Weekend Fling with the Surgeon

How wrong he’d been.

“No, McKenzie,” he admitted, giving a humorless snort at the irony of the situation. Had he really thought he could be her pretend boyfriend without ramifications? “If we’d not had sex, I’d feel the same.”

Which was the unfortunate truth.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

MCKENZIE STAYED AT the hospital that night.

Sawyer remained stable on life support but showed no sign of improvement. They were keeping her lightly sedated to decrease tissue oxygen demand and to make tolerating the ventilation easier, so the baby hadn’t regained consciousness.

Not that she necessarily would have anyway.

Sawyer’s parents had also stayed at the hospital all night. McKenzie liked the couple, watched them a bit enviously as they comforted each other at the depth of their daughter’s illness.

Had Ryder’s parents once sat in a hospital room watching over their ill daughter, knowing only a miracle would keep them from losing her? A miracle that hadn’t come.

No. No. No. She wasn’t going to think of him.

Nothing about the man made sense.

She just needed to stay away from him.

She was on her way out to the parking garage when her phone dinged. For one crazy moment she wondered if it was Ryder. If he’d had second thoughts and realized sex between them had changed everything.

You’re crazy, girl. Sex doesn’t change things for guys. Not outside romantic movies.

Besides, she didn’t want to be hurt again. Three strikes and you were out, right? Clay and Paul had already done their numbers on her heart. She wouldn’t give Ryder the chance.

Once inside her car, she pulled out her phone, expecting to see a message from the hospital or even Reva as they’d texted and called several times.

What she hadn’t expected was to see a text from Paul.

* * *

“I’ve missed you.”

Hello. McKenzie’s eyes widened at Paul’s admission. She took a sip of her wine because she didn’t know what to say.

What she couldn’t say was that she’d missed him.

Ryder on the other hand...nope, she wasn’t going there.

“I was hoping you’d say you’d missed me too,” he said, giving a nervous laugh. “Maybe just a little?”

McKenzie was saved by the waiter bringing their meals and her making a pretense of being starved as she dug into her sweet potato.

McKenzie wrapped her lips around her fork and eyed her ex. He truly was a handsome man. A good man.

But her heart didn’t do somersaults when she looked at him.

Not like... Ugh, there she went again.

“I made a mistake, McKenzie. I’m not sure what I was thinking breaking things off. I think I just hoped our being apart for a while would make you ready for us to begin the next phase of our lives.”

That got her attention.

“What next phase of our lives?”