For Better, For Worse

“What about your mother?” Kit murmured long moments later. “She told me to…to go away and leave her sons alone.”

“That was her pain talking. She’s an intelligent woman, and in time, she, too, will grow to love you. I’ve made her understand how I feel—that my life is not worth living without you. I have a special license so we can be married as soon as we get back to Jerez. Where is the person in charge of this place so I can tell him you’re leaving with me today?”

“Here’s some ice cream.” The chaplain broke in on Kit’s private thoughts. She hadn’t even realized he’d left the table.

“I’m sorry. You must think me extremely rude.”

“Not at all, my dear. When the most important person in our lives is in difficulty, how can we concentrate on anything else? Tell me how you came to know him.”

She took a few spoonfuls of ice cream. “I met him through his brother, Jaime. Until a few months ago I was teaching math and English at the U.S. Naval Military Base in Rota, Spain. The town isn’t far from Jerez where the Mendez estate is located. Jaime helps Rafe run the family business. They have vineyards and export their sherry all over the world.

“Last fall some friends from the base invited me to go to a sherry-tasting party Jaime was hosting. One thing led to another and we began dating.”

“But it was the other brother who captured your heart.”

She took a deep breath. “Yes.”

“That must not have been an easy time for you.”

“It was awful. You see, Jaime asked me to marry him before I met Rafe, but I kept putting him off because I wanted to be sure that what I felt for him was love and that it would last. As soon as I met Rafe, I understood the difference between loving someone like a brother and being in love.”

On a rush of emotion, Kit found herself explaining her impossible position. She described Rafe’s desire to bring everything out in the open and Jaime’s heavy bouts of drinking after she turned down his proposal. Brokenly, she told of the painful exchange with their mother, which had precipitated Kit’s flight from Spain. And finally she talked about Rafe’s unexpected arrival in Idaho, after he’d traced her through one of her friends on the base. It felt so good to discuss all this with someone she could trust.

“I’m afraid Rafe and I have hurt Jaime very badly. It seems he’s left Jerez and is living in Madrid. Who knows what he’s thinking, what’s happening to him right now? He’s apparently cut himself off from everyone.” She shivered.

“But that’s all to the good. Your husband was right, you know. This kind of situation has to be dealt with in an honest, forthright manner. He knew that would force his brother to face his life, which is what this Jaime is doing now. Instead of the end, it could be the beginning for him. One day he’ll meet a woman who will love him in return. It’s not your fault.”

Her eyes misted over. “I know, but because of me the entire family is estranged.”

“Are you saying you wish you had never met your husband?”

“No!”

The chaplain chuckled at her vehement response, and she blushed. “I didn’t think so. And since I’m a great deal older than you, I’ll tell you a secret. Life has a way of working itself out, and right now your husband needs your love and support as never before. After all, over the past few months he’s searched nonstop for you, forsaking his business interests, everything. Don’t you see? He’s refused to let anything or anyone come between you. I would venture to say a love like that doesn’t happen very often.”

“He’s my whole life, Chaplain.” Her voice shook. “He’s got to be all right!”

“Where’s your faith?” he asked quietly as his tuftlike brows lifted in query. He patted her hand compassionately. “Why don’t we go back to the emergency room and find out if there’s been any news?”

Twenty minutes after their return, Kit heard her name called. She turned to find Dr. Penman at the front desk, still garbed in his surgical gown, smelling of anesthetic. She jumped to her feet and hurried over to him. “Dr. Penman? How did the surgery go? Is Rafe going to be all right?”

Chapter Two

“THE OPERATION was a success. Your husband came through it without complications.” The relief was exquisite and the doctor smiled at her reaction. “He’s in the ICU now. If he continues to do well, you’ll be allowed to see him for a few minutes tomorrow morning. Call around eight.”

His words robbed her of some of her euphoria. “Not until then?” It was only 10:30 p.m. Ten more hours….

“I’m sorry. But you want your husband back as strong and healthy as before, don’t you?”

“Of course. Thank heaven it went well,” she cried, grasping his hand. “Thank you for everything.”

“Your husband is a fortunate man,” he said, eyeing her slender curves and fine-boned, delicate features with obvious and very masculine appreciation. “I can’t say I blame him for wanting to marry you on the spot. I’ve got a hunch you’ll be the reason he recovers in record time, too. My advice is that you get some rest now, Mrs. Mendez. I’ll be around to see both you and your husband in the morning.”

