The Summit (14 page)

Under different circumstances, Ben might have smiled. He would have kept her up late anyway, making slow, passionate love to her.

That wasn't going to happen tonight.

Worse yet, there was something in Autumn's expression that made him suspect it never would.

A
utumn directed Ben to take the 230 Exit off Interstate 5 toward Burlington, then they headed up the North Cascades Highway to United General Hospital.

“You go on in,” Ben said as they pulled into the parking lot. “I'll take care of the car and find you.”

She nodded, cracked open the car door and took off for the entrance at a run. The woman at the reception desk pointed her toward the door of the emergency waiting room, where she found Myra Hammond, her father's long-time girlfriend, pacing impatiently just outside the entrance.

“Autumn! Thank God you're here!” A woman in her late fifties with silver hair tinted blond, Myra was slightly overweight but always well dressed and attractive. “Your father's inside but they won't let me in because I'm not a member of his immediate family.”

“Is he going to be all right?” Autumn asked just as Ben joined them.

“I think so. The doctor came out a little while ago and said he was doing okay, but I'm still worried.”

Autumn introduced Ben to Myra as a friend from Seattle, the person who had driven her up, making it sound as if they were only distantly acquainted. As if she hadn't been half naked with him a little over an hour ago, hadn't been on the verge of having wild, erotic sex with him—would have if the phone hadn't rung, saving her from the consequences of her wild, unbridled lust.

“What happened?” she asked.

“Well, he started having these pains in his chest and then he couldn't seem to catch his breath. I got scared and called 911. I think he was worried too, because he really didn't argue all that much. The ambulance brought him here and they've been running tests on him ever since.”

“So you were over at his house when it happened?”

“We had an early supper and watched a little TV.”

“Do you have any idea what might have caused this? Was he doing something overly stressful?”

Myra looked away, then down at her feet. “Well…I guess you could say that. You see, there wasn't anything good on TV and after a while…well, things got started between us and we wound up in bed, then your dad's chest started hurting and he couldn't seem to breathe and…well, you know the rest.”

Autumn stared at Myra as if she had never seen the woman before. “Are you telling me you and my father were having sex when this happened?” Her voice rose a notch. It was ridiculous. Her father was an adult. He and Myra had been seeing each other for years. Her father could certainly have sex with the woman if he wanted.

“It isn't a crime, you know.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw amusement curve Ben's lips.

Autumn kept her attention fixed on Myra. “But his heart…Dad has a heart condition, for heaven's sake. He isn't supposed to overexert himself.”

Myra's silver-blond eyebrows went up. “He's supposed to get plenty of exercise, isn't he?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“He isn't supposed to drink, but he likes a glass of whiskey in the evenings and you don't seem to mind that.”

“I do mind, but you know how stubborn he is.”

Myra nodded sagely. “Well, there's something he likes even more than his glass of Jack.”

Autumn's eyes widened.

“So how's he doing?” Ben interjected diplomatically, ending what was becoming a very disturbing conversation.

“Like I said, I think he's going to be okay. The doctor says he's feeling much better but they want to do a few more tests.”

Ben turned to Autumn. “Why don't you go see what you can find out and Myra and I will wait for you here.”

“Good idea.” She should have done that already, she realized as she made her way through the doors into the emergency room waiting area, but she wasn't thinking all that clearly—
hadn't been all evening,
she reminded herself.

The emergency room doctor joined her at the front desk, a young-looking, dark-haired man wearing tortoise-shell glasses. His name was Leonard Jackson.

“Mr. Sommers is doing very well,” Dr. Jackson said. “I think he may have suffered a case of acute indigestion. That combined with bit of overexertion brought on what appeared to be a heart attack. We'll keep him a day or two for observation just to make sure, but I think he's going to be fine.”

She nearly sagged with relief.

“You can see him for a few minutes but don't stay too long.”

Ignoring the antiseptic hospital smell she had always hated, Autumn went into a curtained enclosure in the middle of a row of six others. She found her father awake and grumbling.

“I told her it was nothing. Can't believe she went and called you too.” He wasn't a tall man but his shoulders and legs were muscled from climbing for so many years and he didn't have the usual sixty-year-old's paunch. His high blood pressure and two-hundred-seventy-plus cholesterol had come as a surprise, linked to a bad gene somewhere in the family, the doctors said. So far Max had refused to take any of the prescription medications available, certain the drugs were worse than the high cholesterol.

Autumn wasn't sure she disagreed. “Myra was worried about you, Dad. She cares for you a very great deal.”

He looked her straight in the face. “Ought to marry her, I guess. Make an honest woman of her.”

Surprise jolted through her. Had Max just said the
M
word? Autumn couldn't believe it. His marriage to her mother had been a total disaster. Max Sommers had sworn he would never remarry and was constantly sending her e-mails with those dumb jokes about married men. Though he'd been seeing Myra for years, it never occurred to her that he might actually marry the woman.

Autumn looked at him lying there, paler than usual, his salt-and-pepper hair hanging over his forehead. “You aren't serious, are you? About marrying Myra, I mean?”

He gave a faint shrug. “At least she could have come in here with me. I mean, hell, we're almost living together.”

He was serious. She couldn't believe it. She took a steadying breath. “I realize you have your own life, Dad. Whatever you decide is fine with me, but there is one thing you need to consider.”

“What's that?”

