Sausages and French toast, kolaches and buttermilk biscuits, hash browns and fresh fruit cut into bite-size chunks. There was a pitcher of milk, a carafe of orange juice, and a pot of fresh brewed coffee. He’d never seen a spread like this outside a hotel buffet line. His mouth watered, and his stomach grumbled. He was starving.
“But the expo won’t be over until eight o’clock tonight,” Lacy protested.
“By then you and Bennett will have had a lovely nap, and you’ll be refreshed for your drive home.”
Lacy sighed, and Bennett wondered, not for the first time, why she was so anxious to get back to Houston. Granted, her great-grandmother seemed to be fine, but her family was so loving, so accepting, he couldn’t figure out why she didn’t want to spend more time with them. Hell, he would have given his right arm to have a close-knit family like this one and that was quite a sacrifice for a surgeon.
Lacy sat next to him, her crutches propped against the wall beside her. She kept casting surreptitious glances his way. If he were being honest with himself, he would admit to searching for her gaze time and time again.
Here, surrounded by her family, she had changed yet again. She wasn’t the shy scrub nurse, nor was she the seductive party girl from the night before. At home, she was the eldest daughter, motherly and responsible.
They were a lively group, jammed around the big table that occupied most of the large kitchen. The air hummed with the sound of their collective voices and clinking silverware. They included Bennett in their conversation about the yearly exposition they were attending that day. Mr. Calder and his oldest son, Dylan, had already left to open the booth featuring crafts and food made by the Calder family. The other family members would be departing as soon as breakfast was over. Except for Grandmother Nony, who volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on Great-Gramma.
He found their acceptance heartening and yet disconcerting. They made him feel like he belonged. But Bennett had no claim to their generosity. His presence was purely accidental. If he hadn’t been in Lacy’s apartment when the phone call had come, he would not be here.
“So how long have you and Lacy been going out?” asked Mrs. Calder.
“Mother,” Lacy said, “Bennett’s just a friend.”
Yeah, sure. Mrs. Calder’s expression was easy to read. She thought they were in a serious relationship.
That’s when Bennett knew his suspicions about Lacy were true. She didn’t bring strangers home to meet her folks. That’s why they accepted him so readily. Her family assumed if he was here, then their relationship was a serious one.
Bennett gulped. What had he gotten himself into? Lacy was a nice girl with traditional values, just as he’d suspected when he’d first laid eyes on her in the operating suite and told himself—This one is off-limits.
Seeing Lacy in her home environment told him everything he needed to know. This girl could never be a casual fling. The bold woman he’d met at the nightclub had been a front, a ruse. She’d played a part, pretending to be something she wasn’t.
Why?
And yet, those kisses. They’d certainly been real and as hot and passionate as any he’d ever received. They had not been an act.
But he had no space in his life for anything beyond a casual love affair. Pursuing his hard-won career goals prevented him from looking for love.
At least for now.
And he couldn’t ask her to wait for him. Lacy was in the prime of her life. Surely, she would want to marry and have children soon. That’s what she deserved. She needed a man who had the time to lavish her with attention, not a harried young surgeon scrabbling to build a career and pay off astronomical student loans.
Bennett felt strangely wistful that he wasn’t going to be part of this loving family, but he also felt claustrophobic, as if something beyond his control was drawing him into...what? For an educated man, he was having a great deal of difficulty expressing himself.
Then there were those cuff links that were resting in the front pocket of his shirt where Lacy’s great grandmother had dropped them when he tried to give the things back to her. The cuff links with the strange symbolism.
Thunderbolt. Love at first sight. Whirlwind courtship. His parents’ bad marriage. No thank you.
It wasn’t that he didn’t care about Lacy. He did. Very much. Probably too much. But he didn’t want her