Reunited in Walnut River

by RaeAnne Thayne

  Anna Wilder.

  He hadn’t seen her since Saturday morning at her duplex but she hadn’t been far from his thoughts. He had done his best to push away the memory of making love to her but sometimes random images intruded into his mind, usually at the most inopportune moment.

  Despite that little glitch, for the most part his whole world had condensed to two clear objectives—protecting Peter Wilder and beating the hell out of NHC in the merger negotiations. Everything he did was aimed at those goals.

  So far, Peter appeared to be safe. No malpractice allegations or harassment claims had emerged out of the woodwork. Since the hospital board vote was scheduled for first thing in the morning, he had to look at the relative quiet as a positive indicator that NHC had reconsidered the strategies outlined in that damn memo.

  He wasn’t letting down his guard, though, and he wasn’t allowing Peter to do so, either. He had been fiercely busy wrapping Anna’s brother in as many legal safeguards as he could devise.

  To his further frustration, Peter seemed remarkably unconcerned about any possible threat to his reputation or his practice, until Richard wanted to shake him out of his complacency.

  “See, Dad? I found it! I told you it was in the backyard.”

  Ethan still looked annoyed at him for the flare of temper so Richard forced himself to smile. “Good job. We’d better get going.”

  On the way out to the SUV, he closed his eyes and arched his neck one way and then the other, trying to force his shoulders to relax. He couldn’t take his grim mood out on his son. Ethan didn’t deserve it. The one person who did deserve it was making herself remarkably scarce.

  Ethan jabbered all the way to the park where he played T-ball. When they were a few blocks from the baseball field, he suddenly stopped in the middle of a soliloquy about the playdate he had enjoyed with a friend that afternoon.

  “Hey, Dad, Anna said she would come to another one of my games. She promised, remember, the night she read me the funny story about the worm and the spider? This is my last one. Do you think she’ll be there?”

  Apparently, Richard wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stop thinking about a certain lovely blond double-crosser.

  “Anna’s really busy right now,” he murmured. Destroying the hospital her father dedicated his life to, and her family in the process. “She might not make it.”

  “She promised,” Ethan said, his voice brimming with confidence. “I wonder if she’ll bring Lilli. Do you think she’ll let me walk her again? I sure like that dog.”

  He so hated that his son had to learn the lesson early in life that some people couldn’t be trusted to remember things like honor and decency and promises made. He wanted Ethan to hang on to his illusions for a little bit longer.

  “We’ll have to see what happens. Like I said, Anna is really busy right now.”

  But to his shock, when they arrived at the ball diamond, she was the first person he saw. She sat on the top bench of the bleachers, looking sleek and elegant even in Levi’s and a crisp white shirt.

  At the sight of her, his heart gave a slow surge of welcome and his body tightened with longing. How was it that when he was away from her, he always managed to forget how her long blond loveliness took his breath away?

  “She’s here! I knew she would come. Do you see her, Dad?”

  “I see her,” he answered, his voice gruff. Fast on the heels of his initial pleasure at seeing her was hot hard anger that racketed through him like a pinball.

  Why the hell couldn’t she leave him alone? This was hard enough for him, knowing how stupid he had been for her.

  Even knowing what she was, what she was part of, he couldn’t keep himself from wanting her.

  “I’m gonna show her how good I am at catching the ball now.” Ethan raced ahead of him and climbed like a little howler monkey up the bleachers to talk to Anna. Richard was grateful for the few minutes to gain control of the wild surge of emotions. By the time he reached them, the careening emotions inside him had faded to a dull ache instead of that terrible, piercing pain.

  Her blue eyes held wariness and something else—something elusive and tantalizing that he couldn’t quite identify.

  “Hi.” She pitched her voice low.

  He nodded, but didn’t quite trust himself not to yell at her all over again so he said nothing.

  “I promised I would be here,” she said. “I didn’t want to let Ethan down.”

