Return to the heart of the Carlton family in this beloved story of finding love in unexpected places by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods

Charismatic playboy Mack Carlton lit up a room—even a hospital room—like no one else. Dr. Beth Browning had to admit Mack’s visits were a tonic for her young patient, but her own reaction was much more confusing…

Although Beth didn’t ask for a second opinion on her future with Mack, his aunt Destiny offered her prognosis: marriage. Given Mack’s romantic history and her own wariness due to past losses, Beth hesitated to agree—but her symptoms were undeniably love!

Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods

“Woods’ amazing grasp of human nature and the emotions that lie deep within us make this story universal.”

—RT Book Reviews on Driftwood Cottage

“Woods’ emotionally intense story of loss and love will appeal to a broad range of readers.”

—Booklist on Willow Brook Road

“Once again, Woods proves her expertise in matters of the heart as she gives us characters that we genuinely relate to and care about. A truly delightful read!”

—RT Book Reviews on Moonlight Cove

“Woods employs her signature elements—the southern small-town atmosphere, the supportive network of friends and family, and the heartwarming romance—

to great effect.”

—Booklist on A Slice of Heaven

“Woods…is noted for appealing character-driven stories that are often infused with the flavor and fragrance of the South.”

—Library Journal

“Woods delivers a charming novel…[a] unique blend of sparkling humor and family drama.”

—RT Book Reviews on Midnight Promises

Priceless

Sherryl Woods

www.mirabooks.co.uk

Dear Friends,

The Perfect Destinies series was originally issued as three Mills & Boon Special Edition books (Million-Dollar Destinies), with a longer follow-up book written for MIRA Books. I’m so pleased to have all of them available in these new editions from MIRA.

As many of you know, I’ve always loved writing about families. And in this case three sexy, very different brothers were raised by their madcap aunt Destiny after the tragic death of their parents. Think Auntie Mame, for those of you old enough to remember that wonderful movie. Or meddling Mick O’Brien, if you’re a fan of my Chesapeake Shores series.

I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting the Carltons if you’ve read these books before. And if you’re new to the series, I hope you’ll welcome the family into your heart as you have so many of my other families.

All best,

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Mack Carlton—He knows a lot of moves…on the football field and off. He took the game seriously until an injury forced him to the sidelines. Now he sits in the owner’s box, usually with a gorgeous woman close by, and takes very little seriously. It’s way past time for a reality check.

Beth Browning—As a pediatric oncologist, Beth confronts life-and-death struggles every day. She has no patience for frivolities such as football or the grown men who live for games. Beth is a more than even match for a man like Mack, but when it comes to fate, she’s no match at all.

Destiny Carlton—Mack’s aunt knows as well as anyone that life can take a tragic twist, so she’s an ardent believer in living every moment to its fullest. It’s Destiny’s opinion that her beloved nephew Mack understands all about the rules of the game of football but nothing about the game of life. Until he loses his heart, she won’t be satisfied that he’s destined for victory.

One fun-loving man, one woman who’s suffered

too much loss and Destiny’s touch. Touchdown!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise for the novels of Sherryl Woods

Title Page

Dear Friends

CAST OF CHARACTERS

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Epilogue

Extract

Copyright

1

Mack Carlton, who’d had more quick moves on a football field than any player in Washington, D.C., history, had been dodging his Aunt Destiny for the better part of a month. Unfortunately, Destiny was faster and sneakier than most of the defensive linemen he’d ever faced. She was also more highly motivated. It was a toss-up as to how long it would be before she caught up with him.

Ever since she’d succeeded in getting his older brother, Richard, married a few weeks back, Destiny had set her sights on Mack. She wasn’t even subtle about it. A steady parade of women had been popping up all over the place. Not that that was an unusual occurrence in Mack’s life—he did have a well-deserved reputation as a playboy, after all—but these women were not his type. They had “serious” and “happily ever after” written all over them. Mack didn’t do serious. He didn’t do permanent. Destiny, of all people, should know that.

Not that he had the same issues with love and loss that had kept his big brother off the emotional roller coaster. Mack preferred to think that his hang-ups had more to do with a desire to know lots and lots of women than any fear of eventual abandonment. Why limit himself to one particular dish when there was an entire buffet to be sampled? Sure, he’d been affected by the deaths of his parents in a small plane crash in the Blue Ridge Mountains when he was barely ten, but the trauma hadn’t followed him into adulthood as it had Richard.

Not that Destiny or Richard believed that. Hell, even his younger brother, Ben, was convinced they were all emotionally messed up because of the crash, but Mack knew otherwise, at least in his own case. He just flat-out liked women. He appreciated their minds, their quick wits.

Okay, that was the politically correct thing to say, he conceded, even though there was nobody around who was privy to his private, all-too-male thoughts. Truthfully, what he really appreciated was the way they felt in his arms, their soft skin and passionate responses. While he enjoyed a lively conversation as much as the next man, he truly loved the intimacy of sex, however fleeting and illusional it might be.

Not that he was any kind of sex addict, but a little wholesome rustling of the sheets made a man feel alive. So maybe that was it, he thought with a sudden rush of insight. Maybe what he loved most about sex was that it made him feel alive after being reminded at a very young age that life was short and death was permanent. Maybe he had some emotional scars from that plane crash, after all.

He was still pondering the magnitude of that discovery when Destiny sashayed into his office at team headquarters, where he was now ensconced as part owner of the team for which he’d once played. He was so thoroughly startled by her unexpected appearance in this male bastion, he brought the legs of his chair crashing to the floor with such force it was a wonder the chair didn’t shatter.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Destiny said pleasantly, sitting across from him in her pale-blue suit that mirrored the color of her eyes.

As always, Destiny looked as if she’d just walked out of a beauty salon, which was a far cry from some of the pictures around the house taken during her years as a painter in the south of France. In those she always appeared a bit rumpled and wildly exotic. Mack occasionally allowed himself to wonder if his aunt missed those days, if she missed the life she’d given up to come back to Virginia to care for him and his brothers after the plane crash.

As a child he’d never dared to ask because he’d feared that reminding Destiny of what she’d sacrificed might send her scurrying back to Europe to reclaim it. As he’d gotten older, he’d started taking her presence—and her contentment—for granted.

Now he gave his aunt a cool, unblinking look, determined not to let her see that her arrival had shaken him in any way. With Destiny it was best not to show any signs of weakness at all. “You’re imagining things,” he told her flatly.

Destiny chuckled. “I didn’t imagine that it was your behind I saw scurrying out the back door at Richard and Melanie’s the other night, did I? I saw that backside in too many football huddles to mistake it.”

Damn. He thought he’d made a clean escape. Of course, it was possible that his brother had blabbed. Richard thought Mack had taken a little too much pleasure in Destiny’s successful maneuvering of Richard straight into Melanie’s arms. He was more than capable of going for a little payback to see that Mack met the same fate.

“Did you really spot me, or did Richard rat me out?” he asked suspiciously. “I know he wants me to fall into one of your snares the same way he did.”

“Your brother is not a tattler,” she assured him. “And my eyesight’s twenty-twenty.” She gave him a measuring look. “What are you scared of, Mack?”

“I think we both know the answer to that one. I also suspect it’s the same thing that brought you to my office. What sort of devious scheme do you have up your sleeve, Destiny? And before you answer, let’s get one thing straight, my social life is off-limits. I’m handling it very well on my own.”

Destiny rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’ve seen how well you’re handling it in every gossip column in town. It’s unseemly, Mack. You may not be directly affiliated with Carlton Industries, but the family does have a certain social standing in the community. You need to be mindful of that, especially with Richard entering politics any day now.”

The family respectability card was a familiar one. He was surprised she’d tried the tactic again, since it had failed abysmally in the past. “Most people are capable of separating me from my brother. Besides that, I’m an adult,” he recited as he had so often in the past. “So are the women I date. No harm, no foul.”

