Some Like It Charming (A Temporary Engagement) Read Free Page B

I’m pretty sure she’s betting on you.”
    “She seems intelligent.”
    He grinned. “We’ll see.”

    The softball game was the main event and the players ate quickly. Everyone else wandered around talking, eating, and waiting for the show to start.
    Mackenzie didn’t know what they expected. Oh, she liked to talk a good game, and she hoped she won so she could rub a certain someone’s face in it, but the teams were pretty well evenly matched. It would probably come down to luck.
    Most of the time she would bet on her luck, but Ethan was a golden boy and had been since the day he was born. If anybody’s luck was better than hers it would be his.
    And as soon as she saw him squat behind the plate she knew she was in trouble. Of course he was catcher. The one position where he could talk and screw her team’s concentration.
    She got a little hopeful when his mother became concerned about his lack of gear.
    “It’s just a friendly game of slow-pitch, Mother. I don’t need it.” He smiled at his mother, charmingly, and Mackenzie wondered how that could possibly still work on her. She had to be immune by now.
    And then Mackenzie laughed under breath when Christine O’Connor looked right at her and said, “As long as it’s a friendly game.”
    Ethan looked at Mackenzie and his grin was anything but friendly. She should have brought someone to watch her back as well.
    Mackenzie turned to her team and gave them one piece of advice. “Don’t listen to anything that man says when you’re at bat.”
    Bases were loaded when Mackenzie went up to bat. She loved softball, started playing on a league in middle school, made varsity in high school, and had been throwing the ball around with her grandfather since she was old enough to stand. She joined the city league every summer and spent an occasional weeknight at the batting cages. She was good and she loved it. And having Ethan O’Connor that close to her made her palms sweat.
    But she was going to beat him anyway.
    He squatted behind the plate. “My God, that field looks beautiful. They’re just waiting for you to send them all in. Are you that good, Wyatt?”
    She stepped into the box without looking at him.
    The first ball came sailing past her face and she tapped her cleats with the bat. “I guess we’ll see if your pitcher ever gets it over the plate.”
    “He’s just playing with you. Seeing if you’ll bite.”
    “I do. Hard. Maybe your mom was right and you should go find something soft to wrap your important bits with.”
    “You better hope she didn’t hear you. It’s not wise to threaten a woman’s only child.”
    Mackenzie nicked the ball, fouling it out in right field.
    Ethan tsked. “Mm. Too bad. That would have been good if you’d actually hit it.”
    She fought to keep her laugh back but she was afraid he knew how funny he was. She said, “You just love being catcher, don’t you? Get to talk all you want and no one can shut you up.”
    He squatted, holding his glove out, and she stepped back in the box. He said, “It’s one of life’s greatest pleasures.”
    “It’s not going to be too much fun when I’m sliding in getting you all dusty.”
    Another ball thrown in a little too high and she shook her head at the pitcher. “What, am I an amateur here?”
    Ethan threw the ball back with a laugh. “I’ve only got one thing to say before you hit that homer you’re waiting for. You slide into me with your cleats up and I’ll paint your backside red.”
    “I’m sure the paparazzi would love a picture of that.”
    “They won’t be invited–”
    Mackenzie hit the ball, felt the sweet spot, and knew it was going to be a long run for the outfielder. If there’d been a fence, it would have been over it. But she ran the bases and headed home anyway. She heard Ethan cuss when she ran across the plate. And she couldn’t help but notice that his grandmother was very excited, and his mother wasn’t.
    Mackenzie grinned at Ethan. “Sorry