  She was willing to crucify her own brother but she didn’t want to break a promise to a five-year-old boy? He gave her a skeptical look and she had the grace to flush.

  “Where’s Lilli?” Ethan asked. “Did you bring her?”

  “Not tonight. She hasn’t been feeling good the last couple of days. I think she has a cold.”

  “Dogs get colds?”

  “Sometimes. Or maybe it’s just allergies.”

  He looked disappointed for about half a second, then with rapid-fire speed, his mood cycled back to excitement. “Hey, guess what, Anna? Me and my grandma played catch all day today and now I’m super good. I won’t miss another fly ball, ever again. Wanna see?”

  “Absolutely. Bring it on.”

  She gripped Ethan’s hand and climbed down from the bleachers, smiling at his son with such genuine pleasure that Richard felt as if his heart were being ripped into tiny pieces.

  Ethan grinned back and shoved the ball at Richard. “Dad, can you throw it at me so I can show Anna how good I catch?”

  “Sure. Let’s step away from the bleachers a little so we don’t hit anybody if we miss the ball.”

  “I’m not going to miss, Dad. I told you, I’ve been practicing.”

  “It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s me. I don’t even have a glove.”

  “I won’t throw hard, okay?”

  Still doing his best not to look at her, he led Ethan to an open stretch of ground between two playing fields. He tossed the ball to his son and was pleased when Ethan easily caught it in his glove.

  “Good job!” Anna exclaimed. “You have been practicing.”

  “Yep. Now watch me throw it back!” He tossed it back to Richard, harder than he expected and a little to the right. Richard managed to snag it with his bare hands, but it was a near thing.

  Anna stood watching them both play catch for several minutes, her features revealing little of her thoughts, until Ethan’s coach blew a whistle to call his team into the dugout.

  Ethan ran off eagerly, leaving Richard alone with her—exactly the position he didn’t want to find himself.

  They made their way back toward the bleachers in silence. Just before they reached them, Anna touched the bare skin of his forearm to stop him. She dropped her hand quickly but not before the heat of her fingers scorched through him.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re wishing me to Hades right about now. But I did promise Ethan.”

  “I wouldn’t want you to break a promise.”

  That delicate flush coated her cheekbones and he wondered at it. How could she possibly still have the ability to blush?

  “Have you talked to Peter?” she asked after a moment.

  “Several times. He seems remarkably nonchalant for a man whose sister is trying to destroy him.”

  “Has anything…happened?”

  “You tell me. You’re the one with all the inside information.”

  Her jaw clenched at his bitter tone. “You’re going to believe what you want to believe.”

  “No. I’m going to believe the evidence. I’m an attorney. That’s what we do.”

  “Maybe the evidence isn’t as cut-and-dried as you think.”

  He opened his mouth to offer a scathing rebuke but she cut him off with a shake of her head.

  “I didn’t come here to fight with you, Richard. I also didn’t want to spoil the game for you. I’ll just watch an inning or two and then get out of your way. You’ll hardly know I’m here.”

  He was saved from having to respond by Ethan’s tea
m taking the field.

  The park had two sets of bleachers and she at least had the courtesy to sit on the other bleachers, several dozen feet away from him. That didn’t stop his gaze from drifting in her direction entirely too often.

  He knew it was crazy but he could almost smell her from here, that feminine, sexy scent of hers.

  He didn’t miss the way she stood up and cheered when Ethan caught a fly ball to end the inning half and then again a few minutes later when his son hit a two-run single. When his son crossed home plate, sent home by another player’s hit, Richard also didn’t miss the way Ethan grinned triumphantly first at his father then turned to aim the same grin at Anna.

  Damn her. His heart was already shattered. Did she have to do the same thing to his son’s?

  * * *

  She lasted all of an inning and a half—long enough to watch Ethan hit another single—before she couldn’t bear another minute.

