Once Upon a Groom. Karen Smith Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ time ago.” With those words, and a last long look, Zack walked away.

      Jenny stared at his back, remembering the first time he’d left her. Six weeks later, she’d discovered she was pregnant. Six weeks after that, she’d miscarried.

      Zack Decker might think he knew everything, but he still didn’t know that.

       Chapter One

       Late October

      Finally back in L.A., Zack studied the stack of script revisions on his desk, the mound of messages not important enough to return while he’d been on location. He started with the most recent, saw Dawson Barrett’s name and smiled. He and Dawson had kept in touch over the years, and they’d reconnected briefly at the reunion a few months ago.

      He’d call Dawson when he returned to his penthouse later that night. From the amount of reading on his desk, he would be staying in the city this weekend.

      He swore. He’d been looking forward to a couple of days at his house in Malibu. That was the one place he could relax. Usually he derived satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment after a movie was in the can. But this time, his mind had kept drifting. The adrenaline rush had been missing and he didn’t know why.

      His cell phone vibrated against his hip. He considered ignoring it, then pulled it from his belt and studied the caller ID on the screen, surprised to see it was Jenny. A sense of foreboding zipped from his head to his loafers.

      “Jenny?”

      Words came tumbling from her. “I was afraid you’d still be out of the country.”

      “I just got back yesterday. What’s wrong?”

      He heard her take a steadying breath and he braced himself for what was coming.

      “Silas collapsed. I rode with him in the ambulance to Flagstaff—” Her voice caught.

      Zack went numb, absolutely numb. Images of his dad riding Hercules, giving the hands orders, smoking a Cuban cigar, flew through his mind. The idea of Silas being loaded into an ambulance … How could Jenny have been so right when he’d seen no evidence of a problem? Was he blind where his father was concerned?

      He pushed out the words lodged in his throat. “I’ll catch the first flight out.”

      “Zack …”

      To his surprise, he still felt connected to Jenny and could read her thoughts. “I know you’re scared. Try to take a deep breath and hope for the best. Call me with updates. If I’m on the plane, I’ll get your message when I land.”

      “What if you can’t get a seat?”

      “Then I’ll charter a plane. You don’t have to go through this alone.”

      “Thank you.”

      Her voice wobbled in a way that was so unlike Jenny that Zack’s throat tightened. “No thanks necessary. I should have listened to you.”

      She said nothing.

      “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Hold tight.”

      She murmured her thanks again and ended the call.

      Conflicting emotions battered Zack as he turned to his computer to make a reservation. What would he find when he got to Flagstaff? Hope for the best, he’d told Jenny.

      Just what was the best?

      Late that night, Zack rushed into the emergency room entrance of the stucco and brick hospital in Flagstaff, his pulse racing. He’d thought he’d distanced himself from his father. He’d thought he simply didn’t care anymore. Maybe that’s why he hadn’t seen the symptoms Jenny had noticed when he’d been home for the reunion. Or maybe his father pretended as much as he himself did.

      It was possible his father had put up a front for Zack’s benefit, but Zack’s coolness and reserve toward Silas wasn’t a pretense. They’d had many arguments before Zack had left for film school. Growing up, he’d often seen his dad inebriated after a high-stakes poker game. He’d heard his parents’ arguments and known his dad was always at the root of them. When Zack had learned what had happened the day his mother died, why she’d taken off in that airplane to visit her sister in Montana, he’d disowned his father just as his father had practically disowned him when he left the ranch to pursue a film career.

      After inquiring at the desk and showing ID, he headed for the cardiac intensive care unit and found Jenny in one of the waiting rooms. Even looking distraught and pale, she was a beautiful woman. At thirty-three, maturity had touched her in attractive ways. Her glossy blond, shoulder-length hair framed a heart-shaped face that had taken on a more haunting beauty. Her deep brown eyes, always wide with emotions, were stunning as she looked up at him.

      “I’m so glad you’re here. They’ve stabilized him but—” The quick shutdown of her thoughts told Zack just how upset she was.

      Shrugging out of his leather jacket, he laid it over the back of the sofa.

      “Did you even have time to pack?” she asked.

      “No. I keep a duffle in my office with a change of clothes and workout gear. I just grabbed that.”

      “Are you going to try to see him now?”

      “Yes, for a few minutes. Thanks for giving me his doctor’s number. I called him after I landed. He said he’d noted on the chart that I could see him when I arrived.”

      “Zack, you can’t upset him.” She looked as if that was hard for her to say, but yet she knew she had to say it.

      Her regret didn’t help the sting, though, and he replied, almost angrily, “Do you think I would? My God, Jenny, I don’t wish him harm.”

      “How would I know what you wish him, Zack?”

      She was right. How would she know? They hadn’t really talked except about the most mundane practical things when he called his father now and then. He’d felt it was his duty to keep in touch even though he hadn’t wanted to. Sometimes Jenny would answer. Sometimes they’d exchange pleasantries. Others she’d just tell Silas he was on the line.

      We live in different worlds, he reminded himself, not for the first time. Yet standing here, facing her again, years dropped away and lingering nudges of what they’d once shared startled him. Memories ran through his head of the two of them sitting on the corral fence talking … of gentling a foal together … of graduating … of making love in the hayloft. No—not making love. Having sex. If it had been love, Jenny would have gone with him to L.A. when he’d asked her.

      “How long are you going to stay?” she asked, and he could see she was already preparing herself for the fact he might be here merely twenty-four hours again.

      “I don’t know. Let’s just see what happens after tomorrow. I’ll conference with the doctor and then decide.”

      She appeared to want to say something, maybe ask him if he could stay longer than a day, but she didn’t. Instead she murmured, “I’ll СКАЧАТЬ