the wedding party table rather than next to him for the rehearsal dinner.
Fortunately—or unfortunately—her brother had taken it upon himself to keep Ryder entertained.
Or perhaps her brother was entertaining himself at her expense.
Certainly, Mark had taken great pleasure in torturing her throughout their childhood and teen years.
She also knew her big brother would feel it his obligation to thoroughly interrogate Ryder and no doubt already had. What was Ryder telling him?
Or worse, what was Mark telling Ryder?
She shot them a worried glance.
Both men looked relaxed, deep in conversation, and to be enjoying the moment. Mark threw his head back with laughter at something Ryder said.
Interesting. Mark and Paul had gotten along okay enough when Mark had flown into Seattle and they’d all gone to dinner. But she couldn’t recall them ever sharing any laugh-out-loud moments. She’d always thought they mostly tolerated each other for her sake.
“Reva’s not the only lucky woman here tonight.”
Surprised at the comment, McKenzie glanced toward Callie.
Yes, she was lucky Ryder had agreed to this pretense. She almost felt guilty that he had and was being subjected to her family’s questioning, guilty that she was using him to stave off pity and perhaps to curb her jealousy at her cousin’s good fortune.
Ugh. She hated that seeing Reva had brought a jealousy to surface that she’d not acknowledged she’d had.
“Is he as good in bed as he is to look at?”
McKenzie’s gaze went back to Callie. Her high school friend watched Ryder with hungry eyes, probably the way McKenzie had been looking at him that morning when he’d stepped back into her room after his shower.
Yeah, that just-showered look that morning had been outright sexy.
Very sexy.
As had their kiss in Aunt Jane’s front yard. Why had she felt the need to lay that one on him? For show in front of her cousin and the other women to say, hey, Reva’s not the only lucky one? If so, how petty of her. But maybe Ryder had been right in thinking the champagne had played a role. Had it given her just enough gumption to kiss him that way, not for show, but because she’d wanted to kiss him and doing so in front of her cousin and the bridesmaids had given her the perfect excuse?
McKenzie swallowed, then, remembering Callie waited for an answer, shrugged. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “We’ve only been seeing each other a few weeks.”
Callie’s perfectly drawn-on brow lifted. “Girl, what are you waiting on? I saw that kiss earlier. Hot. Hot. Hot. If that man was within my hands’ reach, I’d know everything about that body of his and he’d definitely know every inch of mine.”
Um, yeah, that put a few images in McKenzie’s head. Images of exploring Ryder’s body, of his exploring hers.
Images that should not be in her head.
Because he was a pretend boyfriend, not a real one. Only more and more she hated the pretense, wished Ryder really wanted her, that everything about this weekend was real.
“Leave her alone,” Reva ordered, leaning over toward them from where she sat on the other side of Callie. “McKenzie’s just getting out of a long relationship. It makes sense that she’d be hesitant to move too quickly even with a man as wonderful seeming as Ryder.”
Reva’s quick defense shot guilt through her. Reva had always dragged McKenzie along to all the popular places, had always defended her to anyone who said the slightest negative thing. Her cousin was a much better person than she was and deserved to be happy.
And so did she.
McKenzie’s gaze shifted back to Ryder. Was there even a chance of their pretense growing into something real?
She’d have to be dead inside not to react to his overabundance of testosterone.
Not to notice how her body came alive when they kissed or even when he smiled at her.
Perhaps that’s why she’d gone for the kiss at Aunt Jane’s, because she’d needed the surge of energy his kiss shot through her.
What would he say if she told him she found him attractive, both physically and as a person?
Callie gestured toward where Ryder sat and gave a wistful sigh. “Like I said, lucky you. That man there is the perfect solution to forgetting every other man who ever walked the face of the planet.”
All three women looked toward Ryder. He must have sensed their gazes on him as he glanced their way, gave McKenzie a slight look of question, then winked.
“Lord help me,” Callie said, fanning her face. “If you decide you don’t want him, send him my way. I’ve not just gotten out of a long relationship and have no reservations about letting him rock my world.”
McKenzie fought the urge to fan her own face. Ryder’s wink did funny things to her insides. Like make them get all warm and squishy.
