everyone’s concentration. But she did not want to go in as Ethan’s blond bimbo.
She said, “They don’t want to meet me, they want to meet your fiancé.”
“They want to meet Mackenzie Wyatt, best salesman in all the branches.”
“And number one pain in the ass?”
He laughed. “Absolutely. And the woman who also snagged the boss. It’s all connected now.”
“I don’t think so. I’m not part of that anymore.”
He said, “You could be. You’re going to miss it.”
She was afraid he was right. She wasn’t quite getting the hang of all this leisure time yet. But there was no way she was going in there as Ethan’s woman.
Besides, she couldn’t stand to spend twenty-four hours with Ethan. Couldn’t stand to find out that she might be perfectly happy with him all day long.
“No. I need to learn how not to work.”
He watched her for a minute, gauging her sincerity. He finally said, “Then I have a another question about this pajama day.” He pinched her lounge pants. “You’re not getting out of them for any reason?”
“Nope.”
“What’s the technical definition of still on? Would a few inches south still count? Because I think I could make that work.”
She tipped her head to the side and he said, “What else are we going to do if we’re not going out?”
He had a point.
Eight
The door buzzed and Ethan groaned. “Don’t they know it’s a pajama day?”
He rolled off her, picking up her pants and handing them to her. “Sorry about that. We can try again after I get rid of whoever is trying to disturb us.”
Mackenzie unhooked her leg from the back of the couch. “Let’s move it to a bed. This couch isn’t big enough for the two of us.”
He grinned at her and answered the intercom.
Ethan listened, furrowing his eyebrows at Mackenzie, then said, “The doorman says your father is here. Luke Holden?”
A sick feeling washed over Mackenzie and she blanked her face before Ethan could see. She sat up, shaking her head. “Don’t let him up.”
He raised an eyebrow, watching her closely.
She shook her head again. “Don’t let him up.”
Ethan told the doorman not to let her father up, then leaned against the wall and said, “Well?”
Mackenzie shoved her legs into her pants. She should have foreseen this. But she hadn’t heard from her father in ten years. Wasn’t sure he would recognize her name, even if she was his daughter. Wasn’t sure he would care, if he did recognize it.
Looks like he had and did. And wherever Luke Holden smelled big money, that’s where he went.
She looked up to find Ethan still watching her.
She said on a long sigh, “He’s a con man. With a smile so pure, you’ll think he’s an angel. Or a prophet. He’s done that one before. Started his own religion. Convinced hundreds of people he was a prophet sent from God to take their money.”
“I take it you don’t have a good relationship.”
She smiled slightly. “You could put it that way.” She stopped smiling. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think this would bring you to his attention. I didn’t think of him at all. It’s been a long time since I’ve talked to him.”
Ethan wandered to the wine chiller, taking out a bottle and saying casually, “Ten years?”
She looked down, didn’t say anything.
He brought over two glasses filled with a deep, dark red and said, “Not a charming hopeless crush who didn’t love you back. Your father.”
Ethan held on to the glass when she tried to take it, forcing her to look at him. Forcing her to smile and laugh so she wouldn’t cry.
A father who didn’t love his own daughter.
When Ethan sat down next to her, she stood up and walked towards the window, pretending to look outside.
She said, “He’s handsome and charming. And can make anybody, man or woman, think they are the most important person in the world. He did it to my mother, left her pregnant with me. Did it to me when I tracked him down.”
Mackenzie remembered what it felt like to be her father’s most important person. She remembered what it felt like to be the two of them against the world.
And she remembered what it felt like to realize it had never been the two of them, it had only ever been him against everyone else. She had only been a weapon in his arsenal. Maybe his best weapon, but still only a tool he used to get what he wanted.
She took a sip and said, “He can see inside