“And you’re content with that?” Destiny asked, her skepticism plain.

“Absolutely,” he insisted. “Couldn’t be happier.”

She nodded slowly. “Well, that’s that then. Your happiness is all that’s ever mattered to me, you know. Yours and your brothers’.”

Mack studied her with a narrowed gaze. Surely she wasn’t giving up that easily. Destiny was constitutionally incapable of surrendering before she’d even had a first skirmish. If she were so easily put off, Richard wouldn’t be married right now. Mack needed to remember that.

“We appreciate that you love us,” he said carefully. “And I’m glad you’re willing to let me choose my own dates. It’s a real relief, in fact.”

She fought a smile. “Yes, I imagine it is, since the kind of woman I see you with is not the sort of mental and emotional lightweight you tend to choose.”

He ignored the slap at his taste in women. He’d heard it before. “Anything else I can do for you while you’re here?” he asked politely. “Do you need any team souvenirs for one of your charity auctions?”

“Not really. I just wanted to drop by and catch up,” she claimed with a perfectly straight face. “Will you come to dinner soon?”

“Now that I know you’ve given up meddling in my social life, yes,” he told her, deciding to give her the benefit of the doubt for the moment. “Is everyone coming for Sunday dinner?”

“Of course.”

“Then I’ll be there,” he promised. At least there was some safety in numbers, in case Destiny had a change of heart between now and Sunday.

She stood up. “I’ll be on my way, then.”

Mack walked with her down the hall to the elevator, struck anew by how small she was. She barely reached his shoulder. She’d always seemed to be such a giant force to be reckoned with that it gave the illusion she was bigger. Then, again, he was six-two, so Destiny was probably a perfectly average-size woman. Add in her dynamic personality, and she had few equals of any size among Washington’s most powerful women.

She was about to step into the elevator when she gave him her most winning smile, the one reserved for suckering big bucks from an unwitting corporate CEO. Seeing that smile immediately put Mack right back on guard.

“Oh, darling, I almost forgot,” she claimed, reaching into her purse and pulling out a note written on a sheet of her pretty floral stationery. “Could you drop by the hospital this afternoon? A Dr. Browning spoke to me earlier and said one of the young patients in the oncology unit has a very poor outlook. The boy is a huge fan of yours, and the doctor feels certain that a visit from you might boost his morale.”

Despite the clamor of alarm bells ringing in his head, Mack took the note. Whatever Destiny was really up to, it was not the kind of request he could ignore. She knew that, too. She’d instilled a strong sense of responsibility in all of her nephews. His football celebrity had made fulfilling requests of this type a commonplace part of his life.

He glanced at his watch. “I have a business meeting in a couple of hours, but I can swing by there on my way.”

“Thank you, darling. I knew I could count on you. I told Dr. Browning you’d be by, that the other requests must have gotten lost.”

Mack felt his stomach twist into a knot. “There were other requests?”

“Several of them, I believe. I was a last resort.”

He nodded grimly, his initial suspicions about his aunt’s scheming vanishing. “I’ll look into that. The staff around here knows that I do this kind of visit whenever possible, especially if there’s a kid involved.”

“I’m sure it was just some sort of oversight or mix-up,” Destiny said. “The important thing is that you’re going now. I’ll say a prayer for the young boy. You can tell me all about your visit on Sunday. Perhaps there’s more we could be doing for him.”

Mack leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You ought to be the one going over there. A dose of your good cheer could improve anyone’s spirits.”

She regarded him with a surprised sparkle in her eyes. “What a lovely thing to say, Mack. That must explain why you’re such a hit with the ladies.”

Mack could have told her it wasn’t his sweet-talk that won the hearts of the women he dated, but there were some things a man simply didn’t say to his aunt. If she wanted to believe he owed his social life to being a nice guy, he was more than willing to let her. It might keep a few tart-tongued lectures at bay.

* * *

“It’s a game, for heaven’s sake,” pediatric oncologist Beth Browning declared, earning a thoroughly disgusted look from her male colleagues at Children’s Cancer Hospital. “A game played by grown men, who ought to be using their brains instead of their brawn—assuming of course that their brains haven’t been scrambled.”

“We’re talking about professional football,” radiologist Jason Morgan protested, as if she’d uttered blasphemy. “It’s about winning and losing. It’s a metaphor for good triumphing over evil.”

“I don’t hear the surgeons saying that when they’re patching up some kid’s broken bones after a Saturday game,” Beth said.

“Football injuries are a rite of passage,” Hal Watkins, the orthopedic physician, insisted.

“And a boon to your practice,” she noted.

“Hey,” he protested. “That’s not fair. Nobody wants to see a kid get hurt.”

“Then keep ’em off the field,” Beth suggested.

Jason looked shocked. “Then who’d grow up to play professional sports?”

“Oh, please, why does anyone have to do that?” Beth retorted, warming to the topic. She’d read about Mack Carlton and his rise from star quarterback to team owner. The man had a law degree, for goodness’ sakes. What a waste! Not that she was a huge admirer of lawyers, given the way their greediness had led to hikes in malpractice insurance.

“Because it’s football, for crying out loud,” Hal replied, as if the game were as essential for survival as air.

“Come on, guys. It’s a game. Nothing more, nothing less.” She turned to appeal to Peyton Lang, the hematologist, who’d been silent until now. “What do you think?”

He held up his hands. “You’re not drawing me into this one. I’m ambivalent. I don’t care that much about football, but I don’t have a problem if anyone else happens to find it entertaining.”

“Don’t you think it’s absurd that so much time, money and energy is being wasted in pursuit of some stupid title?” Beth countered.

“The winner of the Super Bowl rules!” Jason insisted.

“Rules what?” Beth asked.

“The world.”

“I wasn’t aware they played football in most of the rest of the world. Let’s face it, in this town it’s about some rich guy who has enough money to buy the best players so he’ll have something to get excited about on Sunday afternoons,” she said scathingly. “If Mack Carlton had a life, if he had a family, if he had anything important to do, he wouldn’t be wasting his money on a football team.”

Rather than the indignant protests she’d expected, Beth was stunned when every man around her in the hospital cafeteria fell silent. Guilty looks were exchanged, the kind that said humiliation was just around the corner.

“You sure you don’t want to reconsider that remark?” Jason asked, giving her an odd, almost pleading look.

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because I’m pretty sure you mentioned when we started this discussion that you’ve been trying to get Mack Carlton in here to visit with Tony Vitale,” Jason said. “The kid’s crazy about him. You thought meeting Mack might lift his spirits, since the chemo hasn’t been going that well.”

Her gaze narrowed. “So? This community-minded paragon of football virtue hasn’t bothered to respond to even one of my calls.”

Jason cleared his throat and gestured behind her.

Oh, hell, she thought as she slowly turned and stared up at the tall, broad-shouldered man in the custom-tailored suit who was regarding her with a solemn, steady gaze. He had a faint scar under one eye, but that did nothing to mar his good looks. In fact, it merely added character to a perfectly sculpted face and drew attention to eyes so dark, so enigmatic, that she trembled under the impact. Everything about his appearance spoke of money, taste and arrogance, except maybe the hairstyle, which had a Harrison Ford kind of spikiness to it.

“Dr. Browning?” he inquired in an incredulous tone that suggested he’d been expecting someone older and definitely someone male.

Despite the unspoken but definitely implied insult, his quiet, smooth voice eased through Beth, then delivered a belated punch. She tried to gather her wits and to form the apology he deserved, but the words wouldn’t come. She’d never have deliberately insulted him to his face, even if she did have an abundance of scorn for men who wasted money on athletic pursuits that could be better spent on saving mankind.

“She’ll be with you as soon as she gets her foot out of her mouth,” Jason said, breaking the tension.

Grateful to the radiologist for helping her out, she managed to stand and offer her hand. “Mr. Carlton, I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Obviously,” he said, his lips curving into a slow smile. “My aunt said you’d had trouble contacting me. My staff shouldn’t have put you off. I apologize for that.”

