“You just have to promise me one thing,” Jake said.

Running the pad of her index finger over his tempting bottom lip, her wrist rubbed against the sexy stubble on his cheeks. Her body reacted with a warming shiver. He opened his mouth and gently caught her finger between his teeth. Nipped at it and sucked on it for a moment.

It felt like she’d been waiting her entire life for this moment. Despite his words, he certainly didn’t seem to be in a hurry to get away. Yeah, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Not right now, at least.

“Anything,” Anna said.

She wasn’t going to let him tell her he wasn’t good enough for her.

She knew what she wanted, and he’d just slipped his arms around her again.

“No regrets,” he said.

“No regrets,” she answered. “But tell me something. How do you know that you’re not good for me—that we’re not good together—if we’ve never… tried it out?”

***

Celebrations, Inc:

Let’s get this party started!

How to Marry a Doctor

Nancy Robards Thompson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

National bestselling author NANCY ROBARDS THOMPSON holds a degree in journalism. She worked as a newspaper reporter until she realized reporting “just the facts” bored her silly. Much more content to report to her muse, Nancy loves writing women’s fiction and romance full-time. Critics have deemed her work “funny, smart and observant.” She resides in Florida with her husband and daughter. You can reach her at nancyrobardsthompson.com and facebook.com/nancyrobardsthompsonbooks.

This book is dedicated to everyone who believes in happily ever after.

Contents

Cover

Introduction

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Extract

Copyright

Chapter One

Anna Adams parked her yellow VW Beetle in Jake Lennox’s driveway, grabbed her MP3 player and took a moment to make sure it was loaded and ready to go.

She was about to hold an intervention and music—just the right song—was the key component of this quirky job.

Today, she was going to save Jake, her lifelong best friend, from himself. Or at least from drowning in the quicksand of his own sorrow.

This morning, Celebration Memorial Hospital had been abuzz with rumors that Jake’s girlfriend, Dorenda, had dumped him. Anna might’ve been a little miffed that she’d had to hear about his breakup through the nursing staff grapevine, but the sister of one of Dorenda’s friends was an LPN who worked the seven-to-three shift at the hospital and she’d come in positively brimming over with the gossip.

Jake had been scarce today. He hadn’t been around for lunch. Another doctor had done rounds today. When she’d tried to phone Jake after work, the call had gone to voice mail.

The radio silence was what made Anna worry. She hadn’t realized that he’d been so hung up on Miss Texas. That’s what everyone called Dorenda, even though no one was sure if she’d actually held the title or if she’d gotten the nickname simply because she was tall and beautiful and looked like she should’ve worn a crown to her day job. Poor schlubs like Anna did well to make it to their shifts at the hospital wearing mascara and lipstick.

Anna wasn’t sure what the real story was. When Jake had a girlfriend, he tended to disappear into the tunnel of love. Or at least he never seemed to bring his girlfriends around her. And Dr. Jake Lennox usually had a girlfriend.

Anna didn’t celebrate Jake’s breakups, but she had to admit she did relish the intervals between his relationships, because, for as long as she’d known him, that was when she’d gotten her friend back. Sure, they usually saw each other daily at the hospital. It was not as if he completely disappeared. But in those times between relationships, he always gravitated to her.

She would take the spaces in between any day. Because those spaces ran deeper than the superficial stretches of time he spent with the Miss Texases of the world.

Anna rapped their special knock—knock, knock-knock, knock, knock—on Jake’s front door, then let herself in.

He never locked the door, but then again, they never waited to be invited into each other’s homes. “Jake? Are you here?”

Really, she wasn’t surprised when he didn’t answer. In fact, she had a pretty good idea of where he was. So, she closed the door and let herself in the backyard gate and followed the mulch path down to the lake, the crowning jewel of his property.

Yep, if he was back here brooding, it clearly called for an intervention or, as they’d come to call it over the years, the Sadness Intervention Dance.

It was their private ritual. Whenever one of them was blue about something, the other performed the dumbest dance he or she could come up with for the sole reason of making the other person smile. The dance was always different, but the song was always the same: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

Jake had invented it way back in elementary school. Gosh, it was so long ago—back when the song had just hit the airwaves—she couldn’t even remember what she’d been upset about that had compelled him to make a fool of himself to jolt her out of it. But it stuck and stayed with them over the years and now, even though they were both in their thirties, it was still their ritual. The SID was as much a part of them as all those New Year’s Eves their families had rung in together or all those Fourths of July at the lake they’d shared. Back in the day, the mere gesture was always enough to push the recipient out of his or her funk. Or, on the rare occasion that it didn’t, the SID was the kickoff of the pity party and the guest of honor was officially put on notice that he or she had exactly twenty-four hours to get over whatever was bringing him or her down. Because whatever it was, it wasn’t worth the wasted emotion.

Nowadays, it was usually performed at the end of a love affair, as was the case today and the time that Jake had basically saved her life when her marriage had ended—metaphorically speaking, of course. But then again, he was a doctor. Saving lives was second nature to him.

Love was no longer second nature to Anna.

Sure, once upon a time, she’d believed in true love.

She’d believed in the big white dress and the happily-ever-after. She’d believed in spending Saturday nights snuggling on the couch, watching a movie with her husband. She’d believed in her wedding vows, especially the part where they’d said ’til death do us part and forsaking all others. From that day forward, the promises she and Hal had made were etched on her soul.

Then it all exploded right in front of her face.

After nearly four years of marriage, she discovered Hal, who had also looked her in the eyes and made the same vows on their wedding day, had been sleeping with his office manager.

That was when Anna had stopped believing in just about everything. Well, everything except for the one person in the world who had ever been true to her: Jake Lennox.

Jake had been her first friend, her first kiss, and the first guy to stick around after they realized they were much better friends than anything more.

He’d never stopped believing in her.

After finding out about Hal’s infidelity, the only thing Anna had wanted to do was to numb the pain with pints of Ben and Jerry’s and curl up into the fetal position in between feedings. Jake, however, was having none of that. He’d arrived on her doorstep in San Antonio and pulled her out of her emotional sinkhole and set her back on her feet. Then one month ago, after the divorce was final, he’d come back to San Antonio, single-handedly packed Anna’s belongings and moved her to Celebration. He’d even helped her find a house and had gotten her a nursing job at Celebration Memorial Hospital.

But before he’d done any of this, he’d done the SID.

There he stood: a tall, handsome thirty-four-year-old man doing the most ridiculous dance you could ever imagine to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”

Was it any wonder that Anna felt duty-bound to be there for him on a day like today?

It was her turn to perform the SID. As humiliating as it was—well, that was the point. Anna was fully prepared to make a colossal fool of herself.

The gardenia bushes were in full bloom. Their heady scent mixed with the earthy smell of the lake perfuming the humid evening air. She swatted away a mosquito who had decided she was dinner.

Instinct told her she’d find Jake on the dock, most likely sitting on the ground with his feet in the water and a beer in his hand. Her intuition didn’t let her down.

There he sat, with his back to her, exactly as she had imagined. His lanky body was silhouetted by the setting sun. She could just make out his too-long brown hair that looked a little mussed, as if he’d recently raked his fingers through it. He was clad in blue jeans and a mint-green polo shirt. A symphony of cicadas supplied the sound track to the sunset, which had painted the western sky into an Impressionistic masterpiece in shades of orange, pink and blue.

A gentle wind stirred, rippling the lake water and providing welcome relief to the oppressive heat.

