There was a clicking sound on the line that could have been the sounds of a call waiting.
“Jason? Hello? Damn this thing!” Sybil swore roundly and crashed the phone’s handset into its cradle.
Elizabeth stood and stared at the blinking light, paralyzed. So, this was a taste of Jason’s family.
Sybil Colton hardly seemed the type to exude much compassion, when it came to a person’s foibles. She patted her belly, then moved to one of the stainless steel stools and managed to sit down just before she fell down.
Jason had told his grandmother about her, but he hadn’t, it appeared, told Sybil that she was a Mansfield.
“Hey, doll, I’m home,” Jason called and kicked the door shut behind him. He found Elizabeth sitting at the kitchen island, staring at his answering machine. After he tossed his grocery bag on the counter, he came up behind her and playfully rested his chin on her shoulder. “You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you.”
“The phone woke me up.”
There was an unusual note in her voice. Strain. Tension. Maybe worry.
She nodded and waved distractedly at the answering machine. “It was your grandmother.”
“Sybil called, huh? What did she want?” Something told him that he didn’t want to know.
“She left a message.”
Jason pressed the play button and listened. Sybil’s noisy cacklings reminded him of a chicken attempting to lay an ostrich egg. His grin turned grimace as the familial skeletons came dancing out of the closet. Oh, well. Elizabeth would learn soon enough that his family was far from perfect.
Tuning out as Sybil attempted to diagnose Meredith’s mental state, Jason stretched out across the cool marble of the island and took Elizabeth’s warm hands into his own. Gut tight, he wondered why she was acting so aloof. He played with her fingers and waggled his brow, hoping to tease her out of her pensive mood.
Then, Sybil changed the subject.
“And, I’m still waiting to hear some more details about this woman you’re dating.”
Jason froze.
“So far, I only know that her name is Elizabeth, and that’s not a whole lot to go on.... If you’re considering making this woman a member of our clan, I’m going to need more information!
He cast a sheepish glance at Elizabeth for her reaction and noted that her face was fiery red. His heart lurched into his throat.
Busted.
Elizabeth knew he’d been talking to his family about her. Knew he’d informed them that they were dating. Knew that his interest in her had progressed beyond a mild interest in his sister-in-law’s friend to a serious interest in the possibility of making her a member of the Colton clan.
After Sybil had slammed the phone down in disgust, the room was eerily silent.
Jason patted Elizabeth’s hand and pushed himself off the island. Stepping to the freezer, he stuffed the gallon of chocolate ice cream inside and wondered what he should say now that the cat was out of the bag. After he shut the freezer door, he filled his lungs and pinched the bridge of his nose.
“I’m really sorry if she embarrassed you. I didn’t mean for you to find out how I felt about you this way.”
Elizabeth swallowed. “How,” she asked in a tiny voice, “do you feel about me?”
He moved around the island to stand at her side. A groan radiated from his gut. “I’m...” The word escaped on a long sigh. Slowly, he reached out and, cupping her cheek in his palm, stroked the high ridge of her cheekbone with his thumb. “I’m falling in love with you.”
“You are?” She turned to face him and, eyes closed, slipped her arms around his waist. She rested her forehead against his chest.
“Mm-hum. I think I was a goner at my brother’s wedding. The moment I laid eyes on you, all dripping and red-faced and trying to blow your nose on that welcome card, I thought to myself, that is the kind of woman I’d like to spend the rest of my life with. The kind of woman who shares my feelings about love and marriage and family. When I noticed that you were expecting a baby, I knew you were already taken and I felt...” He sighed and tipped her head back so that he could look into her eyes. “I felt cheated. Robbed.”
“I’ve felt that, too.”
“I know,” he whispered before his mouth sought and found hers. As Elizabeth parted her lips and allowed him entrance to her mouth, Jason felt the strange and wonderful magic that came from discovering the secret to life’s great mystery.
