by Susan Stoker
There was a pause on the other end of the phone before a male voice asked, “May I speak to Wendy?”
“This is Aspen, right?” Jackson asked. He’d seen his name on the phone before he answered, but wanted to be sure.
“Yes. Jack? Is your sister all right? She got home, didn’t she?”
And with that question, Jackson relaxed. He could tell Aspen was upset, but the fact that he asked about Wendy first, and wanted to make sure she was home safe and sound, went a long way toward making Jackson think he was doing the right thing. “She’s home. I can’t say she’s all right, but she’s here.”
“Did she talk to you?”
“Yeah. She told me what happened.”
“I swear to God I didn’t know that bitch wasn’t Wendy. She introduced herself to me as your sister.”
“I figured.”
“I really need to talk to Wendy,” Aspen said, the evenness of his voice breaking.
“Not happening tonight,” Jackson told him.
“This is between her and me,” Aspen said.
“That’s where you’re wrong. Anything that happens to me, I talk to her about, and anything that happens to her, she tells me about. We don’t keep secrets, and I have to make sure you’re not going to go off on her before I’ll let you talk to her.”
Jackson heard Aspen breathing on the other end of the line, but he didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, he said, “I don’t understand why she didn’t call that bitch out.”
“Wendy doesn’t like conflict,” Jackson said.
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do. She really doesn’t like conflict. Will go out of her way to avoid it at all costs. Even if it means she gets screwed in the process. She doesn’t even like to argue with me, and we’re as close as siblings can be. So when she saw that woman with you, the woman she’d nervously babbled to before you got there, who she’d told all about her blind date and how nervous she was, she literally couldn’t interrupt you two. That bitch told her she had something in her teeth, and Wendy went off to the bathroom to take care of it. That’s when you came in and she made her move.”
“I saw her,” Aspen said quietly. “Our eyes met and I had a feeling that was her. She didn’t even need to say anything. If she’d have come up to where we were sitting, I would’ve known.”
“She said you looked happy,” Jackson said.
“What?”
“My sister. She told me she was working up the nerve to go up to you, that she was trying to overcome her aversion to making a scene, but you were laughing and had your hands on that other woman and you looked happy. Wendy was willing to give up her chance with you because she didn’t want to take the happiness from your eyes or make you lose your smile.”
“Fucking hell!” Aspen swore. “That bitch told me a story about something that had supposedly happened at the long-term care facility tonight. It was funny. That’s all that was.”
“I bet Wendy told her the story when she was waiting for you,” Jackson said.
“No doubt. Although I have a feeling Wendy’s story was more sympathetic toward the resident than when the fake Wendy told it.”
“Look, here’s the thing. My sister is upset. She’s embarrassed and has no intention of contacting you ever again.”
“No,” Aspen said immediately. “Not happening.”
Jackson smiled. If Aspen was weak, or a different kind of man, he would’ve let that be that. But Jackson was a pretty good judge of character, and he’d had a feeling Aspen wouldn’t let his sister blow him off that easily. “So you’re saying you still want to meet Wendy?”
“No.”
Jackson’s stomach knotted. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear.
“I don’t just want to meet her,” Aspen went on. “I want to date her. Get to know her. Stand by her side when people give her shit. If she won’t stick up for herself, I’ll do it for her. I don’t know what happened to make her not like conflict, but I want to do my best to show her that it’s okay to speak her mind.”
Jackson liked that. He didn’t think it was possible, but he liked the thought of someone standing by his sister. Lord knew he wouldn’t always be around to try to run interference for her and to make sure she wasn’t taken advantage of. “I’m not going to give you our address,” he warned.
“I wouldn’t ask you to. That shit’s not safe.”
“Right. But I’m not opposed to telling you that she’ll be at the assisted-living facility Monday morning. She’s working the morning shift and will be at her phone job later that night.”
“Go on,” Aspen encouraged.
“I’ll give you the name of the home on one condition,” Jackson said.
“Name it.”
“Don’t fuck with her.”
“Done,” Aspen said immediately.
“I mean it,” Jackson warned. “We talk about everything. I’ll know all about your dates. Where you go, what you do, if you kissed her. What you ate at dinner and what you said to her. If you do anything to make her sad or cry, I’ll kick your ass. At least I’ll try. My sister has been through hell and has put her life on hold for me. She put my well-being and safety before her own, and I’ll never stand by and let someone take advantage of her or hurt her. Got it?”
Jackson wasn’t sure Aspen was going to comment, as there was silence on the line for a long, uncomfortable moment. When Aspen finally spoke, it wasn’t what Jackson had thought he’d say.
“She put your safety before her own?”
“Yes. Still does.”
“You don’t know me, Jack, but I’m going to tell you something that your sister should really hear from me first. I liked Wendy from the first time she called me. Something about her made me want to get to know her better. But when I saw her tonight, standing in the middle of a crowded bar, in her scrubs, all I wanted to do was pull her against me and shield her from the world. I have no doubt she’s strong as fuck and would kick my ass if I tried to do something she didn’t like, but that need to protect her is still there. Never again, if I can help it, will she have to put herself in danger, for you or for anyone else. I’ll bend over backward to make sure she has whatever she needs to feel safe, to be safe, and to make you safe.”
