Battling the Best Man: A Harmony Falls Novel, Book 2 (Crimson Romance) (12 page)

He was going to need to exhibit more improvement than this if he was ever going to get back home.

“Haa…d,” he growled, like a drunk in a Boston bar.

“Yes, it is hard, Mr. Flemming, but hard is good,” Ben said, coaxing a few more feet out of the panting, grumbling man before he teetered back into the wheelchair.

Kory patted her father’s shoulder and glanced behind her. He’d walked about twenty-five feet. “Good job. Rest a minute and we’ll do it again.”

Despite his grunted disapproval, he managed another twenty-five feet, along with various leg exercises. Kory felt marginally hopeful about his recovery for the first time since the stroke. When he was resting comfortably in his room with his wife by his side, Kory pulled the physical therapist into the hall.

“Can you stay later today and give him another session?”

Ben raised his brows, but nodded. “Sure, but I can’t imagine he’ll be happy to see me coming back for more after all that.”

“I don’t care if he’s happy or not at the moment. I care if he’s progressing. We both know most of his recovery is going to happen in the first four weeks after the stroke. Look at him. He has a long way to go.”

Ben nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”

The guy was already doing enough, letting her horn in on therapy sessions she never would have thought to attend or been welcomed at in Chicago. She didn’t need to be there, but here in this more intimate, personal setting, she felt far more invested in the outcomes. A home with a reputation for successful rehabilitation that resulted in discharges was a home that would shoot to the top of social workers’ and families’ must-admit lists. She told herself she was doing it for Will, so he could recoup his investment, but she was doing it for herself, too. She liked this hands-on medicine.

Kory thanked Ben and headed off on another informal round of patients. Then, she turned her attention to filling the new beds. Sucking antibacterial-scented air into her lungs, she walked to her office, contemplating what she would say to the social worker at Valley Hospital. “We’re open for business,” sounded too much like something a restaurant owner might say. She rounded the corner and stepped into the room, coming face-to-face with Will.

He was dressed in the usual—suit and tie. Something similar to what he wore the last time she saw him at her house. When they’d ended up on the couch. Naked.

She gave her head a good shake. This was her workplace, not her bedroom. “Hi. What are you doing here?”

He stepped aside and pointed to her desk. “I brought coffee.”

Kory stared at the paper cups; two of them perched alongside a stack of charts. Two. As in a pair. Again, what was supposed to be
nothing
felt like something.

“Thank you, but I didn’t ask for coffee,” she said.
He grinned. “That’s what makes it such a nice gesture.”

That’s what made it such a dangerous gesture. Will stopping by to have coffee with her brought their personal relationship into the workplace, something she wanted to avoid for both of their sakes. She thought she’d made that clear unless he was here in an official capacity.

“Did we have a meeting that I forgot about?” she asked, staring at the cups, trying not to get swept up in him being two feet away. It was bad enough she could smell his aftershave. Even worse, the spicy scent was making her mouth water.

Will grabbed the nearest cup and raised it to his mouth, touching the tip of his tongue to the steaming spout.

“Nope. I wanted to see you,” he said.

Damn.
Her heart skipped a beat. This was not good. This was not
nothing
. This felt like a stupid schoolgirl crush. Only, there wasn’t anything schoolgirl-appropriate about what happened between them on the couch. And there wasn’t anything grown-woman-appropriate about her desire to repeat it right here, right now.

She scrambled around the desk and sat before her knees gave out. “Well, you saw me, and I’m working,” she said, adding a laugh to sooth the brushoff. “Thanks for the coffee.”

He didn’t leave. He sat in a chair beside her. Blasting her with a cloud of sexy, man-scented air. “How’s your day going?”

Kory glanced up in time to see him put the cup to his lips. He sipped, sucked really. It reminded her of
other things
. She propped her elbow on the desk, putting an arm between them, and dropped her forehead to her hand. “Good, but I’m really busy, Will. I was about to call Valley about new admissions.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

When he didn’t stand and leave, she looked at him again. “You’re going to watch me make a phone call?”

He nodded. “I’d like to watch you do a lot of things.”

