Author: Olivia Cunning

She clung to him, sobbing. Tears drenched his shirt, but he didn’t let her go. She knew with certainty he never would. Not even if it was best for him. She let the fear find her. She’d been pretending it didn’t exist for so long that it felt good to recognize it. Confront it. And even share it with Eric. “I’m scared. So scared that I’ll get sick again.”

“It’s okay. I’m scared too. But no matter how scared I am, I won’t run.”

Isaac had given her the strength to fight when she’d been sick. To face death with her head high. Eric gave her the strength to be alive. Fully alive. And now that she had so much to live for, she wasn’t sure she could face death again.

She leaned away and wiped her tears on the hem of her T-shirt. “I’m sorry I fell apart. I really am happy you want to marry me. Even if it is selfish of me to accept.”

“I thought you’d be mad that I went out and bought your ring on my own. I woke up beside you this morning, watched you sleep for a while, and decided I couldn’t wait. Do you really like it?”

“I love it. You. I love you.”

“You’d better. I had to take out a second mortgage to afford that sucker.”

She smiled, knowing that he needed a reprieve from the emotional barrage she’d just subjected him to. “Suck?” She licked her lips and reached for his fly. “Well, if you insist.”

Chapter 32

Rebekah kissed Eric’s cheek and opened the car door. She honestly wasn’t looking forward to spending the evening pretending to be Isaac’s doting girlfriend. Especially at a party guaranteed to be boring.

Eric caught her hand before she could get out. “I’m considering becoming a jealous prick and making a scene, just so you know.”

“I might buy that if you had anything to be jealous about.”

“What time will you be home?”

“Early,” she promised.

He kissed her knuckles and released her hand. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I’ll be fine. Isaac promised he would bring me home as soon as we can get away. You and I will have plenty of fun tomorrow.” On Eric’s birthday.

“Why tomorrow?”

“No reason.” She grinned. He’d been trying to get her to reveal something for days. She’d put together over two dozen surprises for Eric’s birthday to celebrate his life and hers. Well, mostly she’d be celebrating his cock, but she didn’t think he’d mind.

She kissed him good-bye and stepped from the car, smoothing her hands over her black cocktail dress to make sure everything was in place. She closed the car door and offered Eric a wave as he drove off. When Isaac opened his apartment door to answer her knock, he didn’t look any too pleased to see her.

“Let’s get this over with,” he said.

“I’m fine, thanks, how are you?”

“I’ve been better.”

He locked the apartment door behind him and headed for the stairwell. She followed him, seconds from telling him to forget this favor if he was going to act like an ass all night.

“What’s wrong?” Rebekah asked him.

“Trey left me.” He stopped dead in his tracks and Rebekah bumped into his back.

She took his arm and turned him to face her. His brow crumpled, and he took a deep shaky breath. If he starting crying, she was totally going to join him. “What? Like permanently?”

He raked a hand through his perfectly arranged loose curls, mussing them in a most charming way. “I don’t know. He said until I get my head on straight. Whatever that means.”

“I’m sorry. I hope you can work things out.”

“It’s just an excuse. I know he sees other people. When I hinted that I wanted things to be serious between us, he… lost interest.”

Rebekah sighed. “Isaac, I probably should have warned you. Trey is wonderful, but he’s kind of hung up on someone else.”

“Brian?”

Stunned, Rebekah stared at him with her mouth hanging open. “How did you know?”

“He talks about the guy nonstop. At first I thought they were just best friends, but he even murmurs his name in his sleep.” Isaac flushed. “I probably shouldn’t talk about this with you.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind.”

“You really are terrific.” His soft gray eyes swept up her figure from carefully styled hair to the pink toenails peeking out of her strappy heels. “You look sensational, by the way. If I was into girls, I’d definitely be thinking inappropriate thoughts

right now.”

She laughed, glad the tension between them had eased. “You’re quite the charmer, Dr. Crandall.”

He helped her into his car, and they headed to his parents’ house. He told her about some fancy diagnostic machine they’d installed at his father’s clinic and how it would make the office cutting-edge. “I can’t wait to be a part of it. They already have more patients than they can handle. This is an amazing opportunity for me.”

“You’ll be awesome,” she said.

“Assuming I don’t mess this up. Thanks for helping me out, angel.”

“That’s what friends are for.”

When they arrived, a valet took Isaac’s car and parked it somewhere in the next county. Isaac settled a hand on her lower back to guide her into the sprawling Mediterranean-style house. There were a lot more people at the dinner party than Rebekah expected. Isaac introduced her to so many people that her head was spinning. Everything was going well until someone noticed her engagement ring.

“My Lord, Isaac, how did you ever afford that rock on your salary?” a gentleman, who looked like he’d fallen off a bucket of fried chicken, asked.

Isaac grabbed Rebekah’s left wrist and stared at the hefty ring. “An enormous loan,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I hope Father’s hiring.”

The Colonel Sanders look-a-like pounded him on the back enthusiastically. “I think he might be.”

Isaac steered Rebekah toward a corner. “You’re engaged?”

Rebekah’s heart fluttered, and she smiled. “Well, yeah. How did you not notice?” She lifted her left hand. “It’s pretty obvious.”

