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Was McKenzie that unwonderful that every man dumped her?
McKenzie bit into her lower lip, chiding herself for the green she’d just felt rush through her veins. She was happy for her cousin. Ecstatic. Just that it would have been nice to have had a little of that lucky at love along the way herself.
They were served champagne and strawberries. McKenzie rarely drank but emptied her glass during her pedicure.
By the time they went to meet the guys for a late lunch at Reva’s mother’s, McKenzie couldn’t decide if she was starved or tipsy. Or both.
“Cooking for everyone on the day before your wedding was a lot for Aunt Jane to take on.”
Reva laughed as they piled into the prearranged limo that would take her cousin wherever she needed to go that day.
“She loves it, and you know it. She’s been looking forward to this day my whole life.”
“As have you,” McKenzie reminded her. “I can recall many a time you played dress-up with curtain sheers as your pretend veil.”
“Ha. We had fun, didn’t we?”
Yes and no. Reva had always been the bride during their play. Never McKenzie. Perhaps that had been a sign of things to come?
“I should have borrowed some of Mom’s old curtains for tomorrow, eh?” Reva giggled.
“I seriously doubt that,” McKenzie mused, having seen her cousin in the gorgeous dress at the bridal shop.
“Maybe she’ll pull them out for you to use,” Reva teased.
Wondering at her own botched relationships, McKenzie snorted. “I have no need for curtain sheers or a wedding veil.”
“Who knows? Maybe this hot doc, as Aunt Roberta called him, will be the one to change your mind and finally get you to the altar.”
Which was what she’d wanted her family to think. That Ryder was crazy about her and she wasn’t alone in Seattle.
She arched a brow. “Mom called Ryder a hot doc?”
Reva nodded. “As did Julianna. She said she almost fainted when she walked in on him in the bathroom this morning.”
McKenzie grimaced. “That sounds much worse than what it was. Ryder was completely dressed and had just finished brushing his teeth. It wasn’t as if she caught him in his skivvies.”
“Whatever it was, he flustered her enough she texted to tell me. She said his chest and abs were perfection.”
“Yeah, well, compared to your brother, most men’s abs would be considered perfection,” McKenzie teased. “But Ryder is hot.”
She’d have said so a month ago, but just how much so hadn’t registered.
Or if it had, she’d just not paid any attention because of Paul and thinking her future was all neatly tied up.
How wrong she’d been.
* * *
Ryder, Jeff and a couple of kids paused from tossing the football back and forth on Jeff’s mother’s front lawn to watch the ladies pile out of the limousine.
“Hello, Hot Doc,” McKenzie greeted him.
Ryder’s brow lifted. He was even more surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
A kiss that was meant for the benefit of their avid audience, one of whom let out a wolf whistle.
Not a problem. Ryder kissed her as if he’d been longing to do so his whole life.
