Priceless

4 (#ulink_57827bf6-9a6e-5700-af78-35aca7048b64)

After his disconcerting encounter with his brother, Mack realized that he hadn’t been out on anything that qualified as a real date in several weeks. Maybe that was why he was feeling so edgy and out of sorts. Maybe that was why he was spending so much time seeking out Beth for a few minutes of female companionship at the end of the day.

Beth was quiet and undemanding and most definitely female. Seeing her casually at the hospital was a comfortable pattern to have fallen into. In fact, her total lack of personal interest in him was a relief after the pressure of too many feminine expectations and after his own misguided attempts to live up to the public perception that he was some sort of football-celebrity playboy. There had been a time when he hadn’t minded being labeled that way, but it had grown old recently. Very recently. In fact, it had happened when he’d realized it had shaped Beth’s view of him.

Consoled by the notion that his attentions toward Beth had nothing to do with an interest in the doctor herself, he vowed to rectify the situation as quickly as possible before anyone other than Richard started getting ideas. It would be especially bad if Destiny got wind of his nightly chats with the doc.

Rather than going directly back inside the hospital, Mack pulled out his cell phone in the parking lot and called an attractive stockbroker with whom he’d done a little professional business and a whole lot of off-the-clock deal-making of a personal nature.

Ten minutes later he’d scheduled a dinner date for later in the evening at her place. Given their usual pattern, they’d spend most of their time concentrating on dessert.

Satisfied with the proof that Richard was dead wrong about Mack’s interest in Beth, he went back to Tony’s room to play a few quick video games before his date. When he opened the door, though, he caught Beth with the hand-held computer, a little furrow of concentration on her brow as she tried to master the fast-paced game. His heart seemed to do an odd little stutter at the sight. He had no idea why.

“Come on, Dr. Beth,” Tony encouraged. “It’s not that hard.”

“Tell it to someone who’ll buy it,” she grumbled, not taking her eyes off of the small screen. “You hustled me, kid. You told me this was easy.”

Tony laughed. “It is,” he insisted, his gaze moving to Mack, who stood frozen in the doorway still trying to understand his unexpected reaction. “Show her, Mack.”

“I don’t need his help,” Beth retorted.

Tony rolled his eyes. “She keeps getting killed at level one.”

“Uh-oh, that’s not good,” Mack said, shaking off the disconcerting mood and moving across the room to stand behind her.

He leaned down to whisper a few tips in her ear, but the scent of a faintly sexy, musky perfume caught him by surprise. He was pretty sure she usually smelled of antiseptic and something vaguely flowery. This was something new. He wasn’t sure he liked it. It made his thoughts stray directly toward rumpled sheets and pillow talk. He mentally cursed his brother for planting that idea in his head.

“Go away,” Beth said, not even glancing at him. “I can do this.”

Mack chuckled at the display of independence. “If you say so,” he said, moving to sit on the edge of Tony’s bed. He glanced at the boy, who was grinning broadly.

“Women,” Mack said with a hint of exasperation. “You can’t tell them anything. That’s a lesson you need to learn at an early age, Tony.”

Beth did look up then, and the hand-held computer beeped and whistled as she went down in an apparent burst of video flames. She glared at it, then scowled at Mack.

“Tony, do not listen to a thing this man tells you about women,” she lectured primly.

“How come?” Tony asked. “Have you seen the babes he dates?”

At Beth’s sour expression, Mack bit back the chuckle that crept up his throat. He sensed that now was not a good time to reinforce Tony’s enthusiasm for Mack’s well-publicized social life. Nor was a denial that he had a stable of “babes” likely to be believed by either of them.

“I think what the doctor is trying to say is that I might not be the best example for you to follow when it comes to matters of the heart,” Mack said.

Tony stared at him. “Huh?”

Mack tried to control a grin and failed. “Yeah, I don’t get it, either, but women are funny about things like this. We’ll have a man-to-man talk on the subject another time.”

“Not on my watch,” Beth said grimly. “Tony, you need to get some rest.”

“But I’m not tired,” Tony protested.

“I think she wants to get me alone,” Mack explained to him. “She probably wants to chew me out for being a bad influence.”

“Oh, give it a rest,” Beth muttered. “This isn’t about you. It’s about Tony not getting overly tired.”

“Hey, Doc, you were the one in here playing video games. I just got here,” Mack reminded her.

Frowning at him, Beth marched to the door and held it open, giving Mack a pointed look until he finally shrugged. He bent down to ruffle Tony’s hair, promised he’d be back tomorrow, then followed her from the room.

“Mind telling me what that was all about?” he inquired, regarding her with amusement. “Are you just a sore loser?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Jealous?” he suggested, surprisingly intrigued by that particular scenario.

She gave him a look that could have melted steel. “I don’t think so.”

“There must be some reason you don’t want me talking to Tony about women.”

“How about the fact that it’s inappropriate? It’s not your place. Besides that, he’s twelve, for goodness’ sakes. He doesn’t need to start thinking about girls in that way for a while.”

“I had a girlfriend when I was twelve,” Mack said, recalling the blue-eyed imp with curly hair rather fondly.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Beth responded irritably.

Mack smothered a laugh. “Something tells me you were not dating at twelve.”

“I wasn’t dating at twenty,” she snapped. “That’s hardly the point.”

“Then what is the point?” He studied her closely. “And why did you wait so long to date? You’re not bad-looking.” He deliberately chose the massive understatement just to see the flags of color brighten her pale-as-cream cheeks.

She opened her mouth to respond, then snapped it shut again.

“Not sure?” he taunted.

The fire in her eyes died slowly. She regarded him with a vaguely chagrined expression. “Not entirely, no.”

“Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too. I lose track of what point I was trying to make. Of course, it usually only happens when a really sexy woman catches me off guard. Is that what happened here? I got to you in there, the adrenaline started rushing around, and you kinda lost track of things?”

The fire came back with a vengeance then. “In your dreams, bud.”

She whirled around and stalked off, leaving Mack to stare after, oddly aroused by the whole exchange.

“Hey, you didn’t tell me why you were such a late bloomer,” he called after her.

She pointedly ignored him, her spine rigid as she rounded a corner and disappeared from view. Only when she was out of sight did he stop and question exactly which one of them had actually won this latest little skirmish. Since he was standing here all hot and bothered, he had a feeling Beth had triumphed without even realizing the game they were playing.

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