Kate snatched her hand back. “You know I don’t wear jewelry. Besides, I proposed to Ian, so he’ll be the one wearing a ring.”
“You proposed to him?” Nate exclaimed.
Kate flushed pink.
“I was happy to accept,” Ian put in.
“So no ring for you?” Nate asked Kate. “That sucks.”
“It doesn’t suck at all!” Kate exclaimed. “I’ll get him a ring after the trial run.”
Ian winced. “Kate,” he started.
Kate’s hands fluttered in the air. “Forget I said that. That was just between the two of us. Onward.” She strode quickly toward the exit, and the men hurried to keep up.
“Trial run?” Nate asked. “Sounds like the groom has cold feet.”
“I don’t have cold feet,” Ian assured Kate and everyone else.
Kate stopped walking abruptly and looked up at Ian in surprise. “You don’t?”
Nate chortled with glee. “That’s not what you want in a groom. Bum-bum-de-doomed!” He made a big slap-down gesture. Ian gritted his teeth.
All the guys laughed.
Kate frowned and turned to Nate. “Be nice to my boyfriend or you can find another research project.”
“I’m sorry,” Nate said, immediately contrite. “I was out of line.”
“It’s okay,” Kate said.
Nate dropped to his knees in front of Kate. “Please forgive me, future Nobel Prize-winning physicist!” he exclaimed in a voice full of mischief and humor.
The group and several nearby tables full of people watched them with interest. Ian’s hands were in fists.
Kate blushed. “Nate, get up. It’s okay.”
Ian shoved Nate by the shoulder, and he tipped sideways but managed not to land on his ass.
Nate leaped to his feet and shoved Ian. “You want a go at me?” And that playful voice was gone.
“Nate!” Kate exclaimed.
Ian shoved Nate. “You bet I do. Suck-up.”
Colt and Ty stepped between them. “Chill,” Colt said.
“Yeah, chill,” Ty said.
“This is just like the gorillas,” Kate muttered before striding toward the door.
The men followed in her wake.
Ian strode ahead to walk by her side. Where he fucking belonged. Losers.
Chapter Eight
Kate finished up her fellowship application on Wednesday at five p.m. A little later than she’d hoped but still by the deadline. She’d worked late in her office on Monday and Tuesday night and had promised Ian she’d be back at her apartment tonight in time for them to share dinner. The application had taken her longer than she’d first thought because she had to mess around with the data in spreadsheets and make it pretty with a bunch of different color-coded and labeled graphs. Usually she preferred to run quick graphs of the data and just focus on the statistical analysis, looking for patterns and visualizing what it all meant in her mind.
Nate walked with her to deliver it to Dr. Weintraub, in case he had any questions or wanted anything additional from them. Nate would stay late for whatever extra work was needed. “You still coming to trivia night at McGinty’s tomorrow?” he asked.
“Of course! We’re undefeated. I wouldn’t miss it.”
Nate flashed a smile, and Kate quickly looked away. Something about Nate’s smile always took her a little by surprise. Like he suddenly transformed from a fellow physicist to a hottie. It was unsettling.
“Maybe your boyfriend could be on Mike’s team,” Nate said.
Usually she and Nate paired up, Colt and Ty paired up, and Mike just watched and drank beer. Mike had once joined Colt and Ty, but they argued so much that they pushed Mike out. Nate wouldn’t consider a team of three. He said having Kate on his team was already an unfair advantage to all the other teams. He was so funny. Mike claimed not to care about trivia, but she’d noticed how closely he paid attention, so she tried once to recruit another player from the bar. The woman took one look at Mike with his greasy hair and stained clothes and passed. Kate used to be just like Mike before her stylish sister helped her clean up a bit with the fashion sense. Not that she was a fashionista, but she was light-years ahead of Mike.
“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Kate said. “Mike needs a partner, and I’m sure Ian will also do quite well at trivia.”
“So you and Ian are pretty serious?”
“Yes.”
“So why the trial run?”
