Disclaimer: Duh, I don't own Inuyasha and characters or the this story because Cynthia Rutledge had wrote the story of Loving Grace.
Summary : Nurse Kagome Higurashi needed a date for Thanksgiving- fast!. When she prayed for a handsome prince, suddenly Mr. Charming himself, Dr. Sessho Tashio, appeared to escort her! At the feast, Sessho convinced everyone that he was Kagome's adoring boyfriend, the man she'd been waiting for- and she found herself hoping their pretend relationship would blossom into true love
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Chapter One
Dr. Sesshomaru Tashio shrugged off his lab coat with a tired groan. Though he enjoyed the one evening a month he volunteered at the free clinic, he'd started the day with an emergency surgery at 6:00 a.m. and it was now almost midnight.
"How many patients do you think we saw tonight?" Dr. Kouga Wolf collapsed on the wooden bench in front of the row of lockers that made up the doctor's lounge. "A hundred?"
"Felt like it," Sessho said. "I'm sure ready for some downtime."
"Know what you're doing for Thanksgiving yet?" Kouga asked, casting Sessho a sideways glance.
"As a matter of fact, I've decided to go home with what's-her-name for Thanksgiving." For some reason, saying the words out loud solidified Sessho's impulsive decision. "I'm in the mood for something different this year."
Actually going off for the weekend with a woman he barely knew was more crazy than different, but Sessho didn't care. The way he saw it he had two choices: fight off his sister's friend all weekend or spend the holiday with a virtual stranger.
"Who are you talking about?" Kouga tilted his head and stared as if Sessho were speaking a foreign language.
Sessho couldn't figure out why Kouga was being so obtuse. After all, his friend was the one who'd told him earlier in the evening that the woman desperately needed a fill-in boyfriend for the weekend. Sessho frowned and tried to recall her name. Jenny kept popping into his head but that didn't sound right. "You know very well who I mean. The one with green eyes at the front desk."
"Kagome Higurashi?" Kouga lifted a sandy-colored brow. "The clinic director?"
Kagome. Sessho smiled. The name had a classic elegance and rolled easily off his tongue.
"That's the one," Sessho said. "I've decided to help her out and go home with her this weekend."
Kouga laughed out loud, the sound echoing all the way to the exposed rafters. "Let me get this straight. You don't even know her name, but you're willing to pose as her boyfriend for four days?"
"I do know her name," Sessho said matter-of-factly, hanging his lab coat in the locker. "It's Kagome Higushy."
"Higurashi."
"Whatever." Sessho grabbed his jacket and shut the locket door. He fastened the combination lock and gave it a spin.
"It doesn't make sense." Kouga's brow drew together in a puzzled frown. "Why would you want to spend your four days off with a stranger when you have a perfectly nice family right here in St. Louis?"
Sessho had to concede that point. He did have a perfectly nice family, and Thanksgiving had always been one of his favorite holidays. Even now, thinking about his mother's turkey and stuffing, candied yams and pumpkin pie made his mouth water. And after they were all nice and full, he and his brothers would play some football before setting down in front of the tube to watch a few games.
But this year would be different. He'd known it the minute his brother Iunyasha had told him what their sister had planned. "Because this year Rin is bringing one of her sorority sister. She seems to think this woman would be a perfect fit for me. It's supposed to be a surpise, but my brother thought he should warn me."
"Is she in the medical field?"
"It doesn't matter." Sessho raked a hand though his hair. "I don't want to date one of my sister's friends."
"Why not?" Kouga stared curiously at Sesshomaru. "I've seen your sister. She's gorgeous. Chances are her friend is going to be hot."
"I don't want to date anyone remotely associated with my sister." Sessho repeated, more forcefully since it appeared Kouga was having difficulty getting the message.
"Hmm. That is a problem." Kouga thought for a moment. "I've got a radical idea. Tell her you're not interested."
Sessho smiled. He supposed it did sound ridiculous...to someone who didn't know his sister. "That wouldn't stop Rin. She'd be convinced that, given time, I'd change my mind."
"But it's Thanksgiving. You don't want to be with a stranger," Kouga said. "Why don't you call up Ayumi or Yuka or one of the others you've dated recently? I'm sure they'd be thrilled to cook you dinner or take you home to meet mom and dad."
Sessho could spend the next ten years explaining to Kouga that it wasn't fun dating woman like Ayumi, who'd already decided she loved him before knowing him, or Yuka, who'd started talking about rings after the third date. But Kouga would never understand. Although Kouga was a good guy, woman never seemed to find him attractive.