“Your heart, Dad. You really think you and Myra should be…well…behaving the way you were with your high blood pressure and all?”

He grunted. “If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. Till that happens, I'm gonna live. You might try a little of that yourself.”

She stiffened. Max was always pressing her to live her life, not be afraid of it. He had never pressured her to get married, but he believed she should experience life the way he always had. The way he had done when her mother had been alive.

One thing was certain. Max Sommers had been a rounder.

And he had never been faithful.

If she were honest with herself, she would have to admit her father's casual relationships with women was one of the reasons she kept men at a distance. She was afraid of what would happen if she fell in love with a man and wasn't woman enough to keep him from straying. Exactly what had happened with Steve.

Going up a mountain, she wasn't afraid, she was in control. But where men were concerned…

She thought about the way she had lost control tonight with Ben and felt her face heating up. How could she criticize her father when she and Ben had been doing the exact same thing?

“All right,” she said to Max, “we'll leave the subject alone for now. I just don't want anything to happen to you.”

Whatever problems her dad had with women, to her he'd been the best father in the world and Autumn loved him deeply.

He reached over and caught her hand. “Doc says I'm gonna be fine so there's no need for you to worry. I want you to send Myra home and go on back home yourself.”

“You know very well that isn't going to happen. Myra won't leave and neither will I.”

He didn't look pleased. “You drive down by yourself?”

“No…I…a friend drove me down.”

“Josh?”

“No, a man named Ben McKenzie.”

One of her father's bushy salt and pepper eyebrows went up. “McKenzie? Not the sporting-goods guy?”

She nodded, her mouth feeling suddenly dry. “He's a student in one of my climbing classes.”

“That so? How long you been seein' him?”

“We aren't dating, Dad. We're just friends.”

He frowned. “Another one of your man
friends?
From what it looks like in the papers, McKenzie doesn't have women friends.” Max studied her hard. “You be careful with that fella, you hear?” Then the corners of his mouth curled up. “On the other hand, maybe it's time you
were
a little less careful. Maybe you ought to get rid of that bunch of neutered males you hang around with and find yourself a real man. Take a lesson from me and Myra.”

Autumn's cheeks were burning. Her father's eyes closed for a moment and he relaxed against the pillow. It was obvious the events of the evening and all the talking had worn him out. A nurse appeared and shooed her out of the curtained-off area, telling her that in the next couple of hours Max would be moved into a private room. Dr. Jackson suggested that she and Myra go home but Autumn refused.

“We're staying,” she said, certain Myra would agree.

“Suit yourself,” said the doctor. “But visiting hours don't start till eight in the morning.”

She returned to the waiting room and relayed to Myra the conversation she'd had with her dad. “He wants us to go home, Myra, but—”

“I'm staying right here,” the older woman said firmly. “At least till I see him in the morning.”

That became the plan and to her surprise, Ben seemed not to mind. He stretched out on a couple of chairs in the waiting room and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until morning.

Autumn couldn't help thinking that at least she was safe from Ben—and herself—for one more night.

 

“I want to meet him,” her father grumbled. “He brought you down here, didn't he? Stayed up half the night just 'cause you were too stubborn to leave. Least you can do is introduce us.”

Autumn bit back a frustrated curse. Since there was no talking Max out of it, she led Ben into the hospital room. His dark hair was mussed, a shadow of beard shaded his jaw and his clothes were rumpled.

“So you're Ben McKenzie.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sommers. Glad you're feeling better.”

Her father eyed him warily. “Bought some gear from your store down in Seattle,” he said. “Good quality merchandise. Still works just like new.”

“We only carry the best. I'm glad you approve.”

“My daughter says she's teaching you to climb,” Max said.

“That's right. She's a very good instructor.”

“So what are you teachin'
her?
”

Autumn's eyes widened. “Dad!”

“I think that's her business, don't you? Hers and mine. Just like last night was your business.”

Max chuckled, assessed Ben a moment, then gave him a slow, man-to-man smile. “I like a plain-speakin' fella. Good to meet you, McKenzie.”

Ben nodded. “You, too, Mr. Sommers.”

“It's Max. Take her home, will ya? She's got enough to do without worrying over me. Besides, I got a woman of my own to take care of me.”

“I met Myra,” Ben said. “She seems like a keeper.”

“Took me a while to figure that out.” Max winked at Autumn. “But that's just what I intend to do.”

Autumn bent over and kissed his cheek, then stepped outside the room and said her farewells to Myra.

“You'll call me if there's any sort of problem.”

“You know I will,” promised Myra.

Autumn gave her a hug, wondering how she could have missed the deepening affection between Myra and her father, and left the hospital with Ben.

“I can't believe he's thinking of getting married.”

“Why shouldn't he? He only about sixty, isn't he? That isn't all that old these days.”

“He swore he would never remarry. He was a great father, but he was a terrible husband. He and my mother fought like cats and dogs. They were fighting the night she died. It was the reason she left the house. Maybe if she hadn't been so upset, she would have been paying more attention while she was driving. Maybe she wouldn't have gotten killed.”

Sitting behind the wheel of her Escape as they drove down Interstate 5, Ben flicked her a sideways glance. “You don't think the accident was your father's fault, do you?”

It was a question she'd asked herself more than once. “I guess I did for a while. Then I realized it might have happened anyway. Maybe some other night or a year down the road, or something else might have happened.”