Marrying Mallory Read online

  Within forty minutes, they sat in a booth in a fine steak restaurant. Both had plates of steak, vegetables and rice.

  After Henry swallowed a piece of meat, he said, “Thanks, man. This steak hits the spot.”

  For a couple of minutes, Seth watched his friend eat and thought how Rebecca better start fixing steak for Henry. He definitely enjoyed his meat, and Henry could afford to put some weight on his skinny frame. “I never finished telling you about Mallory.”

  “Who’s Mallory?”

  “She’s the one who wants rhinoplasty. You mentioned she must be interested in me, but she’s not.”

  Henry raised his eyebrows. “Is her nose exceptionally big or deformed?”

  “I think she’s beautiful, but her nose is a little large.” He shrugged. “She has wonderful cheekbones, the most incredible eyes and she’s fun to talk to. I wish we had met somewhere else.”

  Henry poured steak sauce all over his meat. “How soon does she want the surgery?”

  “She’s a teacher so it’s scheduled for early June when the school year’s finished.”

  “I see no problem then. It’s almost May and you won’t have long to wait. You can date her after she has the surgery.”

  “I already took her for coffee after her appointment. I told her that she might think of more questions to ask about the procedure. Also I said she should get to know me better before I went to the dinner party with her friends.”

  “She definitely likes you. Or she wouldn’t have invited you.”

  He shook his head. “Mallory’s friends are having this party to fix her up with someone. She wants me to go to create a diversion, so they won’t be as focused on fixing her up with this other guy. She’s recently divorced and not interested in dating.”

  “Did you tell her you’d go?”

  He swallowed a mouthful of broccoli. “Sure. It’ll give me a chance to spend time with Mallory.”

  “You have it bad and you just met her.”

  “I told her she could skip the surgery. I mentioned a couple of famous women to her with larger noses, but she definitely wants to have it done.”

  “Does she have any kids?”

  He nodded. “A little boy. I talked to Mallory about Princess Diana, too, and how she was considered beautiful with her large nose. That didn’t convince her and she said how Prince Charles loved Camilla. Apparently she’s self-conscious enough that whenever she walks into a room, she thinks everyone is looking at her. They could be but it’s not because of her nose.”

  “Well, you have two choices.” Henry held up two fingers before continuing his explanation. “You do the surgery in June. Then on one of her later follow-up appointments, you ask her out. The second choice is you tell her you can’t do the surgery because you love the way she looks and want to date her.”

  “If I tell her I won’t do it, I’m afraid she’ll go to another surgeon to get it done.”

  “That would be bad. You’re the best plastic surgeon in this area for rhinoplasty.” After a moment of silence, Henry said, “This is where you say that I’m the best ENT doctor in our area.”

  He grinned at his friend. “Okay, you’re the best at putting those PE tubes in kids’ ears.”

  Henry frowned. “Hey, I do more complicated surgeries than tubes. You know that since you were trained in otolaryngology too.”

  What should he do? He felt God had brought Mallory Harrington to him for a reason. It wasn’t just for plastic surgery. He wondered if Josh resembled his dad or Mallory. At least, he’d get to spend time with her at the get-together her friends were planning. “I’ll go to the dinner and take it from there.”

  Henry said, “If you find out they’re having steak at this party, get me invited.”

  “No way.” He waved his fork at Henry. “You stole Rebecca from me.”

  “When I fell for Rebecca, I never thought I had a chance with her. I figured she was waiting for you to pop the question. I mean, why would a beautiful woman be interested in me? I still can’t believe it sometimes that she married me.”

  “You two are a great couple.” Rebecca had been one of his closest friends for years, so he’d been happy to see her fall in love with Henry.

  Henry wiped sauce off his lips. “I told you that personality’s what counts for women. You better work on yours to nab Mallory. Good looks aren’t everything.”

  ***

  Mallory doubted if Seth had emailed her photos yet, but she needed to do something to keep her mind off of Toby’s request for her to put Josh on an airplane. How could she deny Toby time with his son? But she didn’t want Josh going with Samantha to Las Vegas. His first airplane trip should be with his mother. Not Toby’s girlfriend.

