Married to the Playboy

Chapter 2

2

The drive to Daniel and Macy’s was nearly an hour from his own house, and Mike was exhausted. He had considered bailing but was looking forward to a home-cooked dinner and some friendly faces. So instead, after a long day of construction on the home he was building for a client and he went home, took a long shower to clean himself up, and headed out.

The saddest part was that the job site was closer to Daniel’s, but there was no way he could have shown up like that. As hot as it was today, he had been gross. Before Daniel and Macy had gotten together, he wouldn’t have cared—well he might have if Kristen was coming—but generally it was just them and Daniel certainly didn’t care.

But now he was trekking out of his way to get cleaned up. He had packed a bag and considered showering at Daniel’s but that didn’t seem right with Macy living there now.

Macy had told him that Kristen was definitely coming tonight, and that had motivated him to stop at the store now. If he knew Kristen, which he liked to think he did, she was going to want a glass of wine on a Friday night, having likely been guilted into coming if he knew anything.

Kristen had avoided him for nearly a year now. It had taken him months to get her to admit why and he couldn’t believe it. Apparently, he’d had a one-night stand with her friend Rebecca and she was upset with him.

He’d figured she would get over it eventually, unsure if she was mad on her friend’s behalf or jealous too. He’d hoped she had a little jealousy but the longer she stayed mad at him the more that hope faded. She wouldn’t even talk to him to let him explain.

Not that he had much to explain. They were adults, and the friend, he hadn’t even slept with her. He’d taken the chick home and decided she was too drunk and that he wasn’t in the mood. She’d gotten mad at him and started spreading that rumor.

Truth was, while he knew he had charm, he did flirt with women, lots of them, but any he slept with he stayed with. one-night stands were something he never did as a personal rule. If Kristen would just let him talk to her, he might be able to get her to believe the truth. Or she’d accuse him of lying.

He’d even looked up the friend, Laurel, and called her out on the lie. She’d went off on him instead, saying it was his fault that he didn’t follow through and that she’d not lied, only implied and let people take it from there. He’d threatened to spread his own rumors about her, but she knew he wasn’t going to do it, so they were at an impasse.

There didn’t seem to be any real way out of the mess, outside of convincing Kristen that he was telling the truth. Something that for the last year had been impossible, aside from just screaming it at her, but more recently he hadn’t even seen her enough to do that.

Tonight, he was going to try again to talk to her. He was going to get her favorite wine to get things started, and with that and Macy’s help, he had a small chance at getting her attention for a few minutes. Macy had listened and believed him, but he’d wanted to talk to Kristen before he got anyone else involved.

He wasn’t quite sure why Macy had taken an interest in helping him. She was definitely more Kristen’s friend than his, but he appreciated it. She was definitely meddling, but right now he needed the help.

He smiled and picked up a bouquet of flowers. Flowers usually helped smooth things over. He grabbed a second bouquet for Macy too: he didn’t want to scare Kristen by singling her out.

He hadn’t been interested in her at first. He’d met her while on leave with Daniel, but she wasn’t his type. A little nerdy and a lot too nice for him. At the time, Mike met his women at bars, and he preferred them just as outgoing as himself, and into casual relationships.

Kristen was a commitment, and Mike had decided in the time since he’d left the army that he wanted to settle down eventually. Daniel’s injury had scared him into thinking about his own future, and the more he got to know her, the more Mike wanted Kristen in that future.

Deciding at the last minute that maybe two bottles of wine would be better, he ran and grabbed a second bottle of her favorite moscato and a twelve-pack of beer for him and Daniel to drink as well. Macy wouldn’t be drinking as she had found out she was pregnant not that long ago.

“Hey, darlin’” the cashier greeted as he put his wine and flowers on the belt.

Mike flashed a grin. “How are you?”

“I’m good.” She smiled back and toyed with her necklace, not scanning his items. “You got a hot date?” She gestured to his items.

“Something like that.” He grabbed a pack of sour gummy candy from the shelf for Chris, Macy’s brother and one of Kristen’s students, and added a chocolate bar for Macy, just so everyone got something.

“Seems like a lucky woman. If it doesn’t work out, I get off at ten.” She winked at him and scanned his stuff.

He paid and left, not giving her a second thought. His mind was focused on getting Kristen to listen to him. Tonight was the night, God willing. If he could get her to listen to him just once, then he’d at least be able to say he’d tried.

He wasn’t totally stuck on the idea of Kristen at first. He’d tried, hard, to start other relationships, but they hadn’t gone anywhere. Everything came back to her, and he wanted to at least explore that possibility. He’d also decided that if he couldn’t break the ice with her tonight, at least a little, that he needed to move on and that might mean staying away from Daniel’s for a bit until he could get Kristen off his mind.

Pulling up at Daniel’s, he noticed that Kristen’s car wasn’t here yet. He hoped she didn’t back out again tonight. The last few times they’d all tried to get together, Kristen had been too busy. Unfortunately, part of that busy was definitely her avoiding him.

