Sending Mackenzie a satisfied smirk when she stood up, Gail pointed to a door and said, “Alec’s bathroom is right in there, hon. You go bathe him off and I’ll get our—I mean—I’ll get his bed ready.”
Of course, had Alec been lucid enough to realize what was going on around him at that very moment, he might have noticed that Mackenzie’s piercing laugh suddenly had a rather demonic ring to it. “Sorry, hon,” Mackenzie said, purposely mimicking Gail’s breathy voice. “You don’t do sick, and I don’t do baths. But I am going to tell you what I will do, Gail. I’m going to gather up everything you’re going to need to take care of baby here. And then,” Mackenzie said as her voice continued to rise to a level that matched her own rage, “I’m going to stay right here with your little cutie while you get yourself outside and move your car out of my reserved parking space! Got it?”
“Well,” the redhead said with a huff. “There’s no reason to be rude about it.”
“Oh, yes there is,” Mackenzie said as she stomped out of Alec’s bedroom. “I earned the right to be rude when I was stupid enough to let loverboy throw up all over my back instead of yours.”
AFTER RETURNING TO HER own side of the hallway, Mackenzie paced around her jungle of a living room like a caged tigress who had just been bested by a scroungy jackal. And in a way, she had been. When she stomped into her kitchen for a glass of water to down some medication for the migraine that was now threatening to blow her head off, Mackenzie got mad all over again.
Kicking at the shiny buttons from Alec’s shirt that were littering her kitchen floor, all she accomplished was launching Marmalade off the kitchen counter to bat a few of the buttons around with her paw.
“Just don’t mess with his hat,” Mackenzie said when Marmalade lost interest in the buttons and strolled in the direction of her bowl where Alec’s captain’s hat had landed. “I want the satisfaction of taking care of that myself.”
Walking across the kitchen, Mackenzie stood with her Nike poised directly over the object that was causing her to frown. She envisioned herself flattening Alec’s captain’s hat like a pancake, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. Besides, who was she kidding? It wasn’t even Alec she was angry with.
No, Mackenzie was furious with herself.
It had been on the tip of her tongue to inform the ditzy redhead that she was there first. And didn’t that sound familiar? And that’s when Mackenzie’s hopes for a relationship with Alec had popped like a soap bubble right before eyes.
She was her mother’s daughter after all. And the episode with the redhead had given Mackenzie a quick glimpse of what a future with Alec would actually be like.
It wasn’t a pretty picture.
Like her mother, Mackenzie knew her own insecurities would eventually destroy them both. She’d become needy and suspicious and push Alec farther and farther away, forcing him to finally act on her accusations, just like her mother had done with her father. So what if her parents had finally worked through their problems?
Hell, it had taken them almost twenty years to do it!
“Well, I don’t intend to spend the next twenty years of my life in agony,” Mackenzie told Marmalade, then bent down and picked up Alec’s hat.
She then scooped up his jacket from the floor by her kitchen table and marched back through her condo. Folding his jacket neatly, she placed the hat on top and laid both items on her catchall table just inside her front door. She would return his things later, after his nursemaid left, Mackenzie decided. She dusted her hands off in a good-riddance gesture the same way she mentally did to her slightly bruised heart.
She wasn’t even going to spend another second being jealous of the dizzy redhead with the three-inch talons, though her guilt over serving up a practically unconscious man for Gail’s amusement didn’t make Mackenzie very proud of herself, either.
Not that Alec would mind, Mackenzie convinced herself. After all, this wasn’t the first time Gail had stayed over, as she’d so candidly put it. And you’d better believe it won’t be the last time Gail or someone like her shows up to stay over, the little voice inside her head spoke up, reminding Mackenzie why she’d gone into the kitchen in the first place.
After a trip back to the kitchen to swallow enough aspirin to soothe her throbbing head, Mackenzie reached down and pulled Marmalade into her arms. Carrying the cat with her she headed for her bedroom, trying not to dwell on her rumpled sheets, or the faint smell of Alec’s aftershave that still lingered in the room.
