that I’ll rot my teeth right out of my head but I, um, I guess that’s why I go to see you, right? To keep my teeth from rotting out of my head when I eat too much sweet stuff?”
Kira! Enough!
She shut her mouth with a snap. Fuck, what was wrong with her? Why was she so damn nervous? Sure, Dr. MacMillan was handsome enough, but he wasn’t Daniel. She closed her eyes for a moment and conjured up an image of Daniel. It calmed her a little and she took a deep breath. Daniel’s blond hair and dark blue eyes were what she wanted.
Dr. MacMillan’s eyes might be blue, but they were so light, they were almost clear. She could see none of the warmth and humour in them that Daniel’s gaze had. In fact, her dentist was currently staring at her like she was some new and interesting species of bug he had discovered crawling up his leg.
She cleared her throat. “Sorry, I babble when I’m nervous.”
He took another drink of iced tea. “You have a nice home.”
“Thank you. It was my childhood home. It belongs to my brother now, but he didn’t want to live here. My parents died a few years ago and being in the house brought on too many sad memories for him. I love living here though. It makes me feel closer to my mom and dad, you know?”
She closed her mouth again. Holy shit, she was making the worst first impression ever.
“I’m sorry about your parents.” His voice was a low rasp, and the sound of it sent the weirdest shiver down her spine.
“Thank you,” she replied. “So, um, Grace said that we could help each other with our problems.”
He nodded. “Possibly.”
She waited and tried not to sigh with frustration when he didn’t say anything else. His silence was beginning to unnerve her. Daniel was chatty and always the life of the party. She could barely get a word in edgewise when she was with him and she loved that. She loved his bold brashness and the way he lit up a room when he walked into it.
Her dentist hardly made an impact. Hell, she’d met him how many times in his office and she had no impression of him at all. He was just a masked guy who came in and checked her teeth at the end of the cleaning.
“So, you need a date for your cousin’s wedding?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, “and you need a boyfriend to make Daniel Moore jealous.”
There was the slightest hint of derision in his voice and she immediately blushed. It was obvious that he thought she was an idiot.
“You know what? Never mind, Dr. MacMillan.” She stood and dumped her iced tea down the sink. “This isn’t going to work. I’ll show you out now.”
She stalked toward the front door. She could hear him behind her, but before she could open the door, he wrapped his long fingers around her wrist. The touch of his skin against hers made another one of those little shivers zip down her spinal cord. She froze and turned to stare up at him.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m being an ass.”
“Yes, you are.”
He sighed and dropped her wrist before raking his hand through his dark hair. “I apologize. Also, if we’re going to fake date, you should call me Connor.”
“Why are you even here, Connor?” she asked. “It’s obvious you think this is a stupid idea.”
“It isn’t,” he said. “I’m just -”
He paused and rubbed at one temple. “What if this doesn’t work?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if us fake dating doesn’t make Daniel jealous? Will you still go with me to my cousin’s wedding? Still pretend to be my girlfriend?”
“Yes,” she said.
“What if it does work? Then what? You start dating Daniel and I’m headed to Willington alone.”
“Well, your cousin’s wedding is in a month, right?”
“Yes.”
“We don’t have to start fake dating right away. We can give it a couple of weeks and use that time to learn more about each other. It’s probably a good idea if we know more than each other’s names. It’ll be more believable if we know, uh, personal stuff about each other. That leaves only two weeks until your cousin’s wedding. I think it’ll take more than a couple weeks to make Daniel jealous,” she said.
“Do I have your word that you’ll attend the wedding with me?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I’ll be there, no matter what.”
Then we have an agreement,” Connor said. “You’ll