Free Love on a Deadline by Kathryn Springer

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    â€œWell,” Mac said slowly, “when it comes to wedding stories, everyone wants to know how you met.”
    â€œAt a hospital fund-raiser . . . What? You look surprised.”
    â€œI thought you were going to say you met at a club or a swanky party.”
    â€œNo swanky parties for me.” Hollis chuckled. “Running your own business doesn’t give you much time to socialize. I’d been away on a business trip, previewing a new clothing line for Crush—that’s the boutique I own—so I was late for the dinner.
    â€œEthan never mentioned he’d met Connor, let alone that they’d become friends. He squeezed in another chair at the table and Connor and I . . .” Hollis paused, searching for the right word.
    â€œClicked?”
    â€œMore like rubbed each other the wrong way. Connor was so standoffish. Whenever I tried to start up a conversation, he would get this strange look on his face.”
    â€œWhat kind of look?”
    â€œThe look a person would have if a window mannequin started talking,” Hollis muttered.
    Mac laughed and Hollis joined in.
    â€œPoor Ethan.” Hollis shook her head. “He couldn’t understand why we weren’t getting along.”
    â€œSo you’re saying it wasn’t love at first sight.”
    â€œMore like second sight. I decided to throw a party for Ethan when he finished his residency at Midland Medical, and he put Connor’s name on the guest list.
    â€œI’d spent weeks planning it, but the day of the party, everything went wrong. A freak storm buried the city in about a foot of snow. The caterer’s delivery truck slid off the road on the way to my condo and ruined everything.”
    â€œNo.” Mac pulled in a breath, imagining Hollis’s reaction.
    â€œIt gave a whole new meaning to the term fusion cooking , that’s for sure. I thought I’d have to cancel the dinner, but at about two o’clock someone knocked on my door. It was Connor, looking like the abominable snowman.
    â€œHe’d raided his pantry and managed to convince a very reluctant taxi driver to drop him off a few blocks from my condo. We made spaghetti and canned green beans and garlic bread out of hot dog buns for the people who braved the weather. By the time Connor served those little frosted animal cookies for dessert, I was already halfway in love with him.”
    Mac knew their subscribers would love that story. “How did he propose?”
    To Mac’s astonishment, Hollis blushed. “I . . . um . . . I kind of proposed to him.”
    â€œYou proposed. To him.”
    â€œIt was obvious Connor wasn’t going to do it,” Hollis said candidly. “So I decided the situation called for extreme measures.”
    â€œHe didn’t want to get married?”
    â€œOf course he did. It just took a little time to get him to come around to my way of thinking.” Hollis flashed her cheerleader smile. “When Connor finally said yes, I didn’t want him to change his mind . . . hence the very short engagement.”
    â€œBut . . .” Mac was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Hollis had proposed. “How? What did you say to him?”
    â€œI’m afraid it wasn’t the most romantic proposal,” Hollis confessed. “I told Connor he was being an id— stubborn— and that I was afraid of the future, too, but as long as we were together, it would be perfect.”
    Perfect.
    Mac had her perfect future in mind too.
    Red Leaf would be a place to take a creative break from her career as an award-winning journalist, not her permanent home.
    Her gaze strayed to Ethan, laughing with Connor as their canoe cut a straight line through the center of the lake. He’d made his mark on the football field in high school and now he’d returned to Red Leaf as a doctor. A doctor. While Mac was still writing about the secret life of