Читать книгу Melting the M.D. - Tanya Michaels - Страница 7

Meg parked in front of the shopping center where the tuxedo rental place was located. After their tense car ride, she’d never been happier to reach a destination, including the time her parents had decided on a spur-of-the-moment fourteen-hour road trip to the Grand Canyon.

But she smiled at him and said, “This is it. Let’s get you all James Bonded.”

Scott unfastened his seat belt. “So you’re in the business of cummerbunds and seating arrangements now? I ran into your old neighbor Richie Carlisle a few months ago. He seemed to think you were training to be a police officer.”

“Private investigator.” Had Richie volunteered the update, or had Scott specifically asked about her? “I only took a couple of classes out of curiosity.” Prior to that, there’d been a brief stint as a salsa instructor. She’d lost that job when she’d socked a groping client in the shoulder.

Her lack of a career up to this point wasn’t surprising. The Nichols sisters had been raised to “follow their bliss.” Brooke, the younger sibling, was in her own way the family rebel. She’d always been cautiously conservative—perhaps too cautious. But who was Meg to criticize? She’d reached her mid-thirties with nothing to show for her life but a patchwork quilt of short-lived jobs and relationships. Her sister, on the other hand, was now happily married and the mother of a beautiful baby.

Meg had never expected her sister to ask her to be her niece’s godmother. “Please say you will, Meg. If anything were to happen to Jake and me… ““

Meg, potentially responsible for a baby? It had caused her to take a long, hard look at herself and make some changes.

Scott opened the door to the mall’s main entrance. As she passed him, she tried not to notice the heat from his body or the familiar smell of his soap.

She took a steadying breath. “You said you ran into Richie. Does that mean you’re still in Houston?”

“More or less. I work in a pediatric practice in one of the communities outside the city.”

“Exactly as you planned,” she said, glad for his success.

“Not ‘exactly.’” His voice was gruff.“ I’d pictured my life a little differently.”

Did he mean her and the future he’d wanted them to have? Meg’s chest tightened. They’d hit it off immediately, and their resulting affair had burned hot and quick. But their goals had ultimately been too different—or they would have been, if she’d had any clear goals.

Well, she did now. At the top of that list was making this weekend magical for Lucy while at the same time proving herself to be a competent wedding planner to the Houston socialites in attendance. Which meant she couldn’t allow herself to be distracted by Scott.

Meg reminded herself that Lucy had chosen her for good reason. Lucy came from a very wealthy family and had feared that if she had the wedding at home, her mom would have turned it into a three-ring circus of VIPs. Lucy had wanted a more intimate affair in the Hill Country, where Grant had proposed during their vacation last year. They were getting married on the first Saturday of February so that they would be in Paris—and past their jet lag—by Valentine’s Day. Très romantic.

Meg turned the corner with a sigh.

“Everything all right?” Scott asked.

“I just think Lucy and Grant are very lucky. I—” She broke off when the phone in her pants pocket began buzzing. “Better grab this. It’s from the church. Meg Nichols speaking.”

She frowned as the man on the other end launched into a string of apologies and garbled explanation. She was so startled by the news that it took her brain a moment to translate what she was hearing. “Wait! What do you mean they can’t have the wedding at the church?”