Beth had read that he was a heartbreaker. Now she knew why. If his gaze could render her speechless, that smile could set her on fire. Add in the unexpected touch of humility and the sincerity of his apology, and her first impression was pretty much smashed to bits. She’d never experienced a reaction to any man quite like this. She wasn’t sure she liked it.

“Would you...?” Exasperated by her inability to gather her thoughts, she swallowed hard, took a deep breath, then tried again. “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“Actually I’m on a tight schedule. I found myself near here and wanted to let you know that I haven’t been deliberately blowing off your calls. I thought I’d take a chance that now would be a good time to meet Tony.”

“Of course,” she said at once, knowing what such a visit would mean even if regular visiting hours were later in the day. This was one instance when she didn’t mind breaking the rules. “I’ll take you to his room. He’ll be thrilled.”

Jason cleared his throat. At his pointed look, Beth realized that her colleagues were hoping for an introduction to the local football legend. Amazed that grown men could be as enamored of Mack Carlton as her twelve-year-old patient was, she paused and made the introductions.

When it seemed that the doctors were about to go over every great play the man had ever made on the football field, she cut them off.

“As much as you guys would probably like to discuss football for the rest of the day, Mr. Carlton is here to see Tony,” she reminded them a bit curtly.

Mack Carlton gave her another of those smiles that could melt the polar ice cap. “Besides,” he said, “we’re probably boring Dr. Browning to tears.”

Now there was a loaded statement if ever she’d heard one. She didn’t dare admit to being bored and risk insulting him more than she had when he’d first arrived and overheard her. Nor was she inclined to lie. Instead she forced a smile. “You did say you had a tight schedule.”

His grin spread. “So I did. Lead the way, Doctor.”

Relieved to have something concrete to do, she set off briskly through the corridors to the unit where twelve-year-old Tony had spent far too much of his young life.

“Tell me about Tony,” Mack suggested as they walked.

“He’s twelve and he has leukemia,” Beth told him, fighting to keep any trace of emotion from her voice. It was the kind of story she hated to tell, especially when the battle wasn’t being won. “It’s the third time it’s come back. This time he’s not responding so well to the chemotherapy. We’d hoped to get him ready for a bone marrow transplant, but we don’t have the right donor marrow, and because of his difficulty with the chemo, I’m not so sure it would be feasible for him right now anyway.”

Mack listened intently to everything she was saying. “His prognosis?”

“Not good,” she said tersely.

“And you’re taking it personally,” he said quietly.

Beth promptly shook her head. “I know I can’t win every battle,” she said, as she had to the psychologist who’d expressed his concern about her state of mind earlier in the day. Few people knew just how personally she took a case like Tony’s. She was surprised that Mack Carlton had guessed it so easily.

“But you hate losing,” Mack said.

“When it’s a matter of life and death, of course I do,” she said fiercely. “I went into medicine to save lives.”

“Why?” Before she could reply, he added, “I know it’s a noble profession, but dealing with sick kids has to be an emotional killer. Why you? Why this field?”

She was surprised that he actually seemed interested in her response. “I was drawn to it early on,” she said, aware that she was being evasive by suggesting that it hadn’t been the motivating force in her entire life. With any luck, Mack wouldn’t realize it.

“Because?” he prodded, not accepting the response at face value and proving once more that he was a more insightful man than she’d expected him to be.

“Why does it matter to you?” she asked, still dodging a direct answer to his question.

His eyes studied her intently. “Because it obviously matters to you.”

Once again his insight caught her off guard. It was evident he wasn’t going to let this go until he’d heard at least some version of the truth. “Okay, here it is in a nutshell. I had an older brother who died of leukemia when I was ten,” she told him, revealing more than she had to anyone other than her family. They knew all too well what her motivation had been for choosing medicine, and they didn’t entirely approve of her choice, fearing she was doomed to have repeated heartaches. “I vowed to save other kids like him.”

Mack regarded her with what appeared to be real sympathy. “Like I said, you take it personally.”

She sighed at the assessment. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

“How long do you think you can keep it up, if you take every case to heart?”

“As long as I have to,” she insisted tightly. “I only see a few patients. Most of my time is spent in research. Our treatments are getting better and better all the time.” Sadly, Tony wasn’t responding well to any of them, which was why she’d taken such an intense interest in his case.

“But not with Tony,” Mack said.

Beth fought against the salty sting of unexpected tears. “Not with Tony, at least not yet,” she admitted softly. Then she set her jaw and regarded Mack defiantly, blinking back those tell-tale tears. “But we’re going to win this battle, too.”

He gave her an admiring look. “Yes, I think you will,” he said quietly. “Will my being here actually help Tony?”

“Hopefully it will improve his spirits,” Beth assured him. “He’s been a little down lately, and sometimes boosting a child’s morale is the most important thing we can do. We need to keep him from giving up on himself or on us.”

Mack nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s go in there and talk football.” He gave her an impudent grin. “I assume you won’t be saying much.”

Beth laughed despite herself, liking Mack far more than she’d ever expected to. She could forgive a lot in a person who had a sense of humor, whether about her foibles or his own. “Probably not.”

His expression sobered. “Good. What I do for a living may not be medicine or rocket science, but I’d hate to have you dismiss it in front of a kid who thinks it matters.”

Beth stared at him as his point struck home. Her opinion of football or of Mack Carlton didn’t matter right now. “Touché, Mr. Carlton. I’ll definitely refrain from comment. This is all about Tony.”

He winked. “Call me Mack. My fans do.”

“I’m not one of your fans.”

“Stick around,” he taunted lightly. “You might be, after this.”

Beth bit back a sigh. Yes, she could be, she admitted to herself. Not that Mighty Mack Carlton needed another conquest in his life. The gossip columns were littered with the names of women who thought they had the inside track in his life. She’d noticed that few of them ever got a second mention. She wasn’t the least bit inclined to test her luck in an already crowded field.

“Don’t hold your breath, Mr. Carlton. Besides, the only person whose adoration counts is Tony, and you’ve already got a lock on that.”

“I wouldn’t mind at least a hint of approval from you, too,” he said, his gaze capturing hers and holding it.

Despite the obvious attempt to disconcert her, Beth felt herself falling under his spell. She found it irritating. “Why? Do you have to win over every woman you meet?”

He hesitated then, and an odd look that might have been confusion flickered in his eyes. “How well do you know my aunt?” he asked.

The out-of-the-blue question caught her off guard. “Your aunt?”

“Destiny Carlton, the woman you contacted who made sure I came over here today.”

Beth shook her head. “I don’t believe we’ve met,” she said. “Though I recognize the name. I think she raises a lot of money for the hospital. I never spoke to her, though.”

Mack seemed surprised. “You really don’t know her?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t call her?”

“No. Why?”

He shook his head, obviously more puzzled than ever. “Doesn’t matter.”

Despite his denial, Beth got the distinct impression that it mattered a lot. She simply had no idea why.

2

Mack had been in his share of hospital rooms. He’d had enough football injuries to guarantee that—including one final blown-out knee that had ended his career on the field. Granted, his life had never been on the line, but even so, he hated the antiseptic smell, the too-perky nurses, the beeps and whirring of machines, the evasiveness of the doctors who never looked you in the eye when the news was bad. If he’d hated it, how much worse must it be for a kid, especially a kid who had to face the possibility that he might not come out alive?

During his football career, Mack had made it a habit to visit children in this hospital and others. The smiles on their faces, knowing that for a few minutes, at least, he’d taken them away from their problems, made his own discomfort seem like a small thing.

Now that his own playing days were over, he made fewer of these visits. Most kids wanted to meet the current players, and from his position in the team’s front office, he made sure it happened, even if it made some of the biggest, brawniest players in the league cry afterward. Men who took a lot for granted suddenly started counting their blessings after a hospital visit to cheer kids facing the toughest fights of their lives. Nothing he’d ever encountered had given him a better perspective on what mattered in life.