Her face burned, and the heat from her cheeks blazed a trail down her throat, over her chest until it pooled between her legs. “Have dinner with me.” He leaned forward, setting the coffee cup on the edge of her desk. “Tonight at my place.”

She swallowed a fresh surge of heat. “I eat with my mom. I don’t like her eating alone.”

He nodded. “Fair enough. Then have dessert with me?”

He exhaled, and she inhaled, tasting him on her tongue. “What time?”

“Seven o’clock.”

She nodded, because by now the heat had sucked every last drop of moisture from her mouth, and words were futile.

Will stood, buttoned his suit coat and smoothed a hand down his striped tie. “I’ll see you then,” he said with a grin. “Oh, and don’t let your coffee get cold.”

With the temperature in the room, that was impossible.

• • •

Will left Kory’s office wearing a lip-stretching smile, and nearly plowed Fran off her feet. He grabbed her shoulder to steady her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were there.”

Which begged the questions how long had she been there, and how much had she heard?

“Do you have a minute?” Fran tossed her head to the left, toward her open office door.

“Of course,” he said nodding, despite wanting to walk in the opposite direction. Anytime Fran wanted to talk in private, chances were he wasn’t going to like her words.

But still, the smile lingered at the corner of his lips. He wondered if Kory liked chocolate cake. Who didn’t like chocolate cake?

Fran closed her office door behind him. “Ben came to me for permission to charge overtime.”

Will scratched his forehead with the length of his index finger. “Well, I suppose he’ll need to be brought back up to full time once all the beds are filled.”

“Now. He wants overtime pay
now
to work with Ken Flemming. It seems Dr. Flemming is requesting additional sessions.” Fran’s lip hitched when she mentioned Kory. “You know she’s using us to get her father better.”

“Of course she’s using us,” Will snapped. “We’re using her, too.” Right? He tried to think of his original, selfish reason for hiring her. It was tied to Valley postponing the deal. It was tied to people like Fran and Ben needing jobs. It was tied to…

“Where are we going to get the money for increased payroll?” She raised her too-skinny, penciled-on brows. “Please tell me it won’t come from the same place the bed money came from. Your mother would…”

“Fran,” Will held up his hands, trying to halt her downward spiral into melodrama, “it’s under control. You don’t need to worry about this.”

She exhaled loudly, sounding unconvinced. “The more you personally put into this place the more you have to lose when Dr. Wonderful leaves town.”

Will didn’t want to think about losing anything, not after the conversation he had minutes ago with Kory. She accepted his dessert invitation without a struggle. After that, he was feeling too good about himself to let anyone infer he didn’t have what it took to keep “Dr. Wonderful” around—at least longer than she needed to be. Okay. Maybe he was kidding himself she would stay beyond the initial terms of her contract. Then again, maybe she was kidding herself she would leave.

It sounded like one hell of a faceoff to Will.

“Thanks for your concern, Fran. But I really do have it all under control. Trust me,” he said, letting the smile he felt on the inside blast across his face. “We’ll talk again soon.”

Right now, he was on a mission: Locate Harmony Fall’s best chocolate cake.

Kory watched her mother stab garbanzo beans with a fork. One by one she extracted them from her spinach salad, placing them gently between her grim lips.

“Considering the magnitude of his stroke, he’s doing well,” Kory said, halting her own fork inches from her mouth.

Mom sipped iced tea, sighed and plucked another bean from her salad. “It’s hard to see him like that. Day after day after day.”

“I know it is. It’s hard for me, too.” Kory shrugged while she chewed. “But he really, truly is progressing.” She still hated that he couldn’t walk on his own, but she didn’t feel that constant heaviness in her chest anymore. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe he could be even better.”

It was the wrong thing to say. Kory knew it the minute her mother’s eyes widened.

“Well, you know what? It’s hard seeing you like this, too. Day after day after day.”

“Like what?” This was getting old, especially in light of all Kory was accomplishing. Every night she felt more and more satisfied. Every day she felt more and more hopeful. “I’m doing a lot over there.” Today she even managed to throw together a recreational therapy schedule that wouldn’t cost Will Mitchell a dime. “I don’t see how it’s difficult to watch me making a difference in people’s lives.”

