by Megan Bryce
He threw it back to the pitcher. “Honey, the bases are loaded again. You know I can’t let you hit that ball.”
“So you’re just going to walk me? There’s a man on third who’ll score.”
“Better one than four.”
Ball two came sailing way outside and Ethan didn’t even bother to crouch.
“Ball two!”
A few people in the crowd booed and Mackenzie was pretty sure one of them was Ethan’s grandmother.
Mackenzie said, “I might strike out.”
“You couldn’t strike out if you tried. That first hit was a thing of beauty.”
Mackenzie smiled. “Thank you. You do know that this little escapade is going to cost you four thousand dollars, right? Anderson is having a little too much fun yelling ball.”
“He’s just doing his job, you can’t charge me for that.”
Anderson yelled in a sing-song voice, “Baaaaaaaaaalllllll three,” and Mackenzie raised an eyebrow.
She said, “That one’s going to cost you two thousand.”
Ball four came sailing over her head and Ethan had to jump to catch it.
Mackenzie lightly threw her bat toward the dugout, gave Ethan a disgusted look, and took her base. He could hear his grandmother complaining loudly but a man had to do what a man had to do. He wasn’t letting Miss Home Run near the ball again. He smiled at the glare Mackenzie gave him when the next batter struck out and the teams switched.
When he slid into third, he said, “I was sure you were going to walk me but I guess you don’t believe in playing dirty.”
“I thought about it, but then realized there wasn’t any point. You’re not that much of a threat.”
He wiped dirt from his sweats. “I’m on third base.”
“And that’s as far as you’re getting.”
Shortstop sniggered, and Mackenzie whipped her head around to glare at Ethan.
He chuckled. “I never realized how many sexual innuendos can be made with a game of softball.”
“If I lose after this, you better find someone else to fill my position. And I hope she keeps carrot sticks in her drawer and kisses your ass.”
“That would be a novelty.”
The batter hit the ball straight to Mackenzie, who caught it midair and then tagged Ethan out before he could make it back to base.
“Jeez, Mackenzie. Good thing I’m meaner than you or I don’t think I’d be winning today.”
“You won’t be winning today. Your grandmother is counting on me.”
But he was meaner than her, and he’d had years of practice charming resistance out of men and women alike. The women were distracted, the men laughing too hard (and Mackenzie knew they were laughing about her even if she couldn’t hear what Ethan was saying), and the only person immune to him never got close enough to the ball to hit it. She got one more run in, sliding and spraying dust everywhere and getting wiped down by Ethan to a lot of whistles and catcalls– and a glare by one unhappy mother. But in the end, she wasn’t a match against him and his mouth and her team lost by two.
Ethan slung a sweaty, dusty arm around her. “You do realize this is your fault. You could have won, but you chose to leave the shorts at home and wear these instead.” He pinched her yoga pants and pulled.
“If I’d have known you were susceptible to that sort of thing, I would have worn a thong. But I was sure you were immune after all those models.”
He choked and stopped, his arm falling off her shoulders. She grinned and kept walking. His grandmother was waiting for her behind the dugout and they nodded to each other.
“I don’t blame you, girlie. I think you were the only one on that team who really wanted to win.”
Mackenzie said, “Ethan could make the pope play for Allah. I think half the people who work for him came from a competitor.”
“Did you?”
“No. I was hired right out of college.” She swung her bag up. “And if I could find anyone who paid as well, I’d switch.”
Ellen glanced toward the other dugout. “I’m sure he knows that.”
Mackenzie smiled. “That’s why I can’t find anyone who will pay as much. Ethan gets what he wants and he usually doesn’t care what it costs as long as it’s worth it.”
“He gets that from his father. . . Join us for dinner tonight.”
Mackenzie’s eyebrows shot up and she shook her head. “Thank you, but I can only take so much of him a day.”
His grandmother chuckled. “I think you could take a lot more than you’re willing to admit. But I’m asking you to join Christine and me. And before you say no again, remember that I just lost a bet because of you.”
Mackenzie shook her head again, amused. “You forget I’m immune to O’Connor ploys. You lost that bet because of your grandson. I didn’t think any O’Connor would bet against their own.”
“I didn’t bet against him. It would have done the boy good to get walloped by you. We’ll be at Melisse at seven. I’ll make the reservation for three.”
Mackenzie glanced behind her, catching the gaze of his mother. She was talking to Ethan but looking at her. Christine O’Connor didn’t look like she would enjoy sharing a meal with the woman who’d threatened her son.
“It was very interesting meeting you, Mrs. O’Connor–”
“Ellen.”
“Ellen. But I won’t be able to make dinner tonight. I’m sure you can thank Ethan for me for such an enjoyable afternoon.”
Ellen smiled at her, looking like Ethan at his most winning. “I sure can. If you change your mind, we’ll save a seat for you.”
Mackenzie walked away, thinking of a cool shower and an O’Connor free night. No need to tell Ellen that only one person could get her to change her mind with any kind of regularity, and he’d used up that power for a good long while. She wasn’t going to forget today’s game anytime soon.
