It was nearly twilight when Zachary and Wendy pulled into Little Boars Head. She had no idea what Betzi’s reaction would be to their visit, had no idea what she would say to her. All she knew was that she had to get Morris and Betzi together again before she died of cancer. Even if it was inoperable, Wendy wanted to make Betzi’s last days happy and relieve Morris of guilt.
Perhaps Betzi didn’t even know she had cancer. Maybe Wendy could warn her, even save her life. If only the fates who had brought her there would allow her the chance. After some investigation, they found Betzi’s cabin at the end of a long dirt drive. As the cab driver pulled away, the cool air surrounded them in peaceful darkness. A light glowed dimly somewhere in the house. After getting no response from her knock on the front door, Wendy and Zachary followed the sound of creaking wood to a small porch behind the cabin. They stood in the silent shadows watching the woman in a rocking chair, an oil lamp beside her the only light for miles. Her shoulders slumped as she slowly rocked back and forth. No music floated through the air, and no book perched on her lap. Betzi simply stared into the darkness, a vacant look on her face.
Zachary leaned close to Wendy. “Are we just going to stand here and gawk at the lady?”
Wendy felt hesitant about approaching Betzi. A cloud of sadness seemed to hang in the air around her. This wasn’t what Wendy had expected.
“I know who she is, but she doesn’t know me,” she whispered back. She took a deep breath and started forward, not entering the small glow of light until she was almost standing on the porch.
Betzi casually looked up, as though she was accustomed to people appearing out of the night.
“Betzi? Are you Betzi Langden?” Wendy asked.
“Yes. I am.” And not a glimmer of curiosity as to why two strangers were asking.
“I’m Wendy Jordan. This is Zachary Van Buren. We have a mutual friend, Dr—”
“You must be mistaken. I have no friends. Please go away.”
Warmth flushed across Wendy’s cheeks. She hadn’t expected this. Then she realized that Betzi must have just gotten the news about her cancer. Wendy was too late to save her life. She took a step and perched on the edge of a nearby table. Zachary moved to stand behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders. As removed as Betzi seemed, Wendy couldn’t help but feel a connection with her. Morris had given her that connection, with the gleam in his eyes…and the guilt in his heart. Wendy hesitantly placed her hand on Betzi’s, although the woman’s eyes never met her own.
“Did you find out? About the cancer?” she asked gingerly, as though the words might somehow physically hurt Betzi.
At last, Betzi’s eyes met Wendy’s. A reaction, puzzled at it might be, was better than the blank stare.
“How did you know?”
That was a hard question to answer. The truth wouldn’t work, but evasion might.
“I just know. And your husband, the professor. Where is he?”
“Are you friends of his? If you are, you can leave. He’s gone. I don’t know where he is.” Betzi’s gray eyes watered over, and she quickly shifted them back to the darkness.
“I’m not a friend of your husband’s. I’m a friend of yours. Kind of.”
“I told you… I don’t have any friends. My only companion is death, and I’m waiting patiently for him to come for me. I wish you’d leave. You may scare him away, and then I’ll have to suffer longer before he returns.”
Wendy could see that Betzi had given up. Inoperable cancer was eating away at her, and she had done the only thing she could do—give into it.
“I hope you don’t mind my asking, but where is the cancer?”
Betzi turned to her, steel eyes staring into her own. “My breast.” She turned away again. Near her heart, the source of her pain.
“Betzi,” Zachary said in the same soft tone Wendy had been using. “Breast cancer isn’t fatal, if it’s caught early enough.” He paused for a moment. “It’s not too late, is it?”
Betzi turned to them. “Can’t you see that I don’t care. Why go through all that pain and humiliation to continue living like this?”
“Don’t you see that you’re killing yourself?” Wendy asked. “You’re letting cancer eat away at you when you could have it removed in a relatively simple operation. There’s no humiliation in losing a breast. Thousands of women live through it and survive.”
“I’ve lived through the devastation of losing my only child a few years ago. I’ve lived through the degradation and grief of my husband leaving me for another woman, and I’ve lived through the loneliness it caused over the last few months. When I got my diagnosis, I decided I didn’t want to live through that. I don’t know who sent you here, but I don’t need your advice, medical or otherwise.”
Wendy moved closer to Betzi. “No, what you need right now is a friend. A good friend.”
“When I told you I didn’t have any friends, I wasn’t being overly dramatic. Throughout my marriage, my husband kept me under lock and key, so to speak. I rarely got out of the house, except to assist him with his lab classes. He insisted that I stay in the house while he was gone. We never even had a telephone. He was insanely jealous, and I feared for my life if I ever disobeyed him. And we moved around quite a bit, so it wasn’t easy to make connections. He threatened that if I ever left him, he’d hunt me down like an animal and punish me.” She laughed a dry, bitter laugh. “Three months ago, he came home and announced he was leaving me for one of his students.”
