He’d watched her. And his anger had kept growing. He’d accused her of letting Elizabeth undermine her confidence, her spirit, her values…their love. He’d been disappointed in her. Disappointed, angry, and…

Dead wrong.

He slipped off his shoes, turned off the lights downstairs and mounted the stairs slowly in the darkness. Bett was no one’s doormat. She never had been. She was an assertive, stubborn, strong-willed lady. The only time she turned into marshmallow was when there was a risk of hurting someone. She was terrible at hurting people-failed every time.

And for that, he’d turned on her? He was more than angry with himself; for days he’d been sick inside, not knowing how to make it right again, afraid anything he said would be wrong. Fear had built up in him, like a slow coiling spring, fear that he might have destroyed something that mattered more than life, that he might have hurt her in a way he could not make up for. The spring had coiled tight, too tight. His shoulders hadn’t untensed in days; he’d barely slept; every muscle felt taut.

He stood for a moment before the closed door of their bedroom. He meant to push very quietly at the knob; instead, all his pent-up despair shoved at the door. It swung open, and Bett jerked around where she stood on the far side of the room by the window, her eyes huge and uncertain in her pale face. Her arms were wrapped around her chest, and the sudden vulnerable flush on her cheeks tore at his heart as she rushed toward him.

“Zach! I’m sorry. You are just going to have to listen to me, so don’t start looking like that again. I’ve been wanting to tell you for days that I’m sorry-” Her hands fluttered up, her soft eyes brimming rapidly. “I couldn’t wait for you to come home. Everything went wrong today. I know how it must have looked to you, that everything was for my mother, that I didn’t care what you wanted. Zach, it wasn’t intended that way. I wanted so much to show you-”

“Sh.” The single syllable seemed to startle her. The coiled spring inside him seemed to uncoil at the speed of light. He was furious all over again that she was so unhappy. He took a step toward her, eyes blazing. And then, with a very gentle hand, pushed back a strand of hair on her cheek. “It wasn’t you,” he said earnestly. “I was wrong. Dammit, I never meant to hurt you. The thing with your mother was so important to you-I just wanted it to be right. For you, Bett. You were getting hurt, and I couldn’t just stand there. But I shouldn’t have pushed you.”

“Of course you should have pushed. I was so wrapped up in it, I couldn’t see. I did miss all the times we have together, all the feelings, all the simple conversations, and yet I kept letting it happen. It’s all my fault-”

He surged forward, tugging her into his arms and wrapping her close, folding in the soft fabric of her dress, the scent of her, her silky hair. He wanted his touch to be soothing, and it wasn’t. He couldn’t hold her tightly enough. “Nothing,” he growled, “was your fault. Nothing.”

“It was.”

“It wasn’t.”

“Zach-”

“Stop arguing with me.” He tilted her head back with his thumbs on her chin. His lips came down on her trembling ones, his touch turning gentle. In his hold was all the fear of losing her. Nothing was as vulnerable as loving. Nothing felt as good as the feel of his wife close to him again.

“Zach.” She stayed enfolded, but her eyes lifted to his, that frantic wariness gone but her face grave and still haunted with anxiety. “It was my fault, you know. I let the meaning of the two of us…slip away. I didn’t see. So insensitive, Zach, but I honestly never believed that could happen. I never had to let my mother control-”

“Maybe,” he agreed quietly. “I knew you could handle her, Bett. And I knew if you finally did, you’d be happier.” His fingers brushed back her hair. “I also happen to love you, you know. I love your softness and your giving. And to expect you suddenly to turn hard as nails was stupid on my part. Stupid and wrong.”

“It wasn’t wrong.” She leaned her cheek into his palm. “I never meant to-”

“Are you still arguing?” His tone was half humorous, half genuinely exasperated. And all loving.

Her eyes searched his face. The love she saw there was a fierce thing, even while he was trying to coax her into a smile. “You had a right to be angry,” she said quietly. “And…hurt. I know I hurt you. I…”

“No,” he murmured. “I hurt you.” His hands slid around her back, his mouth dipping down to the curve of her shoulder. So damn stupid, to be angry she wasn’t tougher inside, tough and hardhearted. Tough and strong were not the same thing at all. Every year they’d been married, she’d grown in confidence; he’d swelled with love, watching her. He wanted her to grow-not toughen, just grow. But it was long past time for him to make love to the lady she was, to make very sure she understood that he loved her just as she was. His palms slid down, cupping her slim hips. His lips found a delectable spot in the curve of her shoulder.