Warm?
That was like calling a volcanic eruption a lit match.
“I’d mention your brother,” Callie continued, “but we both know that would never work since he’s gone so much. I’d get lonely and end up making us both miserable.”
Had her mother gotten lonely before her father’s death? McKenzie hadn’t really thought about what her parents’ lives were like before her father died. She’d known her mother had gone through numerous relationships. Had she been trying to curb loneliness? Or had Roberta been lonely long before due to the often out-of-town nature of her father’s work?
“Is Ryder going with us after we leave here?” Reva asked. “Lunch was fun, but I hope to get a chance to get to know him while y’all are here and tomorrow is going to be busy.”
“Just a little busy. It’s kind of your big day.” McKenzie smiled at her cousin. “But on Ryder, I honestly haven’t had a chance to ask him about tonight.”
“I feel guilty I monopolized you all day.” Reva’s painted lips pouted a little. “Then again, Ryder gets you all the time and this is the first time I’ve seen you in a couple of years so it’s only right he has to share.”
Point taken. McKenzie would do better on coming home for visits.
Especially now that she knew she could get through a flight without going into full panic attack mode.
“But, seriously, you’ve done your bridesmaid duty. Go eat your dessert with your guy and Mark,” Reva insisted, having caught McKenzie watching the two men talking and laughing together again.
“Sorry.” She glanced toward Reva. “You’re sure?”
Reva nodded. “Absolutely. We’ll catch up when this is over when we’re out on the town.”
“But we can’t stay out too late on the night before your big day,” McKenzie reminded her. She wasn’t tired at all, but knew she’d feel the time difference come morning.
“We won’t. But going out dancing for a couple of hours will be fun. Besides,” the bride assured her, “it’s not like I’ll sleep if I try going to bed early. Not when I’m so wound up.”
Probably not, McKenzie admitted, appreciating Reva’s okay to leave the bridal party table to go to Ryder and Mark.
“Care if I join you two for dessert?”
“You get kicked out of the wedding party already?” Ryder teased, pulling a chair over for her to sit next to him.
“I think they were worried about leaving you two alone too long and agreed I should come see what was so funny.”
Her brother’s eyes twinkled. “I’ve been telling him about that time you ran through the house naked at Christmas.”
“Ah, the infamous naked at Christmas story.” McKenzie scowled at her grinning brother. “I was two.”
“I might have left that detail out,” he admitted, not looking a bit remorseful.
“Ignore ninety-nine percent of what he tells you.” McKenzie turned to Ryder. “Are you okay with going to the Wild Horse Saloon? Reva wants the whole gang together for one night of fun on the town, even if for just a couple of hours.”
Ryder’s eyes lit with surprise, but he nodded. “What’s a trip to Nashville without a visit to a honky-tonk?”
“Do you line dance?”
Ryder shook his head. “Is it a deal breaker if I say no?”
“Not really,” she admitted. Paul had been a lovely dancer, but they’d danced only when attending social events that just happened to have dancing.
“Is Callie still single?” Mark asked. “I noticed her looking this way several times.”
“I think so.” After all, she had been drooling over Ryder. “But it wasn’t you she was looking at.”
Mark’s gaze met hers and he grinned. “That jealousy I hear in your voice? Afraid she’s going to move in on your man?”
“No,” she assured him, her chin lifting in defiance of his claim. “Why would I be jealous?”
Why indeed? Because her brother knew her too well and had called her out on it. Right or wrong, she was jealous at the thought of Callie making advances on Ryder.
Ryder reached out to take her hand. “You know, I’m not interested in anyone but you,” he added, lifting her hand to his lips and pressing a kiss to her fingertips.
Although she knew the gesture was just for show, electricity shot through her as she stared into his eyes.
Electricity and a desire so strong for his words to be real that her knees weakened. Pretend boyfriend Ryder was better than any real boyfriend she’d ever had.
If only he really was her boyfriend and had meant what he’d said.
He didn’t, but she was thankful he was here, that his generosity had given her a peaceful visit home.
She rewarded him with a smile, then, giving in to whatever that volcano-like warmth inside her was, she leaned in, meaning to press a kiss to his mouth.