“I’m glad I’m a cat person,” Mackenzie told her furry friend. “Old maids are supposed to like cats.”
Marmalade didn’t object when Mackenzie placed her on the bed and curled up beside her.
“And I’m not going to spend another second worrying about what’s going on across the hall,” Mackenzie said, opening one eye to see if Marmalade was listening.
She propped herself up on her elbow then and reached out to stroke Marmalade’s long, silky fur. “Besides, Alec told me on the way to the emergency room that he was already marked off the flight schedule for the next four days. Not that his co-worker wouldn’t know the proper people at United to contact for him.”
Marmalade smacked at her hand, then bent her head to lick her fur back in place.
“And it’s not like I didn’t leave everything he needs to care for himself right in plain view by the side of his bed,” Mackenzie added. “Of course, I doubt his new nurse is smart enough to figure it out, but Alec is certainly intelligent enough to read the directions on his medication and follow that instruction sheet on how to take care of his foot.”
Marmalade leveled one of her questioning catlike stares in Mackenzie’s direction. “You’re right,” Mackenzie said. “I probably should have made sure he had something to eat before I left. Gail will probably let Alec starve to death before it crosses her mind that he might be hungry.”
When Marmalade smacked at her hand again, Mackenzie said, “But it’s not really my problem. Alec’s a big boy, and if he gets hungry he can tell the witch to get some of her famous Chinese takeout. Okay?”
Marmalade’s only reply was a slight swish of her tail.
“Besides, I’ve got problems of my own,” Mackenzie told the cat as she eased her pounding head back onto her pillow. “And what I need to do right now is try and sleep off this headache.”
Marmalade had already closed her eyes. Mackenzie sighed as she closed her own. Too bad getting over a heartache wouldn’t be so easy.
THE FEEL OF SOMETHING cool on his forehead brought a smile to Alec’s lips. Still unable to force his eyes open, he moaned, “Umm, that feels nice.”
He moaned again when a pair of soft lips delivered a tantalizing kiss to the corner of his mouth. “That feels even better,” he whispered, and caught his breath when a smooth hand slid across his chest, then moved lower following the trail of black hair that trickled into a thin line just above his navel.
“Do I dare go any lower, Alec?”
Alec tensed. Wait a minute! his fuzzy mind complained. That voice doesn’t match the mental picture you were just enjoying now.
When Alec’s eyes snapped open, he found himself staring into a pair of bright green color-enhanced contacts, instead of the soft brown eyes he’d envisioned in his mind.
“Gail?” Alec muttered pushing himself up on his elbows. “What are you doing here?”
“Why, I’m taking care of you, Alec,” she said as if he’d just asked her the most ridiculous question in the world.
Alec shook his head to clear it and glanced around his bedroom. “Where is Mackenzie?”
“Who cares?” Gail said rolling her eyes. “I’m telling you, Alec, that neighbor of yours is a real psycho. She practically ran over me when she roared into the parking lot. I only parked in her stupid parking space for a second so I could run in and say ‘hi’ to you, but you’d have thought I’d committed a felony or something. And then when you threw up all over her, well…”
�
��I did what?” Alec bellowed, forcing himself to sit up.
“Well, I’m sure you didn’t throw up on her on purpose, Alec,” Gail said, trying to blot his forehead with the damp cloth again. “Of course, when I told her to bathe you off while I got our bed ready, she practically turned into a wild woman. She started ranting and raving about what she was and wasn’t going to do, and then…”
Alec grabbed the cloth from Gail’s hand, placed it on his forehead himself, then dropped back against his pillow with a loud groan. “Spare me the rest of the details, okay?” Alec interrupted. “And please go home now, Gail. I’m not exactly in the mood for any company.”
“But Alec,” she protested. “I’ve already called and had my flight schedule changed so I could take care of you tonight.”