Outside Tony Vitale’s door, he braced himself for what he’d find inside—a pale kid, maybe bald, his eyes haunted. Mack had seen it too many times not to expect the worst. It never failed to make his chest tighten and his throat close up. Forcing himself not to react visibly had been one of the hardest lessons he’d ever had to learn.

“You okay?” Beth asked, regarding him worriedly. “You’re not going to walk in there and pass out on me, are you?”

Mack gave her a disbelieving look. “Hardly.”

“You wouldn’t be the first man who couldn’t take seeing a kid this sick,” she said.

“I’ve been here before.”

She gave him a look filled with understanding and commiseration. “It’s always hardest the first time. After that, it gets easier.”

“I doubt that,” Mack said.

Her gaze stayed on his face. “You ready?” she asked finally, as if she’d seen some minute change in his demeanor that had satisfied her.

“Let’s do it.”

Beth pushed open the door, a seemingly genuine smile on her face. “Hey, Tony,” she called out cheerfully. “Have I got a surprise for you!”

“Ice cream?” a weak voice called back hopefully.

“Better than that,” she said, then stood aside to allow Mack to enter.

Admiring her performance and determined not to let her or the boy down, Mack gave her a thumbs-up and strode into the room.

The boy lying amid a pile of pillows and stuffed animals was wearing a too-large football jersey with Mack’s old number on it. He clutched a football against his scrawny chest. When he spotted Mack, he struggled to sit up, and for just an instant there was a glimmer of childish delight in his dull eyes before he fell back against the pillows, obviously too weak to sit upright.

“Mighty Mack!” he whispered incredulously, his gaze avidly following Mack’s progress across the room. “You really came.”

“Hey, when I get a call from a pretty doctor telling me that my biggest fan is in the hospital, I always show up,” Mack said, swallowing the familiar tide of dismay that washed over him. The men who walked onto a football field every Sunday and allowed equally brawny men to tackle them and pound them into the dirt didn’t know half as much about real bravery as this kid.

Tony nodded enthusiastically. “I’m your biggest fan, all right. I’ve got tapes of every game you ever played.”

“That can’t be that many. I had a short career.”

“But you were awesome, the best ever.”

Mack chuckled. “Better than Johnny Unitas in Baltimore? Better than Denver’s John Elway? Better than Dan Marino in Miami?”

“Way better,” Tony said loyally.

Mack turned to the lady doc. “The kid knows his sports legends.”

She gave him a wry look. “Obviously, the two of you agree you’re in a class by yourself.”

“He is, Dr. Beth,” Tony asserted. “Ask anyone.”

“Why ask anyone else, when I can get it straight from the horse’s—” she deliberately hesitated, her gaze on Mack steady before she finally added “—mouth?”

Mack had the distinct impression she would have preferred to mention the opposite end of the horse. He had definitely not won her over. Not yet, anyway. That was a challenge for another time, though, one he was surprisingly eager to pursue. For now, his focus had to be on Tony.

“How about I sign your football for you?” he suggested to Tony.

The boy’s eyes lit up. “That’d be great! Wait till my mom comes tonight. She’ll be so excited. She’s watched all those tapes with me a million times. I’ll bet she’s the only mom around who knows all your stats.”

Mack read between the lines, but managed to keep his expression neutral at the hint that there was no father in this boy’s life. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a valuable football card from his rookie year that he’d brought along. “Want me to sign this for your mom or for you?”

“Oh, wow! I saw that card on the Internet. It was selling for way more than I could pay,” Tony said, obviously struggling to do the right thing. “Sign it for my mom, I guess. She can show it to all her friends at work. She’ll probably want to put it in a frame on her desk.”

Mack grinned at him. “Good choice. I’ll bring you your own on my next visit. I think I can come up with one from my MVP year that’s even more valuable, especially when it’s signed.”

“You’ll come back?” Tony asked, his eyes wide with disbelief. “Really? And we can talk about all the guys you drafted for this season? We really need that defensive lineman you got.”

“Tell me about it,” Mack said.

“Has he signed yet?”

Mack grinned at his enthusiasm and his up-to-date knowledge. “Not yet. We’re still bargaining.”

“He’ll sign,” Tony said confidently. “Who wouldn’t want to play for your team? What I don’t get is why you didn’t go after that punter at Ohio State.”

Mack laughed. “Maybe I’ll explain budgets and salary caps to you the next time I come.”

“I can’t believe you’ll really come back,” Tony said.

“I’ll be back so often you’ll get sick of me,” Mack promised. “Nothing I like more than talking to someone who remembers all my great plays.”

“And I do,” Tony said. “Every one of them. That game against the Eagles, when you threw for a team record was the best ever, but I liked the way you scrambled for a winning touchdown against the Packers, when everybody said you ought to be off the field because of a shoulder injury.”

Mack laughed. “That was a great one,” he agreed. “I still get a twinge in that shoulder every time I think about it. I had to scramble, because I couldn’t have thrown the ball if my life had depended on it.”

“I knew it!” Tony said, obviously delighted to have his impression confirmed. “I told my mom before you ran that there was no way you were going to try a pass. How come the Packers’ defense didn’t get that?”

“Pure, dumb luck,” Mack admitted. “And just so you know, I shouldn’t have stayed on the field. I could have cost us the game.”

“But you didn’t. You won it,” Tony said.

“That doesn’t mean it was the smartest play. It means I was showing off.”

“I don’t care. It was a great play,” Tony insisted.

Mack laughed at the kid’s stubborn defense. “Too bad you weren’t around to talk to the coach. He almost benched me for the next game because of that play.”

Tony’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Really? But that’s so unfair.”

Mack studied the boy’s face and thought he looked even paler than he had when Mack had first arrived, despite his obvious excitement. Mack glanced at Beth and saw the lines of worry creasing her forehead. He was pretty good at reading cues and he definitely got this one. It was time to go.

“Listen, Tony, I’ve got to head to a meeting. You get some rest. Maybe next time we can go down to the cafeteria for some hot chocolate. I hear it’s pretty decent.”

“Really?” Tony asked, his voice fading as if he were falling asleep but struggling to fight it.

“If the doc okays it,” Mack said, giving her a questioning look.

“No problem,” Beth said, but she didn’t seem too enthusiastic.

Mack took Tony’s frail hand and gave it a squeeze. “Take good care of yourself, son.”

By the time he released the boy’s hand, Tony was already asleep.

A few seconds later Mack and Beth Browning were back in the hall. She scowled at him with fire in her eyes.

“Why did you do that?” she demanded.

“Do what?” Mack asked, confused by the sudden return of overt hostility. He’d felt good about the way things had gone during the visit. He was sure he’d lifted Tony’s spirits and gotten his mind off of his illness for a few minutes at least. Wasn’t that the point of his being here?

“Why did you say you’d be back?” she asked.

Mack was annoyed by the implication that he’d made a promise he had no intention of keeping. “Because if I was reading the signals correctly, that boy doesn’t have a dad, and he needs someone around to support him,” he retorted. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Tony’s not alone. You heard how he talks about his mom. She’s great with him.”

Mack regarded her with a steady look. “And I think that’s fantastic, but now he has me, too.”

Beth’s expression faltered as the sincerity of his intentions finally sank in. “You actually mean that, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I know what it’s like to grow up without a dad,” Mack said honestly. “That was bad enough. To grow up sick and terrified without a dad must be a thousand times worse. If I can help by coming to visit, then that’s what I intend to do. Any objections, Dr. Browning?”

She hesitated, her gaze locked with his, then finally she shook her head. “None, as long as you don’t let him down.”

“You concentrate on getting him well, Doc. I’ll concentrate on giving him a few extra reasons to live.”

That said, he turned and walked away, not sure whether he was more upset by Tony’s situation or by the doctor who doubted his own good intentions.

