Marrying Mallory Read online

  “Things have a way of working out,” Heather said. “I wouldn’t worry about the Vegas trip right now. Toby might change his mind or get done quicker than he thinks.”

  Elizabeth touched Mallory’s shoulder. “Let’s go eat. I brought subs and cookies. I figured you never ate lunch with all your excitement. And I haven’t eaten yet today.”

  “I skipped lunch,” Heather said as she followed Elizabeth into the kitchen.

  “Did Rachel bake the cookies?” Mallory asked. Elizabeth’s sixteen-year-old sister loved baking.

  “She did.” Elizabeth noticed the cookies she had baked. “Don’t tell me you baked Toby’s favorite cookies for him.”

  “I did but you’ll be proud of me that I didn’t send any home with him.”

  Elizabeth handed the sandwiches to them, and said, “Have you ever considered that God might have plans for you to get married again?”

  When her mom had mentioned seeing Toby and Samantha at Jac & Do’s, she’d tried to push it out of her mind. Sure, they were divorced but to her, it still wasn’t right. Legally, of course, they were not man and wife, but she felt in the eyes of God they were still married. Why had Toby fallen out of love with her? Maybe she hadn’t been exciting enough to meet his sexual needs. Had she forced him to go outside their marriage to be with Lacey? She never had expected their marriage to end in divorce. “I can’t imagine that God would want me to get married a second time. I hadn’t wanted to stay with Toby after his affair, so I wanted the divorce too. I couldn’t forgive him. Maybe some time down the road, I might be able to consider marriage, but it’s too soon now and doesn’t feel right to me.”

  “I understand,” Elizabeth said. “It’ll take time to heal and to trust anyone enough to make a commitment.”

  She walked to the refrigerator. “Coke, iced tea or water?”

  Both Heather and Elizabeth answered, “Coke, please.”

  While Mallory poured pop into glasses with ice, Elizabeth said, “We need to get busy on making plans for the dinner party.”

  “Is Seth still coming?” Heather asked, unwrapping her sub.

  Good. Heather was interested in Seth. I can picture them dating.

  “Who’s Seth?” Elizabeth looked perturbed. “If we have an extra guy, I need to invite another woman.”

  “Seth’s my plastic surgeon. I think Heather and Seth will hit it off.”

  Heather shrugged. “No way. I think he’s interested in you, Mallory.”

  Elizabeth sipped her drink. “Hey, I want to know when Dr. Whitman started being Seth.”

  “When we were at Starbucks he mentioned that I should call him Seth instead of calling him doctor at the dinner. He said maybe I wouldn’t want Jeremy to know about my surgery.”

  “I never thought of that. He has a good point,” Elizabeth said. “Do you care if Jeremy knows?”

  “Not really.” Mallory grinned. “But I guess I’d like to avoid talking about my nose and eat instead.”

  Heather swallowed a bite of her sub. “I keep remembering while we were growing up you told us so many times that you wanted to be a minister’s wife someday.”

  Why had I talked so much about marrying a pastor? My friends keep bringing it up to me over and over again.

  Elizabeth nodded. “You’d be a fantastic minister’s wife.”

  She shook her head. “A divorced one. I wouldn’t be a good example to the couples in congregation when as a Christian I couldn’t keep my marriage vows.”

  “That’s ridiculous. It wasn’t you but Toby.” Elizabeth put her sandwich down. “With so many divorces resulting even from Christian marriages, you’d be able to help other women having to deal with the same problems.”

  “I can give a workshop on how to spend thousands of dollars on surgery after a divorce.” She couldn’t resist teasing Elizabeth. She loved her friend but was tired of hearing how she should be interested in Jeremy.

  “Well, Jeremy will make a wonderful husband and father someday,” Heather said.

  Oh my gosh, did Heather like Jeremy? Her friend had seemed to want her with Jeremy, but maybe she’d been afraid to face her feelings for the minister. She stared at Heather. “Instead of focusing of me and Jeremy, I think we should focus on you with him.”

  “But he asked about you,” Heather protested.