Alec forced one eye back open. “I’m sorry, Gail. I appreciate you wanting to help, but all I want to do right now is get a little sleep.”
“I can be a really good snuggly snuggler, Alec,” she said in her irritating baby-talk voice.
Alec pushed himself up on his elbows again and shook his head determinedly. “Look, Gail, I’m trying to be nice about this, but you’re going to have to stop dropping in on me without calling me first.”
“I see,” she said, jumping up from the side of the bed.
“Well, excuse me for trying to be here when you need someone, Alec,” she huffed. “Because if you think for one minute your bitchy neighbor is going to take care of you, then you’re in for a rude awakening.”
Alec didn’t even bother to argue, but seconds later when Gail slammed his front door at the other end of the condo, the force actually caused the crutches propped against his bedside table to clatter to the floor.
Well, isn’t this just great, Alec thought as he dropped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. Just when things were coming together for them. Just when he and Mackenzie were on the verge of acting on their feelings for each other, this had to happen.
Letting out a long sigh, Alec thought back over Gail’s words, deciding that his hopes of convincing Mackenzie he wasn’t some womanizing playboy were now as far fetched as Alec ever asking the snuggly snuggler to share his bed. But dammit, Alec thought as he forced himself back into a sitting position. I’m the one who should be pissed, not Mackenzie.
So, what if Gail had shown up unexpectedly again? So what? What about the deal he and Mackenzie had made? Hadn’t they both agreed there wouldn’t be any more games between them? Yet, she’d walked out and left him with Gail while he was too drugged up to notice.
Glancing at his bedside table, Alec was relieved when he saw Mackenzie’s business card still by his bed. Unfortunately, he also noted the prescription bottle and some other pieces of evidence from the hospital that proved he wasn’t just having one hell of a bad dream. Reaching for the phone, he picked up the card and punched in the appropriate numbers.
And though Alec really didn’t expect her to be home, Mackenzie answered on the third ring.
“I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for me today,” Alec said as sincerely as possible.
“Don’t mention it,” she answered but the frost coming through the line left Alec’s hand frozen to the phone.
Alec squeezed his eyes shut when he added, “And I’m sorry about…well, you know, getting sick and all.”
“I’ll send you my dry cleaning bill,” she said, but there wasn’t even a hint of humor in her voice.
“I think the medicine has worn off now, but I’m still a little fuzzy-headed,” Alec said in a desperate attempt for even a sliver of sympathy. “Would you mind coming over and helping me sort out what I’m supposed to do with all of this medicine and stuff?”
“If you help Gail with the big words, I’m sure she can figure it out,” Mackenzie was quick to point out.
“I’ve already sent Gail home, Mackenzie,” Alec said, “and…”
“Look, Alec. I’m sure you have a dozen other little playmates who would love to come take care of you. Call one of them.”
“Damn,” Alec cursed when the loud click threatened to burst his eardrum.
He remained sitting in the middle of his bed for a second, then threw his phone across the room. His ear was still ringing, his foot was definitely throbbing, and now his blood was climbing steadily towards a point near boiling. And for a moment, Alec was tempted to hobble across the hall on his crutches and place Mackenzie directly over his knee.
Once again the game of cat and mouse they’d been playing for the last few weeks had resulted in him, the cat, being only one paw away from a definite catch. But he was going to catch that mouse whether she liked or not. And come hell or high water Alec intended to make Mackenzie listen to what he had to say.
“You can run, Mackenzie, but you can’t hide from me forever,” Alec yelled, hopefully loud enough for her to hear him all the way across the hallway.
MACKENZIE SWITCHED OFF the ringer on her telephone, then pulled the sheet back over her head. The only thing important to her at the moment was getting rid of the freight train that was roaring through her head. Everything else would just have to wait.
She wasn’t in the mood to deal with Alec. She wasn’t going to call the office and play twenty questions with Angie. And unless she could get over the migraine, she wasn’t even going to keep her dinner date with John. Although she really did need to keep that date with John if possible.