Obviously, Jake hadn’t heard her coming.

Good. The element of surprise always helped with the SID.

She took advantage of the moment to ready herself, drawing in a couple of deep breaths and doing some shoulder rolls. With one last check of the volume on her MP3 player, she pushed Play and Bobby McFerrin’s whistling reggae strains preempted the cicadas’ night song.

Jake’s head whipped around the minute he heard the music. Then he turned the rest of his body toward her, giving her his full attention.

Anna sprang into action attempting to do something she hoped resembled the moonwalk. Thank goodness she didn’t have to watch herself and the shameless lengths she was going to tonight.

Once she’d maneuvered off the grass and was dancing next to him on the dock, she broke into alternate moves that were part robot and part Charleston and part something...er...original.

As she danced, trying her best to coax a full-on smile from him, she tried to ignore the sinking feeling that maybe he’d been more serious about Dorenda than the others. That his most current ex had sent him into a Texas-sized bad humor.

She reminded herself that was exactly why she was here today. For some quality time with her best bud. To bring him out of his post-breakup funk. She knew she looked ridiculous in her pink nurse’s scrubs that were slightly too big and clunky white lace-up shoes, but Jake’s initial scowl was beginning to morph into a lopsided smile, despite himself. She could actually see him trying to fight it.

Oh, yeah, he was fighting it, but he couldn’t fool her. She knew him much too well.

In fact, it only made her unleash the most ridiculous of her dance moves: the sprinkler, the cotton-swab, and the Running Man. Dignity drew the line at dropping down onto her stomach and doing the worm. Although that move hadn’t been below Jake a month ago when he’d been there after she’d signed her divorce papers.

That intervention had been a doozy and a true testament to the depth of their friendship.

But he wouldn’t have to perform another intervention for her anytime soon.

After losing herself and getting burned so badly, Anna wasn’t in any hurry to get involved again.

For now, she was happy to serve as Jake’s intervener.

Sprinkler-two-three-four, cotton-swab-two-three-four, Running Man-two-three... She was just getting into a groove, ready to transition from the Running Man back to the robot when, in the middle of possibly the best sequence yet, her foot hit an uneven plank on the dock, causing her to lose her balance.

She saw the fall coming in slow motion and she would have face-planted if not for Jake’s quick reflexes. Instead of kissing the dock, she found herself safe in the strength of his strong arms, looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes.

* * *

Anna smelled good.

The kind of natural good that made him want to pull her closer, bury his face in her neck and breathe in deeply.

But this was Anna, for God’s sake.

He couldn’t do that.

He respected her too much and owed her so much more than that.

Especially after she’d gone to such crazy lengths to cheer him up. Did he dare tell her that he really didn’t need cheering up? Not in the way she thought he did. Sure, Dorenda had ended things, but the breakup had come as more of a relief than anything.

Before he did something stupid that would be awkward for both Anna and him, he set her upright and took a step back, allowing both of them to reclaim their personal space.

“That was graceful,” he said, hoping humor would help him regain his equilibrium.

“You know me,” Anna said. “Grace is my middle name.” Actually, it really was. “I aim to please. How are you doing, Jake? You okay?”

Her long auburn hair hung at her shoulders in loose waves. Her clear, ivory skin was virtually makeup-free. She had this look in her blue eyes that warmed him from the inside out.

He tried not to think about the strange impulse he’d had just a minute ago, an impulse that lingered even if he was trying not to acknowledge it.

“I’m great,” he said. “Want a beer? I’d like to toast your latest choreography. You’re getting really good at it. I’ll give your Running Man a nine-point-five. I have to take off a half point since you didn’t stick the landing.”

She swatted him and quickly crossed her arms in front of her.

“Yes, I’d love a beer. Thank you. I need one after that.”

He smiled. “Come on. Let’s go back up to the house. I have five of a six-pack in the fridge.”

She was eyeing him again. “Well, good. I was afraid that maybe you’d been at home all day drowning your sorrows.”

“I was seeing patients all day. In case you haven’t noticed, I usually don’t take off midweek to go on a bender.”

He and Anna both worked at Celebration Memorial Hospital, but she was an OB nurse on the third-floor maternity ward and he was a hospitalist on the general medical-surgical floors. Unless they sought each other out, their paths usually didn’t cross at work.

“I must say, you’re taking this awfully well,” she said.

“What?”

“The breakup. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that you were fine.”

“Do I act like I’m not fine?”

“Well, no. That’s what I just said. You seem remarkably unfazed by Miss Texas’s departure. Sorry, by Dorenda’s breaking up with you.”

He pulled open the back door for her and stepped aside so she could enter the house first.

“Dorenda was a great woman, but our relationship had run its course. I’ll miss her, but it was time to move on.”

He shrugged and stepped inside behind her.

“Are you telling me that you broke up with her?”

Throwing her a glance over his shoulder as he walked toward the kitchen, he said, “No, she’s the one who dropped the bomb. Actually, it was more of an exploding ultimatum. I saw it coming a mile away.”

He reached into the fridge, grabbed a beer and twisted off the bottle cap.

“She gave you an ultimatum? Really? Well, but then again, how long were the two of you together?”

“Four or five months or so. Do you want a mug? I have some in the freezer.”

“Yes, please. Had it really been five months? I mean, I’ve only been back a month.”

He nodded as he poured the beer down the inside of the mug, careful to create just the right amount of foam on top. “She reminded me of that more than a few times last night. She was talking five-year plans that involved marriage and kids and bigger houses. She kept saying she needed some assurance about our future, needed to know where we were going. I’m not going to lie to her. I enjoyed her company, but I wasn’t going to marry her.”

He handed the beer to Anna.

“Why not?” Anna asked. “She was beautiful. You seemed like you were really into her.”

Jake nodded. “She was nice. Pretty. But...I couldn’t see myself spending the rest of my life with her. That’s the bottom line.”

Anna squinted at him, her brows drawn together, as she sipped her beer.

“What’s wrong? Is the beer not good? You don’t have to drink it if you don’t like it.”

She set down the mug on the kitchen counter. “No, I like it. But I have two questions for you.”

“Okay. Shoot.”

“First question. If you’re fine with everything, how come you let me keep dancing and make a fool of myself?”

Her voice was stern.

He laughed out loud. He couldn’t help it. “Are you kidding? Watching you was the most fun I’ve had in months. No way was I going to stop you. For the record, you didn’t make a fool of yourself. You’re adorable. In fact, you’d been away so long down there in San Antonio, I’d almost forgotten how adorable you are.”

She rolled her eyes, but then smiled.

“So happy to have cheered you up,” she said.

“What’s the second question?” he asked.

She looked at him thoughtfully for a long moment.

“Why, Jake? Why do you keep dating the same type of women? I don’t mean to be judgmental and I know I haven’t been around for the last decade or so. But think of this as tough love. You keep dating the same type of women, expecting to get different results, but it always turns out the same way. Always has, always will.”

He crossed his arms, feeling a little defensive, but knowing she was right. Sometimes her friendship felt like the only real thing in the world. But still, he didn’t want to get into this right now.

“I don’t exactly see you out there blazing trails in the dating world,” he countered.

She sighed. “The divorce has only been final for a month.”

“But you were separated for nearly two years.”

“This isn’t about me, Jake. This is about you. What are you looking for?”

He shook his head.

“Company. Companionship? That’s why, when I know the relationship has run its course, I end it. Or in today’s case, I let Dorenda do the honors. I don’t string them along.”

