The Best Man's Plan

“They reminded me of you.” He placed the big bouquet in her hands. “Consider them an apology for yelling at you last night. I still disagree with your decision to go off alone the way you did, but I shouldn’t have ambushed you about it.”

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who had vowed to get along today. Studying him over the top of the roses, she noted that his smile didn’t quite reach his glittering blue eyes. It was the practiced smile that pushed faint dimples into his lean cheeks and revealed a lot of gleaming white teeth. A smile most people instinctively responded to, even though it revealed absolutely nothing of the thoughts that lay behind it.

She’d always thought of it as the sort of smile a shark would wear when it invited someone to join it for a little swim.

“Thanks. I’ll go put these in water.” She turned toward the kitchen.

“Nice shorts,” he said from behind her.

Now was the time for one of those nonencouraging stares or chilly half smiles. Instead she blushed, stumbled over her own feet and fled to the kitchen.

She seemed to need another quick pep talk.

Her composure reestablished, Grace carried the roses, now arranged in a clear glass vase, back into the living room a few minutes later, setting them prominently in the center of her glass-topped coffee table. “Have you decided yet what we’re doing today? I assume you want to go out in public so we’ll be seen together.”

“Of course. I thought we’d spend the day in Hot Springs, if that sounds okay to you.”

“Hot Springs?”

“Where better to be publicly seen than in a town full of tourists?”

She couldn’t argue with that. An hour’s drive south of Little Rock, the sidewalks of Hot Springs National Park were often crowded with tourists on nice summer weekends. Even dressed in jeans and sneakers rather than one of his expensive tailored business suits, Bryan would draw more than his share of attention. He always did.

It sounded like an innocuous enough day. They would wander cozily among the other tourists, pretending to be two lovers on a Sunday outing, giving Chloe and Donovan privacy to make their plans and enjoy their time together. All in all, it wasn’t going to be such a hardship for Grace. Because he seemed to be feeling somewhat remorseful about his middle-of-the-night temper tantrum, Bryan would probably be extra charming today, making sure she had a good time.

All she had to do was play her role—and keep in mind that it was only make-believe.

Chapter Seven

Among his many other talents, Bryan seemed to have a special aptitude for drawing the attention of the media. There should have been nothing particularly newsworthy about a couple spending a summer afternoon strolling the sidewalks of a tourist town. Grace was enjoying the relative anonymity—until they were suddenly thrust once again into the spotlight.

After having a delicious brunch at a local hotel, they wandered through the town on foot for a while. They had just stepped out of one of the many delightful little galleries and were arguing the merits of the featured artist whose works they had just studied in detail. Grace liked them; Bryan thought they were too derivative.

A smattering of other tourists moved slowly around them, pausing to gaze at the eclectic merchandise displayed in shop windows. The high heat and humidity made the air feel a bit thick, as if it required a bit of effort to push through it. Grace was accustomed to Arkansas summer temperatures, of course, but she could spot the tourists who were having a bit more difficulty ignoring the broil-factor.

“So what would you like to do next?” Bryan asked. “A bath house tour? The wax museum? Or we could rent a boat and take it out on Lake Ouachita or…”

“Magic Springs,” Grace cut in, because it could take him a while to list all the possibilities available to them.

Bryan’s eyebrows rose. “The amusement park?”

She nodded. “I like to eat park junk food and ride the roller coaster.”

“In that order?” He chuckled. “Sounds a little risky.”

“Only for someone with a weakling’s stomach,” she scoffed.

“Okay, if you want junk food and thrill rides, then that’s what you’ll have. Never say I don’t…”

The rest of his words were lost in a crash so loud it reverberated through Grace’s body. One minute Bryan was standing at her side, and the next he was gone. Spinning toward the street to look for him, she gasped in dismay at the sight of a twisted pile of metal in the four-lane intersection.

It looked as though a big SUV had run a red light and slammed into the passenger side of a smaller car. The smell of gasoline was heavy in the air, along with another, more insidious odor—smoke.

And Bryan was right in the middle of it.

Only vaguely aware of the shouts and cries around her, Grace ran forward to see if she could help. She had just reached the crumpled car when Bryan thrust a crying child into her arms. “Take him and get back on the sidewalk,” Bryan shouted over the pandemonium.

Someone else pushed her out of the way as two strong-looking young men hurried over to assist Bryan. Other spectators hovered in the background, afraid to get close to the mounting heat and smell of fuel.