The fact was, John was just too nice of a guy to string along. And that’s exactly what she’d be doing if she kept dating John now. She was in love with Alec, plain and simple. And the fact that they probably didn’t have a future together wasn’t even the issue. Mackenzie simply wasn’t the type of woman who could be in love with one man and date another.
When another sharp pain kicked in, Mackenzie decided what she needed to do was stop thinking about Alec and John and figure out a way to get her life back on track. No more Alec. No more John. She would simply throw herself back into her work. She wouldn’t even mind her weekends filled with movies and popcorn again. In fact, just thinking of a nice, quiet weekend alone without the aggravation relationships seemed to cause gave her hope that she might survive after all.
But what I need to do first is get rid of this migraine, Mackenzie reminded herself.
She’d have a talk with John and with Alec later, and then surely everything would fall neatly back into place.
6
MACKENZIE APPLIED THE finishing touches to her makeup, then glanced at her watch, pleased to find it wasn’t quite five o’clock. That meant she could still catch John at his office and tell him just to meet her at the restaurant, instead of coming all the way across town to pick her up.
“How does this sound?” she asked Marmalade who was sitting on her vanity playing with a tube of mascara. “John, you’re one of the nicest men I’ve met in a long time, but I’m at a difficult stage in my life right now. I need some time to myself. I hope you can understand.”
Marmalade yawned, then licked her paw and ran it over her face a few times.
“Too boring, huh? Okay, then how about this?” Mackenzie asked. “John, this may be hard for you to understand, but I’ve decided to enter the convent.”
Marmalade swatted the mascara. It landed in the floor.
“Yeah, you’re right, he’d never believe that.”
“Well, let’s see. How about…”
Mackenzie’s sentence was cut short when someone rang her doorbell to the point the noise was one continuous long assault on her still slightly throbbing head. Leaving her bathroom, she walked into the living room and stood staring at the doorknob someone was now trying to turn. But when a fist started pounding on her door to the point the animal prints on her wall started doing the shimmy, Mackenzie stomped across the room and pulled her door open.
“Thank God. You’re alive,” Angie cried out and practically collapsed into Mackenzie’s arms.
Mackenzie pushed Angie away from her, startled to see not only her best
friend, but John standing in the hallway as well. “Of course, I’m alive. I’ve had a migraine, but…”
“Don’t you realize how worried we’ve all been?” Angie scolded. “You call in early this morning and tell Karen to cancel your appointments. Then your mother calls the office and goes a little crazy to find you’re not at work. And then she calls back, terrified because not only are you not at work, but you won’t answer your phone. Then I call John, praying to God you’re with him, and find out he’s been trying to call you, too, and your mother keeps insisting she’s afraid you’ve done something horrible to yourself because you were so upset about the reconciliation.” Angie paused long enough to take one deep breath. “And why in the hell didn’t you tell me your parents were getting back together, Mackie? I’m your best friend, and I know that had to upset you. And that’s why what your mother was saying halfway made sense, and…”
“Stop it!” Mackenzie finally said, reaching up to rub her temple again. She looked at John and back at Angie before she said, “Look, I’m sorry if everyone was worried, but it was after midnight last night before I got home from taking Mother to dinner and then to the airport.”
“So the only thing wrong is a migraine?”
“Yes, Angie, I got the migraine this morning and then I slept it off the way I usually have to do.”
“And I’m sure you haven’t eaten a bite all day, which is why you always get those horrible headaches in the first place.”
Mackenzie rolled her eyes. “Well, I was planning to go to dinner with John,” she said, looking in John’s direction. “In fact, I was just getting ready to call you, John, and suggest…”
Mackenzie suddenly stopped talking when the last person she wanted to see opened his door and hobbled out into the hallway on his crutches. Her headache roared to life again when she saw the unmistakable gleam in his eye.
“I thought I heard voices out here,” he said, looking directly at Mackenzie.
“What happened to you, old man?” John asked when Alec maneuvered himself in their direction.
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