She was the one he’d been looking for all his life, he was suddenly sure. It didn’t matter that she’d been married before. It didn’t matter that she carried another man’s child. Those were simply the circumstances of life. He’d had his own loves...and his own loses.
The past was simply that. Past. Gone. No longer an issue.
They’d both learned about what they did not want out of a partner. Out of Me. And, Jason thought lazily, as he lost himself in the sweet sensuality of her kiss, they both knew that they did want love, marriage and family. No matter how that family came into being. His uncle Joe had taught him from the time he could remember that how a man became a father didn’t matter in the least. What mattered was how a man loved and cared for that child.
Jason already felt hugely possessive of Elizabeth’s baby. An ownership, of sorts, that didn’t come from biology, but from love.
And he could tell, by the way Elizabeth was kissing him, she felt the same way.
“Jason...” Her breathing coming in labored puffs, her face pink from the abrasion of his five-o’clock shadow, Elizabeth twisted her mouth away from his and planted her palms on his chest. “Jason, I have to tell you something.”
“Mmm.” Jason nuzzled her neck and kissed his way back up her jawline and to her mouth. Her low moans of pleasure were music. “Tell me, tell me,” he whispered into her mouth. She tasted so sweet and warm and feminine and...right.
Immediately the kiss grew frenzied. Hot. Their ragged breathing mingled with sounds of pleasure that emanated from their throats. Jason slid his hands from her face and around to the back of her head where he filled his hands with her thick, satiny brown hair.
When Jason kissed Elizabeth like this, nothing else mattered.
Again, Elizabeth broke free and, breathing as if she’d just run cross-country, gripped his biceps for support. “Jason.” The word came out in a sob. “We have to stop.”
“Why?”
“Because. I have something important to talk to you about. It concerns—” Her eyes darted about and she looked as if she were on the verge of tears. “I...”
Jason felt a sudden ember of dread flare and begin to burn in his belly. This thing she needed to talk to him about was serious. He sensed it was the secret she’d been harboring since they’d met, and he closed his eyes, steeling himself against the inevitable pain.
She was still in love with Mike.
Or Mike was coming for the baby.
Or Mike had suddenly come to his senses and decided that he’d been a moron to throw away a wonderful woman like Elizabeth.
As he stared down into her tortured face, old tapes from Angie’s tearful last-minute confession played in his head. Elizabeth took a step back and raked her hair out of her eyes.
“Wait,” he whispered, touching a finger to her lips. “I have a feeling we need to be sitting down for this.”
Elizabeth nodded.
He took her hand and led her over to his new couch. The couch that they had chosen together, just last week. He tugged her to his side and was on the verge of sitting down when his pager went off.
“Damn.” He reached into his pocket and studied the number. “It’s the hospital. I’ll call and find out what’s going on, and be back in a second.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Hey,” he told her as they stood before the couch, “whatever you have to tell me, I—” he swallowed hard “—it’ll be okay. I’m a big boy. I’ll live.”
Her head bobbed, but she didn’t look convinced, and his heart plu
mmeted. This was big. He was scared.
Jason had worked on people whose lives were hanging in the balance many times in his career, but never had he been as scared as he was now. Whatever she had to tell him was threatening their future.
Hands flexing with nervous energy, he strode across his expansive living room to the kitchen extension. He stabbed in the number to the hospital and as he waited to be connected from the switchboard to emergency, he watched Elizabeth.
Again, he was reminded of Angie’s agony after he’d discovered she’d had a tubal ligation. Seemed she hadn’t planned on telling him until after the wedding. Angie had made up her mind that she never wanted to have children, back when she was a very small child, and had had the surgery when she was still in her twenties. She’d had to leave the state to find a doctor willing to sterilize such a young woman.
Given Angie’s abusive parents, Jason could understand her reasons for not wanting children of her own. What he could not understand were the elaborate lies she told him about all the children they would have once they were married. If he hadn’t inadvertently overheard a conversation between An-gie and an OBGYN nurse at the hospital one day, he’d still be laboring under the illusion that someday he’d become a father.