  “Probably because he needed something to talk about with you. And he thought of me since we’re good friends.” If he wasn’t already interested in Heather, there had to be a way to make it happen. Of course, she’d pray but God wouldn’t mind a little assistance. “Do you have any patients who need spiritual guidance?”

  Heather raised her eyebrows. “We have a hospital chaplain. You know that. He visits the patients.”

  “I’m sure he won’t mind some help from a dynamic guy like Jeremy.” Hey, she was on a roll here. Why hadn’t she realized before that Jeremy and Heather would make a great couple? And Heather looked so much like Katie Holmes. How could Jeremy resist sweet and lovely Heather? “Or a bit of a vacation for the hospital chaplain maybe?”

  Elizabeth giggled, glancing at Mallory. “Poor Jeremy. First, we tried to fix him up with you, Mallory. I mean think about it…the whole reason behind the dinner night was to have you realize Jeremy’s a great guy for you.” She turned to Heather. “Now Mallory sees you and Jeremy together. I wonder what Jeremy would think of all this. Would he be honored that we think he’s a great catch, or would he instead wish we’d stay out of matchmaking?”

  “I guess we’ll know Saturday night what he thinks. As a minister he’s probably good in psychology and will sense what’s going on.” Mallory sipped her water. Have I made a mistake dismissing Jeremy again as a future husband? He’d be a wonderful stepfather to Josh, and that would be a good reason to consider marrying again. And her friends were completely correct that she talked constantly in the past about marrying a minister. She’d originally invited Seth to distract her friends, but realized now she needed to decide if she still wanted him to attend for this reason.

  Elizabeth picked up an oatmeal cookie. “Do we want to meet at a nice restaurant or do something more casual?”

  “What about a barbecue in my backyard? I mean if the weather is decent. Heather, you can make your yummy pasta salad. I love your potato salad, Elizabeth. They have ribeye steaks on sale at Kroger’s this week so I’ll provide the meat.” Buying steak instead of hamburger would hurt her budget, but she was anxious to get the outside furniture moved from the garage. Eating in the backyard would be nicer than sitting in a restaurant.

  “I love your idea,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll help pay for the steak.”

  “Why don’t you just furnish the spot and let us pay for the meat?” Heather suggested.

  Elizabeth agreed. “After all, it was my idea.”

  “We can split it three ways and I’ll fix a dessert.” She bet Seth would like eating outdoors after being cooped up for hours in the operating room with all his surgeries.

  Elizabeth gave an amused look at Mallory. “I guess we have everything decided. You and Heather can hover between Seth and Jeremy. It should be a fun evening. Two single women and two single guys.”

  “It’d be more fun for me as long as you two don’t try to match me up with either Seth or Jeremy.”

  Elizabeth frowned.

  “Okay, I admit it’ll be an entertaining evening…even though I have no plans to date Jeremy.” She shouldn’t be so negative when Elizabeth and Heather wanted the best for her. They just didn’t agree on what that was.

  Heather grinned. “Oh, you didn’t mention not dating Seth.”

  “I’ll admit that I’m looking forward to seeing Seth. Not as a romantic interest but as a friend. I enjoyed having coffee with him.” But was Heather right about Seth? Was he being more than polite about attending the dinner? Was he hoping they’d move past the patient doctor- relationship? Maybe agreeing to calling him Seth instead of Dr. Whitman had been a mistake.

  Chapter Nine

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nbsp; After rising to an upward position on the surgical table, Mallory faced Seth. He looked handsome in his surgical scrubs. As he gave her a tender look, she puckered her lips, meeting his with no problem. She wasn’t surprised that he was a good kisser. But she was startled that their long kiss seemed so right.

  Pulling slightly away from Seth, she wondered, why she was kissing her plastic surgeon. Strange, she just had her rhinoplasty but no splint was on her nose. She only had big white gauze covering her nose. What happened to the splint? Maybe Seth never completed the surgery.

  Geez, who cared about a smaller nose anyhow? Kissing Seth was all that mattered.

  He grinned, holding her hand in his. “This is a first. I’ve never been kissed by a patient after surgery.”

  She smiled back at him. “And it better be the last.”