  As she slid down the bleachers, the sun was just dipping below the horizon, bathing the baseball diamond in the pale rosy light of dusk. She closed her eyes, wanting to store up this moment.

  It had been foolish to come. Foolish and self-indulgent. She had hoped four days of reflection would have had some kind of impact on Richard, that perhaps he might begin to experience a little doubt about her guilt.

  She supposed some optimistic corner of her heart had hoped he’d begun to wonder if he might have been wrong about her.

  Obviously, that hadn’t happened. He was as angry as he had been Saturday morning when he had seen that memo. More so, maybe. Hearing the bitterness in his voice, seeing the cold disdain in those eyes that had once looked at her with such warm tenderness, had been chilling proof that nothing had changed.

  She walked back to her car with one hand curled against the crushing pain in her chest.

  Nothing had changed and everything had changed. The wheels she had set in motion couldn’t be stopped now.

  Now she just had to wait and see what happened.

  * * *

  Richard walked into the hospital the next morning in his best suit and his favorite power tie. He had slept little the night before. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, he had finally risen well before dawn.

  He wanted to think it was diligence to his client that kept him up and not his last glimpse of Anna as she had left the baseball diamond. Unfortunately, he knew otherwise.

  He was totally committed to representing the hospital to the best of his ability but the images haunting his fragmented dreams hadn’t had anything to do with the hospital. They had everything to do with Anna.

  He wanted this hospital board meeting to be over. Though the merger vote was still too close to call, at this point he just wanted a damn decision. Then maybe this sense of impending doom would dissipate. At least Peter would be safe—and maybe Anna would return to New York where she belonged and he wouldn’t have to spend a sleepless night every time he happened to bump into her.

  He would probably see her this morning at the board meeting. Twisted as he was, he couldn’t help the little buzz of anticipation at the prospect.

  He sighed as he walked through the lobby. The security guard waved and grinned at him. Richard managed a half-hearted wave, then furrowed his brow when three more staff members beamed at him on his way to the elevator.

  Weird.

  Though he usually didn’t buy into those woo-woo kind of things, he sensed a curious energy in the air. The impression was reinforced when he rode the elevator with Bob Barrett, a physician he knew only casually. The man actually patted him on the back when the elevator stopped at the second floor.

  “It’s a great day for Walnut River General, isn’t it?” he said, before stepping out.

  Something definitely odd was going on. He couldn’t begin to figure out what.

  The first person he met coming out of the elevator on the administrative floor was Ella Wilder. She aimed a thousand-watt smile at him, then went one better, throwing her arms around him.

  “Isn’t it wonderful?” she exclaimed. “The best news I can imagine. Peter and Bethany’s wedding this weekend will truly be a celebration.”

  Before he could ask her what the hell she was talking about, she released him and jumped into the waiting elevator just before the doors closed, leaving him completely befuddled.

  He headed to J.D.’s office, hoping Ella’s fiancé could shed a little light on things.

  J.D. wasn’t alone. Peter Wilder stood in the outer office with him and his assistant, Tina Tremaine, and all of them looked jubilant.

  “I knew she would come through for us,” Peter exulted when he saw Richard. “She’s a Wilder, isn’t she?”

  He frowned. “Who? Ella?”

  “Of course not. Anna!” He grinned at Richard but his smile faded when he took in his confusion. “I’m guessing you haven’t read the paper this morning.”

  “I didn’t have a chance. I was too busy prepping for this morning’s board meeting.” And brooding about Peter’s sister. “Why? What did I miss?”

  J.D. and Peter exchanged laughing looks. “Maybe you’d better come into my office and see for yourself,” J.D. said. “My staff made sure I received a copy.”

  He opened the door behind him and Richard was stunned to see every available surface covered with the front page of the Walnut River Courier.

  The same headline in huge type screamed from all of them: Northeastern HealthCare Drops Hospital Bid.

  A subhead read: Municipal Council Considering Options, May Look to Private Investors.

