I blink. She smiles, like she's an oblivious, sweet child and then she holds up a spoonful of ice cream, caramel saucedripping from it. "Wanna bite? You have no reason to stay in shape now. Farm team is basically a beer league. Fuck it. Get fat."
“You’re…” I can’t even think of an expletive or adjective to explain how infuriating she is right now so I just shake my head. “Bye.”
I storm out of the house. Mayhem stands at the open door and yells after me. "Love you loser! I can't believe I finally get to call you that and you won't argue. Merry Christmas to me!"
I know she’s not serious. It’s a Jedi mind trick. She’s calling me a loser so I’ll argue with her and pull myself out of this vat of self-doubt and misery. Well, I’m not falling for her tricks. I don’t even acknowledge her as I get in my car and drive away. Fucking family.
It’s an easy commute to the hospital and I’m only in the parking lot ten minutes when Mac steps out of the front doors. She’s all bundled up with a thick scarf wrapped around her neck and the bottom half of her face, gloves on her hands, and a knitted toque shoved on over her curls, which are pulled back into a low ponytail.
She starts along the sidewalk that skirts the parking lot all the way to the road. Is she really going to walk to the barn? It's a good six miles to that place, and the road to it is basically all uphill, with no sidewalk and likely still coated in ice. I pull out of the spot I was in and drive into the oncoming lane to pull up beside her. My window goes down as she looks over. "Your chariot awaits, Ms. Larue."
“You’re here for me?”
“You don’t have a car,” I remind her.
“No, but I have legs,” she counters.
I look up through the windshield at the solid gray sky stuffed full of clouds that are slowly dropping flakes. The sun has set and if it weren’t for the parking lot lights it would be pitch black. The narrow, hilly road that takes her to the farmdoesn’t have a single street light. “Are you seriously going to make me go all alpha asshole on you and order you into the car? I hate being that guy, but if it’s your jam…”
She smiles and I can tell she wishes she hadn’t. “I grew up on the streets of New York, Conner. I can handle an alpha asshole in my sleep. I can also walk myself home.”
“You are the most stubborn woman I have ever met,” I declare. “Too bad for you I’m chivalrous to a fault and have decided I’m spending this Christmas as your knight in shining armor so if you don’t get in this car right now, I’m going to drive next to you, slower than a sloth if necessary, all the way back to your place.”
Mac stops and folds her arms over her chest. Her big blue eyes are like icicles and not just because of their uniquely pale color. She's trying to murder me with her stare. Oh well. I give zero shits. I'm driving her home. She finally seems to realize that and, with a huff of disdain, opens the passenger door.
As she slips into the car I notice Heather is standing by the bushes, at the edge of the overhang by the front doors, smoking a cigarette and watching us like a hawk. A health professional who smokes seems ironic in the worst possible way, but whatever. I pretend I don’t see her and as soon as Mac’s butt is settled in my heated passenger seat, I lean in. I cup the back of her head to hold her in place. I can feel the muscles in her neck tense with confusion and shock until I whisper in her ear. “Heather is watching. Time for that A-game of yours, princess.”
And then, I move my mouth to hers. The back of her head presses into my palm, as it takes a second for her brain to process what I told her. But as soon as it clicks, God bless her, she kisses me. Her lips press into mine, her right hand comes up and cups my cheek, and her mouth opens just enough for her tongue to tease my lip and wake up my cock.
She starts to pull back but my hand keeps her in place. I’mnot done yet. I open my mouth and she takes the hint and deepens the kiss. When our tongues meet I swear it’s likemedicine. I feel better, at a cellular level. And so I kiss her longer and harder than I need to for the charade. When I finally let her go we’re both breathless and her lips are pink and swollen. Her eyelids flutter open slowly.
I pull my eyes from her in time to catch Heather glaring at my car as she flicks the end of her cigarette into the snow and disappears back inside the hospital. “Judging by the annoyed look on her face when she went back inside, she saw us.”
“Oh. Okay. Good,” Mac mutters. She runs a thumb along her plump bottom lip and I bite back a smile. I love how flustered it makes her to kiss me. “So we’re still going through with this farce?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” I ask as she reaches for her seatbelt and I pull away from the curb. “Did you call someone to take a look at your car?”
“Yeah. Tenley,” Mac replies and settles back into her seat. She pats at her hair like I might have ruined her ponytail during our make-out session but I didn’t. “She said it was just the cold. She jumped it and kept it running a bit then moved it into her garage to keep it warm. Should be fine tomorrow.”
“If not, call me again,” I tell her.
“Why are we still going through with this?” Mac asks. “I mean, Beckett thinks we’re together, and that I cheated on him, that’s good enough. We don’t have to double down by actually going to that party.”
I glance at her as I slow to stop at a stop sign, pumping the breaks in case it's still icy out there. "Honestly? I don't think we've done him enough psychological damage. He deserves to see more of you happy, moved on, looking gorgeous, and with your new and improved boyfriend who happens to be from thefamily his family hates. Because the Garrisons are just plain better than the Echolls."
“I won’t argue that last point,” she says as a smile flickers across her face again. “Except for Mallory. She’s actually kind of great. The only one I bonded with in the years I used to have to go to Echolls family events with Beckett.”
I scour my brain for exactly who Mallory Echolls is. “That’s Beckett’s youngest sister? I think she’s the same age as Tate.”
Mac nods. “She’s living abroad right now as a nanny. She messaged me when she found out about the break-up. Told me that she thought Beckett was an asshole. Anyway, back to this, I’m not really into inflicting psychological torture. I’m a psychiatrist, remember?”
“Not for a few months,” I counter, turning slowly onto the main road that will take us through the center of town. It’s the longer route home, but the one that will likely have been plowed the best and have been salted. “Right now you’re just a woman who deserves to live well. And rub her cheating ex’s face in it.”
"My God, Conner and I thought Tenley was the dramatic, shit-stirring Garrison." She laughs a little and looks out the window for a moment at the snowy landscape. "But seriously. I'm going to officially let you off the hook."
“I was never on a hook, Mac,” I reply and clench my jaw in frustration. “I’m the one who hookedyouinto this situation.”
I guess she really meant what she said and she wants nothing to do with me. That moment we shared, that almost turned into something I thought would be epic, she thinks was a mistake. A dodged bullet and that's almost more humbling than losing my spot on the Barons.