But Angie hadn’t wanted a family. She’d wanted prestige, money, power and security. All of the things she’d missed out on, growing up with drug addict parents.
He clutched the phone as the hospital switchboard came on the line and prayed that he hadn’t fallen in love with the wrong woman yet again.
“Karen? It’s Dr. Colton. What’s going on?”
Jason listened intently for a moment, his eyes never straying from Elizabeth. “Okay. Tell them I’m on my way. Five minutes or so. Thanks.”
Slowly, he hung up the phone. Elizabeth’s eyes were filled with misery, and he wondered if his heart was back in shape to take another beating so soon.
He cleared his throat. “One of my elderly patients has taken a pretty bad fall. Broken hip, among other problems. I have to go, but I shouldn’t be gone too long.” He lifted his keys from the hook on the wall above the phone table. “I promise to finish cooking dinner just as soon as I get back. And then we can talk.” He cast her a smile he wasn’t feeling.
Elizabeth nodded, her return smile equally weak.
Jason moved to the door, then changed his mind and quickly crossed back to the couch. Bending forward, he tipped her chin and settled his mouth firmly over hers. She arched toward him and slipped her arms up over his shoulders. Wordlessly, she pulled him closer and deepened the kiss.
A whimper filled her throat and her kiss communicated the desperation they were both feeling. Within moments, the passion had flared to a level they hadn’t reached before now and Jason knew that he had to leave immediately. While he still could.
“You’ll be here when I get back?” he asked between ragged breaths. He could feel her nod as he devoured her jawline, her neck and then her collarbone with kisses.
“Yes,” she gasped. “I’ll wait.”
“Don’t move,” he warned. “I’ll be back within an hour. I promise. Then we can pick up where we left off.”
“Okay.”
Elizabeth smiled up at him, which would have made him feel much better if it hadn’t been for the tears that streamed down her cheeks.
Elizabeth stood at the kitchen counter, putting the lasagna together for Jason. She figured he wouldn’t mind, as he would no doubt be hungry when he got home. It had been nearly an hour since he’d left, and she was feeling a little light-headed from hunger herself.
Then again, it could have been that kiss that left her a little woozy. She couldn’t wait for him to come home. The sooner she came clean about this stupid feud and the wedge it placed between them, the sooner they could get on with their lives.
The phone rang as Elizabeth filled a dirty pot with soap and water. It was probably Jason, she surmised, glancing at the clock, calling to tell her when she could expect him home. She dried her hands on the towel that dangled from the refrigerator handle and picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Hello?” Just the anticipation of hearing his voice left her breathless.
“Who is this?”
“Elizabeth.” She frowned. This was not Jason. But the voice had a familiar quality.
“Elizabeth who?”
“Mansfield,” she answered before she realized that the familiar voice on the other end of the line was none other than Sybil Colton.
Chapter 8
Sybil fell silent for so long, Elizabeth wondered if she was still on the line.
“Hello?” she ventured timidly.
“Mansfield? You say your name is...Mansfield?”
Elizabeth couldn’t see switching to Sonderland now. Sybil would learn the truth sooner or later. “Yes. This is Elizabeth Mansfield.”
The repeated click of the lighter, coupled with moans of extreme frustration, sounded across the lines.
“Ouch,” Sybil mumbled. After apparent success and a deep breath of nicotine, the elderly live wire returned to the subject at hand. “You are the same Elizabeth that my Jason is dating?”
“Well, I guess you could—”
“I knew it!” Sybil shouted, causing Elizabeth to jump. “I knew it was too damned good to be true! For once in his pigheaded life the boy does what I want him to do, but then he has to go and screw the whole thing up by picking a damned Mansfield! I don’t believe this! Why, I simply won’t stand for it.” She paused to puff furiously on a cigarette.
Legs weak, knees knocking, heart hammering, Elizabeth wobbled over to the breakfast nook and sank into a chair.