Isaac sighed. “I was a little distracted.” He reached for her hand and tried to slip the ring from her finger. She jerked her hand away and hid it behind her back.

“What are you doing?”

“You have to take it off. It’s obvious that I didn’t give you that ring. I could never afford it.”

“I’m not taking it off, Isaac.”

“She’s not taking it off, Isaac,” a low voice said behind her. Before she could turn around, she was wrapped in a strong embrace, and a hard kiss hit her in the temple. “Congratulations!” She struggled against the hard body behind her. He released her, and she spun around to glare at… Trey?

Her mouth dropped open in shock.

“What are you doing here?” Isaac asked in a harsh whisper.

“My father conned me into coming along. Usually, I try to get out of these kinds of things, but…” He shrugged. “I thought it would be fun to see how good of an actor you are, young Dr. Crandall.”

“Your father?” Rebekah questioned.

“The highly celebrated plastic surgeon of the rich and famous, Ethan Mills, MD,” Trey said. He waved at a man who could have been Trey’s twin had he been twenty-five years younger and traded his conventional haircut for Trey’s long in the front, short in the back style.

Doctor Mills wrapped a possessive arm around a lovely woman who looked earthy, eccentric, and completely bewildered in her round glasses, peasant garb, and Birkenstocks. She had a smudge of pink paint on her tan cheek, and her waist-length, curly brown hair, which was held out of her face with a green plastic headband, looked completely untamable. She fit in with the black-tie crowd almost as well as Eric would have. Rebekah instantly loved her.

“And that sweetheart with him is the highly underrated mixed media artist, Gwen Mills, also known as my mom.” Gwen must have known someone was talking about her, because her head swiveled in their direction, and her entire face lit up with delight when she noticed her son. Trey’s parents headed in their direction. Isaac tried to hide behind a drapery.

“Did you find someone to talk to?” Dr. Mills asked and extended a hand in Rebekah’s direction.

“Yeah, small world,” Trey said. “This is Rebekah, Sinners’ temporary soundboard engineer. I told you about her. Dave’s little sister.”

Dr. Mills’ expression turned serious. “How’s your brother?”

She smiled at his concern and shook his hand. “Not mobile yet, but working on it. It takes more than a broken neck to keep him down.”

“And I just found out that she’s Eric’s fiancée,” Trey added. “Check out her new rock.”

Gwen took Rebekah’s free hand in hers and shook it up and down vigorously. “That boy needs a nice girl to look after him. Good for you!”

“And tonight she’s pretending to be Isaac’s girlfriend,” Trey added, “so mum’s the word. Wouldn’t want to make dear Isaac uncomfortable.”

Trey grabbed Isaac by the arm and pulled him out from behind the gauzy drape. Scowling, Isaac shoved him.

“Don’t worry,” Trey said. “I already told them all about you.”

Isaac turned green. “All about me?”

“Well, not that sexy little noise you make when—” Trey bit his lip. “Never mind.”

“It’s not healthy to pretend to be something you’re not,” Dr. Mills said to Isaac. Being Trey’s father, the guy had to be incredibly open-minded. Or totally clueless.

Isaac sidled toward the drapery again.

Trey’s head turned as he tracked a gorgeous cocktail waitress distributing champagne to guests. “I just wanted to say hey. I’ll leave you two pretend lovebirds alone.” He dashed off without another word and walked directly in front of the waitress. Startled, she almost dropped her tray of drinks as she skidded to a halt. With a twirl, Trey somehow managed to catch the tray in one hand and press the disoriented woman against his length with the other. “Careful,” he said in that low voice that made knees go weak. Rebekah was immune by now, but the waitress sagged against him, her eyes wide, her lips slightly parted as she gawked at him.

Rebekah rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“That son of yours…” Dr. Mills muttered under his breath.

“Oh sure, he’s my son when he’s chasing skirts,” Mrs. Mills said, “but yours when you need to impress your shallow clients. Your son, the famous electric guitarist.”

“My sons, the famous electric guitarists,” Dr. Mills corrected. “Your sons, the notorious skirt chasers.”

“They don’t get it from me.”

Dr. Mills chuckled and kissed the tip of her nose. “I stopped chasing skirts after I found the right one.”

Rebekah smiled, hoping she and Eric still shared that kind of affection after thirty years of marriage, and looked over to see how Isaac was taking Trey’s continual indiscretions.

Isaac had vanished. The floor-to-ceiling window behind his favorite drape was opened. Had he honestly snuck outside through the open window? Rebekah sighed and rubbed her forehead to stave off a threatening headache. She really didn’t need this right now. She already wanted to go home. She had enough drama to deal with in her own life, thank you very much.

A shadow crossed Rebekah’s face. “There you are, Rebekah. So good to see you again. Where’d did Isaac run off to?” Isaac’s father asked. The man looked nothing like Isaac. Where Isaac was graceful and handsome, Dr. Crandall was shaped like a barrel and had a protruding forehead demarcated by a wild eyebrow. Yes, eyebrow. Singular. The man had apparently never been introduced to tweezers. He sniffed his red, bulbous nose and swiped a hand over his receding hairline. Isaac definitely took after his mother.