Not until he was on his way to his business meeting did Mack allow himself to consider Beth’s earlier claim that she had never spoken to Destiny. Was she telling him the truth? He couldn’t imagine any reason she’d have to lie.

Destiny, to the contrary, might well be inclined to lie if this was another of her matchmaking plots as he’d initially suspected. The instant he’d met the doctor—pretty, brainy, serious—his suspicions had been aroused all over again. The fact that Destiny had never mentioned Dr. Browning being a woman raised all sorts of red flags, as well.

As he drove across town, he voice activated his cell phone and called Destiny.

“Darling, I didn’t expect to hear from you again so soon,” she said. “How did things go at the hospital? Were you able to meet Tony?”

“Yes. He’s in rough shape.”

“Then I’m sure your visit meant a lot. I’m so proud of you for taking the time to stop by.”

“It’s the least I can do.” He hesitated, debating whether it was wise to ask his aunt any question at all about Beth Browning. She might make way too much of his curiosity. Still, he wanted to know what he was up against. Had she schemed to bring the two of them together? If so, she had to know that it was an unlikely match. The woman didn’t even like football, much less understand it, and the game was an integral part of his life. And she seemed to have formed some very negative opinions about the kind of man he was.

“By the way, your Dr. Browning is not exactly a huge fan of the game,” he said eventually.

“Really?” Destiny said.

He listened for a false note in her voice, but didn’t detect one. “You didn’t know?” he pressed.

“How would I know?”

“You did say you’d talked to her.”

“Did I say that? Actually your secretary passed along all those messages.”

Now she was getting her stories mixed up. Mack knew he was on to something. “Destiny, it’s not like you to forget what tale you’ve told. What’s the real scoop here?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I asked you to do a good deed. You did it. That’s the end of it, isn’t it?” Now she hesitated. “Or did you find Dr. Browning attractive?”

“In a quiet, no-frills sort of way,” he said, considering that to be a bit generous. She had nice, warm eyes, pale blond hair in a chin-length style and lovely skin, but she didn’t do much to accentuate her femininity, not like most of the women he knew. All of that made it much harder for him to understand the little frisson of attraction he’d felt toward her. Maybe it was nothing more than the obvious challenge she represented.

“Mack, didn’t I teach you that the packaging is not what counts with a woman?” Destiny chided.

He laughed at that. “You tried.”

“Perhaps you should reconsider the lesson. It was a good one.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Well, if that’s all, Mack, I’ve got to run. I have a million things to do before my dinner guest arrives.”

“Anyone I know?” Maybe if his aunt had a social life of her own, she’d stop messing with his.

“No. This is just someone with whom I’ve recently become acquainted.”

“A man?” he pressed.

“If you must know, no.”

“Too bad. I could introduce you to some eligible bachelors anytime you say the word,” he said, warming to the idea.

Destiny laughed. “Most of the men you know are half my age. As flattering as I might find that, I doubt it’s very wise. There’s nothing worse than a foolish old woman trying to be something she’s not.”

“I do know a lot of rich, powerful men who own their own companies,” Mack retorted. “Though, frankly, I think a guy my age might find you more fascinating and challenging than some of the women they’re currently dating.”

“Ah, there’s that silver tongue of yours again,” she said, chuckling. “Thank you, darling. I must run, though.”

Mack said goodbye, then went over the conversation a few more times in his head. Had Destiny actually admitted to knowing Beth or not? He had a hunch it was something he needed to know before he got sucked right smack into the middle of one of her schemes. Forewarned was forearmed with his aunt.

* * *

Beth studied the older woman seated across the elegant dinner table from her. So, this was Destiny Carlton.

Beth had been caught completely off guard when she’d returned to her office after Mack’s visit to find a message from his aunt inviting her to dinner. Curiosity had compelled her to accept. Maybe tonight she’d learn why Mack had seemed so sure that Beth and his aunt were already acquainted.

So far, though, the evening had been filled with idle chitchat. Beth was growing increasingly impatient. She put down her fork and met Destiny’s penetrating gaze.

“Pardon me for being direct, Ms. Carlton, but why am I here?”

Destiny’s blue eyes sparkled with merriment. “I was wondering when you were going to ask that. I’d heard you were direct.”

Beth wasn’t sure what to make of that. Surely there hadn’t been time for Mack to report back to his aunt. “Oh?”

“No need to look so worried,” Destiny said. “As I’m sure you know, I do a lot of fund-raising for the hospital. I tend to hear about the rising stars on the medical and research staff. Your name has come up rather frequently in recent months. When I heard about your messages for my nephew, I decided it was time we met.”

“I see.” Beth was still a bit confused. “Are you interested in funding some of the research at the hospital?”

“Always, but my interest here has more to do with Mack. What did you think of him?”

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking,” Beth responded cautiously.

“Come, dear,” Destiny said with a hint of amusement in her voice. “From all reports, you’re an exceedingly brilliant doctor. Surely you have some idea of what I’m asking.”

“Not really,” Beth insisted, not sure she wanted to go down the path Destiny seemed determined to explore.

“Women have a tendency to fall all over themselves when they first meet Mack,” Destiny said.

“I don’t doubt that,” Beth said, not that she intended to be one of them. She didn’t have time for a man who took so little seriously. Even as that thought entered her head, she recalled just how seriously Mack had taken Tony’s situation. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a lightweight as she’d assumed, but that still didn’t make him her type.

Not that she had a type, she amended. Not anymore. Not since she’d discovered that the kind of man she’d always been drawn to, men who loved medicine as much as she did, often had an ego that couldn’t stand the competition from a woman in the same field.

That was how she’d lost her fiancé. Her team had inadvertently applied for the same research grant Thomas had applied for, and she’d won it. He had not taken the news well. Not only had she lost him, but a month later the grant had been withdrawn because of a vicious rumor he’d deliberately spun about her research methodology. Beth had been crushed by the betrayal, but she’d learned a valuable lesson about not mixing her professional and personal life.

“But you weren’t impressed by Mack,” Destiny guessed.

Now there was a minefield, Beth thought. Insulting him to his face was bad enough. Insulting him to his doting aunt, who raised millions for the hospital, was something else. Beth wasn’t the most politically savvy creature on earth, but she knew better than to offend a major donor.

“Actually I didn’t spend that much time with him,” Beth said truthfully.

Destiny’s lips twitched as if she were fighting a smile. “Very diplomatic. I like that.”

“Are you trying to set me up with your nephew?” Beth asked bluntly.

Destiny’s eyes widened in a totally phony display of innocence. “How could I do that? You and Mack have already met. Either something clicked or it didn’t. I’m sure you know as much about chemistry as I do, perhaps more.”

Beth chuckled. “Some forms of chemistry, yes. The male-female thing is definitely not my area of expertise.”

“My nephew might make an excellent teacher,” Destiny suggested slyly.

“I don’t think so.” Beth grinned at the determined woman. “Does Mack know you’re sneaking around behind his back trying to fix him up?”

“As I said, how could I fix him up with you since you’ve met? You’re two consenting adults capable of making your own decisions,” Destiny said, as if the thought had never crossed her obviously devious mind.

“But a little nudge from you wouldn’t be out of the question, would it?” Beth suddenly recalled Mack’s earlier suspicion that she and his aunt knew each other. “He’s on to you, isn’t he? He thinks you deliberately got him over to the hospital today to meet me. Seeing Tony was simply a means to an end.”

“You called his office,” Destiny reminded her. “He came over there to meet Tony at your request.”

Beth couldn’t argue with that. “Would you have been as quick to intercede if the request had come from one of my male colleagues?”

“Of course,” Destiny claimed. “We’re talking about a sick child.”

Beth wasn’t entirely sure she believed her. Nor, she suspected, would Mack.

“Look, Ms. Carlton—”

“Please call me Destiny. I insist.”