“That bastard.” Zachary muttered, then, realizing he’d said his thoughts aloud, said, “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. He was exactly that. When I first married him, there wasn’t much help for women like me. When there was help, I was so used to living with the emotional abuse, I just stayed. And there was always that threat of punishment hanging over my head when I thought about leaving him. Believe me, I’m not distressed over his being gone. I’m distressed about my life being gone. I have nothing, no one.”
Wendy placed her hand on Betzi’s, this time with more confidence. “But you do have someone. Someone you knew long ago still cares about you. That’s why I’m here. He spoke of you just the other day with such love in his eyes that it touched my heart. Do you remember Morris Delaney from…” Wendy didn’t have to continue. The memory of Morris sparkled in Betzi’s eyes.
“Morris. He was so kind, so handsome.” Betzi turned to Wendy, and for the first time, hope glimmered behind the steel gray of her eyes. “He sent you here?”
“Well, not actually. He tried to find you, but he had no idea where you were. I used different resources. He doesn’t even know I came here.”
Betzi’s smile remained, and she touched her fingertips to her cheek. Wendy wasn’t sure if she was enjoying the lines her smile made, after going without one for so long, or if she was remembering the kiss in the lab.
Wendy asked, “Do you have a piece of paper? I want to write down his phone number.”
Betzi jumped up and went into the house.
Wendy turned to Zachary. “I have to see my father next. I don’t know how long I’ve got or whether I’ll be back again.”
He gripped her hand. “I’m not letting you get away. We can leave the sailboat in the harbor and take a cab to Portsmouth.”
“Okay. Let’s help Betzi find that piece of paper. There isn’t much time…”
Her voice sounded as though it were echoing from some faraway place. The glow from the oil lamp meshed with the surrounding darkness and spun until it was a yellowish-black tornado. Vaguely, she felt Zachary’s hand on her arm. Mixed with harsh rhythmic drumbeats, she heard his voice.
“Wendy, don’t leave. At least tell me where you live. Before you go, tell me where to find you. Don’t leave me…” His last words were drowned out in the darkness.
Zachary saw her fade away the same way he’d seen her fade in at his house five years ago. “Wendy! Wendy!” He rushed at her but ended up grasping at air instead of warm flesh.
Betzi rushed out, a panicked look on her face. “What’s wrong? Where is she?”
He put his arm around her shoulder. “Have you ever heard of a guardian angel?”
“I suppose so.”
“I think you just got visited by one.”
“Wendy? A guardian angel?” She looked around, then down at the empty pad of paper in her hand. “She never gave me Morris’s phone number.”
“When she leaves, it tends to be rather abruptly. Maybe when you talk to Morris, he can tell me where she is.”
Betzi looked forlorn again. “I have no idea where to find him.”
Zachary smiled, holding up a finger. “Ah, but she left us with a clue. He lives in Boston. We’ll start with directory assistance since he probably still has a landline. If not, we’ll Google him.”
He waited outside while Betzi called Morris a few minutes later. During his wait, the cab driver returned as they had agreed earlier. Zachary asked him to wait. It was another fifteen minutes before Betzi joined him on the porch. Her eyes were filled with tears, and her face glowed with joy.
“Oh, it was so nice. Zachary, you didn’t have to stay out here, you know.”
“That’s okay. It’s beautiful tonight, and it gave me time to think. I trust you’ll be seeing Morris soon?”
“He’s driving up from Boston in the morning.”
“And you’re going to see a doctor about your cancer?”
Her glow dimmed. “I didn’t mention that to Morris.”
“Betzi, let him be there with you. If he still cares about you after all this time, he’ll help you through this.”
She smiled, but fear showed in her eyes. “I’m scared. What if he doesn’t want me when he finds out there’s something wrong with me? That I’ll lose a breast?”
“I don’t think he’d feel that way. I wouldn’t. Hell, if I could get Wendy to stay here with me, I wouldn’t care if she didn’t have any legs or arms. Haven’t you ever heard of the expression love conquers all? It’s true. But only if the love is real. You’ve got to, at least, give this Morris guy a chance. If he doesn’t come through for you, call me. I’ll stand by you.”
This time Betzi’s smile spread over her whole face. “Thank you. Oh, I have that information you wanted.” She handed him a piece of paper.
Zachary looked at the address. “Miami?”
“Morris said she just graduated from the University of Miami. Now that she’s finished her last internship, she’s celebrating on a trip to California with her boyfriend. When I told Morris you were sweet on the girl, he wished you all the best. He doesn’t much like the guy she’s with. Maybe you’d better get down there as soon as she returns next week.”
“I intend to. Good luck with everything. Remember, I’m here if you need me.”
“Thank you. And good luck finding your guardian angel, Zachary.” She winked at him, and he kissed her on the cheek before he left.
He considered sailing right down to Miami, but she was in California. Her younger self, Zachary thought with a laugh. Did he really believe that? That other girl at the games did look like his Angel. He wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.