“But you do sort of string them along. You dated Dorenda for four months. That’s a significant amount of time in the post-twenties dating world.”

Overhead, the fluorescent lights buzzed. He glanced out the kitchen window. Inky dusk was blotting out the last vestiges of the sunset.

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Anna.”

“Say that you’ll let me fix you up with a different type of woman.”

Different?

“Define different.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but maybe you should consider women who are a little more down-to-earth than the Miss Texases of the world.”

He knocked back the last of his beer and debated grabbing another, but his stomach growled, reminding him he really should think about getting some food into his system first.

“Down-to-earth, huh? I wouldn’t even know where to begin to look for someone down-to-earth.”

“Exactly. That’s why I want you to let me fix you up.”

“I don’t know, Anna. Blind dates aren’t really my thing.”

He returned to the fridge, pulled open the door and surveyed the meager contents.

“When was the last time you went on a blind date?”

“Better question,” he countered. “When was the last time you even went on a date?”

He looked back over his shoulder to gauge her reaction. She didn’t seem to like being in the line of fire any more than he did.

“This isn’t about me, Jake.”

“It’s been nearly two years since you and Hal broke up. So, while we’re on the subject, it’s high time for you to get back in the saddle and try again.”

She put her hands on her hips and shook her head, looking solemn. “Okay, you’re changing the subject, and I don’t know if I even want to date. You, on the other hand, obviously do like getting involved. I know you so well, and if you’ll just let me help you, I’ll bet I can make it a much more rewarding experience for you. Or at least one that has the potential to last, maybe even change your mind about marriage. Come on. Be a sport.”

“Why are women always trying to change me?”

“The right woman wouldn’t change you, but she might make you want to see other possibilities.

He took out a carton of eggs, some butter, various veggies and the vestiges of a package of turkey bacon. It was all he had. When all else failed, breakfast for dinner always worked. It was his favorite go-to meal when the pickings were slim. He really should go to the grocery store later tonight. The rest of his week was busy.

“You’d really wager that you could fix me up with someone who is better for me than my usual type?”

She raised her chin. “You bet I could. In fact, I’ll bet I could introduce you to your soul mate if you gave me a fair chance.”

He chuckled. “You are the eternal optimist. Do you want to stay for dinner? I’ll make us an omelet.”

She put her hand on her stomach. “That sounds great. I’m starving. We can talk more about this wager. How can I help with dinner?”

“You can wash and dice the onions and red peppers.”

She stepped up to the sink to prep the peppers, but first she began by putting some dirty dishes into the dishwasher and hand-washed several pieces of flatware.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said. “I didn’t have time to clean up this morning before I left for work. I’ll do those later when I clean up the dinner dishes.”

“Actually, it’s sort of hard to wash the peppers with dishes in the way. I don’t mind, really. You are fixing me dinner. And we’re going to need forks to eat with.”

Jake left her to do what she needed to do because God knew she would anyway.

He took a bowl out of one of the cupboards and began cracking eggs into it. “Since when did you become a matchmaker? And what makes you think you can find me the right woman? I’ve been trying all these years and I haven’t been successful.”

“That’s easy. A—I know you better than you know yourself, and B—you are attracted to the wrong women. Your judgment is clouded. Mine is not.”

She might’ve had a point. But after just getting out of a relationship, he wasn’t very eager to jump back into anything serious. So looking at it from that perspective, what harm would a few dates do? Other than take up what little free time he had away from the hospital. He could indulge Anna. She meant that much to him. Then again, could he ever really expect to find his soul mate or anyone long-term when he never wanted to get married?

That was something he’d known for as long as he’d had a sense of himself as an adult. He did not want to get married. Marriage was the old ball and chain. It took something good, a relationship where two people chose to be together, and turned it into a contractual obligation. He’d witnessed it firsthand with his parents. All he could remember was the fighting, his mom leaving and his father’s profound sadness. Sadness that drove him to seek solace in the bottle. Anna knew his family history. Sure, she’d have good intentions. She’d think she was steering him toward someone who made him happy, but what was the point?

Jake vowed he’d never give a woman that much power over him.

So he said, “Before we go any farther, I have a stipulation.”

“Jake, no. If we’re going to do this and do it right, you have to play by my rules. You can’t give me a laundry list of what you want. That’s where you get into trouble with all these preconceived notions. Maybe we can talk about deal breakers, such as must not be marriage-minded or must not want kids, etcetera, but we’re not getting into the superficial. You’re just going to have to trust me.”

He poured a little milk into the eggs, a shake of salt, a grind of black pepper and began to beat them. Even though they’d spent a lot of time apart, Anna still knew him so well. A strange warmth spread through him and he whisked the eggs a little faster to work off the weird sensation.

“I wasn’t going to get superficial. In fact, my stipulation wasn’t even about me. I want to propose a double wager. Since we both need dates to the Holbrook wedding, I’ll let you fix me up, if you’ll let me fix you up.”

The daughter of Celebration Memorial Hospital’s chief executive officer Stanley Holbrook was getting married in mid-July. Jake had his eye on a promotion and attending his boss’s daughter’s wedding was one of the best ways to prove to the man he was the guy for the job. Since Holbrook was a conservative family man, Anna’s offer to fix him up with a woman of substance wasn’t a bad idea.

She was looking at him funny.

“Deal?” he said.

She opened her mouth, but then clamped it shut before saying anything. Instead, she shook her head. “No. Just...no.”

“Come on, Anna, fair is fair. I know Hal hurt you, but you’re too young to put yourself on a shelf. You want to get married again. You want to have kids. There are good guys out there, and I think I know one or two who would be worthy of you.”

She stopped chopping. “Worthy of me?” Her expression softened. “That’s the sweetest thing anyone has said to me in a very long time.”

“Case in point of why you need to get out more, my dear. Men should be saying many nice things to you.”

She made short order of chopping the peppers, scraping the tiny pieces into a bowl and then drying her hands.

“Okay, I’ll make a deal with you,” she said. “We’ll do this until Stan Holbrook’s daughter’s wedding. Between now and then, I’ll bet I can match you with your soul mate and cure you of your serial monogamy issues.”

He winced. “What? As in something permanent?”

She shrugged. “Just give me a chance.”

“Only if you’ll let me do the same for you. Do we have a deal?”

She nodded.

“So what are we betting?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t really mean it as a serious bet.”

“I think making a bet will make this more interesting. We don’t have to decide the prize right away. Let’s just agree that the first one who succeeds in making a match for the other wins.”

Anna wrinkled her nose. “Knowing you, you’ll let a good woman go just to win the challenge. You’re so competitive.”

“But if you think about it,” he said, “who will be the real winner? One will win the bet, but the other will win love.”

“That’s extremely profound for a man who has such bad taste in women.” She gave him that smile that always made him feel as if he’d come home. He paused to just take it in for a moment.

Then Jake shook her smooth, warm hand, and said, “Here’s to soul mates.”

Chapter Two

Soul mates.

Why did hearing Jake say that word make her stomach flip? Especially since she wasn’t even sure if she believed in such a thing as soul mates. After all she’d been through with Hal, she still believed in love and marriage enough to try again...someday. But soul mates? That was an entirely different subject. The sparkle had dulled from that notion when her marriage died.

“I’m done chopping.” Anna set the bowl on the granite counter next to the stove where Jake was melting butter in a frying pan. Then she deposited their empty beer bottles into the recycle bin in the garage.