"What can I say?" Sessho shrugged. "I'm in the mood for something different. And it sounds like this woman, this Kagome, is desperate."
"Not desperate enough to take you."
Sessho thought he might have heard Kouga wrong. But the hint of satisfaction in Kouga's eyes told Nick he'd gotten it right. "What do you mean by that?"
"She told me she doesn't like you," Kouga said.
Sessho raiaed a brow and briefly considered the thought. "That's because she doesn't know me."
Kouga laughed. "I bet she says no."
"She'll agree," Sessho said with a confident smile.
"Maybe so," Kouga said after a long moment. "But ten bucks says you won't get so much as a single kiss from her this weekend."
Sessho shook his head. Kouga still didn't get it.
He wasn't looking for kisses.
All he wanted was a nice weekend with some turkey and pumpkin pie.
Nothing more.
--
Do you have a minute?"
Kagome Higurashi's heart skipped a beat at the sound of the deep voice. She'd often thought that with such a smooth, rice baritone, Sessho Tashio could have has a successful career in radio. She raised her gaze from the evening's schedule and amended her thoughts. Sticking such a man behind a microphone would have been a waste. "Dr. Sess" - as the children who visited the clinic called him - was too handsome not to be seen. Even now, with lines of fatigue edging his eyes and five o'clock stubble darkening his cheeks, the sight of him made her pulse quicken.
Dressed casually in a gray sweater that accented his broad shoulders and navy pants that emphasize his lean hips, Sessho looked more like a GQ model than a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. It was easy to see why he'd been named one St. Louis's top ten most eligible bachelors.
Though Kagome acknowledged his good looks, she wasn't impressed. She didn't like handsome men. It had been her experience that attractive tended to be arrogant and proud instead of praising God for the blessing of physical beauty. From what she'd seen of Sessho Tashio, he fit the mold.
"What can I do for you, Doctor?" Kagome used her most professional voice.
He shot her a smile and the dimple in his cheek flashed. "You can start by calling me Sessho."
"O-kay." Despite her resolve to keep him at arm's length, she found herself wanting to smile back. Instead she lifted a brow. "What can I do for you, Sessho?"
Sessho hesitated, and for a moment a hint of uncertainty crept in his gaze. But then the dimple flashed in his cheek once and he gestured to the chair next to her desk. "Mind if I sit?"
"Of course not." Kagome grabbed the pile of charts off the seat and set them on top of the stack on her desk. "Have a seat."
This time her tone more approachable. After all, part of her job as director of the free clinic was to keep the physician volunteers happy. It wasn't always easy to find doctors willing to lengthen their already-overextended workday by several hours. Specialists were especially hard to find. Most tried it a couple of times and never came back. But Dr. Sessho had been volunteering once a month at the specialty clinic for almost a year.
Though Kagome had been the clinic director for the entire time, she couldn't say she really knew him. Unlike Kouga Wolf and some of the others doctors who'd hang around after clinic hours to talk, Sessho Tashio always arrived right before his shift began and left immediately after seeing the last patient.
Once, when he'd raced by her yet again without even a hello, she casually mentioned his aloofness to Kouga. Of course, Kouga stood up for his colleague, mumbling something about Sessho hating to keep patients waiting. Kagome didn't but that phony excuse for a minute. She knew if she looked like Eri, he'd have found time to stop and talk. But a skinny thirty-year-old didn't rate a second glance.
"Busy evening," he said conversationally, his broad hands folded loosely in his lap.
Kagome nodded. Every appointment slot had been filled this evening and most had been double-booked to cover the no-shows. Unfortunately every patient had shown up, which meant the staff were all getting out a lot later than usual.
Though Sessho had never complained about working late before, she'd overheard him tell one of the nurses he'd been in surgery all morning. Her blood ran cold.
What if he want stop quit? What if that was why he he'd stopped to talk?
"I'm sorry about the patient volume, but there's so much need in this neighborhood." Kagome leaned forward, fear making the words tumble out one after the other. "You're doing a great job. And we appreciate it. I don't ever want you to think we take you for granted."
He sat back in his chair and stared at her long moment. Kagome realized for the first time that his eyes weren't hazel as she'd thought, but a mesmerizing blue-green color with flecks of gold. Feeling the need for some air, Kagome took a deep breath and inhaled the spicy scent of his cologne.
"..giving back."