It was nearly a week before anyone answered the telephone at the number Morris had given Zachary for Wendy. He was surprised to hear a man answer the phone, and he hung up. When he tried another time, a familiar voice answered, but still he hung up. He didn’t want to talk with Wendy on the phone. His next call was to his travel agent.
Although Zachary had been in Miami a few times when he’d raced to the Bahamas, he usually stayed near the boat or partied on the strip. This was a whole new area for him. Wendy lived in a neighborhood close to the university, but every time he slowed to ask someone for directions, the person waved him off. No one cared to hear what he had to say or ask.
He finally located the address, a simple, one-story house with scroll iron bars on the windows and doors. As he surveyed the street, he realized that all of the houses looked similar.
“Somebody planted a pink flamingo in their front lawn,” he muttered with a laugh.
After finding a promising vantage point, he settled into the seat of his rented car and pulled out The Miami Herald. Three pages into the sports section, he heard two car doors slam shut. The reverse lights on the car in the driveway lit up, and it backed into the street.
He followed them to a restaurant called D’Pizza and stepped out of his car when they did. His heart hitched at the sight of her. His Angel…with some other guy. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, despite his shaggy light red hair and pale complexion. He put his arm around Wendy and kissed the top of her head.
She moved away, and he yanked her back. “Come on, baby, don’t be mad at me. I love you.”
“You love Jim Beam more.”
“It was one drink, just a tiny one.” He wobbled as he indicated two inches between finger and thumb.
“Times five,” she said with a dismissive shake of her head.
“No, baby, I swear it wasn’t.”
She shook her head and walked on, Todd following like a puppy. Zachary remembered some of Wendy’s own words for him: conniving, snake-charming, lying. Even though she’d said that she had to learn lessons from this relationship, it pained Zachary to watch her suffer. Especially knowing she’d suffer for months longer.
He managed to walk through the door right behind them, and when Wendy held the door open a second for Zachary to grab it, their eyes locked. His heart jumped, and he saw something flicker in her eyes, too before she turned forward.
Zachary couldn’t believe it. After all these years of thinking about his guardian angel, he’d finally found her. She looked so much like the woman he’d made love to, but when she’d looked at him, not one spark of recognition lit her beautiful brown eyes. Attraction maybe, or that connection they shared, but nothing more.
The two stepped up to the counter to order, and Todd muttered something to Wendy.
“He was not looking at me like that,” she whispered.
But Zachary probably had been. Perceptive guy. Once they’d placed their order, Todd flashed him a warning look, but Zachary held the man’s gaze. I want your girl, asswipe. You don’t deserve her. Todd looked away first.
“Oh, and add a Budweiser draft to the order,” Todd said, and Wendy flashed her eyes in anger at him. “It’s just a beer. No chaser.”
Wendy’s lovely mouth tightened in anger as the clerk punched in the addition and announced the total.
Todd gave her an apologetic look. “I'll pay you back, promise. I gotta take a piss.” He pressed a kiss to her cheek and walked to the restrooms.
Wendy seemed to be deliberately avoiding looking anywhere near Zachary, so he took the initiative and handed the clerk two twenties.
“I can’t let you do that,” she said, all the words running together.
“Why not? Your boyfriend’s not much of a gentleman. Allow me.”
“I really can’t let you do that,” she repeated, glancing toward the door that led to the restrooms. “He already feels bad enough that he doesn’t have the money.”
But the kid had already processed the payment and returned Zachary’s change.
Zachary pretended to recognize her. “Hey, you’re Wendy Jordan, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.” Her eyes drank him in, his face and then a quick glance down and up. “Did we have a class together?”
“No, but you could say we go back a ways. I’m from Rye, New Hampshire.”
A genuine smile spread across her face. “Oh. I’m from Newmarket. I—” The smile disappeared, and her gaze once again returned to the restroom door. “I can’t talk to you. I’m sorry.”
“Does your boyfriend get angry when you talk to men?”
“Not angry, just…insecure. Especially guys like you.” There she went, saying guys like him again.
“Wendy, why don’t you dump this guy? Save yourself the heartbreak.”
Her eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“You’re too good for him. Leave him and read a bunch of co-dependent books or something.”
“I don’t think it’s really any of your business.” Her gaze flicked to the door again, and Todd walked through them, eyeing their close proximity. “Thanks for the pizza,” she mumbled before turning to Todd and giving him a quick peck. The gesture seemed to appease him because his shoulders relaxed.
Wendy led them to a corner booth and, aside from a quick glance, seemed to make every effort not to look in Zachary’s direction again.
While he ate his slice of pizza, Zachary studied them. She was definitely an unhappy lady. His Angel had been right. The younger Wendy was caught in the web of false love, and even he couldn’t free her from it. But she wasn’t the Wendy he wanted. He wanted the warm, fun-loving lady he’d fallen in love with. The lady who’d popped into his life twice and filled his head with crazy stories. It didn’t matter if she were an angel, time traveler, or a ghost. She was as close to love as he had ever been.