  She poured another cup of coffee while she waited for her computer to boot up. She might as well get more caffeine into her system. Maybe it would clear her head. She was tired from not sleeping well. She kept thinking how Josh wouldn’t like his dad leaving. He’d miss his dad because in the summer Toby tried to spend more time with his son.

  She drummed her fingers on the desk. He’d asked her if she was seeing anyone. Even though he seemed eager for her to be dating, Mallory wondered about his real reason for caring about her love life. Lack of one was more like it. Maybe he wanted her with someone so that he didn’t feel guilty about being with Samantha. Marrying again wasn’t an option for her. She didn’t want to experience another failed marriage. She couldn’t survive someone else betraying her the way Toby had. Obviously, she hadn’t been sexy enough to keep Toby interested in her.

  While opening her email, she exhaled a deep breath. Nothing in her inbox. Okay, she knew it was too soon for him to email her the photos, but still it was disappointing. She could check her junk box. Seth’s email might have gone there. It did. She stared at the photos. Again, she was pleased with how great she looked with a smaller nose.

  Her phone rang so she went into the kitchen to answer it. “Hi.”

  “Hello, honey,” her mom said in a cheery voice and continued, “I never got a chance to talk to you about your big appointment yesterday. How did it go?”

  “I almost called you last night but knew you were out on a date. It went great. I like the plastic surgeon a lot. He asked me out for coffee after the appointment. He wanted to give me a chance to ask any additional questions I had about the surgery.”

  “Mallory, I’ve never heard of a doctor taking a patient for coffee after a first appointment.”

  “Oh, do they usually wait until the second appointment?”

  Her mom laughed. “You know what I mean. Is he single?”

  “Yes, he’s single. I invited him to the dinner Elizabeth’s going to have. She’s arranging it in hopes of fixing me up with Jeremy.”

  “Whoa. I guess I haven’t talked to you enough this past week. First, who’s Jeremy?”

  “He’s the minister. You’ve met him. He’s a sweetie but I don’t want to date him. What’s the point when I won’t get serious about anyone again?”

  Her mother left out a big sigh. “I wish you’d change your mind. You’re young and have every right to be happy. It’s my fault. I might have given you bad advice. I’ve been thinking how I wasted years of my life waiting for your dad to change and to return to us. I know I stressed many times how I didn’t believe in divorce. Sometimes dissolving a marriage seems to be the only answer. And you didn’t fail at your marriage. Toby did when he cheated on you. You should consider dating Jeremy. He might be God’s plan for you. You used to want to be a minister’s wife.”

  “Well, that was in the past. I don’t see Jeremy being interested in dating a divorced woman. But I’ll humor Heather and Elizabeth. And it’ll be fun to have Seth meet my friends.”

  “Having fun with other people is a step in the right direction. You need to move on with your life. Toby has.”

  “Oh, he won’t last with Samantha. Toby’s a womanizer.”

  “On Tuesday night Alan and I decided to get a pizza at Jac and
Do’s. Toby was picking up a pizza. Honey, Samantha was with him. I know he missed Tuesday night with you and Josh.”

  He’d told her how he couldn’t meet them at a restaurant on Tuesday, and that he had to meet with a client. He canceled on their night to eat together as a family, but had time to enjoy pizza with Samantha.

  Her mother continued in a troubled voice, “I don’t want to hurt you but I think you should know. They looked like a couple in love. I wouldn’t be surprised if Toby and Samantha get married soon.”

  “We looked like that once.”

  “I bet God has someone better for you in mind.”

  She gave a weak chuckle. “You just want a minister in the family. Don’t worry, Mom, I’ll keep praying about everything.”

  After finishing their phone conversation, Mallory returned to her computer. I should email Seth about moving up my surgery when I thank him for the photos. The phone rang while she took another glance at the pictures.

  She didn’t have to leave the study to answer because she’d taken the cordless with her. Leaning back in the swivel chair, she said, “Hello.”

  “Hi, Mallory. Sorry to bother you again.”

