“Calm down,” Vivian said firmly, easing her down on the pillows. “When you’ve gotten your strength back, I’ll get you a frying pan and you can lay about him with it. In fact, I’ll even bend over and give you a shot at me. But for now,” she added softly, “you have to get well. You can only stay in the hospital until you’re back on your feet. But full recuperation takes longer—and you can’t stay by yourself.”
Bob and Charles were awake and crowding around the bed with their siblings.
“Right,” Charles said firmly, looking so much like his older brother that it was uncanny. “We’ll all take care of you.”
“I’ll hook up my game system and teach you how to play arcade games,” Bob offered.
“I’ll teach you chess,” Charles seconded.
“I’ll teach you how to be a real pain in the neck,” Vivian added, tongue in cheek. “I think I wrote the book on it.”
Natalie wavered as her eyes went to Mack. His gaze was steady on her face, quiet, and he looked almost vulnerable. Maybe it was a trick of the light.
“You could teach her how to jump to conclusions,” Vivian murmured dryly.
“I learned that from you,” he shot right back. He turned to Natalie. “I’m not coaxing. You’re coming back with us, one way or the other, and that’s the end of it.”
Natalie’s eyes started flashing. “You listen here, Mack Killain!”
“No, you listen,” he interrupted firmly. “I’m going to talk to the surgeon and find out what sort of care you need. I’ll hire a private nurse and get a hospital bed moved in. Whatever it takes.”
Natalie’s small fist hit the bedcovers in frustration. That hurt her chest, and she grimaced.
“Temper, temper,” Mack said mockingly. “That won’t get you anywhere.”
“I am not a parcel to be picked up and carried off,” she raged. “I don’t belong to you!”
He lifted one eyebrow. “In one way or another,” he said very quietly, “you’ve belonged to me since you were seventeen.” He turned to Vivian. “I’ll take the boys to a hotel and come back in a couple of hours. I’ll phone you as soon as we’re settled and you can get in touch with us if you need to.”
“Okay,” Vivian said with a smile. “Don’t worry,” she added when he hesitated at the door. “I’ll take good care of her.”
He still hesitated, but after a minute he shot a last, worried look at a furious Natalie and followed the boys into the hall.
“I won’t go!” Natalie choked out.
Vivian went close to the bed and gently smoothed Natalie’s hair from her forehead. “Yes, you will,” she said gently. “Mack and I have a lot to make up to you. I was so jealous of you that I couldn’t stand it. I thought I’d die if I couldn’t have Whit.” She shook her head sorrowfully. “You know, he even lied to me that he’d been making out with you. You were both downstairs for almost an hour and I didn’t have a clue that Mack had come home in the meantime,” she added ruefully, watching Natalie blush as she recalled what she and Mack had been doing during that time. “Whit said he’d found you more receptive than I’d ever been. It was a major misunderstanding all around, and the lie I told Mack, that I’d seen you and Whit together, didn’t do anything to help matters.” Her worried blue eyes met Natalie’s green ones. “Can you forgive me, do you think?”
Natalie let out the anger in a slow breath. “Of course,” she said. “We’ve been friends far too long for me to hold a grudge.”
Vivian bent and kissed her cheek. “I haven’t been much of a friend up until this point,” she said. “But I’m going to do a better job from now on. And the first matter of business is to get you a sponge bath and some breakfast.”
“Mack believed you,” Natalie said.
Vivian paused on her way to the door. She came back and put a gentle hand over Natalie’s where it lay on her stomach over the covers. “The night I told Mack that lie, he went into the office and locked the door and drank half a bottle of Scotch whiskey. I had to get the foreman and a locksmith to open it for me. When I finally got in, he’d passed out.”
Her eyes were troubled. “He never loses control like that. That was when I knew how much I’d hurt him. And after your graduation, when Bob and Charles lit into us about not being there, he went off by himself and wouldn’t even talk to us for days. I know what we did hurt you, Natalie,” she concluded. “But it hurt us just as badly. I’m sorry. Mack was right about Whit all along. He’s going around with another rich girl, but one who likes to gamble herself, and he’s got all the money he wants for the time being. I was an idiot.”
“You were in love,” Natalie excused her. “It doesn’t exactly make people lucid.”
“Doesn’t it?” Vivian asked pointedly, and with a curious smile.
“Don’t ask me,” the other woman replied, averting her face. “I was only seventeen when I had my first and last taste of it.”
“I know,” Vivian said disconcertingly. She smiled gently. “It was always Mack. And I knew it, and used it to hurt you. I regret that more than anything.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” Natalie ground out.
Vivian didn’t press the issue. She patted her hand gently. “Everything’s going to be all right. Believe that, if you don’t believe another word I say.”
Natalie shifted to a more comfortable position. “Did all of you come down here together?” she asked.
“Yes. Your surgeon phoned and told us you were fighting for your life and that somebody had to give permission for him to operate.” She grimaced. “Mack had to fax a permission slip to him as next of kin, so if anyone asks, we’re your cousins.” She held up a hand when Natalie started to
