“Language,” she stresses. “Were you reprimanded?”
“Well . . .”
“My goodness,” she huffs. “After all that work you’ve done. And the Albuquerque job is on the line! Is that going to be affected now that you—”
“I didn’t get any formal sort of reprimand,” I tell her. “I didn’t get anything more than a slap on the wrist, really.” I hesitate a moment, knowing that I’m about to open a can of worms. “It was all thanks to Mackenzie.”
“Mackenzie?”
“The, ah, mate you heard about.”
“But you said you weren’t actually mated.”
“I’m not.”
“But there’s a woman named Mackenzie.”
“There is.”
“And you’re not mated?”
“No.”
“But people think you are.”
“Correct.”
My mother is quiet for a moment, and I feel a little like a boy again, waiting for her to yell at me for breaking her favorite vase.
“Tell me everything,” she says calmly.
My mother listens quietly as I recount everything that’s happened in the last couple of weeks—only cutting in to ask clarifying questions as she lets me explain how Mackenzie and I got wrapped up in our arrangement and how it benefits us both. I pointedly leave out our recent sex addendum, as Mackenzie calls it; that’s a level I haven’t even really figured out myself yet, after all.
“So, you’re pretending to be mated to this woman.”
“Or dating her, where her grandmother is concerned.”
“Oh boy.”
“I know what you’re going to say,” I sigh.
She makes a disgruntled sound. “No, you don’t. Despite that fancy doctor brain of yours—you don’t know everything.”
“Fine,” I grumble. “Then say whatever it is you’re going to say.”
“What is she like?”
This takes me by surprise. It’s definitely not what I expected my mother to follow up with. “You mean, Mackenzie?”
“No, I mean Regina at the crochet club,” she scoffs. “Of course I mean Mackenzie.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“I’m curious what sort of woman throws herself into such an intricate ruse to help out my son. Especially since she apparently barely knew him before all this.”
“I don’t know.” I frown down at my desk, thinking. “She’s . . . funny? And competent. Everyone here seems to love her. I mean, I’m not really sure why she even agreed to this in the first place. She’s very pretty, after all. I find it incredibly hard to believe that she needs help in the dating department. I guess I should just be grateful that she—What are you giggling about?”
“Oh, honey,” she laughs. “How much do you like this woman?”
“What?” I make a face. “It’s not like that. We’re helping each other.”
In and out of the bedroom, apparently, I think guiltily.
“I’ve known you for thirty-six years, son,” she says. “And I’ve never heard you talk about a woman the way you are now.”
“You asked what she was like,” I mutter.
“Oh, this is wonderful,” she practically cackles. “Maybe this will make you think twice about packing up and moving to another state.”
“It’s not like that,” I continue to protest.
“Sure, sure,” she chuckles. “Does your fake relationship entail her meeting your parents?”
“Absolutely not.”
“It would probably be good for your charade if the two of you—”
“Absolutely not,” I stress.
“Fine, fine.” She goes quiet for a second as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I just worry about you,” she admits. “You’re always so closed off, Noah.”
“I am not—”
“Yes, you are,” she argues. “You’ve been so worried about keeping that part of yourself hidden that you never let yourself get close to anyone. Hell, you barely talk to us about your problems anymore!”
“Language,” I say sarcastically.
“Oh, shut up,” she huffs. “All I’m saying is . . . it sounds like Mackenzie might be a special lady. After all, it takes a pretty exceptional person to turn her entire life upside down to help a stranger.”
“I told you, this also benefits—”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you,” she says, cutting me off. “I’m just saying. There’s one person who clearly stands to gain more from this arrangement than the other, and one person is clearly putting more on the line for the sake of the other.”
“Mom, you’re losing me here.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” she scoffs. “You stand to gain more, and she is putting more on the line. All I’m saying is . . . maybe that’s something worth looking into.”
“You just want this to go a certain way.”
“Well, you aren’t getting any younger, son.”
“Wow. Thanks, Mom.”
“It’s not a crime to want grandchildren, Noah.”
Maybe my mother and Mackenzie’s grandmother aren’t so different. Mackenzie would probably think this conversation is hilarious. Not that I can ever tell her about it.
“Okay, Mom. I really have to go. I have a consult coming up.”
“Just don’t dismiss this like you do everything else,” she scolds. “You can’t just shut everyone out for your whole life. You’ll end up missing out on something . . . special.”
“Yeah. Okay. Will do.”
“And don’t you ever lie to me again. I don’t care how big you are, I’ll whoop your—”
“Okay. Love you, Mom. Call you later.”
I end the call before she can go off on a rant, dropping my phone on the desk and resting my head in my hands. My mother would lose her shit if I were to tell her I’m sleeping with my “special woman” and that I’m slowly losing my mind because of it. I haven’t even worked out the specifics of that myself yet.
My phone buzzes again, a text this time, thankfully, and I assume my mother is following up with some last bit of advice, so I’m surprised (and secretly excited) when I see Mackenzie’s name. I swipe open her text thread and nearly drop my phone—a picture of Mackenzie’s bare legs in my bathtub with a caption underneath.
MACKENZIE: I want to take this tub home with me.
I’m grinning before I can stop myself, feeling a visceral urge to pack up everything, cancel my appointments, and go back to my place to join her—but even in my head that sounds ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous.
I tap out a quick reply, one that reveals none of the heat currently rushing through my blood or the sudden stiffness in my slacks, and I take a deep breath, blowing it out as I set my phone back down. The problem is, I think, that I want to drop everything and go be with her. That the urge to do so gets stronger and stronger with every instance that I’m with her. Everything about this predicament screams danger, and I can’t bring myself to do a single thing about it.
Don’t make things complicated.
I really am in trouble.
13
Mackenzie