  At the sound of the phone ringing, she opened her eyes. Feeling disoriented from her dream, it took her a second to focus on answering. While her hand fumbled in the dark to locate the receiver, she glanced at the clock radio. She saw it was only ten. She’d gone to bed at nine. Early for a Saturday night but she’d been exhausted. With the phone next to her ear, she said, “Hello.”

  “Did I wake you?” Toby asked.

  “Yes, but it’s okay. Is Josh sick?”

  “No. He’s not sick but he’s having trouble going to sleep. I thought it might help if he talked to you.”

  “Before you put him on the phone, I’d like to know if something’s happened. He had trouble adjusting the first several weeks sleeping at your place, but he’s been fine now spending the weekends with you.”

  “I’m sorry but it might be my fault. I told him that I’m going to Las Vegas and I want him to visit. He seems worried about flying. I thought he’d be thrilled.”

  “He’s just a little boy who’s had to deal with our divorce. And he hasn’t adjusted fully to us not all living together. Now you tell him that you’re going so far away that he needs to get on a plane to see you.” She sighed. “Please put Josh on the phone.”

  “I’ll get him. He’s just in the other room.”

  She wasn’t happy that Toby had upset Josh, but she was glad he thought to call her. She wanted to talk to her little boy. When a father left you at age five years old, it was frightening. She should know.

  “Mommy, I can’t sleep.”

  She hated to hear his sad voice. Should she offer to pick him up? She didn’t want to impose on Toby’s time with their son, but it would only take her fifteen minutes to drive there. She’d try to soothe his fears first by talking before jumping in the car. “It’s okay, Josh. Sometimes I have trouble going to sleep and reading a book helps me forget what’s keeping me awake. Would it help if Daddy read to you?”

  “No, I want you to read to me.”

  She read Good Night, Moon to Josh when he’d been younger and recently, he’d asked her to read it again. She had it memorized. She smiled. Even if she made a mistake, Josh would correct her. She hadn’t put it in his bag for the weekend but Josh might have. “Do you have the Good Night, Moon book with you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Go to bed and get all comfy. I’ll have Daddy give you the cordless phone and I’ll read it to you. How’s that?”

  “Okay. And tell Daddy I don’t want to go to Vegas. I want to stay home with you.”

  “I’m thinking about going. We could go together to see Daddy. But I’m not sure if I can.” She didn’t want to commit to a trip she might not be able to make. She still needed to talk to Seth about moving up her surgery and missing school concerned her. Maybe the whole nose surgery was a bad idea. Why did Toby have to go work for Jeff in June?

  “I hate divorce,” Josh said.

  “I know, honey. Divorce is hard on all of us, but you have to remember that your Daddy and I love you very much. And we’re happy that we were married and had you. Don’t worry about the trip to Vegas. It’s not until June and Daddy’s not sure about all the details yet. It’s going to all work out. We should pray about it. God loves us and we should give this problem to Him. But right now, you crawl into bed.”

  “I will. And you can get into your bed and we’ll both try to go to sleep at the same time.” He giggled. “If you go to sleep first, I’ll finish the book by myself.”

  “That sounds like a good plan.”

  “I’m going to pee first. Then get my book.”

  “I’ll stay on the phone, but I have to warn you that I’m getting mighty sleepy.”

  “Here’s Daddy.”

  After Josh left she realized that two weeks with his grandparents might be too long for him. Josh had never been away from home that long. She’d give them a call soon and tell them a week or maybe ten days at the most might be better for Josh to spend at the lake house with them.

  “Thank you, Mallory,” Toby said. “You’ve always been a great mother.”

  “Apparently I wasn’t a great wife.”

  “You were too good as a wife.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “You smothered me sometimes with all the attention you gave me.” He cleared his throat. “I’m going to put the phone on speaker for Josh.”

  He obviously didn’t want to talk about their married life, but she still needed to ask him how the dinner went with Samantha. Toby leaving the state seemed like enough reason for Josh to get upset but it could be more. “Wait, Toby. Do you think Josh is also upset about Samantha eating dinner with you guys tonight?”

