a wonder none of your exes have tried to kill you.”
“They just get upset when I won’t marry them. They don’t really want me dead.”
She laughed. “Could’ve fooled me. And I know my life would be a lot easier if one of them took you out–”
A shocked woman’s voice interrupted her. “Ethan?”
Mackenzie turned to find not one but two older women staring at her. Ethan chuckled and took a step back from Mackenzie.
“Mother, Grandma, this is Mackenzie Wyatt. She’s the top salesman in the L.A. branch and number one pain in the ass in the whole company.”
His mother gasped, “Ethan!”
She couldn’t get the shocked look off her face but his grandma looked amused. Mackenzie didn’t need two guesses to know who he took after most.
Mackenzie glanced at him. “I’m the top salesman in all the branches.”
“Any complaints about where I placed you in the other category? I didn’t think so.” He gestured to the two women. “This is my mother, Christine O’Connor, and my grandmother, Ellen O’Connor.”
Ellen shook her hand. “Nice to meet somebody who doesn’t fall all over my grandson.”
“It’s hard, but I manage.”
Ellen thought that was hilarious and slapped her on the shoulder. “You any good at softball?”
“Yes.”
“Excellent. I think I’ll go make a wager. Now who did you say was taking bets, Ethan?”
He pointed out John from finance to his grandmother and she grabbed Ethan’s mother. “Come along, Christine.”
His mother gave Mackenzie one last worried glance and then turned away.
Ethan watched them walk to the stands with a big smile on his face. A real smile, nothing charming about it.
He said, “I don’t think my mother likes you.”
“She looks like she’s worried I’m going to hurt you.”
He chuckled. “She’s always been a little protective.”
She looked up at him. He was at least six feet of hard, wily male. On the list of people who needed protecting, he was last.
“But my grandma really took to you. I’m pretty sure she’s betting on you.”
“She seems intelligent.”
He grinned. “We’ll see.”
The softball game was the main event and the players ate quickly. Everyone else wandered around talking, eating, and waiting for the show to start.
Mackenzie didn’t know what they expected. Oh, she liked to talk a good game, and she hoped she won so she could rub a certain someone’s face in it, but the teams were pretty well evenly matched. It would probably come down to luck.
Most of the time she would bet on her luck, but Ethan was a golden boy and had been since the day he was born. If anybody’s luck was better than hers it would be his.
And as soon as she saw him squat behind the plate she knew she was in trouble. Of course he was catcher. The one position where he could talk and screw her team’s concentration.
She got a little hopeful when his mother became concerned about his lack of gear.
“It’s just a friendly game of slow-pitch, Mother. I don’t need it.” He smiled at his mother, charmingly, and Mackenzie wondered how that could possibly still work on her. She had to be immune by now.
And then Mackenzie laughed under breath when Christine O’Connor looked right at her and said, “As long as it’s a friendly game.”
Ethan looked at Mackenzie and his grin was anything but friendly. She should have brought someone to watch her back as well.
Mackenzie turned to her team and gave them one piece of advice. “Don’t listen to anything that man says when you’re at bat.”
Bases were loaded when Mackenzie went up to bat. She loved softball, started playing on a league in middle school, made varsity in high school, and had been throwing the ball around with her grandfather since she was old enough to stand. She joined the city league every summer and spent an occasional weeknight at the batting cages. She was good and she loved it. And having Ethan O’Connor that close to her made her palms sweat.
But she was going to beat him anyway.
He squatted behind the plate. “My God, that field looks beautiful. They’re just waiting for you to send them all in. Are you that good, Wyatt?”
She stepped into the box without looking at him.
The first ball came sailing past her face and she tapped her cleats with the bat. “I guess we’ll see if your pitcher ever gets it over the plate.”
“He’s just playing with you. Seeing if you’ll bite.”
“I do. Hard. Maybe your mom was right and you should go find something soft to wrap your important bits with.”
“You