“It’s a smart idea to treat marriage as scientifically as the rest of my life. There’s a wealth of literature on marriage outcomes and factors that lead to long-term unions. Not only that, I’ve discovered a wide range of compatibility quizzes.”
Nate stopped walking a short distance from Dr. Weintraub’s door. “You know, it might not be my place to say, but…”
“What?”
He stepped into her personal space bubble, and she breathed in his intoxicating spicy cologne. She was very susceptible to cologne. She hugged her packet of papers to her chest and took a careful step back.
Nate leaned close anyway. “I have to wonder, if you need a trial run and quizzes, if he’s really the right one for you.”
Kate breathed through her mouth to avoid becoming susceptible to his cologne. “That’s what the science will prove or disprove.”
“Kate,” he said gently, “maybe you’re too close to see it, but he’s not like you. Not like us. He doesn’t get science, doesn’t live and breathe it like we do.”
“Differentiation is important in a relationship,” she replied.
Nate tsked. “Opposites attract is a myth. You want someone like you for a lifetime commitment.”
She stared at him, an uneasy feeling swirling through her. “What are you trying to say?”
He stepped back and put his hands up with a boyish grin. “Nothing.”
“That’s not true. I definitely sensed some kind of subtext. You should know I don’t do subtext. Just spell it out for me.”
He leaned against the wall, crossing his ankles. “Relationships should be easy when they’re right. If you need science to prove someone’s right for you, maybe you’ve already got your answer.”
She gasped. “You’re saying Ian’s not right for me?”
He lifted one shoulder. “Science will tell you that answer. Not me.”
“He’s the most right thing in my life,” she snapped. “And I don’t like all this weird talk from you. Stick to physics.”
She stalked past him and into Dr. Weintraub’s office. “Here,” she said, shoving the packet of papers at him.
“Everything all right?” Dr. Weintraub asked.
“Yes,” she snapped.
Nate stepped into the office. “Everything should be in order. Let me know if you need anything else.”
Dr. Weintraub looked curiously from Kate to Nate. Omigod, their names rhymed. She’d never noticed that before. How cutesy. She had to get out of here. Fast.
“Can you stay, Nate?” she asked. “I promised Ian I’d meet him for dinner.”
“Of course,” Nate said, taking a seat while Dr. Weintraub looked through the paperwork.
“Text me if you need anything further from me and I’ll return right away,” Kate said.
“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” Dr. Weintraub said, thumbing through the color-coded graphs. “Enjoy your dinner.”
Kate drove home, anxious to see Ian again. She parked in the lot behind the three-story brick building that served as graduate housing with several furnished apartments. (The university let postdocs stay there too.) She picked up speed once inside the building, raced up the stairs, and burst into her apartment. It struck her that Ian was exactly as she’d left him this morning, lounging on the brown sofa, watching the small TV on its stand in the living room.
“You didn’t cook dinner,” she blurted. Where had that come from?
He sat up. “We’ll go out.”
She dropped her purse and coat, annoyed for some reas
on. “So you just lounge around all day and expect me to cook dinner when I get home?”
His brows shot up. “I said we’d go out.”
She wrung her hands together. “Relationships should pass the test of science. Right?”
He crossed to her, pulled her hands apart, and wrapped his arms around her. She rested her head against his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat.
“He made me doubt,” she mumbled.
He pulled back and looked at her. “Who made you doubt?”
“Nate. He said that we shouldn’t need an experiment or a trial run. We should just know if it’s right.”
Ian clenched his jaw. “As much as I don’t want to agree with that guy, it’s true you just know if it’s right.”
“But I don’t know!” she cried.
“I know.”
“Why don’t I know?”
He hugged her tight. “Because I made you doubt. I’m sorry, Kate. I know it’ll get easier. I’ve never been engaged before.” He pulled back and met her eyes. “You remember Morgan gave me that ultimatum? She said marry her or she’d walk.” Morgan was Ian’s last girlfriend. They’d been together for three years.