“Now what can I do?” she said when she got back into the kitchen.

“Just have a seat over there.” With his elbow, he gestured toward the small kitchen table cluttered with mail and books. “Stay out of my way. Omelet-flipping is serious business. I am a trained professional. So don’t try this at home.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” she said, eyeing the mess on the table’s surface. “That’s why I have you. So you can fix me omelets. Apparently, I will repay you by setting the table for us to eat. And after I’ve excavated a space to put the plates and silverware, then I might clean the rest of your house, too. I thought you had a housekeeper. Where has she been?”

“Her name’s Angie and she’s been down with the flu. Hasn’t been available to come in for two weeks.”

Anna glanced around the room at the newspapers littering the large, plush sectional sofa in the open-plan living room. There were mugs and stacks of magazines and opened mail on the masculine, wooden coffee and end tables. Several socks and running shoes littered the dark-stained, hardwood living room floor.

“Wow. Well...” In fact, it looked as if Jake had dropped everything right where he’d stood. “God, Jake, I didn’t realize you were such a slob.”

Jake followed her gaze. “I’m not a slob,” he said. “I’m just busy. And I wasn’t expecting company.”

Obviously.

Anna thought about asking why he didn’t simply walk a few more steps into the bathroom where he could deposit his socks into the dirty clothes hamper rather than leaving them strewn all over the floor. Instead, she focused on being part of the solution rather than nagging him and adding to the problem. She quickly organized the table clutter into neat piles, revealing two placemats underneath, and set out the silverware she’d just washed and dried.

“Where are your napkins?” she asked.

He handed her a roll of paper towels.

This was the first time in the month that she’d been home that they’d cooked at his place. Really, it was just an impromptu meal, but it was just dawning on her how little she’d been over at his place since she’d been back. That was thanks in large part to Jake’s girlfriend. She wondered if Dorenda had seen the mess—or had helped create it—but before she could ask, she realized she really didn’t want to know.

“It must be a pretty serious case of the flu if Angie has been down for two weeks. Has she been to the doctor?”

Jake gave a one-shoulder shrug. “She’s fine. I ran into her at the coffee shop in downtown the other day. She looked okay to me. She’ll probably be back next week.”

Anna balked. “Why do you keep her?”

She crossed the room to straighten the newspapers and corral the socks. She couldn’t just stand there while Jake was cooking and the papers were cluttering up the place and in the back of her mind she could hear him toasting soul mates.

Even that small act of picking up would help work off some of her nervous energy.

“I don’t have time to find someone else,” he said. “Besides, it’s not that bad around here.”

She did a double take, looking back at him to see if he was kidding.

Apparently not.

But even if it looked as if Jake had simply dropped things and left them where they fell, the house wasn’t dirty. It didn’t smell bad. In fact, it smelled like him—like coffee and leather and something else that bridged the years and swept her back to a simpler time before she’d married the wrong man and Jake had become a serial monogamist. She breathed in deeper, wondering if they were still the same people or if the years and circumstances had changed them too much.

She bent to pick up a dog-eared issue of Sports Illustrated that was sprawled on the floor facedown. As she prepared to close it back to its regular shape, she nearly dropped it again when she spied the tiny, silky purple thong hidden underneath. Like a lavender spider. Only it didn’t get up and crawl away.

“Eww.” Anna grimaced. “I think Miss Texas forgot something.”

Jake gave a start as his gaze fell to where Anna pointed.

She reached over and grabbed the poker from the fireplace tool set on the hearth and used it to lift the thong off the ground.

“This is classy. How does a woman forget her underwear?”

He smiled that adorable lopsided smile that always suggested something a little bit naughty. There was no doubt why women fell for him. Heck, she’d fall for him if he weren’t her best friend.

“She carried a big purse,” Jake said. “It was like a portable closet. She probably didn’t leave here commando.” His gaze strayed back to the panties. “Then again, maybe she did.”

Anna raised the poker. The thong resembled a scanty purple flag, which she swiftly disposed of in the trash can.

“She might want that back,” Jake protested.

“Really? You think she’s going to call and ask if you found her underwear?”

They locked gazes.

“If she does—” Anna scowled at him and pointed to the garbage “—it’s right here.”

He was quiet as he pulled out the toaster and put in two slices of whole wheat bread.

Anna returned the poker to its stand.

“Jake, this is why we need to have a heart-to-heart talk about what you want in a woman. It’s no wonder you can’t seriously consider spending the rest of your life with a woman who leaves her panties on your living room floor. Even if she lived here, leaving her panties lying around in the living room wouldn’t be a good sign.”

“I leave my socks on the floor,” he said as he transferred the omelet from the frying pan onto the two plates Anna had set out.

“Yeah, and it wouldn’t take that much more effort to put them in the laundry hamper,” she said. “Do you want orange juice? I need orange juice with my eggs.”

“Sorry, I’m out. I have coffee and there’s more beer. I need to go to the grocery store. I really should go tonight because I’m not going to have time to go later with everything going on this weekend.”

She passed on the beer. Not her favorite thing to drink with eggs. Even if it was dinner. It was one of those combos that just didn’t sound appetizing. She opted for making herself a quick cup of coffee in his single-serving coffee brewer. As she pushed the button selecting the serving size, it dawned on her that even if they had been apart for a long time, she still felt at home with Jake. She could raid his K-Cups and brew herself a cup without asking. Even in the short amount of time that she’d spent here, she knew which cabinet contained the coffee, and that he stored his dinner plates in the lower cabinet to the right of the sink because they stacked better there.

“I need some groceries, too,” she said. “How about if we shop together after we do the dishes? We can talk as we shop and figure out where the happy medium is between the nice women you should be dating and the ones who leave their underwear all over town.”

Jake’s brows knit together as he set the dinner plates on the table.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Anna said as she slid into her seat at the table. “You know I’m right. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting and you’ll keep repeating the same pattern. You need to look a little deeper than a pretty face.”

He sat down, speared some of the omelet and took a bite, watching her as he chewed. She wished he’d say something. Not with food in his mouth, of course. But that was the thing about Jake—he may be a manly guy’s guy who didn’t know how to pick up after himself, but he still had manners. He didn’t talk with his mouth full, he said please and thank-you; Jake Lennox was a gentleman.

He knew how to treat a lady. He just didn’t know how to choose the right lady.

“So what are the deal breakers, Jake?”

“Deal breakers?”

“You know, the qualities in a woman that you can’t live with.”

“Why don’t we focus on the good? The attributes that I’m attracted to?”

“Because attraction is what gets you in trouble. Attraction is what caused Miss Texas to leave her thong on your living room floor.”

Ugh. She sounded like such a harpy. She knew that even before she saw the look on his face and consciously softened her tone.

“I don’t mean to be a nag. Really, I don’t. It’s just that sometimes it helps if you work backward.”

She wasn’t going to pressure him. That was the fastest way to suck all the fun out of the bet. This was supposed to be fun, not an exercise in browbeating.

She was prepared to change the subject when he said, “Anyone I date has to be comfortable with the fact that I don’t want to get married and I don’t want kids. I don’t want anyone who thinks they can change my mind. That’s a deal breaker. It’s what started things going south with Dorenda. She was Miss Independent for the first couple of months. Then she started in with the five-year plan, which eventually turned into an ultimatum.”

