His Virgin Wife: The Wedding in White / Caught in the Crossfire / The Virgin's Secret Marriage. Diana Palmer
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Chapter 6
The phone rang on the one morning during the week when Natalie could sleep late. It was Mack, and he sounded worried.
“It’s Viv,” he said at once, not bothering with a greeting. “I had to take her to the emergency room early this morning. She’s got the flu and it’s complicated with pneumonia. She refused to let me put her in the hospital, and I’ve got to fly out to Dallas this morning on business. My plane leaves in less than an hour and a half. The boys are off on a hunting trip. I hate to ask you, but can you come over and stay with her until I get home?”
“Of course I can,” she replied. “How long are you going to be away?”
“With luck, I’ll be back by midnight. If not, first thing tomorrow.”
“I don’t have to go in to the grocery store to work until tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be glad to stay with her. Did the doctor give you prescriptions for her, and have you been to the pharmacy to pick up her medicine?”
“No,” he said gruffly. “I’ll have to do that—”
“I’ll pick them up on my way over,” she said. “You go ahead and catch your flight. I’ll be there in thirty minutes if they have her prescriptions ready.”
“They should be,” he said. “I dropped them off before I brought her home. I’ll phone and give them my credit card number, so they’ll already be paid for.”
“Thanks.”
“Thank you,” he added. “She feels pretty bad, so she shouldn’t give you much trouble. Oh, and there’s a little complication,” he said irritably. “Whit’s here.”
“That should cheer her up,” she reminded him.
“It will, as long as you don’t look at him.”
She laughed. “No problem there.”
“I know you don’t like him, but she won’t believe it. If there was anybody else I could ask, I wouldn’t bother you. I just don’t like the idea of leaving her alone with him, even if she does have pneumonia.”
“I don’t mind. Honest. You be careful.”
“The plane wouldn’t dare crash,” he chuckled. “I’ve got too much work to do.”
“Keep that in mind. I’ll see you when you get back.”
“You be careful, too,” he said. “And wear your raincoat. It’s already sprinkling outside.”
“I’ll wear mine if you wear yours.”
He chuckled again. “Okay. You win. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”
She said goodbye and hung up, rushing to get her bag packed so that she could get over to the ranch.
She walked into Viv’s bedroom with a bag of medicine, a cold soft drink that she knew her friend liked and some cough drops.
Viv looked washed out and sick, but she managed a wan smile as Natalie approached the bed. Whit was sprawled in an armchair by the bed, looking out of sorts until he saw Natalie. His eyes ran over her trim figure in jeans and a button-up gray knit sweater with a jaunty gray and green scarf.
“Don’t you look cute,” he said with a smile.
Viv glared at him. So did Natalie.
“Why don’t you make some coffee, Whit?” Viv asked angrily. “I could do with a cup.”
He got out of the chair. “My pleasure. What do you take in yours, Nat?” he asked smoothly.
She turned and looked him right in the eye. “Nobody calls me Nat except Mack,” she pointed out. “It isn’t a nickname I tolerate from anyone else.”
His cheekbones colored briefly. “Sorry,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I’ll just make that coffee. Be back as soon as I can.”
Viv watched him go and then turned cold eyes on her friend. “You don’t have to snap at him,” she said curtly. “He was only being polite.”
Natalie’s eyebrows went up. “Was he?”
“Mack shouldn’t have called you,” she said tersely. “I’d have been just fine here with Whit.”
Natalie felt uncomfortable and unwelcome. “He thought you needed nursing.”
“He thought I needed a chaperone, you mean,” she said angrily. “And I don’t! Whit would manage just fine.”
“All right, then,” Natalie said with a forced smile. “I’ll go home. There’s your medicine and some cough drops. I guess Whit can pick up anything else you need. Sorry I bothered you.”
She turned and walked to the door, almost in tears.
“Oh, Nat, don’t go,” Viv said miserably. “I’m sorry. You came all this way and even brought my medicine and I’m being horrible. Please come back.”
Natalie had the door open. “You’ve got Whit…”
“Come back,” Viv pleaded.
Natalie closed the door and went to the armchair by the bed, but her eyes were wounded and faintly accusing as she sat.
“Listen, Whit doesn’t like me,” Natalie told Viv. “He’s only flirting with me to make you jealous. Why can’t you see that? What in the world could he see in me? I’m not pretty and I don’t have any money.”
“In other words, he wouldn’t like me if I didn’t have a wealthy background?” Viv asked pointedly.
“I said you were pretty, too,” she replied. “I know you feel bad, Viv, but you’re being unreasonable. We’ve been friends for a long time. I don’t know you lately, you’re so different.”
Viv shifted against her pillows. “He talks about you, too, even when you aren’t here.”
“It isn’t what you think,” Natalie said, exasperated. “He’s never said or done a thing out of line.”
“He’s very good-looking,” Viv persisted.
“So are you,” Natalie said. “But right now you’re sick and you don’t need to upset yourself like this. Mack asked me to take care of you, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
Viv studied her through fever-bright eyes. “Did you know that Glenna was going with him to Dallas?” she asked with undeniable venom.
Natalie forced herself not to react. “Why?” she asked carelessly.
“Beats me. I suppose she had something to do there, too. Anyway, I don’t think he’ll come back tonight. Do you?”
Natalie glared at her. “You really are a horror,” she said through her teeth.
Viv flushed. “Yes, I guess I am,” she agreed after a minute. “Mack said he wouldn’t wish the boys and me on a wife. He said it wouldn’t be fair to expect anyone to have to take us on, as well as him. I know Glenna wouldn’t. She hates me.”
“Your brother loves all three of you very much,” Natalie said, disquieted by what Viv had said.
“Well, he’s not my father. Bob and Charles are in their last two years of high school and then Bob wants to go into the Army. Charles wants to study law at Harvard. That will get them out of the way, and if I marry Whit, which I want to do, Mack will have the house to himself.” Her voice was terse and cool. She didn’t quite meet Natalie’s eyes. “Would you marry him, if he asked you?”
“That won’t happen,” Natalie said quietly.
“Are you sure of that?”
“Yes,” came the soft reply. “I’m sure. Mack’s self-sufficient and he doesn’t want to be tied