“And you walked,” she whispered.
He dipped his head. “Maybe since it wasn’t my idea this time either, I got kind of a trapped feeling, like it was another ultimatum. I mean ‘no’ wasn’t really an acceptable answer.”
She pulled out of his arms, alarmed. “Of course it was! I want you to be honest. You should never say yes when you mean no.”
He crossed his arms. “Really? Honestly? You would’ve been fine with me saying no? Then we’d go right back to normal?”
She thought about that, remembering kneeling in her hydrogen costume that she’d had made special for the biggest surprise she could think of. She would’ve been devastated. Mortified. Ready to flee the scene.
“I guess it was a dumb surprise,” she murmured.
He grabbed her hand and tugged her close. “It was a surprise. That’s all. Not dumb.”
“Will you still do the experiment with me? I’ve put a lot of thought into it. A lot of research.” And, despite his reassurances, she needed to know conclusively, scientifically, that things would work out.
He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. Warmth spread through her. “If you want to do it, we’ll do it.”
Her throat was tight, making it difficult to speak. “And what if the outcome is negative?”
“I’ll still love you just as much. Who else would take their relationship so seriously that they’d develop rigorous scientific testing? It’s thoughtful, that’s what it is.” He cupped her face in his warm hands. “You, with this brilliant mind, gifted your valuable brain power on us. That shows me, more than anything, how much you care.”
“Oh, Ian!” She threw her arms around his neck, so grateful for the way he really got her. She’d almost doubted them. Stupid Nate putting stupid doubts in her head. “I do care! So, so much! You’re the best, most important person in my life.” She kissed him. “I love you.”
He scooped her up, cradled in his arms, and she snuggled into his chest. “I love you too, sweetheart.”
Then he carried her into the bedroom and showed her how much he loved her.
A long while later, lying on her belly, too limp to even roll over, Kate found herself thinking of their scientifically based trial run. She really wished she could just let it go and not worry. She knew Ian loved her. Believed it with her whole heart. Yet she still doubted he was over his cold feet. She was sure he’d just said that he was over it to spite Nate.
Some part of her worried Ian would leave her. At the altar or before that, when the trapped feeling got too much for him. After all, he’d never lived with her before. She knew she was…quirky, and he’d been mostly understanding of her quirks, but he’d never had to live with them twenty-four seven. There was no way around it. They had to go through with the experiment and discover for themselves if they really had what it took to go the distance.
~ ~ ~
Ian fully acknowledged Kate was a beautiful, sexy, brilliant woman. He just didn’t like having all these other guys acknowledging it too. Kate brought him along to trivia night at McGinty’s with her adoring guy crew. They sat at a large table not too far from where the quizmaster would ask the questions. The bar was near campus and full of legal-age students and a handful of professors. Nate went straight to the bar.
Ian slipped an arm around Kate. “What do you want to drink?” He kinda hoped she’d say iced tea. He wasn’t keen on thinking of Kate drinking beer and being lusty around these guys. He had to wonder if she had been when he wasn’t around to witness it.
Kate gestured to the bar. “Nate’s got it.”
He glanced over to where Nate was apparently ordering for her.
Ian hightailed it to the bar. “Hey, Nate, whatcha getting?”
“Two beers, my friend,” Nate said.
The bartender arrived; Nate paid and left a hefty tip before heading back to the table. So Nate was a big spender. He was a grad student (they typically had little money), so he must come from money. Another strike against him, Ian thought grimly.
Ian ordered a beer for himself, and by the time he got back to the table, taking a seat next to Kate, everyone had paired up. Nate sat on Kate’s other side.
“Ian, you’re with Mike,” Kate said.
“Kate and I are always a team,” Nate said smugly. “Undefeated.” He lifted a fist and Kate gave him a fist bump.
“Actually, Kate, I want to be with you,” Ian said. The hell with subtle. She needed a clear message, and he was happy to send it.
