He had told her he loved her.
It hadn’t been a lie, exactly. He did love her. But love without trust was flimsy and hollow.
“So obviously the board vote this morning has been canceled,” Peter interrupted his thoughts. “We’re moving ahead with our efforts to privatize the hospital. Is your firm still willing to help us through the legalities?”
“Of course,” he answered absently.
“Excellent,” J.D. said. “We’d like you to draw up a preliminary partnership agreement as soon as possible so we can present it to the city council. I know this is an imposition, but can you work up a rough draft today?”
“No problem. I allocated most of the day to hospital business, with the merger vote and possible follow-up work. I can have it to you by this afternoon.”
“Thanks, Richard,” Peter said. “I knew we could count on you.”
The other man’s words scraped his conscience raw. Anna should have been able to count on him, on the man who claimed he loved her. He should have trusted his own heart, not a stupid piece of paper. Instead, Richard had rushed to convict her without any kind of trial.
He would be lucky if she ever wanted to see him again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“We’re serious about this, Anna. We want you to stay.”
Anna watched Lilli chase her favorite toy, wondering why she couldn’t manage to drum up a little more enthusiasm for Wallace Jeffers’s unbelievable offer. He wanted her to take over his position as vice president of the mergers and acquisitions division of NHC since he was poised to move into Alfred Daly’s newly vacated spot.
This was what she had dreamed about for eight years. Wallace had been her mentor at NHC, the reason she had taken the job there in the first place. He had been one of those at the company who predicted a great future for her there and now that he was taking over for Daly, he appeared to be willing to make those predictions reality.
She should be over the moon. She should be doing cartwheels, sending notice to all the trade papers, ordering new business cards.
Instead, she sat in her rented duplex, watching her dog drool all over a rubber lizard and trying to summon a little excitement. “I appreciate your trust in me, Wallace. I do. But I’m going to have to think about this.”
“What’s to think about?” He sounded genuinely startled. “It’s a no-brainer, Anna. If you take this job, you’ll be completely skipping over several rungs in the corporate ladder.”
“I know that. It’s an incredible offer and I’m grateful. I just need a little time to think about it.”
“We need to move fast to reorganize the company if we want to enact the kind of changes some of us have been pushing for a long time. I’m going to need an answer sooner rather than later.”
“Can I at least have a few hours?”
She had been thinking for five days that she was going to lose her job and now she was being offered the promotion of her dreams. It was enough to make her head spin.
He sighed. “I want you on board, Anna. Without you having the guts to come forward with that memo we used to push Daly out, none of this would have happened. I want people of integrity and grit on my team. You’ve earned this promotion. No one in that department works harder than you do or gets my vision more clearly.”
She had nothing but respect for Wallace Jeffers and knew that under his leadership, NHC would thrive. She was deeply flattered that he had enough faith in her to believe her capable of replacing him. She ought to just say yes right now and start packing her bags to return to New York, but the words seemed to clog in her throat.
“I appreciate your offer. I’m just…I have to consider my options right now.”
“What options?” His voice sharpened. “Have you got another offer I don’t know about?”
“No,” she assured him. “Nothing like that.”
“Then what?”
My heart is here.
She couldn’t say the words, not to her boss, a man she respected professionally and personally.
“Give me a few hours, Wallace. I’ll call you back by the end of the day, I promise.”
“All right. Just make sure you give yourself enough time to pack up and be back here for an 8 a.m. staff meeting so I can introduce the new leadership team of Northeastern HealthCare.”
She managed a laugh. “You’re so confident I’ll say yes?”
“You’d be stupid not to take this promotion, and you are far from a stupid woman, Anna.”
Wrong, she thought sadly. She was stupid. A smart woman would walk away from Walnut River and not look back. But these past few weeks had shown her how deeply her life and the person she had become were intertwined with this community and the people who lived here.
She wasn’t sure she was ready to leave.
What was her alternative, though? Jobs in her field weren’t exactly thick on the ground in Walnut River. And even if she found one, what would she gain by staying? Only more heartache, she was certain.
She sighed. Why delay the inevitable? She couldn’t turn down Wallace’s offer. She should just pick up the phone right now and tell him yes. What did Walnut River have to offer her?
She even picked up her cell phone, nerves strumming through her, but Lilli suddenly barked with excitement and raced to the door and Anna’s hand froze on the numbers.
Richard?
Her heart jumped along with her little dog as the doorbell rang.
It wouldn’t be, she told herself, though she couldn’t help the little spasm of hope that faded when she opened the door. Instead of Richard Green, she was instantly assaulted by her entire family. Peter, David, Ella and their significant others—Bethany Holloway, J. D. Sumner and a lovely brown-eyed blonde she assumed was David’s fiancée, Courtney Albright.
“There’s my baby sister,” David announced before she could even greet them.
She opened her mouth to answer but the words were snatched away when he scooped her into his arms and twirled her around her miniscule living room until her head spun while Lilli yipped and danced around their ankles.
