Zach sat down next to his mother and stretched out his long legs. “I did.” He crossed his legs at the ankles. “But I decided to paint it myself.”
Colleen looked aghast. “You can’t be serious. Why you’ve never painted anything in your life. You might…” She waved a hand fretfully. “You might fall off the ladder and break something important.”
He laughed. “Well, hopefully I won’t break anything—important or not.”
She frowned and assessed him more closely. He couldn’t be sure if it was out of concern or if she feared the damage he might do to her gazebo or the surrounding shrubbery.
“I’m sure Hank would be happy to do the job.”
“He’s going to help,” Zach assured her. “Don’t worry, I won’t make a mess.”
Knowing him far too well to pursue the issue, she patted his hand. “I’m confident you’ll do a fine job. We’ll tell everyone at the party that you painted it yourself.”
“You’d better wait to see how it turns out before you corner bragging rights,” he said with a chuckle. “Speaking of the party, I really think Beth and I need Helen’s input on some things. Any chance you might talk her into helping us out?”
Colleen’s expression closed instantly. “I’m sure you’ll do fine on your own.” As if he’d pushed her personal eject button, she shot straight to her feet. “I should see what cook has on the menu for dinner tonight.”
He snagged her hand and halted her hasty departure. Zach shook his head. “Let’s talk a little more.” She reluctantly allowed him to draw her back down to the sofa but she wouldn’t look at him. “Come on, Mom, this is ridiculous. Why don’t you tell me what’s going on between you and Helen?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. We simply don’t see eye to eye on a particular issue that I refuse to discuss with you or anyone else. The case is closed.”
Zach held her hand in his. “That sounds a little final,” he said softly. “Are you sure you want to leave it that way? What if something happened…?”
Colleen lifted an aristocratic eyebrow and glared at him. “Then it’ll be on her head,” she said sternly. “This is her choice not mine. I never go back on my word.”
Surprised, a frown pulled his lips downward. He’d never heard his mother speak so strongly against her good friend. “Surely there’s some way to resolve the issue.”
His mother pulled her hand free of his and stood once more. “There isn’t. Now—” she stepped out of his reach “—if you’ll excuse me, I have things to see to.”
There was nothing he could do but let her go. She was an Ashton. Unless she decided to change her mind, which wasn’t likely, then the only hope lay with Helen. As soon as Beth came home they would have to talk. There had to be a way to get Helen to come clean on the issue. Frustrated, Zach fell back against the sofa. That, he thought, disconcerted, would mean spending more time with Beth and fighting feelings he didn’t want to feel…fantasizing about things he knew could never be.
But he had to do it. He would simply find a way to be with her without losing control. He was an Ashton after all.
BETH STARED at the report lying on her desk. She closed her eyes and shook her head, defeat weighing heavy on her heart. Leukemia. The aggressive, ugly kind. Couldn’t it have been anything else?
Beth opened her eyes and reread the report once more. Her patient, Laurie Ellroy, would definitely die without proper treatment. There was no two ways about it. Oh, the oncologist would try chemo, but the chances of it working alone were so minimal that they weren’t even worth mentioning. To cure her it would take massive doses of the meanest chemo available, and then Laurie would still die without a bone-marrow transplant. Her mother’s own health problems prevented her from being a donor. Her father was dead and she had no brothers and sisters. They could look for a match elsewhere, but the chances were slim that they would find a suitable one.
Laurie, twenty-two years old, fresh out of college with a degree in education, was going to die.
Beth’s lips trembled. She bit her lower one to stop the quivering. She didn’t want Laurie to die. Her life had just begun. She was engaged to her high school sweetheart. God, it just wasn’t fair. Beth scrubbed at a tear that managed to escape her firm hold on her emotions. This was the part she hated about practicing medicine. The cases where her hands were tied. When she’d referred Laurie to the internist, she’d hoped he would find something fixable. But he hadn’t. And the oncologist’s prognosis was less than optimistic.
Laurie’s mother was devastated. Beth couldn’t even imagine the horror of losing a child. She thought of her own mother. They were so close, how would either of them survive the loss of the other? Losing her father had been agonizing, but she and her mother had clung to each other until the hurt subsided to a tolerable level. And Zach had been there for her, just like she’d been there for him when his father died. They were family. But if Beth lost her mother, she would be completely alone. She couldn’t turn to Zach now like she had back then. It wasn’t the same anymore.
Last night plowed its way into her mind. Beth tamped down the anger that wanted to well in her chest. Zach Ashton was the most confusing, frustrating man she had ever known. On one hand, he made her want to scream at him, or maybe even hit him. And on the other, she wanted nothing more than to go straight into his arms and stay right there.
She huffed a breath of frustration. How could she still want him so after what he’d done to her? He’d tossed her aside, seeing nothing but the little girl next door. He’d been too busy with the more sophisticated, older women he’d met in college and then his career. The memory of how naive she’d been at seventeen still infuriated her. She was supposed to forget about him. But she simply couldn’t. And God knows she’d tried.
Case in point, Matt Daniels. She’d decided the night before med school graduation that she would take him up on his proposal. He’d asked her three times and seemed crazy about her. He was nice-looking, and they shared a love of healing. What did she have to lose? Zach obviously wasn’t interested and she was tired of waiting. She’d certainly mooned over him long enough. Of course Matt wasn’t the first man she’d dated in an effort to erase Zach’s indelible imprint from her memory. There’d been a few others, none of which stuck or made enough of an impact to evict Ashton from her heart.
Beth pushed away from her desk. It was after five o’clock, she was tired and there was nothing else she could do here. Though the thought of going home held no real appeal considering she would no doubt run into Zach. Then again, how could she avoid him when they had this darned party to coordinate? The theme. She had that stupid theme to come up with. Beth massaged her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. How did one come up with a theme for this sort of thing?
She dug the telephone book from beneath the mountain of papers on her desk and flipped to the Yellow Pages. “P,” she muttered. “Painters, paneling, parties.” Beth dragged her finger down the listing until she found what she wanted. The Party Store. Surely they would have suggestions either on display or in a book. She grabbed her purse and decided it was definitely time to call it a day. She could stop at The Party Store on the way home. And if she were lucky, she could nail down this theme in one stop.
Before leaving, Beth called her mom and told her that she was making a couple of stops before coming home. Helen worried if Beth didn’t make it home on time. Beth smiled wryly. At least someone worried. Zach’s image flitted through her weary mind. She doubted he ever worried about anything other than his next case. Knowing that little accusation was completely unfounded, but feeling immensely better at thinking about him in any way other than sexual, she didn’t immediately dismiss it. She needed to concentrate on all the reasons she could not keep up this ridiculous