Anna realized it was the first time she’d ever been on Dorenda’s side. Who could blame her for wanting more? Especially when it involved more Jake. But she wasn’t going to argue with him. This anti-marriage/anti-family stance was new. Or at least something that had developed during the time that they were apart. Probably the reason he’d been involved in his string of relationships. Jake had grown up in a single-parent household. His mom had left the family when Jake was in first grade.

One night before they left for college, when she and Jake were having one of their famous heart-to-hearts, he’d opened up about how hard it had been on him and his brothers when their mom left the family.

Yet he’d never mentioned that he didn’t want to get married.

Actually, though, when she thought about it, it was a good thing he was being so up front about everything. That’s just how Jake was. He knew himself, and he was true to himself. Maybe if Hal had been more honest with both of them, they might have avoided a world of hurt.

So yeah, considering that, Jake’s candid admission was a good thing.

Now, her mind and its deductive reasoning just had to convince her heart that was true, because she hated the thought of Jake ending up alone years down the road.

* * *

“So you want someone who is family-oriented, funny, kind, honest and smart,” Jake recapped as he pushed the shopping cart down the canned goods aisle in the grocery store. “You don’t want to date a doctor, because of Hal. So what about looks? What’s your type?”

Anna stopped to survey a row of black beans lined up like soldiers on a shelf.

“I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to concentrate on the physical. That’s where we get into trouble. We need to get past that.”

“What? Should I disqualify a guy if he is good-looking?”

She quirked a brow at him as she set two cans in the otherwise empty cart. “I’d love to hear your idea of a good-looking guy.”

He scowled back at her. “I don’t know. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. I have no idea what makes a guy attractive to a woman.”

“I was just teasing, Jake. You know you’re my ideal. If I can’t have you, then...”

She made a tsking sound and squeezed his arm as she walked farther down the aisle to get something else on her list.

If he didn’t know her so well, he might’ve thought her harmless flirtation had started a ripple of something inside him. But that was utterly ridiculous. This was Anna, and that’s why he couldn’t put his finger on the something she’d stirred. Maybe it was pride, or actually, more like gratitude that pulled at him. He looked at her in her scrubs that were a little too big for her slight frame. Her purse, which she’d slung across her body, proved that there were curves hidden away under all that pink fabric.

He averted his gaze, because this was Anna. Dammit, he shouldn’t be looking at her as if she was something he’d ask the butcher to put on a foam tray and wrap up in cellophane. As the thought occurred to him, he realized his gaze had meandered back to where it had no business straying.

He turned his body away from her and toward the shelf of black beans Anna had just pored over. He didn’t know what the hell to do with canned black beans, but he took a couple of cans and added them to the cart as he warred with the very real realization that he didn’t want to fix her up with just anyone. Certainly not most of his buddies, who if they talked about Anna the way they talked about other women he’d have no choice but to deck.

“Excuse me.” Jake looked over to see a small, silver-haired woman holding out a piece of paper. “Your wife dropped this list.” The woman hooked her thumb in Anna’s direction at the other end of the aisle. “I’d go give it to her myself, but I’m going this way.”

My wife?

Jake smiled at the woman and started to correct her, to explain that he and Anna weren’t married, but the words seemed to stick in his throat. He found himself reaching out and accepting the paper—a grocery list—and saying, “Thanks, I’ll give it to her.”

She nodded and was on her way before Jake could say anything else.

Hmm. My wife.

He tried to see what the woman saw—Anna and him together...as a couple. But in similar fashion to not being able to look at her curves in good conscience, he couldn’t fully let his mind go there.

It wasn’t that the thought disgusted him—or anything negative like that. On the contrary. And that brought a whole host of other weirdness with it. The only way around it was to laugh it off.

“You dropped your list,” he said as he stopped the cart next to her. “The nice lady who found it thought you were my wife.”

Anna shot him a dubious look. “Oh, yeah? Did you set her straight?”

She deposited more canned goods into the basket and then took the list from his hand.

“No. I didn’t. I need bread. Which aisle is the bread in?”

She let the issue drop. He almost wished she would’ve said something snide like, That’s awkward. Or, Me? Married to you? Never in a million years. Instead, she changed the subject. “Do you want bakery bread or prepackaged? And why don’t you know where the bread is?”

He certainly didn’t dwell on it.

“I don’t know. I guess I don’t retain that kind of information. Grocery shopping isn’t my favorite sport.”

“I can tell,” she said. “And if you don’t pick up the pace, you’re going to get a penalty for delay of game. I’m almost finished. Where’s your list? Let me see if I can help move this along.”

“I don’t have a list,” he said. He knew he should make an off-the-cuff comment about her, his pretend wife, being the keeper of the list for both of them, but it didn’t feel right.

Since when had anything ever not felt right with Anna?

“I keep the list in my head,” he added.

“And of course, you’re out of everything. Here, I can help. We’ll just grab things for you as we go by them.”

She pulled the shopping cart from the front end and turned the corner into the next aisle.

“Do you want cereal?” she asked.

Before he could answer, a couple a few feet away from them broke out into an argument that silenced both Anna and him.

“Look, I’m an adult,” said the guy. “If I want to eat sugary cereal for breakfast, I will. In fact, if I want to eat a bowl of pure sugar, I will. You get what you like and I’ll get what I want.”

“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, honey.” The woman took a cereal box—the bright yellow kind with fake berries—out of the shopping cart and put it back on the shelf. “This won’t hold you. You need something with fiber and protein. If you eat this, you’ll be raiding the vending machine by ten o’clock.”

The guy took the cereal box off the shelf and put it back in the cart. “I grew up eating this stuff. You’re my wife, not the food police. So hop off.”

Anna and Jake quickened their pace as they passed the couple. They exchanged a look, which the couple obviously didn’t notice because now insults were inching their way into the exchange and tones were getting heated.

“We’ll come back for cereal,” Anna said.

Jake nodded. “When we do, are you going to mock my cereal choice?”

“Why would I do that? I’m not your wife.”

There. Good. She said it. The dreaded w word.

“Are you saying it’s a wife’s role to mock her husband’s cereal choice?”

“Of course not. I never told Hal what he could and couldn’t eat. Then again, since I was the one who cooked in that relationship, he didn’t have much say. But he was completely on his own for breakfast and lunch, free to make his own choices. And you see where that got me. Do you think we would’ve lasted if I had been more concerned?”

“No. Hal was an ass. He didn’t deserve your picking out healthy cereal for him.”

“So you’re saying the woman picking out the cereal rather than leaving him to his own devices was a good thing?”

“Well, yeah. For the record, in the couple we saw back there, the wife was right. He may have wanted that crap, but he didn’t need it. So I’ll side with her. Do you want me to go back over there and tell her I’m on her side?”

“Better not. Not if you want to keep all your teeth.”

Jake laughed but it sounded bitter—even to his own ears. “Why does that have to happen in relationships? People get married and end up hating each other over the most ridiculous things. They fight and tear each other apart and someone leaves. That marriage is in trouble over Much-n-Crunch and its artificially flavored berries. That’s exactly why I don’t want marriage.”

“So you’re saying that the guy should’ve gotten the cereal he wanted?”

“No. I already said I thought the wife was right. Junk like that will kill you. I agree with her. Healthy eating habits are good.”

As they strolled past the dairy section, Anna studied him for a minute. “I’ve just figured out who I’m fixing you up with on your first date. She’s a nutritionist. I think the two of you will have a lot in common. I can’t believe I didn’t think of her until now.”

Her response caught him off guard.

“What is she like?” he asked.

Anna raised her brows. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

“Okay. Two can play that game,” he said. “You’ll have to be surprised on your first date, too.”

