Groom On The Loose. Christine Scott

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СКАЧАТЬ that strong,” she snapped. “When are you going to get it through that thick head of yours, Lawton? Niki’s a grown woman who’s more than capable of making her own decisions. She never was the breakable china doll you always assumed her to be.”

      The words cut him to the quick, wounding his male pride. He lashed out at her in kind. “Are you telling me you didn’t try to discourage Niki from marrying me?”

      She didn’t respond. Her wordless answer spoke volumes.

      He gave a bitter smile. “That’s what I thought.”

      She folded her hands primly on top of her desk and met his gaze head-on. “This whole conversation is pointless. Your engagement to Niki is over. Why do you insist on dwelling on the past?”

      “Because the past has a way of grabbing you by the throat and not letting go,” he hollered. “Do you have any idea what my life’s been like these past few months?”

      She frowned, opening her mouth to answer.

      Only he didn’t give her the chance. “It’s been a living hell. Speculation over my broken heart has been the grist that’s kept this town’s gossip mills churning. I’ve endured the pitying looks, the sympathetic words. I’ve even tolerated the old ladies from the neighborhood who want to mother me. They ply me with cookies and cakes one minute, and try to fix me up with their granddaughters the next.”

      The anger level of his voice rose with each word he spoke. But, once vented, nothing could stop the flow of frustration. “And now my colleagues at the clinic are encouraging me to get on with my life. They have some insane notion that my patients and their parents would feel more comfortable with a pediatrician who’s happily married with a family of his own.”

      He paused to draw in a ragged breath. He felt winded, without having exerted himself. The strength seemed to have gone out of his legs. His exhaustion was an emotional state, he realized, not a physical one. He’d just revealed his innermost feelings to Cassie Andrews, a woman he barely trusted, let alone cared enough about to confide in.

      Greg sat down hard in the chair he’d recently abandoned. Oddly enough, despite the weariness that seemed to have crept over his extremities, he felt as though a weight had been lifted from his heart. Purging himself of months of pent-up anger had had an emancipating effect.

      “Is that what you want?” she asked, breaking into his troubled thoughts. “To be happily married?”

      “Hell, no,” he bit out. “I want to be left alone. I want to get all these helpful people off my back.”

      “And you think you’ll accomplish that by hiring me to be your ’girlfriend’?”

      He averted his gaze, refusing to look at her. “It would be a start.”

      Silence strained between them. Cassie’s tone was quieter, gentler when she spoke again. “Greg, I know you don’t want to believe me, but I truly am sorry for what happened between you and Niki.”

      He’d heard the same words said a hundred times in the past eight months. Somehow, hearing them from Cassie only made him feel worse. “I don’t need your pity.”

      “No, but you need my help. That is, if you still want it.”

      In one way or another, women had caused him nothing but trouble these past few months. He’d just as soon give up on the entire gender. Unfortunately, at the moment, he didn’t have much of a choice but to accept Cassie’s offer.

      He sighed. “I still want your help.”

      “Fine, then it’s settled,” she said, her tone clipped and businesslike. “I warn you, my service doesn’t come cheap. It’ll cost you.”

      It already has, he admitted silently. “Coming from you, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”

      He stood to leave.

      This time she didn’t protest.

      She rose to her feet. For a moment neither of them moved or spoke. In the small office, they stood within inches of touching. Up close he couldn’t help but notice the delicate beauty of her face, the silky texture of her blond hair and the slender curves of her body. Though she stood at chin level to his six feet three inches, she seemed smaller somehow, more vulnerable.

      The thought surprised him. Vulnerability was not a trait he would normally associate with Cassie Andrews. A pampered beauty, yes. But never a shrinking violet.

      “I’ll be in touch,” he said, anxious to leave.

      She forced a smile. “I’ll be looking forward to it.”

      A lie if he’d ever heard one. He almost smiled.

      He turned to leave.

      “Greg…”

      He stopped, glancing over his shoulder at her.

      “About Niki…” For once she seemed hesitant, uncertain. “There are a lot of other women out there. Did you ever stop to consider, maybe she just wasn’t the right one?”

      “Not for a minute,” he said, with a confidence he didn’t really feel. With that, he left her office and didn’t look back.

      * * *

      Three weeks later Cassie stood in her office’s storage room, knee-deep in preparations for Greg Lawton’s party. Why she’d ever agreed to host his party as his “girlfriend” was beyond her. Guilt, she supposed, had played a major factor in her decision. Somehow he’d gotten to her. Those eyes, she decided, those vulnerable blue eyes. She’d always been a sucker for a man with a pair of baby blues.

      It didn’t seem fair that someone as irritating as Greg Lawton should have been blessed with such soulful eyes. They were windows to every emotion he tried so hard to hide. Three weeks ago she’d been on the brink of telling Greg exactly what he could do with the guilt trip he’d been trying to force upon her. But then she’d looked into his eyes and seen the pain hidden beneath the anger. Cassie sighed. And that was why she was stuck hosting a party for a man who gave new meaning to the word perfectionism.

      Since their initial meeting, Greg had called her daily with helpful suggestions. From the practical to the mundane, he had an opinion on everything. She’d begun dreading the sound of a ringing telephone. Only one thought sustained her. After tomorrow, she’d never have to see Greg Lawton again. Any wrong she might have done him—real or imagined—would be wiped away with this “favor” she’d agreed to do. The slate between them would be clean.

      “I can’t find the napkins,” Mitsi announced, demanding Cassie’s attention.

      “They’ve got to be here,” Cassie said, wading through boxes of supplies. “I know we ordered them.”

      Mitsi pulled open a lid. “Wait, here they are. Ten blue-and-white-checked tablecloths with fifty matching napkins.”

      Cassie made a check on the inventory list. “All right, now about the decorations—”

      The telephone rang.

      Her stomach clenched reflexively. СКАЧАТЬ