“And if she doesn’t need or want that?” Jackson pressed. “She might not like conflict, but she doesn’t stand for me protecting her. I can’t imagine she’d let someone else come in and treat her like she’s weak.”
“She’s not weak. I have a feeling I only know a fraction of her story, of your story. But what I do know is that she’s one hell of a woman, and I can’t wait to get to know her better. I’m really close with a group of men, and their wives and girlfriends are some of the strongest women I’ve met…but that doesn’t mean their men won’t do everything in their power so they don’t have to be strong. Does that make sense?”
Strangely enough, it did. “Yeah. She works at Cottonwood Estates. It’s that huge retirement home on the south end of town. Do you know it?”
“Yes.”
“She works until two, then she’ll come home to see me and make sure I’ve got dinner before she heads off to her other job at six-thirty. She wouldn’t appreciate you being there right when she starts her shift, because she’ll feel like she needs to get inside and start helping with the morning routines of the residents, but if you went by around one-thirty, you could catch her right as she’s leaving.”
“Thank you,” Aspen said.
“Don’t hurt her.”
“Never. Jack?”
“Yeah?”
“She really said she didn’t come over because she thought I looked happy?”
“That’s what she said.”
“She was wrong. I was uncomfortable as hell and was upset because the Wendy who I thought was sitting in front of me was nothing like the woman I’d gotten to know over the phone. I might’ve been laughing, but I wasn’t fucking happy.”
“You don’t have to
convince me,” Jackson told him. “You have to convince my sister.”
“I will. I owe you for this.”
“No, you don’t,” Jackson countered. “I didn’t do this for you. I did it for my sister.”
“She’s lucky to have you.”
“No, I’m lucky to have her. I hope we’ll get to meet sometime,” Jackson said.
“We will,” Aspen returned. “You’re a hell of a man, and I’d be honored to call you a friend. Anyone who is as smart and loyal to their family as you are is someone I want to know.”
Jackson felt a flood of pleasure at the other man’s words. He wasn’t trying to impress Aspen, but it felt good that he had nonetheless.
“Will you do me a favor?” Aspen asked.
“Maybe.”
Aspen chuckled. “Smart man to not agree until you know what the favor is. Can you please delete the voicemail messages I left for Wendy?”
Jackson stiffened. “What’d you say?”
“Feel free to listen to them,” Aspen said, not seeming nervous in the least. “It’s just that I want to surprise her on Monday. Don’t want to give her any reason to suspect that I’ll be seeing her.”
“Why would she think that?”
“Because I flat-out told her that if she thought she was blowing me off, now that I got to see how adorable she looked in her scrubs, she was dreaming. I told her I was going to track her down with or without her help, and that she’d be seeing me soon.”
Jackson chuckled. “You could do that? I mean, if I didn’t give you the name of the place where she worked, you would’ve been able to find it anyway?”
“Yes. I have some connections from my time in the military who would’ve been able to look her up and find her within seconds.”
Jackson gulped. Shit, that’s the last thing they needed. “But you’re not going to have anyone look her up now though, right?”
“Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”
Jackson tried to answer nonchalantly. “Whatever. Now that you have the info, you don’t need to anymore.”
“Right. Thanks again, Jack.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Later.”
“Later.”
Jackson clicked the phone off and immediately pressed the voicemail icon. He wanted to hear for himself what Aspen had said to his sister. If it was mean, then he’d give her a heads-up about what he’d done, and she could arrange to get off work early and miss Aspen’s visit.
A couple minutes later, Jackson put the phone back into his sister’s purse. The messages were just what Aspen had said they’d be. He could tell the other man was upset that she’d left, but he hadn’t yelled at her, had been calm and controlled and had informed her that there was no way he was letting her get away from him now that he’d seen her.
The teenager smiled. He didn’t like keeping things from Wendy, and he’d probably tell her all about his conversation with Aspen…after she’d met him face-to-face and made up with him.
He settled back at the table to finish up his homework and smiled. He had a feeling Aspen Carlisle would be good for his sister.
Chapter Four
Three days later, Blade sat in his car and waited for time to pass so he could go inside Cottonwood Estates and finally meet Wendy. It had sucked to let the weekend go by without calling her or hearing her voice, but he’d bided his time so they could talk through what happened in person.
He’d arrived at the facility early, and for a man who could sit in the heat or cold for hours while on a mission, waiting for the perfect moment to strike, he found himself extraordinarily impatient for time to pass. He’d looked at his watch at least twenty times in the past ten minutes…which wasn’t making time go by any faster.
Finally, disgusted with himself, he climbed out of his Jeep and headed for the front doors. He carried the same bag of chocolate he’d had on Friday night and was hoping against all hope Wendy wouldn’t freak when she saw him.
Blade held the door open for an older woman and what had to be her daughter then entered the facility. He didn’t know what he’d expected, but it wasn’t the homey, comfortable waiting area that he walked into. Granted, he hadn’t been inside many nursing homes, but he’d thought it might smell like a hospital and have plastic chairs and sofas for those waiting to be served.
