Page 8 of Sweet Harmony

Dr. MacMillanwas hovering in the doorway of the kitchen while she stood blanklynext to the fridge and she gave him an embarrassed smile. “Sorry.Have a seat and I’ll get that iced tea.”

“Thank you,” hesaid.

She poured themboth a glass of iced tea and perched on the edge of the chairacross from him. He drank some iced tea before saying, “It’s good.Thanks.”

“I like it alittle on the sweet side,” she said. “My brother says it’s way toosweet and that I’ll rot my teeth right out of my head but I, um, Iguess that’s why I go to see you, right? To keep my teeth fromrotting out of my head when I eat too much sweet stuff?”

Kira!Enough!

She shut hermouth with a snap. Fuck, what was wrong with her? Why was she sodamn nervous? Sure, Dr. MacMillan was handsome enough, but hewasn’t Daniel. She closed her eyes for a moment and conjured up animage of Daniel. It calmed her a little and she took a deep breath.Daniel’s blond hair and dark blue eyes were what she wanted.

Dr. MacMillan’seyes might be blue, but they were so light, they were almost clear.She could see none of the warmth and humour in them that Daniel’sgaze had. In fact, her dentist was currently staring at her likeshe was some new and interesting species of bug he had discoveredcrawling up his leg.

She cleared herthroat. “Sorry, I babble when I’m nervous.”

He took anotherdrink of iced tea. “You have a nice home.”

“Thank you. Itwas my childhood home. It belongs to my brother now, but he didn’twant to live here. My parents died a few years ago and being in thehouse brought on too many sad memories for him. I love living herethough. It makes me feel closer to my mom and dad, you know?”

She closed hermouth again. Holy shit, she was making the worst first impressionever.

“I’m sorryabout your parents.” His voice was a low rasp, and the sound of itsent the weirdest shiver down her spine.

“Thank you,”she replied. “So, um, Grace said that we could help each other withour problems.”

He nodded.“Possibly.”

She waited andtried not to sigh with frustration when he didn’t say anythingelse. His silence was beginning to unnerve her. Daniel was chattyand always the life of the party. She could barely get a word inedgewise when she was with him and she loved that. She loved hisbold brashness and the way he lit up a room when he walked intoit.

Her dentisthardly made an impact. Hell, she’d met him how many times in hisoffice and she had no impression of him at all. He was just amasked guy who came in and checked her teeth at the end of thecleaning.

“So, you need adate for your cousin’s wedding?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said,“and you need a boyfriend to make Daniel Moore jealous.”

There was theslightest hint of derision in his voice and she immediatelyblushed. It was obvious that he thought she was an idiot.

“You know what?Never mind, Dr. MacMillan.” She stood and dumped her iced tea downthe sink. “This isn’t going to work. I’ll show you out now.”

She stalkedtoward the front door. She could hear him behind her, but beforeshe could open the door, he wrapped his long fingers around herwrist. The touch of his skin against hers made another one of thoselittle shivers zip down her spinal cord. She froze and turned tostare up at him.

“I’m sorry,” hesaid. “I’m being an ass.”

“Yes, youare.”

He sighed anddropped her wrist before raking his hand through his dark hair. “Iapologize. Also, if we’re going to fake date, you should call meConnor.”

“Why are youeven here, Connor?” she asked. “It’s obvious you think this is astupid idea.”

“It isn’t,” hesaid. “I’m just -”

He paused andrubbed at one temple. “What if this doesn’t work?”

“What do youmean?”

“What if usfake dating doesn’t make Daniel jealous? Will you still go with meto my cousin’s wedding? Still pretend to be my girlfriend?”

“Yes,” shesaid.

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