* *
“Engaged?” Ethan Caruthers asked as he and Derek ordered another round of drinks at the Five Families Country Club later that night. “Why would you say something like that?”
“You know Marnie. She wasn’t going to accept a no. So I panicked and...”
“Said something over-the-top. Derek, that’s crazy. I think when it becomes clear you don’t have a fiancée, this could backfire,” his brother said.
Ethan had a point. Already, his lie had added a wrinkle to his prospects for becoming chief of cardiology. Marnie hadn’t been happy to hear about the engagement and had told the board that she was considering a few other applicants. Dr. Brickell had firmly been in Derek’s corner, saying that the decision needed to be made sooner rather than later, but Marnie had stood firm. She’d insisted it would be two months before the final decision would be made and had enough support from other members to win the argument and temporarily table the decision.
The board had adjourned and Derek had gone back to work, doing two surgeries that had wiped the fiancée problem from his mind until he’d shown up here. Ethan was the only one of his brothers waiting when Derek had arrived.
“Tell me about it,” Derek said. “If I could just find a woman...someone who needed a guy for a few months.”
“Would Marnie believe one of your casual friends was your fiancée?” Ethan asked.
“No. I told her it was someone special and that’s why it was under wraps.”
Ethan took another swallow of his scotch and shook his head. “Damn, boy, you always did have a gift for telling whoppers.”
“I know. What am I going to do?”
“About what?” Hunter asked, joining their group. Hunter had recently moved back to Cole’s Hill after spending the better part of ten years playing in the NFL and traveling the country promoting fitness while dodging the scandal of being accused of killing his college girlfriend. Recently the real murderer had been arrested and charged with the crime, which had enabled Hunter to finally break free of the dark cloud of suspicion. He was now engaged and planning the wedding of the century according to their mother and Ferrin, Hunter’s fiancée. Everyone was in wedding fever in Cole’s Hill.
“He needs a fiancée,” Ethan said with a bit of a smirk.
Derek reached over and punched his brother. Of course Ethan would think it was funny. With only eleven months separating the two of them they were “almost twins,” and as Ethan was the older of the two, he had always been a little smug.
“Do I want to know why?” Hunter asked, signaling the waitress for a drink as he sprawled back in his chair.
“Marnie Masters.”
Hunter threw his head back and started laughing. “I thought you broke up with her years ago.”
“It’s been eighteen months,” he said. He had broken up with her two years ago but had given in one night six months later when he’d been in Houston and slept with her again. It had just renewed Marnie’s belief that he wasn’t over her and that they should get back together. He’d been avoiding her ever since.
“So why do you need a fiancée?” Hunter asked.
“Marnie’s the new board member brought in to oversee development of the surgical wing at the hospital. I panicked when I saw her and announced that I was engaged when she suggested we’d have a chance to spend time together.”
“Ah,” Hunter said. “Do you have someone in mind?”
“Not really,” he said, but he knew that wasn’t true. His mind kept pushing one face forward. She had nicely tanned olive skin, thick long black hair and the deepest, darkest brown eyes he’d ever gazed into. She was also not looking for marriage and needed a break from her matchmaking mother. He could provide her cover. But she’d have to be crazy to go along with his idea.
And she wasn’t.
She was a single mom who needed her best friend to be there for her. Not come up with some scheme that would enable him to act out his long-held fantasies of calling Bianca Velasquez his.
Even if it was only for two months, three tops.
Damn.
Just then, Derek noticed her walk into the room with a guy who was a couple of years older than they were. She was smiling politely but he knew her routine. She’d brought him to the club for dinner so that when it was over she could politely bid him adieu and then walk the few blocks back to her parents’ house in a nearby subdivision.
She was elegant. Graceful. The kind of woman whom dashing A-listers fell for. Not the kind of woman who’d agree to a fake engagement.
“Uh-oh,” Ethan said.
“What-o?” Hunter said.
“That has never been funny,” Derek said.
“It’s a little funny,” Ethan pointed out.
“Not tonight,” Derek said.
“I’m still not caught up. Where is Nate?” Hunter asked. Nate was their eldest brother and the last of three of them to arrive. He had recently married the mother of his three-year-old daughter, Penny. Derek liked seeing his eldest brother take on the role of husband and father.
“He’s running late. Something to do with taking Penny on a ride before he could drive into town,” Ethan said. “Being a daddy has changed him.”
“It settled him down,” Hunter said. “You two should try it.”
“I am, sort of,” Derek said. The idea of really settling down and getting married wasn’t appealing. He was married to his job. It took a lot of focus and concentration to be a top surgeon and most women—even Marnie—didn’t really get that. They wanted a man who paid at least as much attention to them as the job.
“What you’re doing doesn’t count,” Hunter said. “Bianca deserves better than a fake proposal.”
“It’s probably as close as I’m going to get,” Derek admitted. He knew that Ethan was hung up on a woman who was married to one of his friends. So that was probably not going to happen, either. “You know we’re the ones who aren’t letting the gossips of Cole’s Hill down. They like to think of us as the Wild Carutherses, which we can’t be if we are all married up.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ethan said.
Derek toasted his brother and when Nate joined them a few minutes later the conversation thankfully changed from his fake engagement. Derek ate and drank with his brothers and kept one eye on the bar area where Bianca and her date were. He was ready to help her out. Like a friend would. That was all. Hunter had been right: there was no decent woman who wanted a fake fiancé.
* * *
Bianca Velasquez wasn’t having the best year. She’d rung in New Year’s by herself on the balcony of a royal mansion in Seville while Jose was en route to meet her. His plane had crashed
