She gave him a stern look. “You’re determined to cross a line, aren’t you? I could take back the invitation.”
“You won’t, though. You’re feeling sorry for me.
Besides, I’m not determined to cross any lines, just considering the possibilities,” he replied. “Especially since mentioning them has put some color back in your cheeks.”
Beth frowned at him, and he managed to look suitably chastened. It was probably an act, but she let it pass. “Okay, then. Can you stick around while I speak to Mrs. Vitale? Then I’ll take you someplace for dinner.”
He regarded her with a hopeful expression. “Home?” he inquired. “That’s where I feel like being tonight. Yours. Mine. It doesn’t matter. I just don’t feel like being around a lot of people.”
Beth totally understood what he was saying. Being under a microscope must be hard enough when life was perfect. Being subjected to scrutiny when you’d been through an emotional wringer as Mack had been tonight would be unbearable.
She tried to imagine what in her kitchen might be edible, given the way she tended to ignore things like grocery shopping, then nodded. “There’s bound to be something I can throw together that won’t kill us both.”
“Works for me,” he said.
“I’ll just be a few minutes.”
“Take your time.” He gave her a faint smile. “If you want to make Tony’s day, tell him you’re taking me home with you.”
Beth laughed despite the somber mood and her exhaustion. “I think that might encourage his matchmaking efforts a little too much.”
Mack was still a little stunned that Beth had invited him to her place. He must have looked like the emotional wreck he was if she’d felt the need to take pity on him. Despite the obvious reason for the invitation, he couldn’t help looking forward to the opportunity to get a look at where she lived and maybe discover a few more details that would tell him what made her tick. His curiosity about her seemed to deepen with each encounter.
A woman with Beth’s sort of dedication and commitment to her work, with the compassion to treat kids in Tony’s dire straits, was a rarity in his world. His admiration for her grew with every minute he spent around her and the kids to whom she’d devoted her life. He’d done his share of good deeds and small kindnesses in his time, but Beth did Herculean good deeds every day.
When she finally emerged from Tony’s room, she gave him a distracted look and beckoned for him to follow her. “We can get out of here as soon as I get my purse and keys,” she told him. “I’ll jot down my address for you.”
A few minutes later she gave him an address on the fringes of Georgetown. He had a hunch she’d chosen it less for the prestige of the neighborhood than for its proximity to the hospital and the short commute required in an emergency.
“See you there in ten minutes,” she told him when they’d reached her car in the hospital parking lot. Mack had insisted on walking her there, though his own car was in the visitor’s lot. She seemed about to say something more, then hesitated, her expression thoughtful.
“What?” Mack prodded.
“Just trying to remember if there’s any wine in the house. Probably not. If you want some, you’ll need to stop and pick up a bottle,” she said as she got behind the wheel of her small SUV.
“I’m too wiped-out for wine,” he told her. “Unless you want some?”
She shook her head. “Not unless you don’t mind me falling sound asleep in whatever pot of food I’m fixing.”
He studied her weary, fragile features. “Look, Beth, I really appreciate the invitation, but we don’t have to do this tonight.”
“We both need to eat,” she said, sounding exactly like the dictatorial doctor he knew her capable of being. “Don’t dawdle along the way or I’ll make you eat spinach.”
Mack laughed. “I happen to love spinach.”
“Oh, my, your aunt really did train you well, didn’t she?”
“Let’s leave Destiny out of this. See you in a few,” he said, dropping a quick kiss on her forehead before closing the door of her car. “Drive safely.”
He loped out of the employee parking lot toward his own car half a block away feeling surprisingly energized all of a sudden, enough to motivate him to make a quick stop by the florist’s so that when he showed up on Beth’s doorstep he was carrying a huge bouquet of flowers.
As he rang the doorbell of her small brick town house, he realized he was anticipating the rest of the evening in a way he hadn’t looked forward to a date in a very long time. The knowledge that this impromptu date had been initiated by a woman to whom he supposedly wasn’t the least bit attracted didn’t seem to matter. Nor did the fact that sex clearly wasn’t on the agenda. He was content with the prospect of food and some intelligent conversation, anything that might delay going home, where he was certain to be plagued by dreams about Tony’s sad situation.