  Hearing Toby’s warm greeting surprised her. Now what? Was he going to ask her if Josh could just spend the whole month with him in Las Vegas? That was ridiculous. She’d already put up a fuss about a shorter stay.

  He continued, “I bet you’re grading papers. I remember how you always worked hard on your students’ papers on Saturdays.”

  Wasn’t he being sly? He didn’t fool her by trying to be considerate and act like he didn’t want to interrupt her work. Heck, he’d already done that by visiting her. “I finished them before you came. Do you have a parenting question for me to answer?”

  “Why would you ask that?”

  “You asked me if I’d mentioned to Josh about you moving back home. I thought maybe you had another question since Samantha’s in Josh’s life.”

  “No, of course not. I think you should come with Josh on the plane. You’ve never been to Vegas and I bet you’d enjoy it. There are a lot of family things to do too.”

  Sure, a family vacation except they weren’t a family any longer. “What about Samantha? Doesn’t she want to travel with Josh?”

  “She does but understands you’d want to be with him for his first plane trip. She’s right. It’ll be fun to have you come too.”

  “Is Samantha still going?”

  “She’ll come sometime.” He cleared his throat. “I didn’t suggest you come in the first place because, I thought it might be too difficult for you. I know it was traumatic when your dad left to go to Vegas. I’ve changed my mind. It’ll be good for you to make good memories in Vegas.”

  “Hey, that’s right. My dad left me at age five to go there and Josh’s five.” But it wasn’t going to be the same outcome. She might have thought briefly that Toby wanted to gamble, but he’d never been interested in it. Unfortunately, her dad loved gambling more than her mother and herself. Toby could be right. Deep down she was bitter about her father leaving her when she was young.

  “I promise not to bet,” Toby said.

  “I know you won’t, especially since you want me there. It depends when we’d go. I do have something planned in June.”

  “You don’t have to decide now. You can think about it.”

  Was Toby being sincere in wanting her to visit with Josh? She’s seen him in action in the courtroom. He could charm his opponent into divulging all kinds of confidential information. Why did he want her now in Vegas?

  Or perhaps Samantha had told him to invite her. But why would she want the ex-wife around?

  Dummy. Samantha probably wants a babysitter so she could go out with Toby and party in Vegas. “Am I now being invited to watch Josh while you and Samantha go out?”

  “Would you like to babysit?” Before she replied, he chuckled. “I’m kidding. I just thought you’d enjoy getting away.”

  “I’ll think about it but Seth wants me to fit him in my schedule sometime in June when school’s out for the summer.” If Toby thought she meant Seth wanted to date her, it wasn’t her fault. And she hadn’t lied. She was going to see Seth in June unless she moved the surgery up to an earlier date. She wasn’t going to Vegas with a swollen nose.

  “I thought you wanted to fix Seth up with Heather. Did you change your mind?”

  Great. Toby had listened to her when she’d mentioned having coffee with Seth, and his factual mind never forgot a name or dates. “Heather thinks Seth’s perfect for me, but there’s an old friend who wants to date me.”

  “Anyone I know?” he asked.

  “Jeremy Turner.”

  She waited for him to make a comment about a minister wanting to date her, but instead he said, “I better go. The movie will be over soon. I want Josh to visit. It’ll be great if you can make the trip with him. And Mallory, thanks for the cookies and coffee. I’ll catch you later.”

  “Bye.” After she heard his click, she looked again at the pictures of her nose. She couldn’t imagine not having the surgery, but it was possible. If she changed her mind, one good thing came out of learning more about rhinoplasty…and that was meeting the handsome Dr. Whitman. He had definitely been a bright spot in her week. She smiled. Oh yeah, he wanted her to call him Seth. No problem. She’d call him Seth. And her mom was right. A doctor never had invited her out for coffee after an appointment.

  Chapter Eight

  Mallory smiled at Elizabeth and Heather. “I’m glad you two are here.”

