Once Upon a Groom. Karen Smith Rose

was mesmerized by the pad of his finger on her skin … trembling from skimming her gaze over the breadth of his shoulders, his beard stubble, the past memories in his eyes.

      Grabbing her composure for all she was worth, she straightened her shoulders and leaned back. “You’re making that up.”

      “Nope. You haven’t changed all that much. You grew up fast and were always direct, curious and sassy. Give me one way you’re different now than when you came to live at the Rocky D when you were seventeen.”

      Instead of an off-the-cuff flip reply, she considered his request. “Now I think before I speak. I hope I’ve learned to have as much patience with people as I’ve always had with horses.”

      He smiled and she wished he hadn’t. Zack smiling was almost impossible to resist.

      “You think before you speak and have patience with everyone but me.”

      She was about to protest, to tell him he was all wrong, but she considered what he’d said. “I guess with you, my good intentions get short-circuited.”

      His smile faded. “So tell me what you were thinking.”

      Zack had always been determined. Maybe this time she shouldn’t fight his desire to know. “I was thinking I have no official right to be here … to know Silas’s condition. But I’d like to be included.”

      The cold detachment she’d sensed in Zack when he’d arrived, dissipated altogether. “Of course you’ll be included. Has anyone told you differently?”

      “Oh, no. The staff and doctors have been understanding.”

      Zack was studying her as if he knew old insecurities still haunted her. She couldn’t let him see that sometimes they did. Most of all, she couldn’t let him see that she was still attracted to him.

      Rising to her feet, she said, “I’m going to get coffee. I’ll bring you a cup.”

      “Black,” he told her as he rose, too, and returned to the laptop.

      He’d always taken his coffee black, but she wouldn’t let him see she remembered that … along with everything else.

       Chapter Two

      When Jenny returned to the waiting room with two cups of coffee, Zack wasn’t there. She didn’t know what to think. Had there been news about Silas? She set down the coffee, noticed Zack’s laptop wasn’t on the table and was about to ask for information at the nurses’ desk when he strode into the waiting room, cell phone in his hand.

      “Is Silas finished?” she asked.

      “Not that I know of. I locked my laptop in the car and went to make a call.” When she glanced at his cell phone, he clipped it onto his belt.

      “Business?” she asked, not sure why she was asking. Maybe she just wanted to probe a little.

      “Actually, no, it wasn’t.”

      “Someone who wondered where you disappeared to?” She knew she shouldn’t be inquiring about this. His life was none of her business, not anymore. Still, she was curious.

      Amused, he asked, “You want details?”

      “Only if you want to get them off your chest.”

      He cast her a wry smile. “No, I don’t think I do.”

      She felt the disappointment like a weight. She should have known better. For all she knew, he was dating three different women at once. That was certainly what the tabloids led everyone to believe. One of the most eligible bachelors in L.A. didn’t need to be married or even in a relationship because he was having too much fun. Though from what he’d said last night—

      He approached her until he stood close enough to touch. “I left L.A. in a rush. I have lots of loose ends that aren’t tied up.”

      Including a relationship with a woman? she wanted to ask, yet didn’t. The one thing she’d learned long ago was never to make the same mistake twice. That was how she’d learned to accept disappointment where her dad was concerned. That was how she’d learned to move on, always looking for a new way to solve a problem, a new way to handle a loss. She’d lost Zack once. She wouldn’t make the mistake of feeling too much for him again. It really was as simple as that. Practice had taught her well. Now she had to just keep her wits about her and pretend that being this near to him didn’t send a tingle of awareness through her body.

      Since she couldn’t—wouldn’t—ask anything personal, she forced a smile and inquired, “Do you really have a house in Malibu, a penthouse in L.A. and a condo in Vail?”

      “Now where did that come from?” His forehead furrowed but there was a sparkle of curiosity in his eyes.

      “I’m just wondering how much of the tabloid stories about you I can believe.”

      “Well, at least the real estate I have is one thing they got right. Yes, to all of the above.”

      “And you’ve been to every continent?” she pushed.

      “I have, for either work or pleasure.”

      “You actually vacationed in Antarctica?”

      At that, he let out a chuckle. “Yes, I did. Why are you so amazed?”

      “Because I can’t imagine why anyone would want to vacation there.”

      His blue gaze became more probing. “Jenny, don’t you want to see the world?”

      “Why would I? I’m happy here.”

      He shook his head as if he couldn’t understand that philosophy at all. “Don’t you want to know how other people live? What work means to them … what gives their lives meaning?”

      “Does your curiosity get satisfied in your travels?”

      He considered that. “I don’t know. But I always find answers to some unanswered questions I didn’t even know were lurking in my mind. That probably doesn’t make any sense to you.”

      She could see he wasn’t talking down to her, but really trying to clarify his point of view. “When I want an answer, I just work at finding it right here. But then I guess that’s why I gentle horses and you make movies.”

      “The movie-making might change now.”

      “How? Why?”

      Suddenly, Zack’s focus shifted from her to the doorway. When she peered around him, she saw Dr. Murphy, Silas’s cardiologist. He looked serious and she couldn’t tell from his expression exactly what had happened.

      The cardiac surgeon said, “Zack has signed appropriate forms and instructed me you’re to be kept up-to-date on everything that concerns his father’s condition.”

      She murmured to Zack, “Thank you.”

      His gaze briefly met hers and she gained a momentary glimpse of the young man she’d once loved. The next moment his attention focused on the cardiologist as he asked, “Good news or bad?”

      Although Zack might be a visionary behind the camera, Jenny realized he was a pragmatist, too.

      “A little of both. There has been heart muscle damage, which we suspected from the myocardial infarction. But we inserted two stents and with a change in lifestyle, I think he’ll regain his energy and maybe some of the verve he’s lost in the past few months. He’s a lucky man … lucky this happened when someone was with him and fortunate an ambulance got him here as soon as it did. No one is ever happy about life changes they need to make to continue good health, but your father seems like a practical man. I’m hoping with the two of you to help convince him, he’ll see this as a positive life change, not as something he has to dread. I’ll have a nutritionist talk to him before he leaves.”

      “Can