“David,” she exclaimed. “Put me down before you either step on my dog or make me puke.”
“You’re still motion sick? I would have thought you outgrew that years ago.”
“Not completely,” she said as her stomach churned.
“Ew,” he said, releasing her so abruptly she almost fell.
Peter was there to catch her, though. Before she could even find her breath, he pulled her into his arms, enveloping her in a tight hug.
“You didn’t let us down, Anna.”
His voice sounded so much like their father’s. “I knew you could do it. If anyone could save Walnut River General Hospital, I knew it would be you. You were amazing. Absolutely amazing.”
She allowed herself one quick moment to bask in the warm glow of her siblings’ approval before she pulled away. She had to tell them the truth, the one she had been withholding from them for months.
“You know my company wouldn’t have even looked at Walnut River General if not for me, don’t you? I’m the one who proposed the hospital as a possible acquisition target in the first place.”
Peter made a face. “Okay, so you’re not completely perfect. But we’re still keeping you.”
She almost cried then, holding her tears in by sheer force of will as Peter gave her another tight hug then released her.
“My turn,” Ella said, stepping forward.
Anna stared at her little sister, overwhelmed, for just a second too long. Ella’s expression started to cool, her arms to drop, and Anna’s tears broke free.
“El,” she murmured, just that, then grabbed her sister tightly.
For so long she had lived with a hole in her heart without even realizing it. She had tried to fill it with work, never realizing it would always be empty until she made her peace with her family.
Now she stood and rocked with her arms around her sister, the tears trickling down her
cheeks.
“I have missed you so much,” Ella said.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. I said awful things to you.”
“I deserved them. All of them. I’ve been so stupid. Incredibly stupid. When I dropped out of med school, I was sure I had failed everyone. I thought I had to choose between my career and my family. If I wasn’t in medicine, I felt like I didn’t belong with the rest of you.”
“You do,” Ella exclaimed. “Of course you do. You always have.”
Anna saw that now. She was a Wilder. It didn’t matter whether she was their half sister or their adopted sister. Either way, she belonged in this family. She loved them and needed them in her life and she had been so very foolish to believe she could take on the world by herself.
“You’re our sister and we love you,” Ella said. “We have all missed you.”
“Oh, Ella.” She sniffled again.
Sometime soon she would tell Ella and David about the letter from their father but not today, she decided.
“Cut it out, you two,” David interrupted. “This is supposed to be a party. A celebration of good triumphing over evil. No offense, Anna.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, none taken, I’m sure.”
“We even have champagne,” Bethany interjected.
“And food,” the other woman added. “Hi. I’m Courtney. I’m thrilled to finally meet you. You have to come to dinner sometime soon so you can meet my little girl, Janie. She’s thrilled at the prospect of another aunt to add to her growing family.”
To Anna’s surprise, David’s fiancée gave her a warm hug, as did Bethany and even J.D.
“You can’t get away from them all now,” J.D. murmured in her ear. “You Wilders are relentless. You had your chance to escape but now you’re stuck.”
Anna had been alone for so long that the prospect of all this family was daunting but wonderful at the same time.
She looked around at her siblings and their loved ones and she had to laugh. “I just have one question. If you’re all here, who’s left to run the hospital?”
“Nobody. We closed down so we could come and celebrate with you,” David deadpanned.
“I’ve actually got to go back on in an hour,” Ella said. “So I’m afraid I’ll have to skip the champagne.”
“Ha. I’m off rotation for five whole days,” David boasted.
“Lucky,” Ella muttered.
“Just wait. When you’re an attending, you’ll be able to flaunt it over all the lowly residents, too,” he said with a grin.
Anna smiled at their banter. Once she would have felt excluded when the rest of the Wilders talked shop. It used to bug the heck out of her and she would always bite down frustration when family discussions inevitably turned to medicine. Now she realized her annoyance had been a result of her own insecurities.
If she hadn’t wanted to talk medicine, all she would have had to do was change the subject instead of simmering in her separateness.
“Bring on the champagne,” Peter said, distracting her from her thoughts.
“I’m afraid I don’t have enough glasses.”
“No problem.” Bethany grinned. “We brought our own. Courtney thought of everything.”
Out of a wicker basket, they pulled out plastic champagne flutes along with cheese, crackers, several boxes of gourmet cookies and even Godiva chocolates.
“I raided everything I could think of from the gift shop,” Courtney said with a warm smile.
She and Bethany poured champagne for everyone except Ella, who filled her glass with water.
“To Anna,” J.D. said and she flushed as everyone lifted their glasses to her.
“And may I add,” he continued, “I find it slightly ironic that the one Wilder who chose a different path than medicine is the one who ended up saving an entire hospital.”
“Hear, hear,” Peter said, squeezing her arm.
The next hour would live forever in her memory. As she moved around her tiny apartment talking to first one sibling, then the next—and all three of her prospective in-laws—Anna felt eight years of loneliness begin to heal.