  She had the best friends. They’d been there for her when Toby left her, and now once again wanted to support her. Heather’s offer of money for her plastic surgery meant a lot to her. She might not agree with Elizabeth for having a dinner party with the sole purpose of fixing her up with Jeremy, but she loved her for caring and wanting to help.

  “Hey, what are friends for,” Elizabeth said. “I thought we better get together and plan this dinner I’m hosting. Besides, when you mentioned Toby’s leaving the state, I thought we should celebrate.” She wore jean capris with a flowered scarf weaved through the belt loops. Her straight blonde hair rested on her shoulders. A white blouse topped off her capris.

  Mallory frowned. “Geez, you just ruined my great idea. I thought we could all go to Vegas. We’d have a blast.”

  Heather, wearing beige Bermuda shorts and a red polo shirt, grinned. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing from you. I never thought you’d go to this city. When I talked about going, you convinced me not to fly there. Remember you gave me a big lecture of how corrupt Vegas is and gambling’s a sin?”

  She nodded. “I remember. It sounds like I’m being a hypocrite. My mom did tell me that dad went to Vegas when I was five in order to win money for Grandma. He said that he wanted to hire someone to take care of my grandma. He did want us to go with him. But whatever his reason for gambling, it was still wrong of him.”

  Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. “I thought you wanted your surgery in June. Won’t your nose be swollen for a few weeks?”

  “I’ve been thinking of missing a few days of school and moving up the surgery to May. If I don’t have the splint on for seven days, I might not have to miss a whole week of school. I bet it could be removed after five days instead.”

  Heather shook her head. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  She jumped up from the sofa. “He emailed me my photos. You have to see them.”

  Elizabeth and Heather followed her into the study. Mallory still had them on the screen. Both women stared at the before and after photos for a few minutes.

  Elizabeth broke the silence with, “The after photos look wonderful. I guess if you really want to look like that, you should get it done.”

  “But Mallory won’t look the same.” From the swivel chair, Heather pointed to one of the after shots. “I feel like I’m looking at a different person. You could wait and think about it longer.”

  “I have waited. I
’m thirty-two years old. It’s a great time to do something for me.”

  “What does your mom think about your surgery?” Elizabeth asked.

  She shrugged. “I just emailed her the photos before you came. Mom hasn’t said too much, but she seems to be in another world these days. She’s happy spending time with Alan.” Heather moved away from the computer. “She deserves to have a great guy. Your mom helped mine to have a closer relationship with God.”

  “Your mother’s a saint,” Elizabeth said. “She’s always lived her faith. I’ll never forget how she took care of your dad when he had cancer.”

  “She forgave him for leaving us. That was weird when we went to North Carolina to be with him. But he wasn’t a complete stranger to me. He’d been in and out of my life even after they separated.” Sighing, Mallory looked at Elizabeth. “I wanted my parents to have a marriage like your parents.”

  Heather nodded. “Me too. I hated it when my parents divorced. I think that’s a reason I’m afraid to get married. Mom and Dad had such nasty fights.”

  “I hope Derek and I have a marriage like my parents have.” Elizabeth took another glance at photos. “I guess you could move your surgery up, so your nose might not be swollen for the Vegas trip. But personally, waiting and sticking with having it in June seems like the best thing to do.”

  “How long does the swelling last?” Heather asked, shoving her hands in her pockets.

  “Anywhere from one to six weeks.” Mallory looked at Elizabeth. “If I wait until June, I won’t know what my nose will look like until after it’s done. I won’t be able to make any plans and my flight will cost more.”

  “Toby invited you so make him pay for the round trip tickets,” Elizabeth said.

  When she’d talk to her friends on the phone, she’d left out the part about Samantha flying with Josh. “I’m afraid Toby didn’t invite me at first and—”

  Heather interrupted, “I hope he wasn’t going to have Josh fly by himself. He’s only five and hasn’t been on a plane.”

  Mallory shrugged. “He planned on Samantha being with Josh on the flight. Not me. He didn’t even ask me until later when he called. I’d told him that Samantha didn’t have any kids, and Josh doesn’t know her well enough. Well, he then told me how Samantha’s spending more time with them, so that they get to know each other better.”