She grimaced. “Go easy on me, Jake. I’m so out of practice. You know how I am. I’m casual. I haven’t been out there in so long.”

“That’s why you need me to fix you up.”

He had no idea who he was going to pick for her first date. Who would be worthy of her? Maybe the best place for him to start would be to rule out anyone who was remotely similar to himself. Because Anna deserved so much better.

Chapter Three

“Try this one.” Anna’s sister, Emily, shoved a royal blue sundress with a white Indian motif on the front through the opening in the fitting room curtain in the Three Sisters dress shop in downtown Celebration. “It looks like the basis of a good first-date outfit.”

Anna still wasn’t sure who her date was or where they were going, but one thing she did know was they were getting together on Wednesday and she had nothing to wear. It had been so long since she’d worn anything but jeans or hospital scrubs, she didn’t have a stitch appropriate for a...date. Plus, she had a busy week ahead and this was Emily’s night off. So Anna figured she might as well seize the moment and bring her sister along to help her pick out something nice. If she felt good with what she was wearing, she might feel less nervous on the date, thereby eliminating one potential avenue of stress...or disaster.

She held up the dress her sister had chosen and looked at herself in the mirror. The white pattern running up the front of the dress had a design that might’ve made a nice henna tattoo. It was a little wild for her taste.

“I don’t know, Em, this one looks a little low cut.”

“Try it on. You never can tell when it’s on the hanger.”

Wasn’t that the truth? The same rule could apply to men, too. You had to try them on—well, not literally, of course. She couldn’t fathom getting intimate with a man. Even if it was a man Jake had picked out for her. Not that she was contemplating life as a born-again virgin. It was just too much to contemplate right now. First, she’d meet the guy or guys—Jake did have until the wedding—and see how she got along with him or them. Then she’d think about...more.

The thought made her shudder a little.

She slipped out of the dress she’d just tried on and hung it up—it was a prim flowery number in primary colors. It was too dowdy—too matronly—too...something. Anna couldn’t put her finger on it. Whatever it was, it just didn’t feel right.

“Who did you fix Jake up with?” Emily asked from the other side of the fitting room curtain.

“Her name is Cheryl Woodly. She’s a freelance nutritionist who works with new mothers. I met her at the hospital.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s she like?”

Anna slipped the dress over her head.

“Nice. Smart. Pretty.”

“How is she different from Jake’s past girlfriends?”

“Did you not hear me say she’s nice and smart? Miss Texas possessed neither of those qualities.”

“Me-ow,” said Emily.

“I’m only speaking the truth.”

“When are they going out?”

“Friday.”

Anna stared at herself in the mirror, tugged up on the plunging halter neckline, trying to give the girls a little more coverage. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to put everything on display on a first date. The dress was great, but it was decidedly not her.

“Anna? Did you try on the one I just gave you?”

“Yeah, but—I don’t know.”

“Come out. Let’s see it.”

“Nah. Too much cleavage. Too little dress.”

Anna hesitated, turning around to check out the back view. She had to admit it was a snappy little number and it looked great from behind. But the front drew way too much focus to the cleavage and that made her squirm.

“Let me see.” Before Anna could protest, Emily’s face poked through the split in the curtain.

Anna’s had flew up to her chest.

“It looks great,” Emily said. “The color is out of this world on you. It brings out your eyes. And move your hand.”

Emily swatted away her sister’s hand from its protective station.

“I don’t know what you’re afraid of. It accentuates your tiny waist and you’re barely showing any cleavage at all. It’s just-right sexy. A far cry from those scrubs you hide in every day.”

“My scrubs are for work. They’re my uniform.” Anna turned back to the mirror and put her hands on her hips. She turned to left and then to the right. “You’re just jealous that you don’t ever get to dress so comfortably at work.”

By day, Emily worked in a bank in Dallas and wore suits to work. Because she was saving for a house, two or three times a week she worked as a hostess at Bistro St. Germaine, where she had to dress in sleek, sophisticated black to fit in with the timeless elegance of the downtown Celebration restaurant. Emily had great taste in clothes. Anna would’ve asked if she could borrow something from her younger sister—and Emily would’ve graciously dressed her—but it was time for Anna to add a couple of new pieces to her own wardrobe.

“Scrubs are like wearing jammies to work every day,” Emily said.

“You know you would if you could,” Anna said.

Emily rolled her eyes. “I think you should buy that dress. If not for a date, for you.”

“I’ll think about it. Now let me change.”

Emily stepped back and let Anna close the curtain. Before Anna took off the dress, she did one last three-sixty. It really was cute, in a boho-sexy sort of way.

“Do you really think Jake has some good prospects in mind for you?”

“Who knows? We just talked about this a couple of days ago.”

She slipped off the dress and put it with a cute red dress with a bow that tied in front. As she pulled on her jeans and plain white T-shirt, Emily said, “You don’t sound very enthusiastic. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“The ball is already rolling. It’s just until the wedding. I’ll be surprised if it’s even five dates. We’ll see what happens.”

When Anna opened the curtain, she noticed a certain look on her sister’s face.

“What?” Anna asked and gathered the clothes, keeping the red and blue dresses separate from the things she didn’t want.

“I have to be honest,” Emily said. “I always thought you and Jake would end up together.”

Her stomach clenched in a way that bothered her more than her sister’s words.

“Emily, why would you say that? Jake and I are friends. Good friends. Nothing more.”

“Because for better or worse, you two have always stuck together. I mean, I grew up with him, too, but you don’t see him hanging out with me. The two of you have always had a really strong bond. Think about it. You and Jake outlasted your marriage. Why the heck are you fixing him up with someone else?”

“Emily, don’t. That’s not fair.”

Anna walked away from her sister.

“Yes, it is. Why is it not fair?”

Anna set the two dresses she wanted to buy on the counter and handed the hanging clothing she didn’t want to the sales clerk. After she paid for her purchases and they were outside the Three Sisters shop, Emily resumed the conversation.

“What’s not fair about it?”

“You know I can’t date Jake. He’s my friend. He’s always been my friend and that’s all we will ever be.”

Anna felt heat begin to rise up her neck and bloom on her cheeks.

“Then why are you blushing?” Emily asked.

Anna turned and walked to the next storefront, the hardware store, and studied the display as if she’d find the perfect pair of sandals to go with her first-date dress hidden somewhere among the tool kits, ladders and leaf blowers showcased in the window.

Of course, Emily was right behind her. Anna could see her sister’s reflection in the glass. She couldn’t look at her own as she tried to figure out exactly what was making her so emotional. It wasn’t the fact that she was fixing Jake up with someone who could potentially change his mind about marriage being the equivalent of emotional Siberia. Good grief, she was the one who came up with a plan in the first place.

Now Emily’s arm was on Anna’s shoulder.

“Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m just a little puzzled by your reaction. I was half teasing, but you’re upset. You want to talk about it?”

Anna ran her hand through her hair, feeling a bit perplexed herself.

“I guess it’s just the thought of the dating again. You know, starting over. I’m thirty-three years old. This is not where I thought I would be at this age. Em, I want a family. I want a husband who loves me and kids. I never thought I’d be one of those women who felt her biological clock ticking, but mine feels like a time bomb waiting to explode.”

The two sisters stood shoulder to shoulder, staring into the hardware store window.

“Well, I guess that eliminates Jake, since we know his thoughts on marriage. Even if he is the hottest guy in town, you don’t need to waste your time there.”