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Destiny, or at least what I think you’re trying to do, but it’s a bad idea,” Beth said emphatically. “I’m not interested. Mack’s not interested. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Rather than the disappointment Beth had anticipated, Destiny’s expression brightened.

“Perfect,” Destiny said.

“I beg your pardon?”

“I said that was the perfect response. You’re going to be a challenge,” Destiny explained. “I love that. More important, it is exactly what my nephew needs in his life. Most women are all too eager to fall right into his bed.”

“I don’t have time to be the challenge your nephew needs,” Beth said, beginning to feel a little frantic. She had a hunch that Destiny Carlton was a force to be reckoned with once her mind was set on something. Besides that, the whole image of falling into Mack’s bed was a little too attractive. She needed to stay away from these two. They had money. They had power. And one of them at least had a plan for the rest of Beth’s life, a plan she wasn’t one bit happy about.

“Of course, you have the time,” Destiny said blithely. “Everyone has time for love.”

Love? Love? Sweet heaven, how had they gone from talking about the prospect of her even having a date with Mack to falling in love with him?

“Not me,” Beth said fiercely. “I definitely do not have time for a relationship. Really, Destiny. I don’t have a second to spare. My days are crammed. There are simply not enough hours for all the work I have to do.”

“You made time to have dinner with me at the last minute,” Destiny reminded her. “You could just as easily make time for Mack. Keep that in mind when he asks you out.”

“He is not going to ask me out,” Beth said confidently. “And if he does, the answer will be no.” A resounding no, she thought to herself. Bad enough to have to fight that little twinge of attraction she’d felt for him. She did not need to waste her time trying to fend off his aunt’s machinations as well.

Destiny’s smile spread.

“Stop that,” Beth said. She could practically read the woman’s mind. She was going back to that challenge thing again. “I am not saying no just to play hard to get. I am saying it because I am not interested. Period. That isn’t going to change. I suspect your nephew has enough women saying yes that he won’t waste too much time mourning my rejection, assuming he even asks me out in the first place. We didn’t exactly get off on the best foot. I was being very insulting about him, and he happened to overhear me.”

Destiny looked vaguely shocked by that. “You insulted him?”

“I never meant for him to hear me,” Beth said in her own defense.

“But all the same,” Destiny said. “He really is a fine man.”

“I’m sure you believe that,” Beth said, trying to extricate herself from the increasingly deep and murky waters of this conversation. “I only pointed out what he’d heard so you would understand why I don’t think he’s likely to ask me on a date.”

“Oh, Mack has a thick enough hide. He has to, after being in the public eye for so long. He’ll ask you out. He won’t let a little unwitting insult stop him,” Destiny said confidently. “All I ask is that you give the invitation some thought.”

“Why me?” Beth asked, completely bemused that a woman she’d barely even met seemed so certain Beth was right for her obviously beloved nephew.

“I think that will become clear in time,” Destiny said enigmatically. “Just promise me you won’t close any doors.”

“I can’t promise that,” Beth said honestly. In fact, at the moment, with panic spreading through her, she was pretty sure that slamming the door on Mack Carlton and his meddling aunt, then bolting it tight, would be the smartest thing she could do.

Then again, she couldn’t recall the last time she’d felt this little zing of anticipation humming through her veins. Sadly, it wasn’t altogether unpleasant. Just dangerous.

3

Mack Carlton was as good as his word. It began to seem as if every time Beth went into Tony’s room in late afternoon, Mack was there. It was evident he’d become a quiet, comforting, dependable presence in Tony’s life, just as he’d promised he would. She began to feel the first faint hint of respect for him, despite her determination to keep her guard up.

Sometimes he sat quietly reading a book while the boy slept. Beth couldn’t help noticing that Mack’s taste ran to thrillers, rather than to the sports books she would have guessed. She even caught him totally absorbed by a recently released presidential biography. He rose another notch in her estimation that day. She tried to smother the reaction by reminding herself that she couldn’t weaken, not with Destiny Carlton scheming in the wings.

Sometimes Beth arrived to find Tony in a spirited argument with Mack over the best football players ever. Mack listened intently to whatever case Tony made, and even when he disagreed, he did it in a respectful way that seemed to make Tony sit a little taller in bed, pride shining in his eyes at being taken so seriously by a man he idolized.

On more than one occasion, they played one of the electronic games that Mack provided. When they were caught up in the competition, they barely spared Beth a glance. That gave her a chance to observe the two of them a bit more closely. To her amusement, it was evident that Mack was having as much fun as Tony and was every bit as determined to win, not giving the boy an inch out of pity.

There was something a little too appealing about Mack with his hair mussed, his collar open, his expression totally focused as he concentrated on that little screen with such intensity.

To Beth’s surprise Mack was also sensitive to Tony’s level of exhaustion and his shifts in mood. Mack seemed to know just when to encourage a nap and just when to initiate some distracting activity. And he always left shortly after Tony’s mother arrived, clearly attuned to Maria Vitale’s need to spend time alone with her son.

The first time Beth saw Mack in the hallway outside Tony’s room consoling an obviously shaken Maria, she caught herself looking for evidence of the kind of chemistry that Destiny Carlton had been talking about over dinner. If her reaction had involved anyone other than Mack, she might have labeled it a ridiculous twinge of jealousy, but with Mack that would be absurd. There was absolutely nothing between her and the ex-football star. Her interest was purely clinical, a chance to study how the male-female-chemistry thing worked.

After all, Mack was a virile man with a reputation for appreciating beautiful women. Maria was a gorgeous woman with a flawless olive complexion, a lush body and flowing waves of black hair. Only the exhaustion that was clearly visible in and around her eyes marred her beauty. For some men, Beth thought, that evidence of vulnerability would make her seem even more attractive. Beth couldn’t help wondering if Mack was one of those men.

But despite her intense curiosity, Beth never saw the slightest sign that Mack was interested in the single mom. Even his attempts to comfort her were verbal, not physical. And rather than any hint of a growing closeness between the two, more often than not, he left mother and son together and sought Beth out when he left Tony’s room.

In little more than a week, Beth had come to count on him dropping by far more than she should. While he’d shown no evidence of being attracted to her, he was giving her more attention than she’d expected from him.

Now, at the rap on her office door near the research lab, Beth glanced at the clock and saw that it was just past six. That was when Mack usually stopped in.

“Yes?” she said, fighting the little flash of heat that licked through her as she anticipated seeing him for a few minutes.

Her office door cracked open and, as expected, Mack peered around the edge. “Busy?”

Just this once she should tell him yes. That would be the smart thing to do. These brief little visits were beginning to feel too right, as if her day would be somehow incomplete without them.

“I have a few minutes,” she said instead, telling herself that there was nothing wrong with indulging herself in the company of a sexy man in the privacy of her office. It didn’t mean a thing. It just proved she was a woman, something she tended to forget when she was caught up in the whirlwind of her job.

“Long enough to go for coffee?” he asked, his expression hopeful. “I could really use a jolt of caffeine. It’s been a long day, and I still have a dinner thing at eight.”

This was something new. Beth wasn’t sure what to make of the invitation. In her office, on her turf, she felt confident and in control of the situation. Even in a setting as thoroughly unromantic as the hospital cafeteria, with Mack buying her coffee she had a feeling that the balance of power between them would somehow shift.

Mack grinned at her hesitation. “I’m asking you to go for coffee, Doc. I swear I won’t try to seduce you behind the vending machines.”

“I was just thinking about everything I have to do before I can get out of here tonight,” she fibbed.

Mack’s grin spread. “If you’re going to make a long night of it, then you need the coffee as much as I do.”

“You’re right,” she said, telling herself that any other reply would make her seem churlish and ungrateful. After all, this man was coming here almost daily to bolster the spirits of one of her patients. The least she could do in return was share a cup of coffee with him. “I’ll buy.”

Her offer seemed to amuse him, but he stood aside as she brushed past him, then he closed her office door behind them.

