The Engagement Project / Her Surprise Hero: The Engagement Project / Her Surprise Hero. Abby Gaines
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She sipped at her cola—the regular kind, not diet. “I’ll read almost anything, though I lean toward nonfiction.”
“Music?” he prompted.
“Blues-rock.”
“Movies?”
“Anything that I don’t have to think too much about. If I’m going to spend twenty bucks, which is what it costs by the time you add a bag of popcorn and a soda to the price of the ticket, I want to enjoy it. No dark war settings or depressing social issues or complicated psychological thrillers.”
“If it was my twenty bucks, could I pick the show?”
She frowned over his question as she sipped her cola again. “Are you inviting me to a movie?”
“Well, you did spring for dinner,” he said. “And there’s a new Vin Diesel movie playing. You know the kind, with lots of car chases and big explosions and very little plot.”
“Sounds like my kind of entertainment,” she said.
“Then it’s a date.”
She was okay until he called it a date.
Grabbing a bite to eat with a coworker—even if that coworker was Gage Richmond—wasn’t a big deal. Deciding to catch a movie together because they both had nothing else to do shouldn’t have been, either. But as soon as Gage put that label on it, all of her perceptions changed, and the easy camaraderie they’d been sharing suddenly wasn’t so easy anymore.
Unfortunately, she’d already agreed, and as the movie theater was within the same shopping complex as the restaurant, she had neither the time nor the opportunity to come up with a reason to bow out. He took her hand as they walked across the parking lot and Megan tried to be as nonchalant as he was about it, as if she held hands with guys all the time, as if the casual contact didn’t make her pulse race.
Gage was standing in line at one of the automated kiosks to buy their tickets when Megan felt vibrations in her chest. At first she thought it was her heart knocking erratically against her ribs, then she remembered that her cell phone was tucked in the inside pocket of her jacket and set to vibrate.
“Excuse me,” she said to Gage, and stepped away to answer the call.
“I know you had to work late tonight,” Ashley said without preamble. “I just wondered if you could pick up some Motrin on your way home.”
“What’s wrong?” Megan asked, alerted not just by the request for the medication but the obvious strain in her sister’s voice.
“The usual,” Ashley said, then sucked in a breath, and blew it out again. “Okay, it’s hit a little bit harder than usual.”
She moved back to Gage, who had just started scrolling through the movie options on the screen. “I’ll be home in fifteen minutes,” she promised.
Gage looked up and, without any question, stepped away from the machine so the next person in line could proceed.
“Problem?” he asked.
“My sister’s not feeling well.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
She shook her head. “Thanks, but no. You can stay and watch car chases, but I have to get home.”
“Rain check?”
“That’s really not—”
He touched his finger to her lips, halting her protest.
“Rain check,” he said again, and it wasn’t a question this time.
“Okay.”
He insisted on walking her to her car, told her to take care of her sister and watched her pull out of the parking lot.
And though she was anxious to get home to Ashley, she didn’t quite manage to banish all thoughts of Gage from her mind as she drove away. And she couldn’t completely extinguish the little flicker of hope that the interest she’d seen in his eyes could be real.
At home, Megan found her sister on the sofa in the living room, curled up under a blanket and obviously in pain.
When Ashley had first been diagnosed with endometriosis, she’d been willing to try anything that might relieve the pain. It turned out that her symptoms could be treated quite successfully through the use of oral contraceptives. The problem with that, of course, was that she wouldn’t get pregnant so long as she was taking them.
Megan suspected that was why Ashley was suffering now, that she’d stopped taking her pills. It was no secret that her sister wanted a baby and while pregnancy happened easily for many women, it wouldn’t be easy for Ashley. In fact, her doctors had warned that it might not happen for her at all, but she refused to give up on the dream of someday holding a child of her own in her arms.
“Hey,” Megan said, coming into the room.
Ashley managed a weak smile as she accepted the medication and the glass of water her sister held out to her. “Thanks.”
Megan lowered herself onto the coffee table. “What’s going on, Ash? You haven’t had pain like this in years.”
Her sister dropped her gaze. “I stopped taking the Pill.”
Though it was just what she’d expected, Megan couldn’t hold back her sigh. “When? Why?”
“Just a few weeks ago. Because Trevor and I are getting married in the fall anyway and because I really want a baby.” Tears spilled onto her cheeks and she swiped at them impatiently. “And maybe because I feel him slipping away and I don’t know why, but I know if I get pregnant it will make things better.”
Megan wasn’t so sure that was the answer, but she was hardly in a position to offer relationship counseling to anyone. “Why didn’t you talk to me about this?” she asked instead.
“Because I didn’t think it was fair to always run to my little sister with my problems.”
“Forget the big and little part. You’re my sister.”
“I’m sorry I pulled you away from the lab.”
This time it was Megan who looked away. “I wasn’t actually at the lab.”
“Where were you?”
“I just went to grab a bite to eat.”
“Based on the deliberate vagueness of that response, I’m guessing you didn’t go alone,” Ashley said. “In fact, I’m guessing that you were with Gage.”
“So?”
“So … good for you.”
Megan frowned. “You’re making a big deal out of something that isn’t.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Her sister managed a smile. “I’m sorry I ruined your dinner.”
“You didn’t.” Megan jumped up when the microwave dinged, grateful for the reprieve from her sister’s questioning. She came back with a warm bean bag, which she laid gently across Ashley’s abdomen.
“Thanks.”
“Can I get you anything else?” Megan asked. “Do you want me to call Trevor?”
Ashley shook her head. “I tried calling him before I called you. I tried his office and his cell and got his voice mail both times.”
“You knew he was working late tonight,” Megan pointed out reasonably. “It makes sense that he would turn his phone off if he was with a client.”
Her sister nodded, though she didn’t look convinced. “You’re right. It’s just that he’s seemed so distracted and inaccessible over the last few weeks.”
“It’s tax season,” Megan reminded her.
“You’re