After a moment’s debate about leaving everything in the truck, he grabbed it all and went inside.

“Honey, I’m home,” he yelled, after letting himself in.

“Shut up,” Daniel called from the kitchen.

“I come bearing gifts though.” He set the bags and the beer on the table.

“Guess you can stay then,” Daniel said immediately, opening the box and grabbing a bottle. “Macy didn’t get any beer for tonight, glad you remembered.”

He didn’t say it out loud, but Mike was certain she hadn’t forgotten.

“Those for me?” Daniel asked pointing at the flowers.

“Had I known you wanted some, I would have grabbed you one too.” Mike opened his own beer and took a long pull.

“They must be for me. Two single men gotta look out for each other, you know?” David said as he walked in.

David was the third man in their friend group who also served with them. He was the joking one where Daniel was silent and Mike charmed everyone. His dark brown hair was always shaved and he had a constant 5 o’clock shadow. He was more muscular than Mike, but had a way of making himself seem small in certain situations despite the fact that he was larger than almost anyone in the room, always.

“I do like to be charmed every now and then,” Daniel joked.

“Who all is coming tonight?” Mike asked, trying to sound casual.

“Just you, him, and Kristen.”

Mike nodded, trying not to be too happy about the confirmation that she was coming. He took in Daniel, who looked so much better than he had in years since getting together with Macy. “Where’s Macy?”

“Helping Chris do his homework.”

“Kristen is a hard teacher, homework on a Friday?”

They laughed, knowing that she wasn’t. “Some project she assigned them, and Macy won’t let it wait until Sunday. Plus, since the teacher will be here shortly, he can ask any questions.”

“Sure, he will, definitely not Macy,” Mike said with sarcasm.

“I’ll leave these here then until Macy comes to join us.” He put the flowers on the counter and the wine in the fridge. “You remembered all the alcohol tonight, huh? Trying to get my sister drunk with two bottles just for her.”

Mike shrugged one shoulder. “They were on sale.” They weren’t, but Daniel didn’t know that.

“Clearly, Mike has completely forgotten that your wife is pregnant.” David made a show of winking and elbowing Mike.

“Shut up,” Mike said, and stepped on his foot as he walked away, trying to inflict a little pain.

“Nope, steel toe, didn’t feel a thing.” David laughed.

“What’s the deal between you two anyway? What’s she so mad about?” Daniel questioned, as he had time and again.

“You keep asking and I keep telling you it’s between us.”

“And since you haven’t answered, I have to keep asking.” Daniel set his beer on the table and got serious for a moment. “You better not have messed around with her. I swear if I find out—”

“Whoa!” Mike held up his hands in surrender. “It’s nothing like that; it’s just between us. I’m trying to talk to her and clear some stuff up, but she hasn’t exactly been cooperative.”

“If you told me what it was, I could talk to her.”

“Look, I just want to speak for myself, I need her to hear it from me.” He still didn’t really know why he was happy to accept help from Macy to get them in the same room again, but not help with the situation itself, other than he needed to explain himself and wanted to be the one to do it.

“Fine, you two keep your secrets.” Daniel downed the rest of his beer and stood.

“When are we expecting her anyway?” Mike asked.

“Anytime now. She tried to back out, but Macy laid it on thick with her.” Daniel laughed. “It’s usually pretty easy to get Kristen to say yes.”

Mike had noticed that about her in the time he’d known her. Kristen was always quick to help anyone even when you could see she didn’t really want to. A lot of people took advantage of that.

“Macy said she got assigned the end-of-year play for the kids today,” Daniel told him.

“I don’t know much about those things, but it seems a little late in the year to do that, doesn’t it?”

Daniel just shrugged as Macy joined them. “You guys can get the grill going. Kristen should be here any time now, and I’ll get the salad made when the macaroni comes out of the oven.”

“Hi, Macy.” Mike handed her the flower and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I missed you.”

“You snake charmer. Go start the grill.” Macy swatted him but started unwrapping the flowers.

“You heard her, let’s go.” Mike opened the door and held it for Daniel who was recovering from another surgery on his leg and was still using a cane for support, letting go as David started to walk out the door.

“Knew it was coming,” David taunted.

David was always happy. Mike didn’t think he’d once seen him sour, and even when Daniel was wounded, it was David trying to lighten the mood and take everyone’s mind off the subject. He had gotten out when Mike did and stuck around mostly near town.

More often than not though, he was out of town. Traveling for work as a security consultant, where, apparently, he was very serious and highly respected. Which didn’t fit with the friend he knew most of the time. He could be serious, sure, he’d been in enough tough situations with him to know he wasn’t a total goof, but those moments were rare.

Mike was comfortable around the grill and moving in and out of their kitchen with ease. He’d been here so many times he didn’t have to ask where anything was. Macy had moved a few things around when she moved in, but in a way that made more sense. Leave it to her to make it more organized.

“Kristen’s here,” Macy announced, poking her head out of the door then quickly closing it behind her.

Mike took a steadying breath. Tonight was the night. He hoped.