But instead, the scent of eucalyptus was in the air and the plush rug and leather chairs made the area seem like a living room instead of a waiting room. He walked up to the lady behind a window of glass at a desk wearing a name tag that said “Carol.”
“Good afternoon,” she said cheerily. “How may I help you?”
“I’m looking for Wendy Tucker,” Blade said.
The receptionist looked him up and down for a beat, then said with true apology in her eyes, “I’m sorry, sir, but we can’t give out any information about our residents or employees.”
Feeling better about the place with every minute that went by, glad that they took safety seriously, Blade said, “I understand that. She’s a friend of mine and doesn’t know I’m here. We haven’t seen each other in a long time and I’m here to surprise her.” He pulled out his wallet and took out his military ID and placed it on the counter in front of the woman. “I’m not here to do her any harm, swear. All I want to do is see her.”
He turned on the charm even more, not ashamed of doing whatever was necessary to get this woman to help him. He put the bag of chocolate on the counter and leaned in. “If it’s okay, I’d like to simply sit out here and wait for her to get off shift. But I don’t want to miss her…you know, if she leaves out another door. Do you think you can somehow get her to come out this way? You can watch our reunion and see for yourself that I’m not here to hurt her. I’d never hurt her.”
For a moment, Blade didn’t think his charm was going to work, but after a long second, while the woman looked at his ID then up at him then back to his ID—then wrote his name down on a slip of paper in front of her—the woman finally picked up his ID and held it up to him. “I think I can do that. Sometimes she’s late leaving though. If she’s in the middle of doing something with the residents, she never just leaves halfway through…unlike some of the other staff.”
The last bit was mumbled under her breath, but Blade heard it. He wasn’t surprised that Wendy wouldn’t be a clock watcher. “Thank you,” he said, putting his ID back into his wallet. “This means the world to me.”
The receptionist nodded and Blade made his way to the corner of the room and sat in one of the oversized leather chairs. He did his best not to fidget as he waited for his first glimpse of Wendy.
Twenty minutes later, he heard the receptionist talking to someone behind the glass that separated her workstation from the waiting room, and when whoever she was speaking to responded, he stood. He recognized Wendy’s voice immediately, which made him realize once more how idiotic he’d been Friday night. Even though it was loud, he should’ve known from the second the whore opened her mouth that she wasn’t Wendy.
He held the bag of chocolate in his hand and waited for Wendy to appear.
She came through the door, but she was looking back at the receptionist. She was smiling, and Blade drank in the sight of her. She was wearing jeans today, and another scrub top. This one had little cartoon dogs and fire hydrants all over it. Her hands were full—she had a bag in one and a small flower pot in the other.
She said goodbye to the other woman and turned to walk through the lobby. But when she saw him standing in front of her, she stopped in her tracks.
“Hi, Wendy,” Blade said softly.
Her mouth opened comically and she simply stood there and stared at him in shock.
“Your friend said he wanted to surprise you,” the receptionist said, leaning through the sliding glass window. “Are you surprised?”
Wendy licked her lips and, without taking her eyes from him, said, “Yeah, Carol, I’m surprised all right.”
“Yay!” Carol said, clapping her hands
excitedly.
“Hi, Wen,” Blade repeated.
“Uh…hi,” she returned.
Remembering the way the bitch had thrown herself into his arms and hugged him, Blade mentally kicked himself again. Wendy wouldn’t do that…wasn’t doing that. She was reserved and cautious, and he had a feeling only part of it was because of what had happened at the bar. Mostly it was just…her.
He stepped toward her and, taking advantage of the fact that her hands were full, leaned into her and gently kissed her on the cheek. She didn’t smell like flowers. Nope, she wasn’t wearing any kind of artificial scent. He could smell the coconut of what was likely her shampoo, and fried food. Blade smiled as he stepped back. He was so weird…how could he like the smell of food on her?
Because it was Wendy, that’s how.
Her dark brown eyes were huge on her face and he took his time drinking in her features. Her brown hair was once again up in a messy bun on the top of her head, except today there were stray tendrils framing her face and neck. The top she had on was V-neck, but she wore a shirt underneath it, so he got absolutely no hint of cleavage or any excess skin. Not that it mattered. Somehow the lack of skin showing was sexier. A tease. In a good way.
The jeans she was wearing were molded to her skin and he liked the shapeliness of her legs. She had on the same pair of white sneakers that she’d worn at the bar. She looked down-to-earth and friendly, and Blade realized those were among the reasons he was so attracted to her. He didn’t want a high-maintenance woman. Someone who would take hours to get ready to go someplace simple like the grocery store.
He wanted to feel as if he could muss his woman up and not have her freak. He wanted to be able to go hiking with her as well as take her out to expensive restaurants. He knew from his chats with Wendy that she enjoyed camping and other outdoor activities, hanging out at home with her brother, and going out for the occasional fancy dinner.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, staring up at him as she bit her lip uncertainly.
“I screwed up on Friday,” Blade told her. “I’m here to rectify my mistake.”