Priceless

“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 Not only had she lost him, but a month later the grant had been withdrawn because of a vicious rumor he’d deliberately spun about her research methodology.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 (#ulink_134ea419-0a06-5536-84a2-deeeb8dc25d1)

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.