Anna drew in a deep breath, hoping it would be the antidote to the prickles of irritation that were beginning to feel as if they would turn into full-blown hives.

“Even if he was the marrying kind, he’s my best friend, Emily. There are some things you just don’t mess with and that’s one of them. Hal used to go on and on about how Jake and I secretly wanted each other. Once he even swore there was something going on between Jake and me. But Hal was my husband. I loved him. I loved our marriage and I never cheated. He couldn’t get it through his head that a man and a woman could be friends—that there was nothing sexual about it.”

“That’s probably because in his eyes he couldn’t look at a woman without thinking about sex,” Emily said. “You know what they say, people usually yell the loudest about the things they’re guilty of themselves.”

“So, could you just help me out please and not talk about Jake and me in those terms? He’s my friend. End of story. Okay?”

* * *

Jake had heard a lot of excuses for getting out of a date, and tonight’s ranked up there with the best. Cheryl Woodly had called him thirty minutes before he was supposed to pick her up at her place in Dallas for dinner. Her reason for begging off? Her cat, Foxy, had undergone emergency surgery that day and she wasn’t comfortable leaving it alone.

He could understand that. He knew people were as crazy about their animals as they were about their children. In some cases, people’s animals were their children.

As he turned his 1969 Mustang GTO around and headed back toward Celebration, he realized he wasn’t a bit disappointed that Cheryl Woodly had canceled. In fact, from this vantage point, getting out of the blind date seemed like a blessing in disguise. Cheryl had halfheartedly mentioned that maybe they could have a rain check, and he’d made all the right noises and said he’d call her next week to see if they could get something on the books. He wasn’t sure if she was preoccupied with her animal or if she was only being polite in suggesting they reschedule. Either way, she didn’t seem very enthusiastic. So he wished Foxy the cat well and breathed a sigh of relief.

Still, there was the matter of what to do with the two tickets he’d bought to the Celebration Summer Jazz Festival. He didn’t want them to go to waste. Five minutes later, he found himself parking his car in the street in front of Anna’s house.

She lived in a Key West–style bungalow two blocks away from downtown Celebration’s Main Street. Jake had helped Anna pick out the house after she’d moved to Celebration and her divorce was final.

The place had been a fixer-upper in need of some TLC. Anna had said it was exactly what she wanted—a project to sink her heart and soul into while she was getting used to her new life. She’d done a great job. Now the house was neat and a little quirky with its fresh island-blue and sea-green paint job. Its style reflected Anna’s unique cheerful personality and it always made Jake smile. The lawn was neatly manicured. She must’ve recently planted some impatiens in the terracotta pots that flanked the porch steps. The flowers’ vibrant pinks, fuchsias and reds added another well-planned accent to the already colorful house.

That was the thing about Anna; she put her heart and soul into her home and the place radiated the care she’d invested.

Her Beetle was in the driveway. He could see the inviting faint glow of a light through the living room window.

Good. She was home.

He was going to razz her about her matchmaking skills being a little rusty, since the first date she’d arranged had essentially stood him up. Technically, Cheryl hadn’t left him hanging. But Jake was realizing he could get some mileage out of the canceled date and he intended to use it as leverage to get Anna to go to the jazz festival with him tonight.

He’d have a lot more fun with her anyway.

Jake let himself out of the car and walked up the brick path that led to Anna’s house. He rapped on the door. Knock, knock-knock, knock, knock, their traditional signal that announced they were about to let themselves inside. Really, the knock was just a formality, to keep the other from being surprised. In case she was having sex in the kitchen or something.

Actually, he hadn’t been concerned about walking in on Anna having sex because she’d been living like a nun since her divorce. And funny, now that he thought about it, Anna never seemed to come around as much when he was in a relationship.

Hmm. He’d never realized it until right now.

He tried the handle and her door was unlocked. So he let himself in the side door.

“Hey, Anna? It’s me.”

He heard a muffled exclamation from the other side of the living room. Then Anna stuck her head out of the bedroom door.

“Jake? What are you doing here? Why aren’t you out with Cheryl?”

She was hugging the doorjamb and clutching something to her chest as if she were hiding. It looked like she was wearing a dress.

When was the last time he’d seen Anna in a dress?

“She stood me up. What are you all dressed up for? Don’t tell me you have a date.”

Anna straightened, moving away from the doorjamb, cocking her head to the side.

“She stood you up? Are you kidding me?”

Whoa. She was definitely wearing a dress and she looked nice. He’d never realized she had so much going under those scrubs...so much going on upstairs. How had he never noticed that before?

The fact made him a little hot and bothered.

He had to force his gaze to stay on her face. Or on her bare feet. Her toenails were painted a sexy shade of metallic blue that matched the dress. Her legs—how had he never noticed her legs before? They were long and lean and tan and looked pretty damn good coming out of the other end of that skirt, which might’ve been just a hair short...for Anna.

Damn. She sure did look good. No. She looked hot.

If she looked like that, why did she cover herself up?

Because this was Anna.

He cleared his throat. “Well, she didn’t technically stand me up. She called me when I was on my way to get her to say her cat had surgery today and she didn’t feel right about leaving it alone.”

Anna put her hands on her hips and grimaced. The movement accentuated the low neckline of her dress and the way her full breasts contrasted with her tiny waist that blossomed into hips... Jake forced himself to look away.

“So you didn’t shave before you went out? Are you trying to look cool or are you just too lazy?” she asked.

“What?” He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his jaw. “I’m trying to look cool. The ladies like a little five-o’clock shadow.”

She quirked a brow and smiled. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. It does look pretty...hot.”

Something flared inside of him.

“Well, I mean it would be hot if it wasn’t you.”

“What do you mean if it wasn’t me?”

She shot him a mischievous smile that warmed up her whole face.

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?” he said.

“Yeah. I am. It’s fun. Oh, I forgot to tell you that Cheryl is a major animal lover. I’m not surprised she wanted to stay home with the cat, but it would’ve been nice if she could have given you a little more notice.”

“Ya think? Where are you going, dressed like that?”

Anna blushed and crossed her arms in front of her, suddenly seeming self-conscious again. It was one of the things he found most endearing about her.

“I’m not going anywhere. I bought some new clothes and I was trying them on so I could figure out what I wanted to wear on my date with Joseph. He texted me today and asked what I was doing next Wednesday. So I figured I needed to decide what I was going to wear. What do you think of this dress? I wasn’t so sure, but Emily talked me into getting it.”

She put her hands back on her hips and struck a pose. The tags were dangling under her arm and he had an urge to suggest she take it back and exchange it for something a little more modest. Something that didn’t make her look like such a knockout.

“It’s, uhh... It looks great.”

Maybe a little too great for a first date with a guy like Joseph Gardner. He and Joe had been roommates in college while Jake was doing his undergraduate work. Joe lived in Dallas now. He was a friend, a good guy, really. That’s why he’d decided to fix him up with Anna.

And that was why his own attitude about the dress confused him.

“In fact, since you’re dressed, why don’t you give it a test run and wear it to the jazz festival with me tonight?”

Anna groaned and shook her head. “No, Jake, I really wasn’t up for doing anything tonight—”

“God, you’re so boring.” He smiled to let her know he was just kidding. “Besides, since you fixed me up with a dud, don’t you think you owe it to me to not let this extra ticket go to waste?”

She sighed and cocked her head to the side. She smiled at him. He could see her coming around.