  He stared at the headline and then at both men. “They’re pulling out? After six months of fighting? Just like that?”

  Peter laughed. “No. Not just like that. My brilliant baby sister did it all. In five days, she managed to accomplish what the rest of us have been trying to pull off for months.”

  He shook his head to clear the fuzziness out, wishing all over again that he’d been able to grab more than a few hours of restless sleep. He grabbed one of the newspapers off the wall and read the first few paragraphs, stopping when he reached the statement released by NHC.

  He read,

  Upon further study, we have determined that Walnut River General would not be a good fit for NHC. We regret that we will not have the opportunity to bring our winning health-care model to the citizens of Walnut River but wish the community and hospital personnel all the best.

  It was definitely a blow-off quote, leaving NHC very little room to reconsider.

  “I’m sorry. I’m lost here. You’re going to have to back up a step or two for me. What is this? Why did they pull out? And why do you seem to think Anna had anything to do with it? Last I heard, she was the enemy. What about the infamous memo?”

  “That memo is the best thing that’s ever happened to the merger opposition,” J.D. answered.

  “How can that be possible?” he growled.

  “Because finding it infuriated Anna and mobilized her to our side,” Peter answered.

  “What do you mean, finding it? She knew about it all along.”

  Peter shook his head. “No, she didn’t.”

  “So she says.” He couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice, the deep sense of betrayal.

  Peter frowned and gestured to the newspaper headlines blaring across the room. “This is evidence she’s telling the truth. Do you really think NHC would have dropped their bid for the hospital if Anna hadn’t maneuvered things so they had no other choice?”

  “How?”

  “She’s brilliant,” J.D. said. “Savvy and smart. She single-handedly orchestrated what amounts to an internal coup to force them out.”

  “She knew there was an anti-Daly faction at NHC, shareholders and other top-level executives who weren’t happy with some of his tactics,” Peter added. “Anna has been working like a demon for the last four days, negotiating with them. She agreed to deliver the memo as evidence against Daly to force him out if they would consent to drop their bid for
the hospital. It all hit the fan yesterday. Daly’s out at Northeastern HealthCare, a new guard is in and their first action was to issue the statement withdrawing their bid for the hospital, as promised.”

  Richard felt as if J.D. and Peter had both taken turns pummeling him with an office chair.

  He tried to remember Anna’s demeanor Saturday morning when he read the memo at her apartment. She had been shaky and uneasy, he remembered. Pale, nervous, edgy. But he had just attributed it to guilt that he had found out about NHC’s nefarious plans for Peter.

  Was it possible she hadn’t known? When she had faced all his accusations, could she have been withholding evidence that would have exonerated her?

  He couldn’t seem to wrap his head around it. He had been hard, bordering on cruel. You’re a cold heartless woman who is willing to sell your own family down the river to get your way.

  Those had been his words. And she had stood there absorbing them. Why the hell hadn’t she tried to defend herself? She had stood there and let him rip into her without saying a thing.

  Not quite true, he remembered with growing self-disgust. She had told him he was jumping to unfounded conclusions. She had asked him to give her a few days to straighten things out but he had assumed she was only trying to delay him from taking action until after the vote.

  Just last night, she had told him that maybe the evidence wasn’t as cut-and-dried as he wanted to believe.

  She had skirted the truth but hadn’t told him all of it.

  She hadn’t trusted him. That’s what it all came down to. She had taken his criticism without explaining anything at all of substance to him.

  And he deserved her lack of trust. He had jumped to conclusions, had based his entire perceptions of her guilt and innocence on past misdeeds that should have been inadmissible.

  Because of what happened eight years before, he had been completely unwilling to give her any benefit of doubt. When he saw that memo, he had taken it as damning evidence against her—proof of her perfidy, he now realized, that he had been looking for all along.

  Even if she had tried to defend herself a little more strenuously, he wasn’t sure he would have allowed himself to believe her.