Accidentally Yours

by Susan Mallery

  She’d been a total bitch. Nothing that had happened had been his fault. Her deal with God was private and not something that made sense to anyone else. Nathan had come through with the money and she owed him. She needed to remember that.

  She walked outside and squinted as Tim walked around to the rear of the truck and pulled the back open.

  “Is it alive?” she yelled.

  He grinned. “Nope. You plug it in. It’s fast, though. I took it for a spin myself.”

  She knew that it was unlikely Nathan would have bought her a car, knowing her feelings about her old beat-up machine. Which meant whatever it was had to be for Cody. She could only think of one form of transportation that her son needed right now.

  As Tim ducked into the truck, she bit her lower lip and debated whether or not she could accept it. Then Tim rode a shiny new electric wheelchair down a ramp and she knew she didn’t have a choice.

  He stopped in front of her, then stood. “I’m going to build a ramp up the front stairs,” he said. “I have all the hardware with me. Nathan said to tell you that refusing the wheelchair is about you and this is about Cody, but judging from the look on your face, I don’t think you’re going to say no.”

  “I’m not,” she said, eyeing the expensive piece of machinery and knowing what a difference it would make for Cody. But it did make her wish she hadn’t got quite so cozy with Nathan. Passion complicated everything.

  “He’s not a bad guy,” Tim told her. “I like working for him.”

  “I never said he was bad. He’s just…I can’t deal with him right now.”

  “You can’t control timing.”

  “I can’t control anything.”

  AN HOUR LATER she and Cody turned onto Songwood’s main street.

  “There’s already a lot of new construction from the lab opening up again. A developer is bidding for housing projects and the diner is getting a new porch.”

  “Maybe I could do wheelies off the sidewalk.”

  “Maybe you couldn’t.”

  Cody grinned up at her. While he’d hated the idea of giving up his crutches, he’d been excited when he’d seen his superpowered, bright blue wheelchair. Tim had shown him the basics, then let him loose in the driveway. Cody had mastered the controls in a matter of seconds. With the little trailer that had come with it, they could take the chair everywhere they needed to go. It was an amazing gift, worth thousands of dollars. Kerri wondered how she was going to pay Nathan back.

  “Whoa, look at that!”

  Kerri turned to where Cody pointed and saw a large crane at the edge of town.

  “They’re putting in beams for something,” she said. “The crane is a total waste of money. I could have flown those beams up for free. Or maybe just for an order of fries. You know I love my fries.”

  “Mo-om.” Cody rolled his eyes. “You can’t fly.”

  She pressed a hand to her chest and sucked in a breath, pretending hurt. “What? Of course I can fly.”

  “I don’t think so.” He patted her arm. “But it’s important to have goals.”

  Having him say what she said was both funny and annoying. He was just so sure. “I could fly if I wanted to.” She’d already talked to Nathan about the possibility.

  “Uh-huh.”

  They turned at the next street. Cody put his hands on the control. “I want to go really fast to Brandon’s.”

  “Sure. I’ll hang back, just to be polite. Because I could fly there if I wanted.”

  He rolled his eyes again, then shot forward. The wheelchair raced along the smooth sidewalk, leaving her behind in a matter of seconds. By the time he got to Brandon’s, he was laughing.

  Kerri closed her eyes and breathed in the sound. Happiness. At least for now. She wanted so much more for Cody, but it was the best she could do at the moment. Find a way to make him laugh. The next step was going to be to make a miracle come true.

  “I FEEL SO GUILTY,” Kerri said as she clutched her mug of tea. “He was only trying to be nice. And now I want to ask him a favor and I know I shouldn’t, but it’s for Cody and…” She looked at her friend. “Are you even listening to me?”

  Linda smiled. “Of course I am.”

  “You seem distracted.” Kerri covered her eyes with her free hand. “Something’s going on in your life and all I’m doing is talking about myself. I’m a terrible friend.”

  “You’re not. You’re dealing with a lot of stuff.”

  Kerri straightened. “Stuff we don’t have to talk about right now. What’s happening with you? I want details, which is what you’re always telling me.”

  Linda shrugged. “There’s nothing to tell. Abram is making great progress at the lab.”

  “And?”

  Linda ducked her head. “He really fell apart when he thought I was leaving. While that’s not why I did it, it’s nice to know that I matter.”

  “He would be lost without you.”

  “I always thought so, but now he knows it, too. He’s been different. Attentive, caring.”

  Kerri knew that Linda stayed with Dr. Wallace because he was brilliant, but also because she loved him.

  “You could tell him how you feel,” Kerri pointed out.

  “That would be mature and sensible,” her friend said. “I’m not there yet.”

  “He’s not going to reject you.”

  “Maybe not. But I want to be sure. I think it’s better if the first move comes from him.”

  Kerri didn’t want to push, although she couldn’t help thinking that after twenty years, Linda had waited long enough.

  “KERRI SULLIVAN ON line two,” his secretary said.

  Nathan studied the phone before picking it up.

  “If you’re going to say no, I’m not listening,” he told her.