“You’re coming to the wedding, of course,” Bethany proclaimed. “I’m not taking any other answer but an enthusiastic yes.”
“Of course,” Anna said with a smile. “I wouldn’t miss it.”
It would be somewhat humiliating to show up alone when all the other Wilder siblings were conveniently paired up. Richard’s image flashed in her head but she quickly shunted it aside.
She had no idea where things stood with him and her heart ached as she thought of his anger the day before.
She wanted to share the triumph of this day with him but he had made no effort to contact her. Maybe he wouldn’t. After the past five days, he probably wanted nothing to do with her.
“And now on to business,” Peter said suddenly, distracting her from the ache in her chest. “J.D., do you want to do the honors?”
Anna frowned, confused, as they both faced her with meaningful looks. “What business?”
“We have a proposition for you,” J.D. said.
“What kind of proposition?” she asked warily.
“Obviously, Northeastern HealthCare has pulled out of talks with the hospital or we wouldn’t all be here. But we still need to look to the future. It’s only a matter of time before another health-care conglomerate sets its sights on the hospital. We want to head that off if we can so we’re moving forward with efforts to privatize the hospital to keep it under local control.”
“That won’t be easy,” she warned. “There are very few freestanding hospitals around anymore.”
“Exactly,” Peter answered. “That’s why we need someone smart and savvy to be our chief financial officer and help us make this a viable enterprise. Somebody who knows the business end of things inside and out and who has ideas for making the necessary economies so we can be profitable while not sacrificing patient care.”
She blinked at them, stunned at the offer. After all she had nearly done to destroy the hospital, her siblings wanted her here now to help them save it?
“You think I can do that?” she asked.
“We know you can,” Peter said. “We want you to be part of this, Anna. Though I guess we should have asked first where things stand for you at NHC now.”
Just a few weeks ago, she would have loved to flaunt her job offer to her siblings. Finally, she would have had proof to show her family that she could succeed in her chosen world. How could they look down on her for dropping out of medical school if she were the mergers and acquisitions vice president of a leading health-care company?
That seemed so petty now.
“I’m still considering my options,” she said, content to leave it at that.
“Well, add our offer to the mix,” Peter said. “We need you in Walnut River. You belong here, Anna. We can’t offer you a high-powered corner office in Manhattan or the salary to match. But we can offer an opportunity to genuinely make a difference, to be part of something with the potential to make life better for everyone in this community.”
She gazed at her brothers and sister as a hundred thoughts churned through her mind. They wanted her here with them. The Wilder siblings, united in a common effort to save something so important to the community and to their family. They believed in her and seemed convinced she could actually help them pull this off.
She found the idea heady and exhilarating—and terrifying.
Could she do it? She knew she could handle the challenge. Just thinking about the possibilities filled her with excitement. But how could she possibly just take the plunge straight off the steep career ladder she had been climbing at NHC the past eight years, give up all she had worked for, to stay here in Walnut River with her family to rescue one faltering hospital?
“You don’t have to decide right this minute,” Peter said into the silence. “It’s not fair of us to spring this on you a
ll at once. I can see you’re feeling overwhelmed.”
“A little,” she admitted, deeply grateful they didn’t expect an immediate answer.
“It’s been a crazy day all the way around. Take some time to think about it. The offer will still be open tomorrow, or even after the wedding if you want to take the weekend and get back to us next week.”
“I’ll think about it,” she promised, astonished that the idea of staying in Walnut River could hold so much appeal. Was she genuinely thinking about taking a job as CFO for a community hospital when she could be a vice president at a major health-care industry player?
“That’s all we can ask,” J.D. said.
“This has been wonderful but I’m going to have to get back to the hospital,” Ella said.
“Of course,” Anna said. “Thank you so much for coming. It means the world to me.”
“Thank you,” Ella said with a hard fierce hug. “I’ll call you tonight when my shift ends, okay? I have so much I want to talk to you about.”
Anna smiled. “Deal. You know my ear is always here.”
It was their secret code. Ear here. Tell me what’s on your mind. I’m here to listen.
Ella sniffled again at Anna’s words. “I’m so glad to have you back.”
“Same, El.”
Their sister’s departure with J.D. seemed to be the signal to Peter and David and their fiancées to leave as well. In only a few moments, her apartment was quiet once more.
Anna closed the door behind David and Courtney, then slumped against it. She had forgotten how exhausting her family could be, but she wouldn’t trade the last hour for anything.
She was still leaning against the door a moment later, marveling at the abrupt change in her life, when the doorbell rang. Assuming someone had left something behind, she hurried to open it then stopped dead.
Richard stood on the other side, looking wildly sexy in charcoal-gray slacks, a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a red power tie that was just a little off center.
Her heart seemed to thrum out of her chest and she could do nothing but stare at him, her mind awash in memories of kissing him, touching him, lying in his arms.
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