After he left the desk the chaplain turned to her, smiling. “I told you that you had nothing to worry about, didn’t I? Are you ready to leave? I’m on my way home, and I’d be happy to drop you some place.”

“Thank you. I appreciate your kindness more than you know, but our rental car’s outside with the luggage. It was hardly damaged—just a dent. I’ll find a motel and manage just fine.”

The chaplain recommended a nearby motel and wished her good-night and a safe drive.

But Kit hadn’t realized how difficult it would be to get back in the car, to sit where Rafe had been sitting when he was injured. It brought back the horror of his accident all too clearly. A new rush of pain almost immobilized her, and she arrived at the motel too distressed to think of resting.

She’d never known a night could pass so slowly. Her sleep, when it did come, was fitful. In her anxiety she got up repeatedly to pace the motel room floor, staring at Rafe’s gold and ruby seal ring, which was too large for her finger and kept slipping off. It had been passed down to the first-born son through four generations of Mendezes and given to him by his father, Don Fernando. Afraid of losing something so priceless, she reached for her handbag and put it in one of the zippered compartments where it would be safe.

By eight o’clock the next morning, she’d had some juice and a sweet roll provided by the motel, then gone straight to the hospital’s emergency room desk. Relief flooded through her when she was given permission to go straight to the ICU. Dr. Penman met her at the door and took her aside.

“Your husband had a good night and is resting comfortably. So far, there are no complications, no fever. Even so, I’m only allowing you to see him for a moment because he’s a little hazy and confused.”

“Is that normal?” Kit asked in alarm.

He nodded. “Quite often we see post-op head-injury patients experience this reaction. It doesn’t usually last very long. But every case is unique and no two patients respond the same way. I wanted you to be aware of this so you wouldn’t say or do anything to upset him. Just behave naturally. Shall we go in?”

Her emotions ranged from longing and anticipation to fresh anxiety as she hurried into the room ahead of the doctor. Rafe lay perfectly still in the hospital bed, his head swathed in a white bandage, his hard-muscled body hooked up to monitors. He was awake, following their progress with his eyes.

The relief of knowing he’d come through the operation so well and that his color was so much better had her rushing to his side. “Darling?” she whispered. She reached out to touch his upper arm where the bronzed skin was exposed below the hospital gown. “How are you? I’ve missed you,” she said anxiously.

His interested gaze wandered over her mouth and eyes, the shape of her face. But there was no hint of recognition. Until this moment she’d never seen him look at her with anything but desire and passion. And anger, when she’d told him she couldn’t see him anymore because their relationship was destroying his family.

The change in him staggered her.

She rubbed his arm gently, hoping the physical contact might help. “Darling? It’s Kit. I love you.”

“Kit?” He said her name experimentally, with that light Spanish accent she loved.

“Yes. Do you remember we were married last night? I’m your wife now.” He still didn’t respond. She fought to quell her rising panic. “How do you feel? Are you in pain?”

He muttered some Spanish phrases she couldn’t understand, then closed his eyes. Dr. Penman signaled to her from the other side of the bed, where he’d been conferring with the nurse. In acute distress Kit followed him into the hall.

“He didn’t know me!” She choked on the words. “When you told me he was confused I thought—” She shook her head. “I had no idea he wouldn’t even recognize me.”

The doctor looked at her with compassion. “This is only temporary. Do you remember the skier last year who fell during a race in Switzerland? She suffered a concussion and temporary amnesia after her fall. Give your husband another twenty-four hours and he’ll be himself again, just like she was.

“Call the desk tonight after I’ve made rounds. If he’s more lucid, you can visit him for a few minutes. If not, call again in the morning after eight.”

Kit phoned twelve hours later but there’d been no change in Rafe’s condition. When seventy-two hours passed and he still had no memory of her or what had happened to him, Dr. Penman ordered another CT test, along with blood tests and a toxicology screen. But the results indicated that nothing was organically wrong.

Feeling as though she were in the middle of a nightmare, Kit met with Dr. Penman and a Dr. Noyes, the staff psychiatrist who’d been called in for consultation.

“Why doesn’t he remember me, Dr. Noyes? What’s going on? I’m frightened.”