“Yes, yes, it’s my niece,” Lily told the person on the other line. “Of course I’ll tell her ‘good morning’ for you, Mable.”
“Hi, Mable!” Hannah waved to the phone. Everyone knew everybody in this small town. It was like Westville, where Hannah had grown up. Ryan had been from there too. He’d been quite a few years older, but none of that mattered. He’d been warm and compassionate, with only a few red flags. He’d had a rough childhood, and Hannah only wanted to take care of him. After all, bringing hope to the hopeless was who she was. It all came back to bite her when the monster emerged from the man she’d once loved.
Taking a deep breath, she tapped her aunt’s desk with her pink fingernails. “Lily, what do you have for me today?”
Her aunt handed her a clipboard while wrapping up her call. “No, no, I won’t say a word. Yes, Mable, I’ll tell you everything once I know all the details.” She hung up the phone and studied her niece with a happy sigh. “Oh, everybody is wondering who the new head of the hospital will be.”
Hannah nervously bit her lip. Sweet little Dr. Perry was retiring that month. Everyone was worried the new guy would change things for the worse, except for Aunt Lily.
She poked her niece in the hip. “Levi Hernandez shows up on June 1st. Who knows, Hannah? Maybe he’ll be young and hot.”
Hannah hoped not. That had been her problem before. Ryan had been the chief executive at her last place. Hiding her relationship with him had been thrilling with stolen moments in his office and their hands brushing in the hallways. She’d never guessed things would go the way they had. “I hope he’s old and has bad teeth,” she told her aunt.
“You’re no fun!”
“I’m not paid to be fun.”
Lily went back to her computer, laughing while Hannah perused through the clipboard to go through her schedule. The day was packed with a mix of inpatient therapy and outpatient rehab. “Do I have a break anywhere in there?”
“Sorry, Linda called in sick. You’re it for today.”
They were horribly understaffed. Maybe they did need the new hospital administrator to come organize things around here. Hannah relaxed when she read the name of her first patient of the day—Julie Ward. The older lady owned the Sweet Shoppe on Main Street and always brought fudge. The day was looking up. “Is Julie here?” she asked Lily.
“Yeah, she’s already in the rehab center.”
With her sneakers squeaking against the white polished floors, Hannah hurried there. Her lips curled up in delight when she saw the familiar curve of Julie’s pink cheeks as she sat on the seat in front of the rehab table in their mini gym. Her white hair waved softly around her ears. Julie must’ve been a stunning beauty in her youth. Recently, she’d reunited with her true love after sixty years, and the two lived above her candy shop.
“Well, if it isn’t my cruel taskmaster!” Julie swung around in her seat. “I brought some fudge to convince you to go easy on me. Tiger butter, double chocolate!”
Hannah groaned happily. “Oh no, Julie! I’ll have to jog twice as long tonight to work that off.” But she took it anyway. No one could resist Julie’s homemade sweets. Hannah settled into the seat across from her. “How’s your arm feeling?”
“Oh, it’s getting better.” Julie slid her hand down her arm, testing the pain. She had tennis elbow, or as she called it, candy arm from beating fondant. “Those exercises are doing the job. You’re a gem, my dear.”
“Let’s see your prayer stretch.” The two went over her exercises, with Hannah testing the older lady’s strength and flexibility in her wrist and thumb. It was looking good. They could probably avoid surgery. Hannah nodded in satisfaction. “You’re making good progress, Julie.”
The older lady sighed. “I’m glad to hear it. Crystal’s been taking over the candy making in the mornings. My granddaughters are a couple of worrywarts. You’d think they’d have better things to do at their age than fret over me.”
Hannah empathized with Julie’s granddaughters. Her father had been in and out of rehab before he’d died. He’d been so proud of her going into physical therapy. He was a prosthetist and was the reason she’d become a PT. She’d let him down in the end. They’d argued the night before his accident; he’d told her to keep away from Ryan. She should’ve listened to him. She sighed. “Well, they love you, Julie. And you make them proud, too. How is that new husband of yours? Are you making up for lost time?”
