recently moved back to Cole’s Hill after spending the better part of ten years playing in the NFL and traveling the country promoting fitness while dodging the scandal of being accused of killing his college girlfriend. Recently the real murderer had been arrested and charged with the crime, which had enabled Hunter to finally break free of the dark cloud of suspicion. He was now engaged and planning the wedding of the century according to their mother and Ferrin, Hunter’s fiancée. Everyone was in wedding fever in Cole’s Hill.
“He needs a fiancée,” Ethan said with a bit of a smirk.
Derek reached over and punched his brother. Of course Ethan would think it was funny. With only eleven months separating the two of them they were “almost twins,” and as Ethan was the older of the two, he had always been a little smug.
“Do I want to know why?” Hunter asked, signaling the waitress for a drink as he sprawled back in his chair.
“Marnie Masters.”
Hunter threw his head back and started laughing. “I thought you broke up with her years ago.”
“It’s been eighteen months,” he said. He had broken up with her two years ago but had given in one night six months later when he’d been in Houston and slept with her again. It had just renewed Marnie’s belief that he wasn’t over her and that they should get back together. He’d been avoiding her ever since.
“So why do you need a fiancée?” Hunter asked.
“Marnie’s the new board member brought in to oversee development of the surgical wing at the hospital. I panicked when I saw her and announced that I was engaged when she suggested we’d have a chance to spend time together.”
“Ah,” Hunter said. “Do you have someone in mind?”
“Not really,” he said, but he knew that wasn’t true. His mind kept pushing one face forward. She had nicely tanned olive skin, thick long black hair and the deepest, darkest brown eyes he’d ever gazed into. She was also not looking for marriage and needed a break from her matchmaking mother. He could provide her cover. But she’d have to be crazy to go along with his idea.
And she wasn’t.
She was a single mom who needed her best friend to be there for her. Not come up with some scheme that would enable him to act out his long-held fantasies of calling Bianca Velasquez his.
Even if it was only for two months, three tops.
Damn.
Just then, Derek noticed her walk into the room with a guy who was a couple of years older than they were. She was smiling politely but he knew her routine. She’d brought him to the club for dinner so that when it was over she could politely bid him adieu and then walk the few blocks back to her parents’ house in a nearby subdivision.
She was elegant. Graceful. The kind of woman whom dashing A-listers fell for. Not the kind of woman who’d agree to a fake engagement.
“Uh-oh,” Ethan said.
“What-o?” Hunter said.
“That has never been funny,” Derek said.
“It’s a little funny,” Ethan pointed out.
“Not tonight,” Derek said.
“I’m still not caught up. Where is Nate?” Hunter asked. Nate was their eldest brother and the last of three of them to arrive. He had recently married the mother of his three-year-old daughter, Penny. Derek liked seeing his eldest brother take on the role of husband and father.
“He’s running late. Something to do with taking Penny on a ride before he could drive into town,” Ethan said. “Being a daddy has changed him.”
“It settled him down,” Hunter said. “You two should try it.”
“I am, sort of,” Derek said. The idea of really settling down and getting married wasn’t appealing. He was married to his job. It took a lot of focus and concentration to be a top surgeon and most women—even Marnie—didn’t really get that. They wanted a man who paid at least as much attention to them as the job.
“What you’re doing doesn’t count,” Hunter said. “Bianca deserves better than a fake proposal.”
“It’s probably as close as I’m going to get,” Derek admitted. He knew that Ethan was hung up on a woman who was married to one of his friends. So that was probably not going to happen, either. “You know we’re the ones who aren’t letting the gossips of Cole’s Hill down. They like to think of us as the Wild Carutherses, which we can’t be if we are all married up.”
“I’ll drink to that,” Ethan said.
Derek toasted his brother and when Nate joined them a few minutes later the conversation thankfully changed from his fake engagement. Derek ate and drank with his brothers and kept one eye on the bar area where Bianca and her date were. He was ready to help her out. Like a friend would. That was all. Hunter had been right: there was no decent woman who wanted a fake fiancé.
* * *
Bianca Velasquez wasn’t having the best year. She’d rung in New Year’s by herself on the balcony of a royal mansion in Seville while Jose was en route to meet her. His plane had crashed and that had been...well, devastating. She’d never had the opportunity to finish her business with Jose. She’d been mad at him and had said to herself she’d hated him but the truth was he’d been her first love. They had a child together and no matter how many women he slept with while traveling the world on the F1 racing circuit, she...well, she hadn’t been ready for him to leave her so abruptly.
She rubbed the back of her neck as what’s-his-name droned on about a hobby he’d recently taken up. To be honest she had no idea what he was talking about. She’d zoned out a long time ago. And the thing was, he seemed like a nice man. The kind of man who deserved a woman who would engage in conversation with him instead of marking time and eating her dinner and dessert so quickly she gave herself indigestion. But Bianca couldn’t be that woman.
“And I’ve lost you,” he said.
She smiled over at him. He was good-looking and charming, everything she’d normally like in a man. “I’m sorry. This is a case of it really not being you, but me. I’m just...”
He shook his head. “I get it. Your mom mentioned this was a long shot but I couldn’t resist seeing if you were as beautiful in person as you were in your photographs.”
She blushed. She’d been a full-time model by the time she was eighteen and had gotten a contract that had taken her to Paris and launched her career as a supermodel. It had been in Paris where she’d met Jose and fallen for him. But she was older now and no longer felt like that carefree girl. “Those photos were a long time ago.”
“Which photos? I’m talking about the one on your mom’s desk,” he said.
“Oh. This is embarrassing. I am totally not myself tonight,” she said. “I’m sorry to have wasted your time.”
“It wasn’t a waste and if you ever feel like trying this again,” he said, “give me a call.”
He got up and left and she sat there at the table, staring out the windows that led to the golf course. The sun had long since set. She should head home but her son was already in bed and her mom would probably want to grill her about the date. And that wasn’t going to go well.
So instead she signaled her waiter to clear away the dessert dishes and ordered herself a French martini.
“Want some company?”
She glanced up to see Derek Caruthers standing next to her table. He wore his hair short in the back and longer on top; it fell smoothly and neatly over his forehead. When they’d been kids his brownish blond hair had been unruly and wild, much like Derek himself. These days he was a surgeon renowned for his skills in the operating theater.
“I have it on good