Some Like It Charming - By Megan Bryce Page 0,41
shot out of his mother’s eyes and she wandered away, taking out her cell phone.
Mackenzie muttered, “Let’s get this over with.”
Thirty minutes later they were still arguing. Ellen had snorted at Mackenzie’s first choice, saying no O’Connor would buy a piece of wire for his bride. Christine had murmured, “Does it even matter?” while staring at Mackenzie with her icy eyes. Ethan kept pulling out rings too big, too expensive, too noticeable. Anything but what Mackenzie would be comfortable wearing.
He leaned in close. “Doesn’t it worry you that my mother is agreeing with every choice you make? I think you should take it as a sign.”
She’d take it as a sign that at least one other person wanted to get out of that store as bad as she did.
Christine smiled and waved when a tall, buxom red-head entered the store. The red-head kissed Christine’s cheek, leaned her boobs into Ethan’s face, and looked Mackenzie up and down.
The woman turned out to be a fashion consultant and she grabbed Mackenzie’s hands, turning her this way and that. The woman laughed and said, “A minimalist marrying into the O’Connor family?” She smiled at Christine. “Now I understand why you needed me to rush down here.”
Mackenzie glared at Ethan, then at Christine. And when the vixen/consultant brought over a selection of rings that no one objected to, Mackenzie glared at the rings. There was just something about having her ring chosen by a consultant chosen by Christine. A consultant who kept pressing herself against Ethan and giving him come-hither looks when she thought Mackenzie wasn’t looking. While they were shopping for an engagement ring.
Ethan’s grandma said, “You’re going to have to choose something. An engagement’s not–”
Mackenzie interrupted her. “I’ve heard the saying.” She pointed to the smallest of the lot. What did it matter, anyway. She was only going to be wearing it for a couple more weeks.
She wondered if they had return policy.
The consultant smiled and said, “Now. Clothes.”
Ethan quickly thanked her, eyeing Mackenzie’s mutinous expression, saying he was saving that pleasure for himself. The consultant giggled. Christine looked like she wanted to vomit. And Mackenzie couldn’t decide whether to laugh or vomit herself.
Ellen grabbed Christine in one hand and the consultant in the other. “Now that we’ve helped solve the ring emergency, we’ll leave these two lovebirds to shop alone.”
Mackenzie didn’t even argue with her. As soon as they left the store, Mackenzie dug a chocolate bar out of her purse.
Ethan eyed it, then her. “Thank you for not attacking the consultant. Or my mother.”
“I do have some tact. It’s just when you’re annoying me that I can’t seem to control it.”
He took her hand, looking at the ring. “Control is overrated, anyway. Are you going to wear this ring?”
She took her hand back, shoving it in and out of her pocket a few times. “It’s okay,” she said, and he laughed and laughed.
Mackenzie felt marginally better and put the chocolate back in her purse.
She said, “The consultant was pretty. Your type.” She didn’t know why she said that. Every woman was his type. “You could probably get her number from your mother. Take care of that problem you’re having.”
He glanced down at her lips.
“I am a one-woman man, Mackenzie. And right now, you’re my woman.”
She tried to feel offended by that but all she felt was a flop in her belly.
He grabbed her hand when they left the store and she said, “You can let go. I’m wearing a ring now.”
He shook his head. “Now I’m used to it. I don’t have to worry that I’m losing you in the crowd.”
They spent the day roaming. They ate, Ethan tried to get her inside a few clothing stores and failed, and they finally spent a couple of hours in a book store, comparing investing books.
She bought a few saying, “Now that I’m part of the idle rich,” and he snorted.
“And how much longer do you think you’re going to last having nothing to do?”
She held up a book. “I’ll have to invest my millions. That’s something to do.”
“Million. Singular. You’ll be surprised how quickly that goes.”
He took the bag of books in one hand and her hand in the other when they left the store.
He said, “Really. What are you going to do if you don’t go back to work?”
“When. And I don’t know. Move to some middling town.” She thought. “Or maybe travel.”
“And do what?”
“See the world?”
“Boring. You don’t want to see it, you want to conquer it.”
She couldn’t argue