  “I can’t refuse,” she said. Her voice was soft and familiar and hit him right in his groin. “It’s for Cody. He needs something like that to get around. I couldn’t possibly afford it.”

  Tension he’d ignored faded. “I figured.” He remembered when Daniel had gone into a wheelchair. He’d been horrified, but his son had adjusted quickly, enjoying the speed and freedom. At least until his disease had reached the next stage.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I didn’t expect anything like that, especially after what happened when you came to the hospital.”

  “You were upset. But, Kerri, none of this is anyone’s fault. It just is.”

  “Don’t play the logic card. It won’t work on me.”

  “Kerri—”

  “No. Don’t, Nathan. I can’t believe anything but what I know to be true. Besides, I called to ask for another favor.”

  “Which is?”

  “I want to fly.”

  It took him a second to remember that conversation in Jason’s office. “Wonder Mom?”

  “Yes. Cody doesn’t believe in me anymore. I want to change that. Can you make me fly?”

  He pictured her naked, flushed, writhing as his hands and mouth took her to another dimension. One beyond the heavens where she would fly in the best way possible. But that wasn’t what she was talking about.

  “Somewhere in Songwood?” he asked.

  “That would be easier, but if you want me soaring across Safeco Field, I won’t say no.”

  “The Mariners might object.”

  “Those picky baseball players. Okay, Songwood works.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thank you. I owe you big-time.”

  She hung up and he replaced the receiver. Before he could turn back to his computer, Tim walked into his office.

  “I want you to know I’m sorry,” his driver told him. “He didn’t mean anything by it. He was trying to do the right thing.”

  Nathan frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  Tim put a single sheet of paper on his desk. “You should read that.”

  Nathan scanned the short letter, then looked ba
ck at the other man. “You’re resigning?”

  “I’ll save you the trouble of firing me.” Tim sucked in a breath. “A couple of days ago Lance was here, waiting for me. We had plans to go to lunch.” He shifted his feet.

  Nathan nodded, still clueless as to the point of all this.

  “I got tied up in traffic. He was outside your office, in the waiting area. Your sister was here.” Tim shoved his beefy hands into his slacks pockets. “Frankie came out of your office crying and Lance was concerned. She said she was worried about you seeing Kerri. That Kerri was just in it for the money and you would be hurt and you didn’t need that.”

  “My sister would like nothing better than to see me beaten and bleeding.”

  “Yeah. I know. But Lance doesn’t, so he explained that Kerri wasn’t in it for the money. That you have an arrangement with her and everything is fine.”

  Frankie knew about the deal. Nathan stood and crossed to the window. “She’ll go to the press.” With his luck, she would go straight to Grant Pryor.

  “I figured. I just found out this morning.”

  What were the odds? He’d known the truth would come out eventually—it had a way of surfacing. But like this?

  He stared at the view, at the clouds chasing across the sky, and wondered when things had gone so badly with his sister. Stupid question, he told himself. He knew exactly when. The moment he hadn’t bothered to take care of her.

  She’d always been fragile and close to snapping. What she’d gone through would push a rock over the edge. Frankie hadn’t had a chance.

  But if he knew where things had gone wrong, he had no idea how he might have made them better. Had there been times when he could have gotten close to her? Tried to make amends? His gut had always told him what he’d done had been too big to be forgiven, but had he even tried?

  More guilt. First about his son’s death, now about his sister. He’d failed them both. Most people believed he didn’t do relationships because he was a heartless bastard. While that was true, there was more to it than that. He was toxic to everyone he cared about.

  He turned back to Tim. “You’re not resigning and I’m not firing you. Lance didn’t know.”

  “But he told her.”

  “I’ll deal with it.”

  Not that he had a choice. In truth, Frankie’s attitude was his problem, his fault. He should have handled things differently from the beginning.

  “I have a team of expensive lawyers on retainer,” Nathan said. “They’re about to earn their money.”

  Tim nodded. “I’m sorry.”

  “Let it go.”

  His driver left the office. Nathan moved to the desk and picked up the phone, then dialed a number he’d memorized without meaning to.

  “I’m coming up,” he said when Kerri said hello.

  “Nathan—”

  “This is business.”

  “Then I’ll be waiting.”

  KERRI DELIBERATELY DID nothing to get ready for Nathan’s visit. She resisted the need to straighten the living room and reapply her makeup. She put out a plate of cookies because it was polite and warned Cody they’d have a visitor. Her son barely looked up from the book he was reading.

  “Okay, Mom. Is he bringing fried chicken again?”

  “Probably not.”

  Without any incentive to join the adults, Cody returned his attention to his book.

  On his bed, with his legs stretched out and his stocking feet hanging over the edge, he seemed like any normal kid. As long as she didn’t look too closely and notice the electric wheelchair parked at the side of the bed or the crutches in the corner.

  She moved back and closed the door behind her.

