Free Harlequin Medical Romance December 2015, Box Set 1 of 2 by Tina Beckett Page B

terrified of, and her dad had called him on it.
    â€œWell I, for one, would love to see some pictures of that. Wouldn’t you?” Norm’s question was aimed at Jess’s mum.
    â€œDefinitely.”
    He and Jess had two choices. They could either come clean and tell the truth—which meant her sister might start back up with the accusations—or he could continue to do his best to make this look real.
    â€œI don’t have any of those shots with me at the moment.” His mind scrambled to find a solution. “I know you’re leaving tomorrow—perhaps I could email them to you?”
    â€œPerfect. We’ll be expecting them.” There was definitely an edge to the words this time.
    Jess glanced at him, a frown on her face, but she didn’t contradict him. Instead, she said, “I’ll have Dean send them to me, and then I’ll forward them to you. How does that sound?” She dropped her fork onto her almost empty plate. “Well, I need to save room for some of that delicious custard tart you made, Mum.”
    The rest of the evening revolved around small talk and chatter about some of the cases they’d worked on. Somehow, though, he didn’t think her dad was going to forget about those pictures. Which meant he and Jess were going to have to do some creative maneuvering. Like editing a photo to show her on a horse?
    No. That wouldn’t work.
    He was going to have to actually get her on one and snap a few pictures.
    And if he couldn’t talk her into it?
    Well, he was going to have to, because if they didn’t do something and fast his impulsive decision was going to wind up coming back and biting him right on the ass. Which would be fine, if it were only him. But he didn’t want Jess to pay the price for his mistakes.
    No, he was going to have to sweet talk her into agreeing. And unlike at the pub a few nights ago, he was going to have to make sure she said yes.

CHAPTER SIX
    â€œY OU WANT ME to do what?”
    Surely Jess hadn’t heard him correctly. Dean wanted her to get on a horse? Her dad was right. She was afraid of horses. Terrified of them. They were huge and all kinds of scary.
    â€œJust for a couple of pictures.”
    â€œI think I’d rather just tell my parents we’ve decided not to see each other anymore.”
    Dean leaned against the door of his car as they stood in front of Jess’s house. Dinner had actually gone quite well, except for that one hiccup. “Your sister will still be in town after they leave, I assume. Are you going to tell her we broke up as well?”
    She closed her eyes. If she did that, she could almost guarantee the arguments would start right back up. And Abbie would probably claim that she’d broken things off with Dean because she was still secretly in love with Martin. They would be back to square one. Unless she and Dean could keep up the pretense until her sister left.
    When would that be?
    â€œI really am afraid of them.”
    â€œI know this bloke—”
    â€œThis bloke ? Well, that certainly puts my mind at ease.”
    Dean grinned and reached for one of her hands, threading his fingers through hers. “How about if I promise to ask him for a very nice horse?”
    â€œIs there such a thing?” She rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you just tell my dad you’d taken me to the Bull Run in Spain? Or that we’d done the polar plunge while visiting Russia? Those would be more believable than the idea of me on a horse.”
    â€œIt would be a little harder to get photographs of one of those events, don’t you think?” He carried her hand to his mouth, placing a kiss on her knuckles that made her stiffen. “For your dad’s benefit. I don’t think he’s fully bought into our little love story.”
    â€œThis was such a huge mistake.” She glanced toward the front window of the cottage, just the same. Were her parents