LITMIR.BIZ

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She halted mid-step.

      But she hadn’t seen him since…

      …the day she’d announced her impending marriage.

      …a marriage that had proven a huge mistake.

      Wasn’t she the picture of success? Thirty-one, divorced and living with her mother. God, she was pathetic.

      Beth squared her shoulders. This was the new millennium. Divorce wasn’t a disease and living with her mother wasn’t a measure of her lack of success in life. Both simply were.

      Besides, Zach Ashton was just a childhood memory…a local legend in these parts. The richest, most eligible bachelor in Higdon County. All the girls had loved him. But that was then and this was now. Beth grinned impishly. The guy was a lawyer. She knew plenty of lawyers. He was probably overweight, balding and sporting reading glasses.

      She hadn’t seen him in…five years? That was about right. He’d come home briefly when Mrs. Ashton had been hospitalized following her heart attack, but Beth had been away participating in a medical conference at the time. And since she’d only been living with her mother for four months, her schedule and Zach’s, as far as the couple of visits he’d made, had not coincided.

      She felt immensely better now. Beth started toward the cottage again. She might be divorced and living at home with her mother, but she had kept her figure. In fact, she took excellent care of herself. She ran three miles everyday and worked out, was still lucky to have great skin and not the first sign of gray hair. And her salary as a physician allowed her to invest wisely and to dress well.

      Well, usually she dressed well.

      Today being an exception since she was helping her mother in the garden and wasn’t on call. At sixty-five, Helen was slowing considerably, but she refused to allow the gardener to come near the roses—roses Beth’s father had planted. She smiled. Since she was living at home now, the least she could do was give her mother a hand from time to time. Besides, she’d always loved to play in the flowers. And jeans and T-shirts were still her favorite off-duty attire. She could care less if the president himself was stopping by this afternoon. Beth had no intention of behaving any differently than she always did.

      The sound of a car pulling into the drive brought her up short. She turned around slowly and shaded her eyes from the sun with her hand. Please don’t let this be him, Lord, she pleaded. I know I just said I didn’t care, but it was a little white lie. I need to be prepared before I face the man.

      A red sports car braked to a stop and the driver climbed out and stretched as if he’d been sitting too long. Though she didn’t recognize the car, Beth had that feeling. He turned toward her. Her heart stilled during the hesitation that followed. Then, as if finally recognizing her, a brilliant smile broke out across his face.

      It was him.

      “Beth!”

      Zach Ashton strode in her direction and her heart felt as if it had stopped beating entirely…which was impossible since she didn’t drop dead.

      He was not fat.

      Or balding.

      Or wearing reading glasses.

      He was perfect. Just like all those years ago, only better. He was tall, lean and absolutely gorgeous. His khakis might be slightly travel wrinkled, but the navy blue polo shirt that molded to his perfect pecs and broad shoulders more than made up for it.

      He stopped directly in front of her, pulled off his designer sunglasses and hugged her fiercely.

      He smelled like fresh air and sandalwood. And his strong arms felt like heaven around her. For about two seconds she resisted the urge to press her cheek to his chest and then she gave in. He’d held her just like this a hundred times before. When she’d cried after Sammy Potter pushed her down on the playground. When she’d gotten her period at eleven and realized she had to be a girl whether she wanted to or not. And then, at sixteen when her father had died and she’d been devastated.

      Eventually Zach drew away and stared down at her, his hands still bracketing her waist. “God, you look great.”

      Color shot to her cheeks. She did not look great. She had on jeans and a T-shirt and worn-out sneakers. She was sweaty and dusty from puttering in the garden with her mother.

      She was—darn it—she was a mess.

      “Hi, Zach,” she managed to croak. “You look…terrific.”

      Boy did he. His hair was shorter, but still dark and thick. Those eyes. She melted just looking into them. As clear and blue as when he’d been twenty-two and visiting from college. And his face. How could anyone so close to forty still look that damn good? There was a line or two here and there, but they only gave him character.

      “God, I’ve missed you,” he said wistfully. “What are you doing here? Visiting your mom?”

      This was it. Insecurity riddled what was left of her bravado. She was divorced, living with her mother and…God Almighty…still in love with Zach Ashton.

      “No,” she admitted, the word seeming to ring out in the otherwise silence that surrounded them. “I’m living here again. I’m on staff at Cartersville General.”

      He looked stunned.

      She felt humiliated.

      “I thought you were—”

      She shook her head, cutting him off before he could utter the M-word. “Not anymore.” Apparently their two mothers had kept their word about not mentioning Beth’s marital woes.

      Zach took her left hand in his and stared at her bare ring finger. He frowned. “I’m…” his concerned gaze reconnected with hers “…sorry.”

      Beth manufactured a smile. “I’m not.” She stepped out of his hold. “Your mother’s inside. I’m sure she can’t wait to see you.”

      He nodded distractedly. “Yeah.” He hitched a thumb toward his car. “I should get my bags.”

      Beth blinked. “Bags?”

      That devilish grin that had charmed every female in this county as well as the next spread across his devastatingly handsome face. “Didn’t she tell you? I’m taking a little time off. I’ll be here for two weeks. That’s why I drove instead of taking a flight.”

      Two weeks?

      Beth couldn’t take two weeks of having him right next door. The past was bound to come up. He’d want to talk. She’d want to…she slammed the door on that notion.

      “I thought maybe I could help with the birthday organizing,” he added when she didn’t respond.

      “That’d…be great,” she forced out. “Just great.”

      He started to back away, those amazing blue eyes never leaving hers. “Let’s have dinner or something,” he suggested in that sexy, utterly male way that came as naturally as breathing to him.

      “Sure,” she lied.

      Dinner was out of the question. She couldn’t have dinner with him. She couldn’t have anything with him. What was she thinking? Blast it all, it was like she was a teenager again and unable to think properly in his presence.

      He was halfway to his car before he finally turned his back to her, but before he did, he shook his head and exhaled a big breath of genuine masculine approval. “You look…terrific. It’s really good to see you.”

      Beth managed to keep her smile in place until he’d turned around. Then it collapsed into a ground-dragging frown. Only then, with his mesmerizing attention focused elsewhere, did her heart stumble back into an acceptable rhythm.

      She was doomed.

      Doomed to replay her tortured teenage years when she’d lived and breathed Zach Ashton.

      Whatever it took, she had to get her mother and Mrs.

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