Kagome widened her her eyes and realized that while she'd been staring at him, he'd been talking. Heat rose up her neck and she mentally kicked herself. No wonder handsome guys were arrogant, with women like her hanging on their every word. Or in her case, too busy gawking to hear anything at all. It was almost laughable. She, who'd always insisted she didn't like handsome men, was acting like a hormone-charged sixteen-year-old. Her lips twitched.
"You find something amusing?"
"Yes," she said. "I mean no."
Kagome groaned to herself. Could she come across as any more of a blithering idiot than she did at this very moment? It hardly seemed possible. She brushed a piece of hair back from her face and tried to regain her composure.
Kagome forced the disturbing images from her thoughts.
"I hear you're looking for a boyfriend."
She tilted her head, sure she'd misunderstood. "What you say?"
"Kouga told me you need a date for Thanksgiving weekend," he said. "Is that true?"
By now Kagome's head was spinning. The doctor's ability to change the Last month when she'd decided to bite the bullet and go home for the holiday, she didn't think she'd have any trouble finding someone. After all, she had alot of guy friends and she didn't care who came with her.
Unfortunately, one by one, the men she'd had in mind turned her down. Oh, they all had good reasons, but the fact was she was stuck. She'd told her family she'd be bringing her new boyfriend. How could she say she was coming alone? Again.
Turning thirty was bad enough. But to show up all by herself when her little sister, Sango, would be there with her husband and new baby? No way.
Kagome knew she was being silly and immature. She had so many things to be grateful for: good health, good friends and a rewarding job. Not having a boyfriend was such a minor thing in the grand scheme of life. So many people had so much less. She saw it at her job every day.
But still, all she'd ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. And she couldn't understand how her sister had ended up with her dream life. It was as if God had gotten the two sisters' prayers mixed up. Sango had been determined to have a career. But she'd fallen in love while she was still in college and married shortly after graduation. Kirara had been born on Sango's fifth wedding anniversary.
Kagome, meanwhile, had a career, but no husband or family. And last month she'd hit the big three-oh with no Mr. Right in sight.
"Kagome?"
Once again the deep voice beckoned her back to the present.
"I apologize," she said, rapidly collecting her thoughts. "Where were we?"
"I asked if you you'd found someone to go with you for Thanksgiving," he said with an indulgent smile. "You said you hadn't."
Kagome raised a brow.
"The point is, I've found someone to go with you," he said.
Kagome tried to still her excitement. Thanksgiving was only two away and she'd almost given up hope. Kagome leaned forward, resting her forearms on the table. "Who is he?"
"Me." Sessho sat back and smiled. "I'll go with you."
Kagome's cheeks burned like she'd just been slapped. Hard. She tried to stem her embarrassment, but when she spoke, humiliation made her voice harsh and tight. "What kind of game are you playing? Did Kouga put you up to this?"
Sessho met her gaze with a puzzled look. "I'm not playing any game."
"You want to go with me?" Kagome shook her hand. "I don't get it."
"It's true," Sessho said lightly. "I'm at loose ends this weekend, and getting away from it all sounds like just what the doctor ordered."
Kagome stared, wondering what kind of bet he had with Kouga. She could just imagine the two laughing their heads off in the back room, thinking she'd be stupid enough to snap up the bogus offer.
She pressed her lips together to still the trembling. She'd never had someone play such a cruel trick on her before.
Sessho's smile faded. He pushed back the chair and slowly rose to his feet, staring at her for a long moment. "If you don't want me to go with you, just say so."
He met her gaze head-on and his tone was so sincere Kagome wondered if she'd been mistaken. After all, though he'd been aloof, she'd never known him to be mean. She took a chance and offered him a tiny smile. "It's not that. It's just, it's hard for me to understand why you would give up your Thanksgiving to come to Iowa with me."
"My sister is playing matchmaker again," he said, resuming his seat. "I'm not in the mood. It's been a hectic couple of months and I just want to relax. Eat some turkey, have some pie..." He stopped suddenly and frowned. "Your parents aren't vegetarian, are they?"
Kagome had to laugh. Vegetarian? Her grandfather wouldn't allow tofu in the house, and the only kind of beans he liked were baked with lots of bacon fat. "They're Iowa farmers. Real meat-and-potatoes kind of people."
"Meat and potatoes are good." Sessho nodded approvingly. "What about pie?"
"Pumpkin, mince, pecan and cherry." Kagome counted them off on her fingers. "With real whipped cream, of course."
"I love whipped cream," Sessho said in a deliciously deep voice.
"I do, too." Kagome returned his smile. And as she was pulled into the azure depths of his eyes, Kagome realized she was about to do something incredibly stupid.
She was going to accept Sessho Tashio's offer.