As they walked through the hospital corridors, Beth noticed the stares of the nurses, which were accompanied by more than a few whispers. This, she realized, was what she’d feared about being seen with Mack. She needed to command respect among the staff, not be the subject of speculative gossip.

“Doesn’t that sort of thing get old?” she asked as they passed another cluster of gaping females.

“What?” Mack asked blankly.

“The women staring at you, speculating about you, looking you over as if you were a piece of meat.”

He shrugged. “I don’t really notice it anymore.”

Beth couldn’t decide if that was ego talking or a weird kind of humility. In fact, she was beginning to think there were a lot of fascinating contradictions in Mack Carlton. Worse, she was beginning to want to unravel them.

He studied her with a penetrating look. “I’m sorry if it bothers you. It didn’t occur to me that you being seen with me around here might stir up talk. Would you rather go somewhere else?”

She shook her head. “No, the cafeteria’s fine. I don’t have time for anything else.”

As they approached the line, he regarded her with concern. “Have you eaten?”

“No, but I’ll grab something later or take a sandwich back to my office.”

He glanced at the board of specials. “Come on. They have meat loaf. How can you pass that up?”

Beth chuckled. “I’ve had it before. Trust me, it is not like anything you ever had at home.”

“Ah, then no to the meat loaf.” He glanced along the display of prepared foods. “The salads look fresh.” Before she could decline, he reached for two and put them on a tray, then added two bowls of soup. “Crackers?”

Giving up the fight, Beth nodded. “Sure, but I thought you were going to dinner at eight.”

“I am. Rubber chicken and a lot of schmoozing. I’ll be lucky to get a couple of bites. Believe me, this is a lot more appetizing, and the company is a thousand percent better.”

Beth tried not to feel flattered by the compliment, but it warmed her just the same. No wonder Mack had women falling at his feet. His charm was instinctive and natural, not the phony kind of lines she would have expected him to utter. He was slipping right past her natural wariness.

When he’d added apple pie and two cups of coffee to the tray as well, he brushed off her offer to buy and paid the cashier himself, then led the way to a table in a far corner of the room where there were fewer people around.

Once they were seated, Beth regarded him with curiosity. “Do you always get your own way?”

He seemed genuinely surprised by the question. “No, why?”

“You just steamrolled right over me back there,” she said.

“I figured you were trying to be a lady.”

She studied him with a narrowed gaze. “Meaning?” she asked, expecting some totally chauvinistic remark that would permit her to dislike him again.

“When it comes to food, my experience is that most women would rather starve than admit to a man that they’re hungry. They seem to think we’ll worry that they’re about to start putting on weight. Personally I like a woman with a healthy appetite and a little meat on her bones.”

Beth bit back her impulse to point out that she had neither. She should have known Mack wouldn’t be so reticent.

He gave her a thorough once-over, then added, “You could use a few more pounds, Doc. People might take you more seriously if you didn’t look as if a strong wind could blow you away.”

“The people who count seem to take me fairly seriously already,” she said.

“But it’s important to get lots of vitamins and minerals from food, right?” he said, placing her food in front of her. “Munching on a couple of vitamin caplets and drinking an energy shake does not constitute a healthy diet.”

Beth almost choked on her first spoonful of soup. How the heck did he know what she usually ate? “What have you been doing? Lurking outside my office door at mealtime?”

“Nope. No need to. The industrial-size vitamin bottle’s in plain view on your desk and the trash is littered with empty shake cans. If you ask me, that’s a sure way to end up sick.”

“What made you an expert on nutrition?” she asked irritably, because he was right and she didn’t want to admit it.

“Destiny pretty much drilled the basics into us, but anything she missed, I got from the team doctors when I was playing football,” he explained. “Food is fuel. Without the right fuel, the body isn’t going to run properly, not for long, anyway.”

She gave him a wry look. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You should,” Mack said, his expression serious. “Tony and a lot of other kids are counting on you, Doc. You won’t be able to help them if you get sick yourself.”

“Point accepted,” Beth said, deliberately taking a bite of salad to prove she’d gotten the message.

They ate in silence for several minutes, then Mack asked, “How’s Tony doing? Any change?”

“You’ve probably seen for yourself that he’s getting weaker every day. We’re doing everything we can to build him back up so we can try another round of chemo, but nothing’s working,” she admitted, her frustration evident in her voice. “Maybe you could work some of your nutritional magic with him. He’s not eating.”

“I’m on it,” he said at once. “Anything he can’t have?”

“No.”

“And I won’t be breaking any rules by carting in takeout?”

“I’ll save you from the food police around here, if you can just get him to eat,” Beth promised.

“Consider it done. I think I have a pretty good idea what might tempt a twelve-year-old kid to eat. And I can always give him the same spiel I gave you about the body needing fuel.”

“Thanks,” Beth said sincerely. “These days he’s much more likely to listen to you than me.”

“It’s a guy thing.” Mack grinned. “Of course, I might have to insist that you stop by to split a pizza with us or maybe some tacos. Kids learn best by example.”

Beth chuckled despite herself. “Still trying to fatten me up?”

“Just a little.”

“It seems to me the women I usually see on your arm are all model thin.”

Mack’s expression darkened a bit. “Don’t believe everything you see in the paper, Doc.”

“Are you saying the pictures lie? How can that be?”

“Put an ambitious female and a sleazy photographer in the same room and all it takes is the click of a shutter to create a false impression,” he said with an unmistakable touch of bitterness.

Before Beth could comment, he waved off the topic. “Let’s not talk about that. Anything on the search for a bone marrow donor?”

Beth wasn’t sure what to make of the quick change in subject, but she accepted that Mack didn’t intend to say another word about the women in his life. Instead, she tried to answer his question about Tony honestly. “He’s on the list, but we haven’t been pushing because he’s not a good candidate right now.”

“Anything I can do?” Mack asked.

“Just keep coming to see him. It’s the only time I ever hear him laugh,” she said quietly.

Mack studied her intently. “What about you, Doc? How are you doing? This is getting to you, isn’t it? I mean even more than it was before. You’re scared, aren’t you?”

Beth struggled with the emotions she tried to keep tamped down so they wouldn’t overwhelm her. Mack had a way of bringing them right back to the surface, of forcing her to confront them.

“Terrified,” she admitted finally.

Mack reached for her hand. “You know, even doctors are allowed to have feelings.”

“No, we’re not,” she said, jerking her hand away from the comfort it would be far too easy to accept. “We have to stay focused and objective.”

“Why?”

“It’s the only way we can do our jobs.”

“Without falling apart, you mean?”

She nodded, her throat tight. Now she was the one who was uncomfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. “Can we talk about something else, please? I can’t do this, not tonight.”

Mack sat back in his chair. “Sure. We can talk about whatever you like.” He grinned. “Want to talk about football?”

She relaxed at the teasing note in his voice. “It would have to be a brief conversation, unless you intend to do all the talking.”

“You know us jocks. We can go on and on about sports at the drop of a hat,” he taunted. “But I’ll spare you. How about politics? Any opinions?”

“I saw in the paper that your brother finally announced he’s running for city council in Alexandria.”

Mack’s expression darkened a bit. “Yep, Richard’s fulfilling the legacy our father left for him.”

Beth heard the edgy note in his voice and studied him curiously. “You don’t seem pleased by that.”

“If it were what my brother really wanted, I’d be all for it, but the truth is Richard has spent his whole life living up to these expectations that were drilled into him when we were boys. Running Carlton Industries is one thing. That’s the family legacy and he loves it. He was clearly destined for it. But politics? I’m not convinced it’s what he wants. He’ll do it, though, out of a sense of duty to a man who’s been gone for more than twenty years, and he’ll do it well.”

“Have you told him how you feel?”

He gave her a rueful look. “Nah. You don’t tell Richard anything. He’s the one who tells the rest of us what to do.”

“Do you resent that?”