  “He was quieter than usual, but he did talk to Samantha. He seemed to like to hear about her nephews. She has two the same age as Josh.”

  She had to hand it to Toby. He was smart trying to impress her again with Samantha’s experience with kids. “I know why you’re telling me that Samantha knows all about boys Josh’s age. You want to convince me that he can fly with her to Las Vegas. Just because she knows all about five-year-old boys doesn’t mean she knows mine.”

  “I want you to come with Josh. I just mentioned to you about Samantha’s nephews because you asked me how the dinner went. I think it went okay. I’m sorry I told Josh about the whole Vegas thing. I was a stupid idiot. Now I’m going to get off here so you can read to him.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Josh was asleep but she was wide awake. And it wasn’t Toby keeping her from sleeping. Dr. Seth Whitman was the man of the hour. It was kinda nice that another man was giving her insomnia.

  Why would she dream about Seth? She was only remotely attracted to Seth. Okay, maybe a little. She was a young female and staring at handsome Seth was a pleasant experience. Probably ninety-eight per cent of women enjoyed seeing his face. And the other two percent had to have poor eyesight. Or no taste.

  Also she loved his blue eyes. He’d given her many kind and thoughtful looks. He’d made her feel comfortable about wanting surgery. She liked his outgoing personality and how he hadn’t been distant. Of course, his friendly and warm manner might be due to being a surgeon to different kinds of people. With his exceptional reputation, he probably catered to many rich people wanting to improve their appearances. She’d heard even movie stars went to him. With the middle-class wanting to look the best they could and desiring a more youthful appearance, she was sure he didn’t just work mostly on the faces and bodies of the rich.

  The fact he became interested in plastic surgery because of his sister’s injuries had a lot to say about his character. He wasn’t in it just for the money. He definitely wanted to give people a more positive outlook on life by correcting their flaws. She appreciated how at the same time, he wasn’t knife happy. Seth had told her how he’d understand if she decided not to do it. He’d even gone as far to say that she was beautiful like Princess Diana had been. Of course, she wasn’t.

  Dreaming about the surgery wasn’t a surprise since earlier she’d been talking and showing her pictures to Elizabeth and Heather. But she hadn’t said or thought about kissing Seth so why did she in her dream? And why had she appeared to enjoy it a lot?


  Her friends seemed to think Seth was interested in her. What if his real reason for coming to the barbecue was to spend time with her? It’d seemed innocent enough when Seth asked her to join him for coffee at Starbucks and said she could ask him additional questions about her surgery. Since she’d been his last appointment, it’d never occurred to her that Seth wanted to date her. Had she misinterpreted everything? Elizabeth and Heather could be right that Seth’s wasn’t just concerned about her as a patient.

  She shouldn’t be dreaming about Seth. It’s only been five months since her divorce. And if Seth was interested in dating her that couldn’t be a good thing.

  Serving God was what she wanted for her life and for Josh. She was sure He wanted her to concentrate on giving Josh the best Christian home possible. She didn’t need to get married to someone to do that.

  She hopped out of bed to go to her little study. I’ll email Seth to see if he can schedule my surgery before June. I hate to wait until Monday to call his office. While she sat in front of her computer, waiting for it to boot up, she wondered, if he had replied to her email she sent after Elizabeth and Heather left. She’d emailed him about the barbecue plans and thanked him for emailing the photos. She’d printed the before and after shots and stuck them in a folder. She had to look at the new Mallory again. After she pulled the pictures out and admired them for a few moments, her computer was ready. She clicked on the icon for her email program. Yes, there was an email from Seth.

  If you have anymore questions or concerns, you can call me on my cell.

  Should she call him? He’d given his number to her on Friday. Wrapping a lock of hair around her finger, she glanced at the computer time, and decided ten-thirty might not be too late. There wasn’t a phone in the study so went back to the bedroom. After punching his numbers, she leaned back against her pillow. While waiting for Seth to answer, she felt stupid bothering him on a weekend about moving up her surgery. Really. She could’ve have waited until Monday. Calling him at home like this would definitely make it seem she was interested in him.