Free Changes by Danielle Steel Page A

wearing a navy blue linen blazer over his light blue shirt, and she decided he had a casual but distinguished air.
    “It feels good to like what you do, doesn't it?” He smiled at her words. Obviously her own work made her feel that way. And then Melanie suddenly found herself thinking about Anne.
    “Did your wife work?”
    “No.” He shook his head, remembering back to the constant support she'd given him. She was a very different breed of woman from Mel, but he had needed her to be that way at the time.
    “No, she didn't. She stayed home and took care of the kids. It made it even harder on them when she died.” But he was curious about Mel now.
    “Do you think your daughters resent your work, Mel?"”
    “I hope not.” She tried to be honest with him. “Maybe once in a while, but I think they like what I do.” She grinned and looked like a young girl. “It probably impresses their friends, and they like that.” He smiled too. It even impressed him.
    “Wait till my kids hear I had lunch with you.” They both laughed and he paid for their lunch when the check came. They stood up regretfully, sorry to leave, and to end the comfortable exchange. She stretched as they got in the car.
    “I feel so lazy.” She smiled happily at him. “It feels like summer here.” It was only May, but she would have enjoyed lounging at the pool.
    And as he started the car, his own mind drifted ahead. “We're going to Aspen, as usual this year. What do you do in the summer, Mel?”
    “We go to Martha's Vineyard every year.”
    “What's that like?”
    She squinted her eyes, with her chin in her hand. “It's a little bit like being a little kid, or playing Huckleberry Finn. You run around in shorts and bare feet all day, the kids hang out at the beach, and the houses look like the kind of place where you'd visit your grandmother, or a great-aunt. I love it because I don't have to impress anyone while I'm there. I don't have to dress up, or see anyone if I don't want to, I can just lie around and hang out. We go there for two months every year.”
    “Can you leave your work for that long?” He seemed surprised.
    “It's in my contract now. It used to be one month, but for the last three years it's been two.”
    “Not bad. Maybe that's what I need.”
    “Two months at Martha's Vineyard?” She looked enchanted at the idea. “You would adore it, Peter! It's an absolutely wonderful, magical place.”
    He smiled at the look on her face, and suddenly noticed the texture of her hair. It shone like satin in the sun and he suddenly wondered to himself how it felt to the touch. “I meant a contract for my work.” He tried to pull his mind and his eyes away from her shimmering copper hair. And her eyes were of a green he had never seen before, almost emerald with gold flecks. She was a beautiful woman, and he felt something deep within him stir. He drove her back to the hospital then, and tried to keep the conversation centered on Pattie Lou. They had come close enough in the past few hours, almost too close, and it worried him. He was beginning to feel as though he had betrayed Anne by what he felt for Mel. And as they walked back into the hospital, Mel wondered why he was suddenly cool.

CHAPTER 5

    The next morning, Mel left her hotel at exactly six thirty, and drove to Center City, where she found Pattie Lou's mother seated in a vinyl chair in the corridor outside her daughter's room. She was tense and silent, as Mel slipped quietly into the seat beside her. The surgery was scheduled for seven thirty.
    “Can I get you a cup of coffee, Pearl?”
    “No, thanks.” The soft-spoken woman smiled at Mel, and she looked as though she had the weight of the world on her frail shoulders. “I want to thank you for everything you've done for us, Mel. We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for you.”
    “That's not my doing, that's the network.”
    “I'm not so sure of that.” Her eyes met Mel's. “From what I know, you called Peter