“Okay then,” she said briskly, to cover her emotional reaction. “Neither do I. And you seem to have forgotten that I’ve lost someone I loved, too—my brother. I know exactly how devastating and life-altering that experience can be.”
“But—”
Beth cut him off. “You’ve been honest with me, Mack. That’s all you owe me. I’m a grown woman. I can decide when the risk is too high. It’s not your decision to make, at least not on my behalf, only for yourself.”
His expression still troubled, he touched her cheek. “But I couldn’t bear it if I hurt you or let you down. You don’t deserve that.”
“You might do both,” she told him, then slid out of the chair to wrap her arms around him and rest her cheek against his. “But not tonight. Not unless you go away without making love to me.”
He studied her intently, then a smile tugged at his lips. “Guess there’s no chance of that, darlin’. No chance at all.”
A few days later Mack sat in his office contemplating the turn of events that had kept Beth in his life. For a few minutes he’d thought it was all over, thought it needed to be over. It had stunned him how much that had dismayed him.
Until Destiny had spilled the beans to Pete Forsythe, Beth had been the first woman that the media hadn’t caught on to in Mack’s life. Now that the days of being out of the limelight were pretty much over, Mack appreciated them more than ever. It had been surprisingly nice to actually have a private life that was his alone.
At least so far, his warnings to his aunt had kept Beth’s identity a secret. He’d thought maybe that photo had been a boon, after all, that it would throw Forsythe off the scent, but he’d been mistaken about that. In fact, according to the indignant call he’d received a half hour ago from Jason, the columnist had been poking around at the hospital this morning.
Fortunately, most of those who knew about the two of them were as interested in protecting Beth as Mack was. Jason had reassured him that he, Peyton and the other doctors and nurses who worked around Tony would never say a word. Tony might happily give away the secret, but so far the hospital public relations department had been dedicated to protecting the identity of the sick child Mack came to visit so regularly.
Yesterday, when a reporter had caught up with Mack outside the hospital, he’d uttered nothing more than “No comment,” then hurried inside, beyond the reach of the reporters and photographers who were staking out the public areas outside hoping for details of the secret romance in his life. He knew that the terse reply would only stir curiosity. Until now he’d been well-known for cooperating with the media. Until now he hadn’t even viewed them as adversaries, but rather as a condition of celebrity.
Of course, until now, the women he’d been with had sought the spotlight that shone on them because of him. Maybe that’s why he felt so completely off-kilter. Beth didn’t crave the media attention. She was with him despite it, in fact.
Just as important, his relationship with Beth was his alone, not the media’s and not his fans’. He was stunned to discover he could be with a woman out of the spotlight for weeks on end without growing bored or restless. They had an endless supply of things to talk about besides football, and that was a relief, too. His brain was getting a workout keeping up with Beth, and rather than being intimidated by that, he was delighting in it.
He was pondering the meaning of all that when his secretary buzzed him.
“Dr. Browning on line one. She says it’s urgent.”
Heart pounding, he picked up the phone. “Beth? What is it? Are you okay?”
“It’s Tony,” she said, her voice oddly cool and detached. “He’s taken a turn for the worse.”
When? How? Was this it, then, after all that struggle? A million and one questions nagged at him, but he could tell from Beth’s tone that now was not the time to ask them.
“I’m on my way,” Mack promised, his heart pounding. “Hang in there, sweetheart. And tell Tony to hang on, too.”
“Hurry, Mack.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Without that donor marrow, he doesn’t stand a chance,” an unfamiliar doctor was telling Beth when Mack arrived. Peyton and Jason were beside her, their expressions equally bleak. “If we could get that transplant lined up, we could go ahead with the high-dose chemo and prep him. It’s our only shot at this point.”
“No hits on the donor list?” Beth asked in that same detached tone she’d used on the phone. She could have been talking about someone she’d barely met rather than a boy that Mack knew she loved as much as he did.