His grandmother called after her. “Mackenzie? It was very interesting meeting you, too.”
Mackenzie arrived at the office Thursday morning expecting the jokes and ribbing to continue. For three days now, she’d had to endure a near constant barrage of jokes, puns, and gags. It helped immensely to think of a cash-register ringing every time the word ball left someone’s mouth. She hadn’t been kidding about charging Ethan– he’d said it, he could pay for it. And it would probably cost him less than a sexual harassment suit. Just barely.
But this morning everyone was eerily quiet as she made her way to her office. There were no jokes, no exaggerated winks. She smiled at one of the interns, who blushed and looked away.
Mackenzie didn’t ever remember losing her temper over something Ethan had done but maybe he’d felt bad and told everyone to leave her alone.
That didn’t sound like him at all.
Ethan was waiting for her in her office, sitting in her chair again, and her confusion disappeared.
“Oh. Now I know why everyone looks so afraid of me. Come to rub it in?”
He looked up from the paper he was reading, his eyes hard, his mouth pulled together so tight his lips looked white.
She stopped in her tracks. “Are you okay?”
He threw the paper down on her desk. “I guess you don’t read the tabloids.”
“I try not to when I know you’re going to be in it.”
He didn’t laugh, didn’t chuckle, and she reached for the paper. Her eyebrows rose when she saw it was the National Enquirer, but her comment died on her lips when she saw the headline. And then sat down hard when she saw the pictures.
Her mouth fell open.
“I’m sorry, Mackenzie.”
She tried to tell him this was going to cost a lot more than a thousand dollars but she couldn’t get it past her lips.
She cleared her throat. “They just aren’t letting up on you, are they?”
One side of the cover in bold headline, He made me abort my baby!
And the other side was a picture of them facing each other, their bodies almost touching.
There was no mistaking his grin and her smirk, and Mackenzie was sure that anybody who saw it would think they were getting ready to jump into each others’ arms. She was fairly certain they’d been threatening each other at the time.
She flipped open the paper, read the abortion article first, and then looked at all the damning pictures of them together. Him holding her in the air, his hand on her butt, his arm around her shoulders, him wiping her down after the slide.
She said, “At least these pictures all seem one sided. Maybe I can pretend you were annoying me. Oh, wait. You were.”
And then she flipped the page. “Oh, God.”
Just in case anybody had missed it, there were arrows pointing at his enlarged crotch and her pebbled nipples as they faced off.
Mackenzie closed her eyes and whispered, “Please tell me everyone thinks these were computer generated.”
“I’m sure the Enquirer would do that but I doubt they needed to. I thought I’d hid it better than that, though.”
Her eyes popped open. His lopsided grin was self-deprecating and she looked down at the paper. “Well, just let me pretend it was computer generated, okay?”
“I do have to wonder, though. If mine was real, maybe yours was, too.”
She refused to blush. “Whatever gets you through the day, O’Connor.”
She closed the paper and put it down on her desk, sitting back in the uncomfortable chair and resting her head.
She said, “While the pictures are embarrassing, I guess it’s not the first time they’ve splashed your new girlfriend on the cover.”
“Are you my new girlfriend now, Mackenzie?”
“Or someone they could pretend was your new girlfriend.”
He laughed. “I can honestly say that normally it is my new girlfriend.”
“I’m so glad you can keep your sense of humor about this, Ethan.”
He smiled and started opening the drawers to her desk. “You bring out the best in me, Mackenzie. Maybe the Enquirer knows a good thing when it sees it.”
“I’m starting to worry about you. Really, I am.” She watched him rifle through her desk. He held up a box of envelopes with a hopeful look and she shook her head. “That other thing isn’t so easy to ignore though.”
He sighed. “No. Please tell me you have some chocolate hiding somewhere.”
Mackenzie pushed herself to her feet, walked over to her filing cabinet, and took out a box of hanging folders. She took out a Twix and handed the rest to him.
“Sneaky, Wyatt.” He dug through the box, pulling out a Snickers with a satisfied look.
“Desperate measures, O’Connor. I could spend all my bonuses buying chocolate for you. Does your mother know about this obsession you have?”
“I keep my obsessions away from the innocent eyes of my mother.”
He took a big bite, leaning back in his chair. Her chair.
She closed her eyes and took a bite of Twix, crunching into the cookie and letting the smooth caramel roll over her tongue.
She mumbled around the cookie. “Just this once I’m not going to bug you about sitting in my chair. You’re having a bad day.” Her eyes flicked to the cover of the Enquirer again. “You know what, I’m having a bad day, too. I’m going to need my chair now.”
He smiled wide, chocolate smeared across his perfect white teeth. “You can come share it with me.”
“You don’t learn, do you? There’s probably someone in that building over there, taking pictures of us right now.” Mackenzie squinted out the window. “Actually, there really might be. Close the blinds, will you?”
She hurried away from the window and sat back down, slouching to hide from unseen cameras.
Ethan shot up in his chair. “I’ve just had a brilliant idea.”
“I seriously doubt that. It’s just the sugar rush, it’ll go away.”