Nate piped up. “We can’t break our streak. Two more levels and we’ll be the champs. We’ll get the McGinty Cup and a thousand dollars.” He jerked a thumb over to where a large trophy stood in a place of honor at the quizmaster’s table.
Sorry. This was about much more than a trophy and prize money, and Ian had to put his foot down. He wouldn’t share Kate, and especially not with the guy who openly adored her and who filled her head with doubts about Ian and Kate’s relationship. Nope. Not gonna happen.
“Kate,” Ian said simply. He really didn’t want to get into it again with Nate, but the man was a little too smug about his place with Kate, and Ian seriously wanted to punch him.
Kate pushed her hair behind her ears. “What?”
“Tell him you want to be on my team,” Ian said. Direct, honest, to the point. She’d appreciate that given that was how she operated.
Kate looked from him to Nate, seeming torn.
“It really shouldn’t be that tough of a decision,” Ian said.
“Easiest decision in the world,” Nate said. “Go with a winner.” He pumped his fists in the air. “Victory!”
“No one wants to play with shlubby old Mike,” Mike said from the far end of the table. “Whatever.”
“Sorry, man,” Colt said to Mike. “You just didn’t gel with us. Besides, Ty and I have a history in this game. Last year we came in second place.”
“Mike, don’t be sad!” Kate exclaimed. “I’ll be on your team.”
Mike grinned. “Really? Great!”
Kate stood.
“Kate!” Ian and Nate said at the same time.
“Ian will take my place on the team,” she said, gesturing Ian over to Nate. “And, guys, don’t go gorilla on me.” She grabbed her beer and headed for the far end of the table away from both of them.
Nate shot Ian a dark look. “We won’t win without Kate.”
“Hey, I’m a good player,” Ian said. “You could still win the big trophy to make up for your little—”
“Shut up,” Nate snapped.
“Everything okay down there?” Kate asked from the other end of the table.
“Everything’s great!” Ian said. “We’re definitely going to lose without you.”
“Oh, Ian! You’re so funny!” She giggled and drank some beer.
He gr
inned, leaned back and clasped his hands behind his head. Someone was getting lucky tonight. And it wasn’t Nate.
A short while later, the trivia game began. The quizmaster announced the category and then the question. They had sixty seconds to enter an answer on an app on their cell phone. The app temporarily disabled Internet access to prevent cheating. First question was on sports.
“You know sports?” Nate asked Ian.
“Yeah,” Ian said, though he only knew baseball.
“Okay,” Nate said, “you take sports. I’ll take everything else.”
“What do you do when sports comes up with Kate?” Ian asked.
“We guess,” Nate said.
“Mike knows sports!” Kate called to them with a big smile. She turned to Mike. “We are so going to win!”
Mike grinned.
“Who scored the first points in Super Bowl history?” the quizmaster asked. “Sixty seconds.”
Nate looked to Ian anxiously.
“Reggie Jackson,” Ian replied just to mess with him. That was a former Yankees baseball player.
Nate typed it in eagerly. Ian bit back a smile. This could be fun.
Next question, also sports: What basketball player played the most seasons in the NBA?
Nate looked to Ian.
“Terry Bradshaw,” Ian answered with a straight face. That was a former football quarterback.
Nate dutifully typed it in. Every time Nate asked him a question, Ian fed him the wrong answer. Sure, it was juvenile, but the guy deserved it. And every time Nate thought he knew the answer, Ian would peek over his shoulder and introduce some doubt. “Are you sure about that answer?”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure,” Nate would say.
“Hmm…” Ian replied mysteriously.
Then Nate would, all on his own, come up with some possible scenario where it could be a different answer. Of course, Ian readily agreed with the amended incorrect answer. It was just too easy. The hardest part was doing it all with a straight face.
An hour later, the quizmaster ran the results through the computer and declared Kate and Mike the winners.
“Yes!” Mike shouted.
Kate bounced in her seat, grinning from ear-to-ear. “We did it!”
Almost Hitched Page 7