Julie’s cheeks grew rosy. “You little cutie! You bet we are.” Hannah let out a giggle, and Julie nudged her playfully. “His grandson married my granddaughter, you know. They’re living at The Mountain Cove—that place is drawing interesting people from all over the country.”
Hannah froze, remembering who else lived there. What a disaster! Hannah had been leaving a client’s beautiful Victorian mansion after a home visit last week when one of her best friends from Westville walked in to visit her employer’s grandmother. What were the odds? Rosabel Smith’s eyes had gone wide. She’d asked all sorts of questions; the worst was when Rosabel asked after Ryan. Surely, news would get back to him that Hannah was here. Still, she couldn’t chance crossing paths with her old friend again. She’d have to keep far from the elite circles of this Mountain Cove.
Julie patted her shoulder comfortingly as if she could read Hannah’s thoughts. “There’s a good job opportunity for you there, my dear.” She lowered her voice. “Don’t let your Aunt Lily know that I’m trying to woo you away from this old shack, but I bet it pays a hundred times more. Oh, it’s a very sad case, to be sure. Only someone like you could tackle it—you’re a ray of sunshine, you know that, sweetie?”
Hannah cracked a smile. “Oh, I don’t know about that, Julie. I took your fudge and still made you do your exercises.”
Her friend laughed brightly. “That means you’re perfect for the job! And I’m telling you it’s yours if you want it. My new grandson Asher has a friend over there at The Mountain Cove. He’s a famous guy.” Her nose scrunched up in thought. “Jett … Jett Eastwood, yes, that’s his name—even I’ve heard of him, and that’s saying something.”
So had Hannah. Jett was a world-famous inventor and adventurer. If Hannah remembered correctly, he’d been in some kind of climbing accident and shattered his feet and ankles, not to mention sustaining extensive nerve damage.
Her heart picked up speed at the thought of assisting in such a difficult case. Every part of her wanted to be a part of the miracle of getting such a strong-willed entrepreneur on his feet again—until she remembered that she was supposed to keep a low profile. There was no telling what Ryan would do if he knew where Hannah had gone. She tried to cover up her disappointment. “It sounds like whoever takes the job will need a thick skin with all that media attention.”
“No, no, you won’t see any reporters sniffing around there, not with the kind of security they have. Mountain Cove is like a fortress. My Asher makes sure of that. And young lady, that man needs you. Jett’s given up … that’s what I heard, turned into a bit of a recluse. His leg never healed properly, and they had to amputate, he was in so much pain. There was too much nerve damage. But he’s come to the right place. Eureka Springs is where people come to heal.”
Did they? Hannah didn’t feel like she’d healed yet. The bruises were gone, but the pain in her sore, tender heart still ached. She felt a kinship with Jett that she might’ve never felt before. It wasn’t a matter of snapping her fingers and being well again. Was Jett going through something similar? His whole life had been built around being physical, and now he’d lost the thing that made up his identity.
“His friends are trying to get him to climb again,” Julie said. “He’s agreed to bring in a physical therapist to work with him, just to get them off his back. You’d live in that huge house of his, maybe show that man what it means to hope again. The moment I heard about it, I thought of you, sweetheart. That billionaire would take one look into your kind blue eyes and think you were an angel come to heal him.
My Asher was beside himself when I told him how you could help. You could start tomorrow. I’d drive you over myself. Tonight, if you like.”
Hannah let out a nervous laugh. “Julie, I couldn’t.” In another life, she’d jump at the chance, but she was living in the one she’d built for herself. Somehow she felt like she deserved everything bad that had come to her.
Julie squeezed her hand, her eyes sharp like she could see the pain Hannah hid inside. “Just think about it, dear.”
“I will,” she whispered. Not a chance. There was so much that could go wrong. She put on a brave smile to protect her breaking heart. More than anything, she’d love to help the inestimable Jett Eastwood find his spark again, but she’d lost her own, and it wasn’t coming back easily.
