Marriage On The Cards. Susan Carlisle

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СКАЧАТЬ was lounging in the den, flipping through TV channels, waiting for her. “What would you like to do with your free afternoon?”

      Mackenzie smiled a mischievous smile. “There is something that I’d really like to do.”

      “What’s that?”

      Mackenzie’s smile widened. “Drive the Corvette.”

      She thought that Dylan was going to shut her down immediately. To guys like her brother, Jett, and Dylan, their cars were their babies. And they didn’t let anyone get behind the wheel.

      He shocked her when he said, “I’ll let you drive her. We can take her down to Ocean Beach Pier. Have you been to the restaurant on that pier?”

      Mackenzie shook her head no.

      “Have you ever tried fish tacos?”

      She wrinkled her nose distastefully. “No...”

      “Then today is your lucky day, Mackenzie!”

      They gathered their things and then Dylan handed her the keys to his pride and joy. She slid into the driver’s seat and wrapped her hands around the steering wheel. As she backed out of the garage, she was half expecting him to have a change of heart and scream for her to stop. It didn’t happen. They rolled down the windows, turned on the radio to a classic-rock station and headed to the pier. She wanted to open her up and really test the horsepower under the hood, but she didn’t. The last thing she wanted to do was leave even so much as a scratch on a car this valuable. They parked and walked down to the beach. Dylan’s phone had been ringing and beeping with texts and emails. He finally just shut his phone off and left it in the car. She didn’t ask about who was trying to contact him, but she knew his recent history. He was a single, good-looking guy with deep pockets and a party pad. She didn’t doubt his friends, both male and female, were missing one of their regular spots to party at the beach.

      They walked side by side, but Mackenzie wasn’t ready to hold hands in public. They never stopped talking, that’s what she liked about hanging out with Dylan. She wouldn’t have thought that they’d have much to say to each other, but they did. He made her laugh; he was silly and goofy and liked to joke around. He’d never really taken life too seriously when they were kids, and he still didn’t. He still liked to have fun, and he wanted to take her along for that ride.

      “Okay...be honest...” Dylan had just demolished five fish tacos. “You shouldn’t have judged, right?”

      The Ocean Pier Restaurant was built on the side of the pier. They were sitting at a small table with an incredible view, and Dylan insisted that she, at the very least, take a bite of their famous fish tacos.

      Mackenzie chewed the small bite of fish taco thoughtfully.

      “Well?” Dylan demanded impatiently. “Awesome, right?”

      “It’s...pretty good...” Mackenzie said, glad that she had refused the tacos and stuck with an egg-salad sandwich and water. She was still pretty full from breakfast and she couldn’t just stop worrying about calories because he had encouraged her to do it. Calorie watching was her normal. Dylan, on the other hand, had been happy to tell her during the car ride that making love to her had left him famished.

      “Pretty good?” Dylan acted as if she had just stabbed him in the heart. “You’re killing me! These are legendary. Try another bite...”

      “No!” She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I wouldn’t dream of taking even one more bite away from you...”

      “Okay...” He was perfectly happy to polish off the rest by himself. “Are you sure?”

      The taco had left a bad taste in her mouth that couldn’t be washed away with water alone. She nodded yes while she dug through her tote to find her mints.

      They finished their lunch, cleared their table and stepped out onto the pier. Dylan looked around. “Are you up for a walk?”

      “Sure,” she agreed. They had walked a little ways, when he gave her a curious look. “I thought you liked me.”

      “I do...”

      “Then how come you’re so far away?” He offered her his arm.

      She took his arm and they strolled together along the pier. When the sun felt a little too strong on her face, the salty mist from the water crashing against the pier seemed to come just at the right time when her skin felt too hot. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been to the pier. She had certainly never been here on a date. In this moment, she was content; happy to be walking beside Dylan.

      At the end of the pier, Dylan asked, “Do you want to head back or sit down on one of these benches and people watch?”

      “People watch, of course.”

      Like an old comfortable couple, they sat together on the bench. Dylan put his arm behind her shoulder; she leaned in just a little bit closer.

      “Do you have the photo album with you? The one from last night?”

      Mackenzie put her hand on her tote. “Right here.”

      “I’d like to finish looking at it.”

      “Are you sure?”

      “I want to know more about our daughter.”

       Our daughter.

      Dylan had never used that term before.

      Dylan started at the beginning while Mackenzie told him the story behind each picture. Halfway through the album, they came to the pictures that chronicled Hope’s cancer journey.

      “Her face is so swollen in this picture. She doesn’t even look like the same kid,” Dylan said. Hope’s face was puffy and round, her head completely bald, her eyebrows gone.

      “Steroids,” Mackenzie explained. “She could never seem to get enough food.” Mackenzie pointed to the next picture. “This is when she first got her port put in for chemo. That was a...really bad day.”

      Dylan flipped through the rest of the photographs and then went back to the first picture—the one taken the day Hope was born.

      “You know that I love her now, Mackenzie.”

      Mackenzie nodded. She did know.

      “And, I’m...really worried about her. What if she relapses?”

      Mackenzie didn’t like to think about that. She put the album in the tote. “Then we fight it. That’s all we can do.”

      They stayed at the pier for another hour; before they headed back to the car, Dylan insisted that he take her to his favorite ice-cream shop, which was famous for its waffle ice-cream sandwich. After the ice cream, Dylan drove them back to his place. Climbing out of the low-slung Corvette, Mackenzie couldn’t remember having a better time with a man.

      “Do you want to come in for a while? Or do you have to go?”

      “I have to go. I pick Hope СКАЧАТЬ