“You know what I mean.” More sips of iced tea. More stabbing of beans.

Yeah, Kory knew. Again with the reminder that Harmony Falls wasn’t good enough, that Chicago was the goal. All the reminders ever really did was leave Kory questioning how and why she’d become an unwanted guest in her own home.

She set her fork on her plate and pushed back in her chair, not to leave, but to give her indigestion room to breathe. “I wish you’d tell me what this is really about.”

The same blank stare that always greeted her when she pried greeted her now.

Frustration made Kory fidget. She wanted the truth, but she couldn’t find words strong enough to extract it. “Fine,” she conceded. “I’ll tell you what. You let me get Dad better, and I’ll leave.” She snapped her fingers. “Just like that. Then you two can take off for wherever you wanted to be in the first place without me interfering.”

Mom sighed as she looked away, and then she gathered her plate. “I’m…never mind. Aunt Jeanie will be here soon.”

Kory watched her mother walk away from the table and disappear into the kitchen, a thick sadness filled the air. At least she had Will. Six months ago, if someone would have told her she’d be anxious to spend time with him, she’d have had them committed.

“I’m taking the truck tonight,” she called after her mother. “I’ll be home late. Don’t wait up.”

Just like Kory thought, there wasn’t another word.

Upstairs, while her mother waited for Aunt Jeanie, Kory showered away the self-pity, annoyed by it in the face of everything she’d managed to accomplish in such a short time. She shampooed twice, conditioned extra-long and shaved every possible inch until the razor slipped effortlessly over her skin. Still, random thoughts about her mother’s dissatisfaction arose until Kory was answering them with:
at least somebody wants me
. Okay, so the fact that the somebody was Will Mitchell was complicated, but still… She wasn’t wholly unwanted. On the contrary, Will seemed to want her very much.

Right now, Kory needed that.

An hour later, dressed in cutoff button-flies threadbare from too much wear in high school and a red ribbed tank top, Kory slipped her feet into flip flops, snagged a bottle of sweet white wine from her mother’s stash and hopped into the truck. Anticipation combined with humidity made it hard to breathe.
Dessert.
It had to be a euphemism for sex. It better be. Hell, she’d taken thirty minutes to pick out her bra and underwear. That was twice as long as it took her to do her hair. But he did ask her to dinner first and dinner was legit. Like a date. Dating Will seemed much crazier than sleeping with him. And not just because it was Will Mitchell, but because Kory didn’t date.

Dating was sticky and distracting. It required time and energy Kory didn’t have to give, not if she wanted to be taken seriously in an uber-competitive, male-dominated field. She had a couple friends-with-benefits over the years, and that suited her just fine. Now she could add Will.

This isn’t a date.

She focused on a wide array of “desserts”
the rest of the drive there.

Before she even had a chance to knock or ring the bell, Will opened the door clad in khaki shorts and a polo shirt. He’d been waiting for her. The warm, fuzzy feeling of being wanted expanded her chest.

“Hi,” she said, stepping into the glow of the porch light, holding up the bottle of wine. “My contribution to dessert.”

He waggled his brows. “Step inside my lair, and I’ll show you my contribution.”

Yep.
Sex
. She was right. Screw dessert.

Grinning, she followed him into the house, where soft opera met her on the other side of the door. Similar music had played in his office the day of their confrontation. She was about to ask him about his penchant for emotional, complex music when she stepped into the living room. The coffee table was outfitted with wine glasses, china, and the biggest chocolate cake she’d ever seen, perched on a silver pedestal. Classy. Much classier than necessary for what she had in mind.

“Oh.” The bottle of wine hung limp at her side. “There really is dessert.”

“You look disappointed.”

She stared at the impeccably set table. Maybe he didn’t want her as much as she thought he did. “I’m not disappointed. I just… Never mind.”

He chuckled and reached for her, sliding a hand around her waist, pulling her closer. “We can eat before or after whatever it is
you
had in mind. Chances are I have the same thing in mind, too.”

Relief relaxed her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck, dangling the bottle behind him. “Good.” She wiggled against his chest. “I was starting to get a complex.”