She helped Julie put on her brace and nodded with a feigned look of happiness, as her friend tried everything in her arsenal to convince her to take the job. Each reminder of what she was missing out on felt like a knife to her gut. They walked down the hall, where a loud burst of crying echoed from the waiting room. A lady sat with her small daughter in the hard seats, trying her best to comfort the girl, though nothing stopped the sad tears.
Julie dropped her voice to a whisper. “Do you want me to … tell them you’re interested?”
“Um.” Hannah’s eyes swerved to Aunt Lily as she desperately tried to think of a way to let her excited friend down gently. “I don’t think so.”
“Why don’t you take some time to think about it first?” Julie pressed Hannah’s hand on her way out the door. “This offer won’t be around forever.”
It would get snatched up immediately. Hannah knew how this industry worked. Rejecting it was killing her. Julie patted her cheek and left her with a satisfied smile.
The little girl let out a wretched sob in her mother’s arms. Hannah gave her a bracing smile, but the girl dug her blond head further into her mother’s side. The poor little thing was scared. Hannah noticed the collection of teddy bears Lily used as decorations behind her chair. She picked a soft pink one up by the head. “You wanna trade a loaf of fudge for a bear?” she asked her aunt.
Lily pulled down the glasses from the top of her head and eyed the luscious pound of sugar on her counter. “Don’t ask—just do it!”
Chuckling, Hannah carried the teddy bear to the crying little girl. The sobbing stopped almost immediately when the girl’s blue eyes latched onto the soft creature. Hannah knelt next to her. “This is Patrick, and he needs a friend. Will you help him not to feel so lonely?”
A tiny hand reached gingerly out to touch the soft fur. “Patrick?”
“Yeah, but you can name him anything you want. He’s yours.”
The girl made an “oh” with her mouth, and Hannah handed the soft bear to her.
“You see.” Hannah stood. “We care about you at the hospital.”
“Oh, that’s so nice,” her mother said, smoothing back the girl’s pigtails. “What do you say?”
The whisper was almost too soft to hear, but Hannah caught the girl’s tiny voice as she walked away. “Thank you.”
Hannah smiled and waved two fingers behind her back, picking up her clipboard at her aunt’s desk.
“When are you going to get one of those of your own?” Aunt Lily asked.
Hannah perused her schedule. “What? A bear?”
“No, a kid.”
Hannah laughed. “I’ll need a date first.”
“Just give Scooby a chance.” Lily kept her voice casual, like she hadn’t brought this up a dozen times before. “He’s really nice. Maybe a little loud. I could set you up.”
Oh no. Not this again. “I’m fine, Lily, really.”
“Sweetheart.” Her aunt let out an exasperated breath. “You need to live your life again, okay?” Hannah didn’t know what to say to that. Her heart lurched when she saw her aunt’s eyes water over. “What’s going on with you? Is it your dad, honey?” Hannah tried to keep her face expressionless. Maybe if she smiled, Lily would get off her back, but after she tried that option, Lily only scowled. “Your father wouldn’t want to see you this way. He told me plenty of times to watch out for his baby, and I can’t sit here at this desk and see you eat one more meal alone.”
“How about you eat lunch with me, then?”
“Hannah!”
She breathed out, trying to take in what her aunt was saying. Maybe Lily wouldn’t pressure Hannah to date if she knew about Ryan. At the same time, she didn’t want to tell Lily and watch her eyes change when she looked at her. To what? Pity? Shock? Fear? She’d see Hannah as someone who couldn’t take care of herself. It was crazy, because as much as Hannah told her clients that their injuries didn’t define them, it was hard to believe when it came to herself. Yeah, Ryan did a number on me. “What’s this guy like?” she asked. Dating when she wasn’t ready was easier than telling the truth.
Her aunt’s eyes lit up, and she rushed to tell Hannah everything about this stranger.
Hannah held up her hands with a nervous laugh. “Okay, okay, he’s great. I get it.” She hurried away to meet her next patient. It wasn’t like going out again would kill her. And Lily was right—Hannah had to live her life, whether she felt ready or not.
