got along like hot chocolate and marshmallows, but that very fact gave him pause. He’d spent his life struggling to become a doctor. It took hard work, long hours, and a lot of money. He appreciated the fact that nothing worth having came easily, and that included falling in love.
Bennett stared glumly at the clouds. Breaking things off with Lacy was the right thing to do.
In fact, he needed to take it one step further. He had to put as much distance between them as possible before his pheromones got the better of him again. He needed to leave Texas for good. After the transplant surgery, he was going to tell Dr. Laramie he wanted to cut his study fellowship short by a week.
With any luck, by this time tomorrow he’d be on his way home to Boston.
13
“It’s over between us.” Lacy lay across her bed in her apartment, sobbing into her hands. CeeCee and Janet sat on either side of her.
Dylan had driven her from West in her car two days after Bennett had departed. She’d been unable to tell her family that the thunderbolt had failed.
“What do you mean, it’s over?” CeeCee asked. “When two people love each other there’s always hope.”
Fat chance for that. Damn CeeCee and her eternal optimism. “Bennett doesn’t love me,” she countered.
“How can you be so sure?”
“I found out from Pam that Bennett went back to Boston on the first plane out of George Bush on Monday morning.”
CeeCee’s mouth dropped. “He ran away?”
“Fast as a scalded dog.” Lacy echoed one of Great-Gramma’s sayings, then she burst into fresh tears.
“There, there,” Janet soothed, gently patting Lacy on the shoulder. “All men are scum.”
“No.” Lacy wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Bennett’s not scum. This was my fault.” She told her friends about the thunderbolt. “I never told him about the thunderbolt or about Great-Gramma faking her illness until it was too late. Who can blame him for feeling duped?”
“I can blame him,” CeeCee said. “He hurt my friend. If he were here right now, I’d kick him in the fanny and ask him what on earth he was doing dumping the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“Thanks for your support.” Lacy sat up, took the tissue CeeCee offered her, and delicately blew her nose. “But really, this is my responsibility. I’m the one who bought into that thunderbolt nonsense. You’d think I would have stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago.”
“It’s hard to fight a family legend,” Janet sympathized.
“I can’t believe I wasted so many years waiting for the thunderbolt to strike.” Lacy shook her head. “I was a fool. I should have been dating and having fun. I should have bought a house and planted a garden. I don’t need some mythical knight in shining armor to change my life.”
“You go, girl,” CeeCee sang.
“I took a gamble. You’ve got to give me credit for that. For once I went after what I wanted. So what if it blew up in my face?” Lacy spoke firmly, trying to convince herself as much as her friends that she was going to be all right.
But the hole in her soul whispered that she was kidding herself. Yes, she had learned a lot, and yes, she would survive, but without her other half, would she ever be completely whole?
For so long she’d waited for the thunderbolt. Now that it had struck and left her charred to a crisp, she didn’t know how to proceed. For twenty-seven years she’d believed that true love would solve everything. She had to face reality.
Bennett didn’t want her and honestly, she couldn’t blame him.
“How are you this morning, Mr. Osborn?” Bennett consulted the chart in his hand, then glanced at the spry octogenarian sitting up in the hospital bed at Boston General. His wife sat in a chair beside him, their hands clasped together.
Will I ever have that kind of closeness with anyone? Bennett wondered, then immediately thought of Lacy.
It seemed he couldn’t stop thinking about her no matter how hard he tried. He’d had such intimacy for the briefest of moments, and his feelings had scared him so much that he had chickened out.
The elderly man laid his free hand over his chest and smiled. “Thanks for fixin’ my ticker, Doc.” Henry Osborn was a native Texan, and his friendly drawl reminded Bennett too much of where he’d just been. Why did fate seem to keep reminding him of what he’d left behind?
“I’ve had sixty