Two

      Fiancée.

      Was he out of his mind?

      She shook her head and started laughing. Once she started she couldn’t stop and she felt that tinge of panic rise up that she thought she’d been successfully shoving way deep down in her gut.

      “Thanks, I needed that,” she said. “You have no idea what kind of week it’s been.”

      Derek leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, which drew the fabric of his dress shirt tight against his muscles. Distracted, she couldn’t help but notice the way his biceps bulged against the fabric. One thing that had been hard for her in the years of their friendship was to ignore how hot Derek was. He worked out. He had said one time that a surgeon had to be a precise machine. And that everything—every part of his body and mind—had to be in top shape.

      “I’m not joking.”

      “Uh, what?” she asked. She was tired. Life hadn’t worked out according to her plans and if she’d thought that once she reached this age she’d have everything all figured out, she was wrong. Really wrong.

      She pushed her martini glass away, feeling a bit as if she’d followed Alice down the rabbit hole. But she knew she hadn’t.

      “I need a fiancée,” Derek said. “The new board member who holds the fate of my career in my hands? It turns out she’s a borderline obsessive I dated a while ago. The only way to keep her off my back is to make sure she knows I’m off the market.”

      “And how do I fit into this?”

      Derek tipped his head to the side and studied her. “You could use a fake fiancé as well.”

      She still wasn’t following. She was tired and her heart hurt a little bit if she were completely honest. Derek was one of her best friends and this sounded fishy to her.

      “Why?”

      “So your mom will quit setting you up on blind dates. You’re too kind to tell her you aren’t ready to date. If we are engaged then everyone will back off and leave us alone. I can focus on wowing everyone on the board at the hospital so that they have no choice but to name me chief. You can figure out what you want to do next without the pressure your parents are putting on you.”

      She put her elbows on the table and leaned forward. When he put it like that she’d be a fool to refuse. “Are you sure about this?”

      “I am,” he said.

      When wasn’t Derek sure? She should have already known that would be his answer.

      “If we’re engaged, why would we have kept it quiet?” she asked.

      He leaned in closer to her. “To give Hunter and Nate time in the spotlight. Hunter’s wedding is really taking up everyone’s energy.”

      “It is. And Kinley is busy planning it. She’s going to wonder why I never even mentioned we were dating.”

      Bianca and Kinley were good friends. They both had been single mothers with toddlers the same age. Of course, Kinley wasn’t single anymore and had found happiness with Derek’s brother Nate.

      Derek took her hand in his and a tingle went up her arm. “Tell her I asked you to keep it quiet.”

      “Hmm...it might work. Could I have until the morning to think about it?” she asked.

      He nodded.

      She pulled her hand away and then sat back, linking her hands together in her lap. Her palm was still tingling. She knew that saying yes would be the easy choice. But what about her son? Benito wouldn’t understand that they were just pretending. Though given that he was only two years old he might not understand much of anything that was going on. He was good friends with Kinley’s daughter...so he had been asking about his papa lately. He really didn’t remember Jose at all.

      “That sounds like it would be ideal but we live in the real world.”

      “Really? I hadn’t realized that when I was operating on two different patients today,” Derek said.

      She recognized the sarcasm as one of his defense mechanisms and she didn’t blame him. She was scared. The last time she trusted a man it had been Jose and his word hadn’t been worth much.

      “I’m not bringing this up to be difficult. I have a son. He’s not going to understand why you are in our lives for a short time and then gone,” she said. “We aren’t twenty anymore, Derek, it’s not like when you came to Monaco and we were wild. I’m a mom. You’re in line to be chief of cardiology. We’re...we are adults.”

      “Dammit. We can be adults and still be ourselves. You know me, Bi. You always have. I’m not going to disappear from your life when this is over. We’re still going to be friends and I’d never cut Benito out. He’s your son and just as important to me as you are.”

      Derek stood up. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk where we can talk without worrying who might hear us.”

      She looked around and noticed they were gathering attention. She should have realized it sooner. “What about the pool game?”

      “The boys can make do without me,” Derek said. “This is more important.”

      There was a sincerity in his eyes; she wanted to believe in him. Well, that stunk, she thought. She’d thought she’d somehow become immune to the charm of handsome men. Of course, this was Derek and not some playboy whose parents she didn’t know.

      But still she’d like to think that her heart beat a little faster when he said she was important. She’d always liked Derek. He’d been one of her closest friends in middle school. He’d had the classic Caruthers good looks, but he’d been supersmart and once he’d graduated high school early and gone off to college and then medical school, they’d kept in touch first on AOL messenger, then on the different social media apps.

      Years had passed before she’d seen him as an adult and she’d been blown away by how attractive her old friend had become. Of course, she had a different life by then, but there were times when it still surprised her. She never grew tired of the strong, hard line of jaw, his piercing eyes and the way his hair curled over this forehead. There was something about him that made her want to keep looking at him.

      Dangerous.

      As dangerous as listening to his idea for this fake engagement. Was there ever an idea that sounded dumber?

      Maybe her mom setting her up with young men she knew in the South Texas area.

      “What would this entail?” she asked.

      * * *

      Derek didn’t allow himself to relax. This was Bianca. Bianca Velasquez. She’d been the prettiest girl at the Five Families Middle