By the time Hannah’s twelve-hour shift was over, it was dark outside. The big florescent lights glowed over an almost empty parking lot. Lily had already gone home to fix hamburgers. With her stomach growling at the thought, Hannah wrestled with her purse to get her keys out.
Dr. Perry waved to her on his way to see another patient before the night shift took over. His tired eyes drooped over his pleasant expression as he shuffled off. The man was ready for retirement. She sang “goodbye” to the sweet old man before stepping outside into the chilly spring night.
The birds singing from the trees that morning were silent as she made her way to her old Chevrolet. She’d packed everything she could fit into that clunker before driving for two days from Vermont to get here. It was due for a wash.
A man stood next to her car, leaning against an SUV. Strange. Why did he just stand there and watch her come his way? She should’ve gone back inside then. She should’ve recognized the Subaru Forester and the familiar dark blue paint. These were all things that haunted her later.
Hannah kept walking towards him, as if doing what felt normal would make these ghosts of the pasts go away. The man shifted. The set of his shoulders gave him away. She’d thrown her arms around them countless times; she could almost feel his muscles flexing under her fingers. As soon as the horror of what stood before her touched her brain, she froze. Her body felt like it was bending in half with her need to escape, though she was sure she hadn’t moved.
Her vision tunneled to his hands. He held flowers. His long fingers squeezed the stems.
Could she run? Would he let her get away? Did she have the power to fight him if he came for her?
Her cell phone was in her purse. Too far away. How had she let herself get so relaxed? She was frozen, listening to the sound of her breathing rush against her ears. In. Out.
Ryan stepped out of the shadows under the floodlights of the parking lot. The spatter of freckles she’d found so adorable were more pronounced over paler skin as he ran a hand under his hawkish nose. “What were the odds you’d run into Rosabel?” he asked. “What a coincidence to find someone from home, huh? I guess Sarah’s her father’s caretaker. Sarah saw me at a convention a few days ago.” He took another step towards her. “It was meant to be.”
No, it certainly wasn’t! Hannah was having trouble getting the words out; her heart thumped hard against her chest as all her fears came crashing down on her. Every nerve screamed at her body to move. She took a step back.
Ryan tilted his head. “Don’t be afraid. I never wanted to hurt you. You can trust me now.”
Her mind raced to the last time she’d seen him. That was when he’d blamed her for some guy flirting with her. She’d defended herself, and he’d grabbed her and hit her worse than he ever had. It le
ft her reeling. Before then, it had been his knuckles colliding against her chin, a little too hard, easily explained away because he’d gotten too rough, too emotional, too out of control. But they couldn’t go back from what he’d done that day. He’d choked her until she fell, and then he came back for more, kicking her in the ribs, leaving her gasping for mercy.
“Honey?” The words seemed ludicrous coming from his mouth. “I came all this way. Can’t you at least hear me out?”
She turned to run.
His flowers fell against the pavement in a thump. His feet pounded over them to her. He caught her from behind and covered her mouth with his hand. “Shh, shh. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. I missed you.” Hannah let out a muffled groan, and he kissed her cheek. “Baby, I’m not a monster. I said I’m sorry.”
Yes, after he blackmailed me!
She’d told him that it was over. She hadn’t had the heart to turn him in after he’d beaten her almost senseless. Love—or whatever they had—was such a strange thing, but his threats to keep her with him after that had turned her desperate. He wouldn’t let her go.
Ryan sniffed her hair. “Mm, Hannah, you always smelled so good, even after a long day of work.”
She stiffened, feeling panic thread through her. He sounded insane.
“Baby,” he said. “I care about you. I didn’t tell anyone about what you did, you know. I love you.”
She wrestled free, tripping backwards. He still had a hold of her hand. The man had a pack of lies boiling inside that he’d promised to ruin her with. They’d been the reason she’d left, why she couldn’t tell anyone what he was doing. “I didn’t do any of those things you said,” she hissed, “and you know it! What’s wrong with you?”
Her Broken Hero Billionaire (Billionaire Bachelor Mountain Cove Book 8) Page 2