and Mrs Turner thanked him profusely and hurried back to their daughter. Ben sighed as he watched them go. ‘I can’t imagine what they must have been through, can you? Losing a child must be every parent’s nightmare.’
He glanced round when Zoë failed to answer and was surprised when he saw how upset she looked. It was rare for Zoë to show her feelings, yet there was no denying that she looked distressed.
‘Hey, come on,’ he said quickly. ‘I know it’s upsetting when it’s a child involved, but Megan will be fine after a good night’s sleep.’
‘Of course she will.’
She spun round on her heel, making it clear that she didn’t want to discuss the matter, and he sighed. Why had he bothered? He should have known that Zoë wouldn’t welcome his concern.
He followed her from ED, pausing on the way out to make sure that Megan’s parents had provided the reception staff with all the necessary details. Their family doctor would need to be informed about what had happened, even though there was no reason to suspect that Megan would suffer any repercussions from her adventures. However, it was best to err on the safe side, he’d always found.
Erring on the safe side hadn’t achieved very much when it had come to his relationship with Zoë, though, had it? he thought as he left the building. He had done everything he could to make her feel safe and secure, to reassure her that he would never stop loving her. Although he had only the sketchiest idea of her background, she had told him enough to fill in the gaps for himself.
He knew that her parents’ divorce must have hit her hard and doubly so when it had meant that she’d been placed in care following her mother’s breakdown. However, was it enough to explain why she’d refused to believe that he would never stop loving her? Zoë had been his whole world at one time, yet she had rejected his love, walked away rather than take the risk of trusting him. Although he was over the heartache it had caused him, it was still difficult to understand what she’d done. One thing was certain: no woman was going to put him through the mill again!
Dark thoughts accompanied Ben back to where he had left his car—illegally parked outside ED. He unlocked the doors then paused when Zoë made no attempt to get in. ‘I promise I won’t make you sit in the back this time,’ he said, deliberately opting for levity. The past was the past and he wasn’t going to fall into the trap of raking over the embers of their ill-fated affair. ‘It’s the passenger seat for you, Dr Frost. You’ve earned it.’
She smiled tightly, not responding to his teasing. ‘It’s kind of you, Ben, but I’ll get a taxi back to the hotel. You live in the opposite direction and I don’t want to take you out of your way.’
‘I don’t mind if you don’t,’ he replied flippantly, wondering why it seemed so important to get a reaction from her. The days when he had wanted to impress Zoë were long gone. ‘It’s not as though I have anything better to do with my time seeing as I’m redundant.’
‘Redundant?’
‘Uh-huh. I feel a bit like Cinderella only I’m the wrong sex.’ He looked suitably mournful. ‘I’m the best man that nobody wants. I’m not needed for the wedding or for the celebrations that should have come afterwards. It’s hard not to feel a little de trop in such circumstances.’
‘Oh, poor you!’ Zoë chuckled, a delicate sound that made the tiny hairs on his neck quiver in appreciation. ‘Does nobody love you, then?’
You certainly don’t love me, Ben thought, but didn’t say so. That would have been a major mistake, a top score on the mistakes Richter scale. The last thing he wanted was to give the impression that he was still hung up on her.
‘It looks that way. And that being the case, I may as well run you back to your hotel. At least it will fill in a bit more time and stop me feeling like a reject.’
He got into the car, leaving it to Zoë to decide whether she was going to accept his offer. A frisson ran through him when she slid into the passenger seat but he didn’t allow himself to read anything into it. It made no difference if she had opted to spend a bit more time with him.
It was gone seven by the time they drew up outside the hotel. Ben cut the engine, shrugging when Zoë looked questioningly at him. ‘I just want to check that nothing untoward has happened with regard to the reception. Ross told me he’d cancelled everything but you never know.’
‘Still set on being the perfect best man?’ Zoë said lightly, but he heard the tension in her voice and guessed that she was afraid it was merely an excuse to prolong their time together.
Was it? he wondered suddenly. And if so, why? He didn’t want her back—no way on earth would he wish for that! It had taken him months to get over her and he wasn’t going through that kind of hell again. He’d done what he’d wanted to do, spent the best part of the day with her, and come through it unscathed, so why did he have this niggling feeling that they still had unfinished business? What else did he need to prove? That he was so immune to her he could spend the night with her and walk away in the morning without any regrets?
‘I want to be sure that I’ve carried out my duties to the very best of my ability,’ he told her, reeling from the thought.
‘Such dedication! I am impressed.’
Zoë laughed and Ben breathed a sigh of relief when it broke the spell. Zoë may have hurt him, but there was no way that he would use her to his own ends like that.
The receptionist must have spotted them coming in because she immediately hurried into the office and reappeared with the manager in tow. Ben’s heart sank when he saw how uncomfortable they both looked as he and Zoë approached the desk. He could only conclude that some mishap had occurred relating to the wedding reception. However, the man ignored him and addressed Zoë.
‘I’m terribly sorry, Dr Frost, but there’s a problem with your room.’
‘What sort of problem?’ Zoë asked, glancing at the receptionist, who was doing her best to avoid their eyes.
‘Unfortunately, a guest on the floor above forgot to turn off the bath taps and the water came through the ceiling of your room.’ The manager looked suitably repentant. ‘Sadly, the room is too badly damaged for you to spend the night there so I took the liberty of having your belongings moved.’
He lifted a key off its hook and handed it to her. ‘Fortunately, we had a cancellation so we were able to move you to a suite. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed, Dr Frost. It’s our most luxurious accommodation. And by way of apology for the inconvenience you’ve suffered, we would like to offer you and a guest a complimentary dinner tonight.’
Ben glanced at the key Zoë was holding as the manager scuttled away. All the keys had name tags attached to them and he could read the tag attached to this one without any difficulty. His eyes rose to Zoë’s and he was unable to control the smile that twitched the corners of his mouth.
‘They say every cloud has a silver lining. If the wedding hadn’t been called off, you could have found yourself sleeping on a park bench.’
‘Instead of which I’ll be sleeping in the Honeymoon Suite.’ Zoë looked at the key then burst out laughing. ‘I don’t believe this is happening!’
‘You will when you get to sleep in that fabulous bed,’ Ben assured her.
‘You’ve seen the room?’ she exclaimed and he sobered abruptly.
‘Yes. I came with Ross when he booked it for him and Heather. The manager showed it to us then.’
He took a quick breath but the image of Zoë lying in that huge old-fashioned bed with its muslin canopy filled his head to the exclusion of everything else. It was the room he would have chosen to spend the night in if they’d been getting married, he realised, and the thought was too painful to bear.
‘It sounds lovely,’ she said softly and he heard an echo of what he was feeling