The Maverick's Red Hot Reunion (Entangled Indulgence) by Christine Glover Page A

long for the symptoms to catch up with him.”
    “That’s why he’s an excellent candidate for the medical research program in Biostem’s clinical research trial at Tallahassee’s hospital,” Zach said.
    Kennedy clasped the tender stem and sipped. The bubbles tickled her nose, sparkled away the tension she’d felt creeping into her spine during the hours she’d posed as Zach’s happy fiancée. “I’m so glad he’s going for it,” she said. “It means the disease’s progression might slow. And that’ll give him more time to use his Olympian record as a way to bring attention to his cause. Also, he needs something besides our reunion to focus on.”
    “Unfortunately, Michael’s not that easily distracted.”
    A frisson of suspicion curled around her spine. She’d always recognized when Zach was hedging for an angle, whether he was negotiating a deal or manipulating a personal situation.
    Kennedy read serious manipulation in his stance. “What do you mean?” she asked, putting her glass on the bar’s gleaming wood.
    He raised his left hand in mock surrender. “Michael’s stubborn. He kept hammering for me to tell him our wedding date. I fudged the truth.”
    A sharp pain shot up the back of her head and popped in her temples. “The truth is we’re not getting married. How the hell did you fudge that, Tanner?” she asked.
    His Adam’s apple rose and fell. “He’s looking forward to our wedding in June.”
    Kennedy flattened her fingers to the sides of her head and weaved her hands through her hair. Disbelief, dismay, and disillusionment dropped a sick feeling into her stomach. She’d asked for friendship, had briefly fantasized about him putting her needs first, but he hadn’t changed one bit.
    She catapulted her desolation into the air crackling between them with a raised voice. “So the daisies and the food and the champagne? They were just to mellow me out before your confession?”
    …
    An array of emotions crossed Kennedy’s exquisite features. Anger pinched her full lips into a razor thin edge. Disappointment grooved furrows in her brow. And behind it all, sadness flashed in her lustrous jade-green eyes.
    Her emotional pain undid him in ways he had no intention of admitting. Not to her. Not to himself.
    Her voice raised another decibel. “What was it Michael once said to me? Oh, yeah. I remember now.” She tapped her temple with her finger. “Zach Tanner always wins an argument.”
    Kennedy was right. He rarely lost an argument. In fact, he’d been scoring perfect tens in that department until he’d met her. Then he’d gone on to lose the battle of a lifetime. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to revisit that nightmare. Feigning nonchalance, he crossed his arms and leaned against the bar. “I had to tell him something to keep his mind off his legs not moving at all in the near future.”
    But she was wrong about why he had filled the room with her favorite flowers. He’d wanted to see her reaction when she walked inside the room and saw the brightly colored daisies. The money he’d spent had been worth the delight and the warmth that had sparkled in her eyes.
    He pulled in a lungful of air and slowly released a deep breath. That he’d wanted to please her was a revelation he refused to examine any further.
    She twisted her emerald round and round her index finger. “What happens when June rolls around and my daddy’s not walking me down the aisle?”
    Neither of them had to voice their concern about whether Michael would still be able to share their lives in June, which would make a faux wedding a moot point.
    The pounding of his heart grew louder in his ears. “Relax.” He held his palms up in mock surrender. “I didn’t tell him the year.”
    “Brilliant,” she said, still twirling the emerald. “We’ll just keep on pretending we’re in love and planning a wedding that’ll never happen until…” Her voice trailed off and she blinked rapidly.
    Until ALS finally