Page 39 of Knocked Up by my Rival

I wanted the contract because my business was the only thing I had. I was a winner. I didn’t like losing, and that was why my business was as great as it was—I kept pushing, kept looking for more and more until I got what I wanted.

I’d poured myself into my business after Jake’s death, promising myself I’d build something that would never fail, never disappear, something that could never slip through my fingers again. My company was a concrete thing, and I couldn’t lose it the way I’d lost him. To give up on my game plan of winning no matter what now just because of some girl who would eventually fade into the background like the rest of them… I couldn’t let that happen.

She was a shark in the business world, too. She would understand.

A small voice screamed at me that she wouldn’t, but I squashed it because it didn’t matter.

It was a dog-eat-dog world, right?

I just wished the dog I was trying to beat wasn’t also the woman I wanted to sleep with again.

Sacrifices for the sake of my job sucked.

12

MACKENZIE

Rachellookedsomuchmore like her old self when I walked into the hospital room.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see your smiling face,” I said and hugged my sister, squashing her against the hospital bed. “I really thought I was going to lose you.”

“Oh no, I’m not going anywhere,” Rachel said. “I still have way too much I want to do.”

I smiled and sat down in a chair that I pulled closer from where it stood against the wall.

“What did they say?”

“It’s the same thing Mom had,” Rachel said softly. My heart sank. “It’s different now, though. Technology has advanced so much in the last couple of years, and they caught it early. They’ve put me on a cocktail of meds and given me this ridiculous thing I need to blow on twice a day to keep my lungs strong and functioning right. It’s going to be okay, Mack.”

I sighed, trying to swallow down the lump that had risen in my throat. I blinked away the tears in my eyes.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I whispered. “When I couldn’t contact you with the storm, I kept fearing the worst, and it killed me thinking I couldn’t even get a phone call from the doctor saying that you didn’t make it.”

Rachel shook her head. “I was perfectly safe and sound here.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, but that hadn’t made it any easier not to have contact with the only mother figure I had left.

“I won’t go,” Rachel said. “You need me, and the kids need me.”

I nodded. “You have no idea. I’m not cut out to watching them long term.” I was their godmother, but after a weekend with them, I was starting to wonder why my sister had thought that would be a good idea at all. My brothers had to be better with children in general.

“You’ll be just fine if the time comes, but it won’t,” Rachel said and squeezed my hands warmly. “Tell me about them.”

I explained to her what the weekend with them had been like, sparing no detail about the storm and the tree that fell, the power that had been out, in addition to the phone lines.

“Oh, my God.” Rachel gasped, her eyes wide while I told her everything. “I can’t believe I wasn’t there for that!”

“I got a hold of a company, and they already moved the tree. They’re scheduled to chop it up later, I’ll be there for that, and they’ll fix the gate, too. It’s all under control.”

“Who’s paying for that?” Rachel asked, panicked. “I can’t—”

“I’ve got it,” I said. I hadn’t budgeted for something like that, but I’d used some of my savings. Rachel didn’t need more stress than she already had.

Rachel let out a shaky breath. “Thank you. I can’t…” She squeezed her eyes shut.

“It’s okay, Rach,” I said and squeezed her hand.

She nodded and cleared her throat, getting back to what she was trying to say.

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