She’d banished him to work hell, stuck in an office with McKenna. A woman he never should’ve kissed. He’d never met a woman with more rules. Did she have a giant book somewhere that listed them all? She was a good girl and a wedding planner. No one except maybe a minister believed more in marriage and commitment than a wedding planner. What the hell was he going to do? How could he have kissed McKenna knowing she was the ultimate good girl?
“What could be worse?” Ty asked. “It’s not her health, is it?”
“She’s fine,” Zane said.
Good enough to pull a fast one.
Cooper scratched the stubble on his chin and studied him. “The only thing you’d think was worse would be helping with weddings.”
“Zane would never agree to that,” AJ said.
“I would if Ginny asked if she could count on me.” Zane leaned against his pool cue. “I don’t know what happened. I stopped by to see her before I left.” He said how she’d looked good and they’d talked about her physical therapy. “She’d said she was ahead of schedule recovery wise. Then I don’t know what happened, but the next thing I knew she said I’d misunderstood her, and she needed me helping with every aspect of the business.”
Never before in his life had his Grandma Ginny used manipulation or guilt to get him to do something. Nope, she was a straight shooter who came at a person head-on. Because of that, he hadn’t guessed what was going on until she had him roped and tied.
“Everything?”
“Seriously, Zane? You’re going to be stuck going to rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions on weekends?” AJ said, his gaze filled with pity.
“Did you talk about what she said?” Cooper asked, as he scanned the table searching for the best shot.
“When I tried, she claimed exhaustion, thanked me for taking care of everything for her, and told me to have fun.” He chuckled. “As if I could after the bomb she dropped. While it won’t be fun working weekends, I can handle it. My real problem is McKenna.”
And whenever I think about kissing her my body goes into overdrive in less than twenty seconds.
“I gather your work relationship hasn’t improved?” Cooper asked as he sent the four ball skittering into the side pocket.
“Nope. It’s worse. How am I going to survive working with her more? Hell, how do I cope with her being here tonight?”
“You know what’s going on, don’t you?” Cooper said and Ty and AJ nodded in agreement, their heads shaking like damn grinning bobblehead dolls.
“What am I missing?”
“What you said about McKenna gave me flashbacks to when I met Cassie,” Ty said. “You should’ve seen how ticked she was when I controlled Ella’s finances and she needed my approval for expenditures. We butted heads constantly. I swore I’d never met a more cantankerous woman.”
AJ nodded. “And Grace literally rammed into me and then tried to talk me out of reporting the accident. She let me have it when she learned I was the chief of police.”
Zane clenched his teeth so hard his jaw cracked. How could his friends, who knew him better than anyone and were more like family than his blood relatives, not understand what he was saying? How could they be so wrong? His situation with McKenna hardly resembled theirs. Despite knowing that, his stomach clenched, and a cold sweat blasted through him.
“You’re not getting this. Y’all are so far from the field you’re in the nosebleed section under the roof. McKenna and I have a business relationship. There’s nothing personal about it, and she’s the opposite of my type.”
His buddies burst out laughing. This time he remained silent.
What he’d said earlier to McKenna had been right. Work was her whole life, and she wouldn’t know how to have fun if the good Lord showed her. The woman didn’t believe in casual time, much less a casual relationship. If she ever fit a man into her life, he’d be the kind who took her home to his family before he hopped into bed with her. Because once he bedded her, she’d expect the relationship to lead to a ring, a house with a white picket fence, and kids.
Since he’d started dating at sixteen, Zane had steered clear of females like McKenna.
“When Cheyenne moved into my spare bedroom, I said she wasn’t my type.” Cooper thumped Zane on the back and tossed him a pity gaze. “Those two laughed and bet me in four months we’d be living together in the biblical sense. I insisted we’d still be nothing more than coworkers.”
“McKenna has good girl flashing like a neon beer sign over her head,” Zane said. “You know me. I steer clear of them because they make me sweat. Don’t get me wrong, marriage is fine for y’all, but not for me with my parents’ records.”
With a fifty percent divorce rate, marriage was a crapshoot at best with good examples of marital life. He was way too smart to risk repeating their mistakes. Nope, he preferred learning from them instead.
“You’re not your parents,” Ty said, taking on the group optimist role. A wide, dopey grin spilled across his friend’s face and his eyes grew wistful as if he was somewhere other than with them. “I got to say, marriage has some fine benefits.”
Zane rolled his eyes. “Guess you feel obliged to defend the institution since you’re the old married man, but I get most of the benefit without the commitment. What’s the point of getting into a serious relationship when I know it won’t work?”
“When did you become a pessimist?” AJ asked.