“In fact, if we leave now, we will have just enough time to grab something to eat and get over to the pavilion for the first act.”

She shook her head. “Jake, I took my makeup off when I got home from work. Can you give me a couple of minutes to fix myself up?”

She looked so good he hadn’t even realized she didn’t have any makeup on. Her skin was clear and her cheeks and lips looked naturally rosy. Standing there with her auburn hair hanging in loose waves around her shoulders... And with just the right amount of cleavage showing, he couldn’t imagine that she could make herself any more beautiful.

Something intense flared inside him. It made him flinch. His instinct was to mentally shake it off. When that didn’t work he decided to ignore it, pushing it back into the recesses of his brain where he kept all unwelcome thoughts and memories and other distractions that might trip him up or cause him to feel things that were unpleasant.

It was mind over matter.

Right now, what mattered was him getting his head on straight so that they could get to dinner and the jazz festival.

“You look fine,” he said. “Besides, it’s just me.”

“Yeah, you and the hundreds of other people that will be at the jazz festival. You don’t want them looking at you and wondering, Who’s that homely woman with Jake Lennox?”

Homely? How could she see herself that way? It didn’t make sense.

“Darlin’, you are a lot of things, but homely isn’t one of them.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Okay. Okay. You don’t have to lay it on so thick. Let me get my sandals and we can go.”

When she turned around to walk back into the bedroom, his eyes dropped to her backside which swayed gently beneath the fabric of her dress.

What was wrong with him?

Nothing.

Just because Anna was his friend and it had never really registered in his brain that she was an attractive woman, didn’t mean she wasn’t or that he couldn’t appreciate her...from afar.

From very far away. If he knew what was good for him.

But why now?

Why, in the wake of this bet, did it feel as if he was seeing her for the very first time?

Chapter Four

One of the things Anna loved most about Jake was his ability to surprise her. Like tonight, for example. When she’d gotten home from work, she thought she would try on her new dresses, figure out which one she wanted to wear on her date with Joseph, then put on her sweats, make a light dinner and settle in with a good book and a cup of tea.

The last thing she thought she’d be doing was sitting on a red plaid blanket in the middle of downtown Celebration at a jazz festival waving at people she knew, talking to others who stopped by.

But here she was.

And she was enjoying herself.

Who knew?

It was a nice night to be outside. As evening settled over the town, a nice breeze mellowed the heat of the late June day, leaving the air a luxuriously perfect temperature.

Leave it to Jake to completely turn her plans upside down—and she meant that in the best possible way. He was her constant and her variable. He was her rock and the one who challenged her to leap off the high dive when she didn’t even want to leave her house. Like with these dates they were fixing each other up on. The prospect of spending the evening with blind dates felt like a huge leap into the unknown. Without the assurance of a safety net. Yet somehow she knew Jake wouldn’t steer her wrong.

She trusted him implicitly.

That’s probably why spending the evening with him and his five-o’clock shadow at an event like this—which could actually be quite romantic with the right guy—seemed more appealing than being here with...another guy.

They’d staked out a great place on the lawn in downtown Celebration’s Central Park—close enough to the gazebo that they could see the members of the various bands that would be performing tonight, but not so close that they wouldn’t be able to talk. Jake had purchased tickets for the VIP area that allowed for the best viewing of the concerts. Leave it to him to do it first-class.

The area was packed with people of all ages: couples, families, groups of friends. All around them, people were talking and laughing and enjoying picnic suppers. There was a happy buzz in the air that was contagious. Suddenly, Anna knew she didn’t want to be anywhere else tonight except right here in the middle of this crowd, holding down the fort while Jake went to get them a bottle of wine and their own picnic supper from Celebrations Inc. Catering Company, which had set up a tent at the back of the park.

She’d almost forgotten what it was like to feel like part of a community. Living in San Antonio with Hal had been completely different. Houston was a thriving metropolis; Hal had been kind of a stick-in-the-mud, actually. Picnics and jazz festivals weren’t his gig. He was more the type to enjoy eighteen rounds on the golf course, dinner at the club with his stuffy doctor friends and their wives. If the men weren’t playing golf, they were talking about it or some scholarly study they’d read about in a medical journal. Anna had tried to join in their conversation once when they were discussing risk factors for major obstetric hemorrhage—after all, she was an OB nurse—but they’d acted as if she’d wanted to discuss the merits of Lucky Charms with and without marshmallows.

Later, Hal had been furious with her. He’d claimed she had embarrassed him and asked her to just do her part and entertain the wives. Never mind that she had zero in common with any of them. She worked, they lunched. She didn’t know the difference between Gucci and The Gap—and frankly, she didn’t care. Still, she was forced to sit there and listen to them prattle on about who had offended whom on the country-club tennis team and who was the outcast this week because she was sleeping with someone else’s husband.

Of course, Anna made the appropriate noises in all the right places. She’d become an expert at smiling and nodding and sleeping with her eyes open as the women went on and on and on about utter nonsense. Funny thing was, it didn’t seem to matter that she had nothing to contribute. They were so busy talking and not listening—too busy formulating what they were going to say next while trying to get a foot in on the conversation—that it didn’t even matter that Anna sat there in silence.

Until the last dinner. Anna had sensed the shift in the air even before they sat down to order. The women were unusually interested in her. Their eyes glinted as they asked her about her job, the hours she worked. Did she ever work weekends? Nights? How long had she and Hal been married now? How on earth did they make their two-career marriage work?

It reminded her of those days back in elementary school when one kid was chosen to be the student of the week and all the bits and pieces of their lives were put on display for all to see. Of course, the elementary school spotlight was kinder and gentler. The interest was sincere, even if the others really didn’t have a burning desire to know.

This sudden interest in her personal life was downright creepy. And she’d left the club that night with the unshakable feeling that something was up. Something was different. They knew something, and like a pride of lionesses, they were going to play with their prey—get maximum enjoyment from the game before the kill.

On the way home Anna had tried to talk to Hal about it, but as usual he wasn’t interested.

Exactly one week to the day later—after the niggling feeling that something was different grew into a gut-wrenching knowledge that something was very wrong, something that everyone but her seemed to know about—she’d checked Hal’s email and everything was spelled out right there. Sexy messages from his office manager. Plans for hookups and out-of-town getaways. The jackass had been so smug in his cozy little affair that he’d left it all right there for her. All she had to do to learn what was really going on was type in his email password, which was the month, day and year of their wedding anniversary.

And Hal had had the nerve to accuse her of being more than just friends—or wanting to be more than just friends—with Jake.

Anna’s gaze automatically picked out Jake in the midst of the crowd. As he walked toward her carrying a large white bag in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, she shoved aside the bad memories of Hal, refusing to let him ruin this night.

She watched Jake as he approached. He was such a good-looking man—tall and broad-shouldered, with dark hair that contrasted with blue-blue eyes. But what mattered even more was that he was a good man, an honest man. He might be a serial monogamist, but he broke up with a woman before he began something with someone else. That was more than she could say for her ex-husband.

It hit her that she was luckier than any of Jake’s past girlfriends. They had a connection that went deeper than most lovers. As far as she was concerned, she would do whatever it took to keep their relationship constant.

“They had this incredible-looking bow-tie pasta with rosemary chicken, mushrooms and asparagus,” Jake said as he lowered himself onto the blanket. “I got an order of that and they had another type with a red sauce. I picked up a couple of salads and some flatbread. And they had tiramisu. So save room for dessert. Unless you don’t want yours. I’ll eat it.”

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