“I hope she appreciates it someday.”
“If she could only figure out that she doesn’t need a man to make her happy and fulfilled. I’m hoping that if she gets nothing else out of the therapy sessions, if I can talk her into going, she’ll come away accepting that.”
Geoff didn’t know what it was about that speech he’d heard before from Cecilia that particularly bothered him this time. Okay, sure, he could accept that she didn’t need a man. She had certainly proven that.
But that didn’t mean she couldn’t accept a man into her life as a partner, did it? An equal. Someone who valued her, respected her, acknowledged her strength and offered his own when hers wavered. Just as she would do for that fortunate man if she—
If she loved him.
It was the first time the word love had entered his thoughts in connection with Cecilia. At least consciously. And it shook him all the way down to his nervous-bachelor toes.
Chapter Fifteen
As nervous as Cecilia had been about the dinner with Geoff’s grandmother, it was a surprisingly pleasant and stress-free evening. From the moment she stepped into Myrtle Bingham’s marble-tiled foyer, she was welcomed like an old friend of the family.
Myrtle was eager to hear all the latest news from the clinic, and Cecilia tried to oblige during dinner in the quietly elegant dining room. She left out most of the problems they had been experiencing at the clinic lately, of course, but she had plenty of anecdotes that kept her hostess entertained.
Cecilia thought that she could certainly be excused for feeling as if she were dining with a legend. After all, Myrtle was the one who had founded both the midwifery clinic and, later, the school. The hospital and future research center had both evolved from her early vision of quality health care for this poverty-stricken area.
Myrtle had also been active in funneling some of the Bingham fortune into the public library, the popular public recreation center and other facilities that were so widely used by the residents of Merlyn County. Surprisingly enough, there were still people in the area who resented the Binghams. For their money, their influence, the old history of Gerard’s business ruthlessness and Billy’s ceaseless womanizing.
Myrtle, as she insisted on being called despite Cecilia’s initial discomfort with the familiarity, was still active in the community. With the energy of a woman half her age, she worked tirelessly for her pet charities. She seemed to be almost girlishly excited about serving as the spokeswoman for the new hospital public relations campaign.
“Lilly makes things so much fun,” she added, a trace of Boston still detectable in her voice after more than five decades spent in Kentucky. “Have you gotten to know her
yet, Cecilia?”
“No, not really. I’ve, um, been rather busy since she was introduced at the reception.” She deliberately avoided looking at Geoff as she spoke.
“So has my grandson, apparently,” Myrtle said, giving him a look of fond reproach. “I’ve hardly had a chance to see him since he’s been in town.”
“Hey, you’re the busy one,” he reminded her.
“Yes, I try to stay involved in the community. While you, of course, are out crashing your motorbike and scaring your poor family half to death.”
Cecilia stifled a smile at the elder woman’s prim rebuke. Geoff squirmed in his seat like a kindergartener in trouble, then obviously regretted the movement. She suspected that he would have winced, but he didn’t want Myrtle to see him display any discomfort. It was only because Cecilia had gotten to know him so well that she spotted the telltale twitch in his cheek.
“It was only a minor accident,” he protested. “Dad probably exaggerated when he told you about it. You know how he’s been lately.”
Geoff must have been delighted that his grandmother was immediately distracted. “What has gotten into that son of mine lately, anyway? He’s been so cranky.”
Cecilia almost giggled. Cranky seemed like such an unlikely adjective to be applied to the distinguished and dignified man she knew as Ronald Bingham.
“He’s made poor Lilly’s job so difficult. He has challenged every idea she has presented.”
Geoff shrugged. “She seems to me like the type who can hold her own against Dad—or anyone else.” Then he added with a smile, “Much like Cecilia.”
“Then they’re both women after my own heart,” Myrtle said firmly.
Geoff and Cecilia shared a quick smile across the table—one that Cecilia realized Myrtle had observed with a smile of her own.
“Cecilia’s not after anyone’s heart, Grandma. She claims they’re much too high-maintenance organs.”
“Oh, I really do like this young woman.” Myrtle beamed at both of them. “I hope my grandson will bring you to have dinner with me again, Cecilia.”
“Thank you. I would be delighted.” But Cecilia wondered if the invitation would still be good if Myrtle knew what she and Geoff had been up to for the past three weeks.
Myrtle escorted them to the door after dinner. She repeated her warm invitation for Cecilia to join them again and then placed a hand on Geoff’s arm to detain him for a moment after Cecilia stepped outside. “I like this one, Geoffrey.”