  With nothing else to occupy her, she had plenty of time to get nervous. To worry about seeing Nathan again and tell herself she wasn’t going to react to him anymore. There would be no fantasies about him kissing her and her kissing him back. No memories of their bodies pressing and the heat he could generate with the lightest touch. He was nothing more than the man she’d agreed to help in return for fifteen million dollars. Not some hot, single guy who made her blood heat and her thighs whimper.

  Fifteen minutes later she’d given herself a second stern talking-to, rearranged the spice rack into an almost alphabetical order and sorted laundry. She was so busy trying not to listen for Nathan’s car that she actually missed it when he pulled up. A sharp knock on the door startled her so much she dropped all of Cody’s socks.

  She kicked them behind the door to the small utility room off the kitchen and walked to the front of the house.

  “Hi,” she said as she let Nathan in. “You made good time.”

  “Not a lot of traffic.”

  He looked the same as he always did—dark, dangerous and solitary. He was not a man she would seek out, yet here he was—involved in her world. How had that happened?

  “What’s wrong?” she asked as she settled on the sofa.

  He took the worn club chair on the other side of the battered coffee table.

  “The press knows about our deal.”

  “Not possible. I haven’t told anyone.”

  “The leak came from my end.”

  “You wouldn’t have told anyone, either.”

  “It was my sister.”

  The one he didn’t have contact with? “How?” she asked. “I thought you never saw her anymore.”

  “She came to the office.” He stared past her, as if remembering the visit. “She was angry. She’s been working for a tree-hugging newsletter. They’re not even close to legitimate, so they can’t get funding. They can’t hang on any longer. She blames me. She wants me punished.”

  “Did you do anything to deserve that?”

  He looked at her, his eyes the color of night. “Not with her newsletter. They’re not worth the effort.”

  Talk about lacking support. “I take it you’re not a fan of environmentalists.”

  “They’re fine if they have a point. In her world, punishing me is enough reason. She hates the idea of the towers and wants to stop me. She was angry. When she left, she ran into Lance and convinced him she was terrified that you were out to get me and that I wouldn’t listen to reason where you were concerned.”

  Kerri had been sympathetic right up until that last bit of news. “What? Me? Out to get you?”

  “It was her story. Lance played the good guy and told her she had nothing to worry about. That you and I had a deal.”

  Kerri held in a groan. That was just like Lance. He was sweet and caring. Of course he would reassure Nathan’s sister. Especially if he didn’t know they weren’t exactly close.

  “What makes you think she went to the press?”

  “I told you—she wants me punished.”

  An interesting theory that begged a single question. Why? Why would Frankie hate her brother so much? They only had each other. Shouldn’t they want to bond together?

  Kerri knew better than to voice the question. She’d been the one to return her relationship with Nathan to a more businesslike footing. Associates didn’t get personal.

  “So how do we fight this?” she asked instead.

  “Legally. Get out some press of our own. We have less than a month until the commission meets. In that time I have to convince them I’m a poster boy for good business, that I love Seattle, its people, and that I would never do anything out of pure self-interest.”

  “So it’s not exactly a challenge,” she murmured.

  His gaze narrowed. “Are you mocking me?”

  “Maybe a little. It’s a lot to get done in a short period of time.”

  “I won’t lose my towers.”

  They were her responsibility, too, she reminded herself. She’d made a deal.

  “What do you want me to do?” she asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Excuse me? I’m on the Nathan King team, remember? I’m the head cheerleader.”

  “I’ll deal with it. You have other things to think about. You
may hear from the press. If so, contact Jason. He’ll handle them.”

  Was Nathan passing her off to his lawyer because he was the best person for the job or because he, Nathan, didn’t want that much to do with her?

  She shouldn’t care, she told herself. She should be pleased he was listening to her and doing as she asked. But she wasn’t—because life was nothing if not perverse.

  “I’m not worried about the press,” she said. “I’m tough.”

  “We might be about to find out just how tough you are.”

  With that he stood, then walked to the front door. He was gone before she could figure out if she wanted him to stay.

  NATHAN OPENED his condo door a little after six in the morning and picked up the paper. For the first time in his career, he’d made it to the front page. Below the fold, but still right there, with a picture and a headline designed to make him look like an ass.

  “Billionaire Developer Paying Single Mom and Sick Kid to Win.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE DAMAGE CONTROL meeting started with one of the associates at Jason’s firm discussing the viability of a lawsuit. Nathan ignored the conversation. Whether or not he sued didn’t matter. It was a long-term solution to a short-term problem. With the commission meeting in less than a month, he needed a way to make good in public immediately.

  He noticed that everyone attending ignored the irony of the situation—that the newspaper article had printed only the truth. He had given the money on the condition that Kerri and her son appear on his behalf. He’d broken no laws, violated no codes. But he’d come out looking like the coldhearted bastard he was—something the public couldn’t forgive. A successful man who wasn’t humble. They would take him down if they could. His job was to make sure they didn’t.

  “This is going to play out in the press,” Jason said. “We need to give them something else to report. The flip side. We can start with a series of interviews. Kerri Sullivan is—”

  “Not involved in this,” Nathan said firmly.

  “She has to be. She’s the catalyst for all this. If we send her out—”