“Good grief, no. If he hadn’t taken the pressure off the rest of us years ago, I’d probably be behind some desk at Carlton Industries pushing a pencil. I’d not only be totally miserable, but I’d probably bring down the company.”

“Singlehandedly?” Beth asked skeptically.

“No, I imagine Ben, our younger brother, would be even worse at it than me.”

“I think I read somewhere that he’s an artist. Is that right?”

Mack’s eyes twinkled with knowing amusement. “Checking us out, Doc?”

“No, it’s just hard to avoid the mention of the Carlton name in the local media. Even your reportedly reclusive younger brother’s name pops up from time to time.”

“If you say so.”

“Why would I bother checking you out?” Beth inquired irritably.

“Some women think we’re pretty fascinating men,” Mack responded with a straight face.

“I’m not one of them.”

“So you only tolerate me hanging around for Tony’s sake?”

“Yes,” she said.

His skeptical gaze caught hers and held until she flushed under the intensity. Only when he was apparently satisfied that he’d rattled her and proved his point did he finally glance away.

Relieved to be out from under that disconcerting gaze, Beth drew in a shaky breath. No man had ever unnerved her the way Mack Carlton did. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why that was. Sure, he had the kind of body that would look great on a beefcake calendar. Sure, he even showed evidence of being kind and sensitive, two traits she admired in a man. He had a killer smile, an agile brain and a charming personality. With all of that added together, the question shouldn’t have been why he unnerved her, but why she hadn’t thrown herself straight into his arms.

That she could answer. Mack Carlton was a rich, ex-jock playboy, who didn’t take anything seriously. His affairs were played out publicly, and she was a very private woman with a reputation to protect. So even if that glimmer of heat she thought she saw in his eyes from time to time was real, even if these brief hospital encounters implied a certain fascination on his part, she couldn’t allow any of it to lead anywhere—assuming he even wanted to pursue it himself beyond the occasional cup of coffee or idle conversation at the end of the day.

Too bad, she thought, barely containing a sigh. Because something told her that Mack had the kind of moves that could make a woman not only forget every last bit of common sense she possessed, but could send her right up into flames.

* * *

A couple of days after his fascinating cafeteria dinner with Beth, Mack was sitting in the hospital waiting room while the doctors examined Tony when he looked up to see Richard striding toward him.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, standing to give his brother a hug. He glanced pointedly around the empty room. “No prospective voters in here to impress.”

“Very funny. Actually I was in the neighborhood, and Destiny told me you might be here,” Richard said. “What’s going on? What are you doing hanging out in a hospital waiting room?”

Mack shrugged. “There’s a sick kid I’ve been coming to see,” he said as if it were no big deal.

Richard studied him intently. “You’re here every day from what I hear. You getting too emotionally involved with this boy?”

“This isn’t about me,” Mack said defensively. “The boy doesn’t have a dad to hang out with. He likes football. The least I can do is come by for an hour or so.”

“I admire you for taking an interest, but is it really all about the kid?”

Mack stared at him, instantly suspicious. “What exactly did Destiny say to you?”

Richard’s serious expression finally cracked. A grin spread across his face. “She mentioned that the boy’s doctor is a very pretty woman with a brilliant scientific mind. Which hooked you, bro? Her body or her mind?”

“I am not hooked on anybody,” Mack retorted defensively. “That’s ridiculous. Next time you talk to her, tell Destiny to mind her own damn business.”

“Ha,” Richard said. “What are the odds of that ever happening?”

Mack scowled at his brother. “So the real reason you dropped by is to gloat. You think I’m about to get reeled smack into the middle of one of Destiny’s schemes.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Richard agreed unrepentantly. “If so, I want to be around to witness every second of your downfall.”

“Destiny claims she doesn’t even know Beth Browning,” Mack said. “Beth said the same thing.”

“Ever heard of the little white lie?” Richard asked. “What kind of manipulator would our aunt be if she didn’t make liberal use of whatever tactic serves her purposes? She wasn’t entirely honest with me or Melanie, either. She sucked us both right in and never suffered a moment’s remorse because of it.”

“Well, there’s nothing like that going on here,” Mack insisted. “I’m not the doc’s type. She’s not my type, either. If Destiny really is behind all of this, she got it wrong this time.”

“We’ll see,” Richard said. “Any chance the doctor will be by anytime soon? I’d like to get a good look at her. Melanie will have questions.”

“Too bad. I’m pretty sure Dr. Browning is at a medical conference on the other side of the universe today,” Mack said just in time to see the very woman in question strolling their way. He sighed heavily. “On the other hand, she could be back.”

Richard’s eyes widened with appreciation and he let out a very soft whistle. “Not your type, huh? Maybe you should get your eyes checked.”

Mack took another look at Beth and tried to see what his brother saw. She was pretty enough in a natural, wholesome way, but compared to the beauties he usually dated, she was fairly unimpressive. Her hair was straight and cut in a severe, simple style that clearly required little fuss. Her simple, tailored clothes did nothing to flatter a figure he’d already assessed as too thin. Her low-heeled shoes, a necessity for a woman on the run all day long, did nothing to enhance her legs. Mack was really, really partial to women in strappy spike heels that made their legs look endless. He simply didn’t get whatever it was Richard obviously saw.

Eventually his gaze made its way to Beth’s eyes, which were regarding him with a perplexed expression. He blinked and looked away guiltily.

“I thought you’d want to know that it’s okay to go back in to see Tony now,” she said.

“Thanks.”

Richard looked from Beth to Mack and back again, then shrugged. “Dr. Browning, I’m Mack’s brother Richard. He seems to have lost his tongue. It happens sometimes. I can understand it in your case. I imagine you render him speechless a lot.”

Beth gave Richard a startled look and a blush tinted her cheeks. “Not that I’ve noticed.”

Richard grinned at Mack. “Then it must be something I said.”

Before Richard could explain that remark and further embarrass him, Mack clapped his brother on the back a little more forcefully than necessary. “Thanks for stopping by to pass on the message,” he said. “I know how busy you are, though, so feel free to take off. Give Melanie a kiss for me. Go win over a few voters or raise a few million for your campaign. You’re going to need it, since I intend to vote for whoever runs against you.”

Richard barely managed to contain a laugh at the brush-off. “If it comes down to one vote costing me the election, I didn’t deserve to win in the first place,” his brother said, unperturbed. “And I’m in no hurry. I can hang here awhile.”

“No you can’t,” Mack said, his voice a little tighter. “I’ll walk you out.”

He spun Richard around and aimed him toward the door. As they were leaving, he called back to Beth. “Let Tony know I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Sure,” she said, staring after them with a puzzled expression.

Not until they were in the elevator did Mack face his brother, staring him down with a look meant to intimidate. “Don’t get any ideas, big brother. None, you hear me?”

Richard returned his glare with a look of pure innocence. “I can’t imagine what you’re talking about. I just wanted to get to know your new friend.”

“You say that as if you’d caught me on the playground with some girl in pigtails,” Mack grumbled.

“Believe me, I am well aware that you’re past being infatuated with a kid. Those are definitely grown-up sparks flying between you and the doc.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I don’t think so,” Richard said. “Maybe I’ll have Melanie give her a call and set up dinner.”

“You do and you’re a dead man,” Mack said fiercely. He didn’t want his brother, his aunt or anyone else messing with Beth’s head—or his, for that matter. “Leave it alone. This is not like that. Beth and I chat from time to time. We have coffee. It’s no big deal, and I don’t want to turn it into one.”

Richard’s gaze narrowed. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

“What was your first clue?” Mack retorted.

To his consternation, Richard burst out laughing. “I’ll be damned,” he said. “Destiny’s done it again.”

“Destiny hasn’t done a thing,” Mack shouted after him as Richard strolled off.

Unfortunately, it was evident that his protest hadn’t done a thing to convince his brother. Heck, he wasn’t so sure he was buying it himself anymore.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.