“I appreciate your concern,” Mack told his aunt. “But maybe you should let me handle this from here on out, okay?”
“Whatever you think is best,” she said meekly.
“Thank you,” Mack said, figuring that submissiveness would last for no more than twenty-four hours. “Love you.”
“Love you, too, darling.”
As soon as he’d hung up from speaking to Destiny, he called a florist and ordered a dozen white roses to be sent to Beth at the hospital. It might not be much, but as peace offerings went he figured it was a decent start.
Of course, there was always the slim possibility that Beth hadn’t even seen this morning’s paper and would have no idea why he felt the need to apologize in the first place. In that case, those roses might even buy him enough points to get another night in her bed, rather than the crack of a vase over his head.
Chapter Thirteen
Beth returned to her office from morning rounds to find a huge bouquet of perfect white roses in a crystal vase on her desk and Jason sitting in her chair with his feet propped up and a grim look on his face.
Jason’s expression was somber enough, and his mere presence at this hour was sufficient to distract her momentarily from the flowers.
“What’s wrong? Nothing’s happened to one of the kids, has it? I just finished seeing most of them. Everyone seemed to be stable.”
He shook his head. “I’m not here about the kids.”
“What then?”
“I think you should sit down.”
She lifted a brow and pointedly stared at him. When he didn’t get the hint, she told him, “You’re in my chair.”
He guiltily scrambled up and moved out of her way. As he settled on the edge of the spare seat next to her desk, he cast a sour look at the flowers.
“Okay, now I’m sitting,” Beth said, studying him and trying to make sense of his odd mood. “What’s going on, Jason? It’s not like you to be so mysterious.”
“I think we need to talk about Mack,” he said, regarding her seriously.
The announcement was so unexpected, so totally unlike Jason, that Beth merely stared. “You want to talk about Mack?” she repeated slowly. “Is this about those tickets you’re so hot to get?”
“Forget about the damn tickets!” he said heatedly. “I think you should stop seeing him.”
Beth couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d announced a desire to marry her himself. “Why do you suddenly care if I continue to see Mack? In fact, I thought that was exactly what you wanted. The other day you all but begged me not to break up with him, at least not until after football season.”
In the way of most males who took a contradictory position five seconds after battling over something, he shrugged. “I changed my mind.”
“Are you going to tell me why?”
Like a kid being forced to tattle, he made a face. “Do I have to?”
“Yes, Jason,” she said patiently. “If you want me to stop seeing Mack, you need to tell me why. Obviously you have a reason. What’s the agenda here?”
“He’s no good for you. You’re a decent person, Beth. A great person, in fact. He’s…” He seemed stuck for a suitable word. “Okay, he’s a playboy, a scoundrel and…what’s that other word? A rogue. That’s what he is, a rogue.”
Beth chuckled. “That’s hardly news. I thought we were all well aware of that before he ever set foot in this hospital.”
“I mean he’s still a playboy,” Jason said, looking miserable. “Even though he supposedly has something going on with you.”
Her heartbeat seemed to slow down as Jason’s message finally sank in. Mack was still playing around, despite how close she thought they’d gotten, despite the fact that she had feelings for him and he claimed to have feelings for her. In fact, most likely, it was precisely because he was starting to care for her that he’d started running around with another woman…assuming Jason was to be believed.
“And you know this because?” she asked.
He pulled a folded-up section of the newspaper from his pocket and handed it to her. “Something tells me this explains the flowers,” he said quietly.
Beth stared at the photo, apparently taken the night before, when she’d assumed Mack was with his brothers. Apparently, he’d found a far more effective way to cheer himself up. She felt sick inside at the sight of the buxom woman draped all over him.
To cover her reaction, she immediately balled up the paper and tossed it in the trash, then regarded Jason with a bland expression. Pride demanded that she put on a very convincing act, even with this man who was a good friend.