“What is he thinking?” Sybil demanded.
“Well, I—”
“I have half a mind to jump on my jet and run over there and smack some sense into that boy. But he never did listen to me. No way. I was the one who told him not to waste his time with medicine. He has a brilliant gift for business like his father and uncle before him. But would he listen? No! He has to save the world. But I’m sure you’re familiar with his stubborn streak.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Elbows on the table, Elizabeth buried her head in her hands and pressed the phone to her ear with her shoulder.
“He can drive you mad. In a way, that boy reminds me of myself. I, too, was a rebel,” Sybil announced, seeming to forget that she was fraternizing with the enemy. “Resented the hell out of my conservative upbringing. Lived an expatriate lifestyle during the war that caused a rift between my big brother Teddy and me, I tell you. That and the fact that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool feminist.” Her voice took on a reminiscent quality. “Those were the good old days. I suppose Jason has told you about some of my times with Virginia Woolf and the gang. If he hasn’t, ask him. Those were the good old days, I tell you.”
Elizabeth held out the phone and stared at it. Where was this woman going with this? “Uh, Ms. Colton—”
“Call me, Sybil!” Sybil shouted, then wheezed and coughed at the exertion it caused.
“Okay, uh, Sybil,” Elizabeth began, thinking that perhaps the old woman wasn’t as opposed to the Mansfields as she liked to let on, “may I take a message for Jason?”
“Yes! You can tell that stinker for me that I forbid him to date a Mansfield!”
* * *
With a spring in his step, Jason bounded down the steps of his parents mansion and jogged across the parking area to his Jaguar. After spending an hour at the hospital with his patient, he’d stopped off here to talk to his mom and dad. He wanted to tell them about Elizabeth before Sybil burned up the phone lines with rumor.
As he sat in his car, he took a moment to once more look over the contents of the jewelry box he held. The sapphire-and-diamond choker was as beautiful as he remembered. According to his mother, the gems had been in the family for over three hundred years. The original necklace had been twenty-four inches, but recently, it had been skillfully fashioned into two chokers. Savannah owned one, and now...
&
nbsp; The thought of all that history converging into his relationship with Elizabeth brought a lump to his throat. He ran his fingers over the cool stones.
Elizabeth would love it.
He couldn’t wait to see her face when he presented her with this symbol of the feelings he held for her. This was the first time he’d ever held this piece in his possession. For some strange reason, it hadn’t occurred to him to offer it to Angie before they were married. He watched the way the light danced and refracted off the precious stones in the California twilight. Something about this piece just screamed Elizabeth.
Whatever was bothering her, certainly they could overcome it together. She was worth whatever amount of emotional torment they’d have to work through when he got home. She would be there waiting for him, just as she’d promised. Unlike Angie, Jason knew that he could trust Elizabeth.
He tucked the box into his jacket pocket and slipped the key into the ignition. The Jaguar’s engine roared to life and began to purr as he backed out of the driveway and headed for his apartment. From the glove compartment, Jason retrieved his cell phone and punched in his home number. It was such a warm feeling to know that Elizabeth waited there for him.
By the time the phone had rung for the fifth time, Jason began to grow alarmed. She should have answered by now. Even if she’d fallen back to sleep, surely she would have heard and answered the phone by now.
His answering machine picked up and he heard his voice invite the caller to leave a message at the tone.
“Elizabeth?”
There was no answer. “Elizabeth, honey, if you are there, pick up.” He knew she was there. She’d said she was going to be there. “Elizabeth?” Myriad thoughts, all bad, flitted through his mind.
She’d gone into labor.
She’d fallen.
She’d fallen and then gone into labor.
His mind whirled with the possibilities. “Elizabeth,” he said to the silent answering machine, “If you can hear me, don’t worry. I’m on my way home.” He tore through a yellow light and peeled around a corner. “I should be home in a few minutes. Hang on, sweetheart. No matter what the problem is, we can fix it.”
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