She yielded like Eve, with a sigh that seemed to flow through her body. She wrapped her arms around him and just held on, still trembling, her face buried in his shoulder. And for once, the knock on the door didn’t make her stiffen suddenly into a statue. Zach pressed his lips firmly on hers, drawing back. “I’ll handle it,” he said quietly.

“No. I will.” Bett pulled away from him. Elizabeth was her mother. This was exactly the time to prove it. All day she’d been trying to show him that she had her priorities back in order. When she pulled open the door, her eyes were brilliant, fired with determination.

Elizabeth, on the other side of the doorway, looked delectably vulnerable in her pink ruffled robe. “I was hoping you were awake, Brittany. There’s something I’ve been trying to tell you all day-”

“Mom, I’m exhausted. So is Zach.”

“I never told you about Harold Baker. You know, the man who owns the bookstore in Silver Oaks? And it’s been bothering me that I haven’t told you. Brittany, we’ve been meeting for lunch. And…more than lunch. Actually-”

Bett didn’t hear a thing. “I promise, Mom, we’ll talk in the morning. For just as long as you want, but right now-”

“I’ve been seeing him. And he…asked me to marry him.”

“I absolutely love you to bits, Mom,” Bett said blindly. “I know you can’t sleep; I wish I could help you with that. I will help you; maybe we can get an appointment for you with a doctor tomorrow. But right now, you’re just going to have to forgive me-I’m exhausted. Okay?”

Elizabeth sighed. “Of course. I-good night, darling.”

Bett closed the door, and whirled back to Zach. His arms felt like coming home. Zach held her close, and with a crooked smile, felt her cuddling, surrendering form turn stiff as her mother’s words sank in. “No,” she murmured into his shoulder.

“Open the door, two bits.”

“No.”

“It’s all right,” he whispered into her hair. “This is different.”

“She had to have made that up.”

“Open the door.”

“All day. All day I have been trying to show you how very much more you matter to me than my mother. Or than turkeys and holidays. Or than other people. Every single thing that could possibly go wrong with this day went wrong-”

His lips brushed her forehead. “Open the door.”


***

Five minutes later, the three of them were having instant coffee in the kitchen. “Now, he isn’t particularly good-looking,” Elizabeth said nervously. “But he plays canasta. So do I. He stays up until all hours of the night, can’t sleep. And he talks, all the time. I just…every time I’ve been in town I’ve found myself going there. We have coffee in the back and he takes me out to lunch. And three of the dinners-I didn’t tell you, Brittany. You were all for my going out, but this was…different. I knew it was different. And I thought you would feel I was being disloyal to your father-”

“Mom, that isn’t so,” Bett rushed in compassionately. “But for heaven’s sake, you can’t have known him very long.”

“Well, these three months. We’re hardly planning on a shotgun wedding, but at our age, there isn’t much point in our waiting, either. The thing is-you two. Whether you’d object-”

Zach and Bett exchanged a fleeting glance. “We don’t object,” Zach said quietly. “As long as you’re happy.”

“He’s such a fool. He just won’t take care of himself if he doesn’t have a woman around,” Elizabeth said distractedly. “He likes being bossed, he tells me. Not that I’m the bossy type-”

Bett’s lips parted. Zach laid a repressive hand on her knee. “You certainly aren’t,” he agreed.

“I don’t want either of you to think I’ve done anything…immoral-”

Bett debated for a second and a half whether to advise her mother that, truthfully, she’d better kick around an immoral action or two before she made any permanent commitments. Zach’s hand anchored on her knee again. “We never thought that,” he assured his mother-in-law.

“I never would,” Elizabeth said.

“I’m sure of that.”

Zach had the sneaking suspicion that the lady had compromised her…morals. Bett had to get her genes from somewhere. Chet undoubtedly contributed the dominant portion, but someone had to have been on the receiving end.

“And I came here to help you,” Elizabeth said worriedly. “It’s not that I want to desert you now.”

“Mom, you wouldn’t be,” Bett said swiftly. Elizabeth didn’t appear to notice any frantically enthusiastic notes.

It was one in the morning before the three of them trudged back upstairs. Zach, once the bedroom door had closed, reached for Bett, hauled her up into his arms and laid her giggling form on their bed. Seconds later, he collapsed next to her.