His eyes sparkled and he laughed. “Mackenzie Wyatt. You trust me, right?”
She frowned and shook her head. “No.”
He leaped to his feet, rounding the desk. He grabbed the arms of her chair and leaned down close. He smiled into her wide eyes. “I swear I will make this up to you, Mackenzie.”
The smell of peanuts and chocolate wafted towards her and she frowned at him. “That sentence never comes after a brilliant idea. Usually it comes after a really, really stupid one.”
“Nope, it’s brilliant. You’ll hate it, but it’s brilliant.”
She grabbed his forearms. “Ethan, what are you thinking? My God, I should never have given you chocolate.”
“I’m thinking you are the answer to all my problems, Mackenzie Wyatt.”
And then he kissed her. Kissed her.
A quick peck on the lips that tasted like Snickers, and then he was gone and halfway down the hallway before she could even snap her mouth shut.
She turned in her chair to see two women standing outside her office wearing the same dumbfounded expression she was.
She said, “What just happened there?”
The two women looked at each other and then said, “He kissed you.”
Mackenzie nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
The press conference started at one that afternoon. Ethan looked his most handsome, his most charming, and Mackenzie wanted to find some Tums for the ulcer his smile was causing her. What had he meant when he said he would make it all up to her? Maybe he’d meant the pictures.
But how in the world was she the answer to any problem he had? She’d bet money she was one of his top ten irritants.
She gathered with the rest of the floor and watched the live press conference.
He addressed the accusation of beating, the abortion, and sounded very sincere and believable. He told the world that he hadn’t done any of the things he was accused of, and he could’ve killed someone on primetime and no one would have believed it after listening to him.
He looked into the camera. “I want to apologize to the women I’ve hurt in the past. I know that strong emotion can make an ordinary person a little jealous, a little crazy. What I did to them was unforgivable. I used them to ignore my own breaking heart and can recognize their need for getting back at me through the press.
“These women built hope that I would one day love them enough. That one day I would choose them. And now that I have chosen another, they’re lashing out.
“After five long years, Mackenzie Wyatt has agreed to marry me. She has worked for O’Connor Capital for more than seven years and has repeatedly refused to even acknowledge our mutual feelings. She is a very stubborn, very private woman and my life is anything but private.”
He held up the inside pages of the Enquirer and laughed. “But when even the Enquirer can see the passion between us, it’s time to throw in the towel.”
Laughter from the reporters drowned out the scream Mackenzie was trying to make. All around her, heads were turning to stare in disbelief, and she kept her eyes glued to the television.
“My fiancé is a very private person, and while she will have to get used to the attention my life attracts, I would ask that the press go easy on her for a little while. Don’t scare her off! It’s taken five years to get her to say yes.”
More laughter, a few questions that he smoothly answered, and it was over.
Mackenzie dropped into the nearest chair and put her head between her knees.
“You’ll make it up to me? You’ll make it up to me?”
Ethan could tell she was a little upset. One thing about Mackenzie, he could always tell when he’d crossed the line into no man’s land.
“If you’ll just listen to me–”
“When have I ever listened to you? Never! And do you know why? Because this is what comes out of your mouth!”
He frowned. “You’re making this into too big a deal, Mackenzie.”
She sat down hard in the chair behind her desk, grabbed the stapler and started stapling the air. He could see staples falling out the side, and he decided he’d rather have it empty a
nyway.
She took a deep breath. “You just announced on national TV that you and I are engaged. And that all the bad press from your ex-girlfriends are jealous tantrums. Did I miss anything?”
“You know, most women would be thrilled to be engaged to me.”
“Really? You really think any other woman in this building would be happy at finding herself unknowingly engaged to you? I’m the only anomaly here?”
He thought about it, then nodded. “Yes.”
She narrowed her eyes but didn’t bother to disagree with him. “Well, perhaps they can be taken in by a pretty face and a charming smile. I, however, know that you are not nearly as wonderful as everyone thinks.”
“And why is that, Mackenzie?” He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers.
If he was going to be visiting more often, he was going to get this chair replaced.
She said, “Why can I see through your bull? A gift, I guess. Now I want you to go back downstairs, get those reporters to turn their cameras back on, and tell the world you were joking. We’re not engaged.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, honey. We are.”
He could see pressure building again and he held up a hand to stop the flow. “Just for a little while. Until I’m back on my feet. It hurts having all these women ganging up on me.”
“My heart bleeds for you. We’re not engaged.”
“I’ll let you dump me. You can say you couldn’t handle all the press and leading a public life.”
She said, “I’m not going to be able to handle it. All the attention is going to jump from you to me!”
“They’ll lose interest. We’ll have a little press conference, tell everyone how happy we are, and it’ll die down.”
She rubbed her temple with one hand, the other setting the stapler down, forgotten.
Ethan stood, moving it out of reach, and walked behind her.
She twisted in her seat, glaring at him. “What are you doing? Get back in your chair.”
He put his hands on her shoulders and started massaging. She tried to stand up but he pushed her back down.
“You’re the only one I can ask to do this–”
“You didn’t ask.”