Melting the M.D.
Tanya Michaels
Contents
“Thank heavens you’re here!” Lucy swung open the door to Meg Nichols’s room at the bed-and-breakfast. “You’ll fix everything.”
Until now, Meg had only heard statements like that while standing next to her sister, Brooke, who was the reliable problem-solver in the otherwise unpredictable Nichols family.
But ever since Meg had become the godmother to her newborn niece, she’d vowed to become more responsible, more focused. After too many impulsive decisions and failed jobs, Lucy’s wedding this weekend in the picturesque Texas Hill Country would help establish Meg as a career woman and prove she was a capable wedding planner.
Meg gave the bride-to-be a reassuring smile. “Do you want to talk in here or downstairs? Mrs. Hoffman is brewing tea.”
“I can’t go down there! You just checked in, so you don’t know how seriously Mrs. H. takes her duty to feed her guests—or how amazing her brownies are. At the rate I’m stress-eating, I won’t be able to zip up my gown on Saturday. I wish I was built more like you.”
The two women were complete opposites. Tall, curvy Lucy had blue eyes and elegantly bobbed dark hair. Meg was short and slender with brown eyes and long, blond waves.
“But you’re stunning!” Meg sat on the edge of the queen-size bed while Lucy paced. “And Grant loves you exactly as you are.”
The brunette momentarily brightened, then scowled again. “Maybe Grant and I should have eloped.”
“My parents eloped.” Within seventy-two hours of meeting each other. “They’ve regretted not having the ceremony with family and friends many times.” That was true, Everett and Didi Nichols often argued about their elopement, but then, the passionate couple were always arguing about something. Except for when they were just as passionately reconciling.
After growing up in such a tumultuous household, Meg had never been able to picture herself getting married. She’d been in love once, but she’d bolted when he started talking about spending the rest of their lives together.
Lucy sighed. “I do want the wedding, just not the stress. My mother is driving me insane! I’m so unhinged that I yelled at Kyra.”
“You’re kidding.” In all the times Meg had seen Lucy with her maid of honor, the two women had gotten along perfectly.
“I was just so appalled at what she’d done! Kyra went to a spray tan place so she’d have more ‘color’ for the wedding pictures.” Lucy shuddered. “She is now a very unnatural shade of orange…”
“That bad?”
“Don’t look directly at her if you value your eyesight. I don’t know why she was worried about being a little pale. We just had the coldest January Texas has seen in years. We’re all pale! But at least she’s here, which is more than I can say for the best man. He called from Colorado yesterday to say he couldn’t make it.”
“Weather problems?” After the snow and ice that had hit several states this week, the extensive flight cancellations had been in the news. Meg was glad most of Lucy’s guests only had to drive from Houston.
“No, he was skiing and broke his leg showing off for a woman. I swear, he hasn’t matured since he and Grant lived in the fraternity house together. Luckily Grant’s cousin agreed to fill in as his best man,” Lucy said. “The cousin got here this morning but he hadn’t planned on wearing a tux, so we need someone to take him for a fitting. Grant and I have that couples’ spa appointment, and—”
“You go relax. I’ll get the guy to his fitting.”
Lucy flashed a grateful smile. “Maybe this best man switch will turn out to be a blessing. Grant’s cousin is much less likely to lose the rings or do something outrageous at the bachelor party. But the man’s so somber! Not the kind of guy I pictured standing with us on the happiest day of our lives.”
A knock interrupted Lucy. “That should be them now.” She opened the door and greeted her fiancé with a kiss. Then she moved aside to introduce the other man. “Meg, this is—”
“Scott?” Meg’s pulse raced, her heartbeat so loud it drowned out Lucy’s voice.
Dr. Scott Creighton was as devastatingly attractive as he’d always been, but there was a somberness in his eyes and face now, just as Lucy had described. When they’d first met three and a half years ago, Scott had been a playful hospital intern.
Though he’d been all serious intensity the night he’d told her point-blank that he planned to marry her. And she’d run the next morning.