Battling the Best Man: A Harmony Falls Novel, Book 2 (Crimson Romance) (20 page)

“What can I do for you, Mrs. Ryan?” Kory asked as she stepped inside the room.

“Oh, hello, Dr. Flemming. It’s time for my cream. Have you seen Judy? She rubs my feet before lunch every day.”

Kory smiled. Foot massages were definitely not part of her job description in Chicago. Touching a patient outside a physical exam was a waste of precious time when forty other patients remained, which was a shame. Little things like this helped a doctor get to know her patients better.

She picked up the tube on the nightstand beside Mrs. Ryan’s bed. “Is this what Judy uses?”

Mrs. Ryan nodded. “Yes, but surely you have better things to do.”

“Absolutely not. In fact, I’ve been meaning to stop by and visit so I can hear all about Jacob.”

While Kory rubbed Mrs. Ryan’s feet, she caught up on Jacob Ryan’s naval exploits. The more Mrs. Ryan talked about her grandson, the more she relaxed, and by the time Kory left the room, the woman who had struggled to get comfortable since the day she was admitted to Harmony Elder Care was asleep with a smile on her face.

Satisfaction warmed the back of Kory’s neck, distracting her from other melancholy thoughts. She absentmindedly scratched the spot. An oddball professor back in med school had talked about healing with the head, hands, and heart, but she’d deemed his lectures as mostly noise. Kory preferred molecular and cellular coursework. Besides, all too quickly she’d learned care like Dr. Carmen espoused was a luxury she couldn’t afford in Chicago, where the rehab center’s business model dictated each doctor see an obscene amount of patients each day. There wasn’t time for conversation with her patients. Walking the clean but dingy halls of Harmony Elder Care, she couldn’t suppress the effervescence in her chest, because—surprise, surprise—care like that was possible here. Maybe she would find Dr. Carmen’s email address and drop him a line, telling him she finally appreciated what he meant.

Kory stuck her head into the next room. “Morning, Mr. Weinstein.” He was propped into a sitting position, but lilting to one side. She righted him and smoothed his covers. “How are you feeling today?”

As she went through the mundane motions, the satisfying warmth she felt lingered. She was a better doctor for her time here, wasn’t she? A different doctor, that was for sure. Maybe she couldn’t admit it until now, but she’d sensed it the day Mr. Martin died—even then, she was changing.

A full cup of applesauce sat on the tray hovering above Mr. Weinstein’s bed. He’d been having trouble swallowing since a mild stroke compounded his already lengthy list of ailments. “Has anyone been in to help you with this?” she asked, gesturing to the applesauce.

He shook his head, gaze glued to
Law and Order
on the suspended television at the foot of his bed.

Kory glanced over her shoulder at the empty hallway. Someone would be around soon enough; there was a queue order to these things. But she was here now. Why not? Again, she recognized she wouldn’t have the chance to be this close to patients in Chicago. The sadness returned.

“May I?” she asked, lifting the cup and a spoon.

He looked at her and smiled. “It’d sure be nice.”

She smiled, too.

In medical school, everyone claimed to be there because they wanted to help people, but not Kory. She became a doctor for the rigorous academic challenge. Feeding Mr. Weinstein his applesauce, listening to his heartfelt thank you’s after every bite, she realized while she may have become a doctor for the mental challenge, she was going to stay a doctor for the difference she made in people’s lives, especially people like her father.

• • •

At three-thirty, a half hour before Kory intended to head home for an early dinner with her mother, Lance Palmer walked into her office, wearing full cycling gear.

“I had some down time, so I thought I’d stop by.” He freed his head from the red, white and blue helmet and plopped in an empty chair on the opposite side of her desk.

She’d never liked him. He was an arrogant underachiever in her opinion, and whatever medical school stooped so low as to give him a degree needed to be closed.

“Do we have an appointment?” she asked, trying not to snicker at his ridiculous outfit.

“No.” He shrugged. “But it’s my day off, and I just accepted the interim medical directorship, starting the day you leave. I figured it’d be a good time to talk about what’s been going on since I left. Mitchell seems to think this place can be lucrative based on what he’s seen from you.”

Lucrative? Hardly. And she couldn’t imagine Will being naïve enough to think so, either. “This place can make a difference in people’s lives, whether they’re here as a patient or they’re the loved one of a patient, but that’s not always going to translate into a profit.”

“Yeah. I was afraid of that.” He sucked something out of his top teeth. “Nothing’s changed, has it? Except you got some new beds. Nice. Oh, and my new contract has an extra zero.” He laughed.

His flippant response smacked Kory across the face so hard she swayed back in her chair. This was the jackass who would be overseeing her father’s recovery.

Her kneejerk reaction was to confront Will, ask him what he was thinking, but then sensibility overcame her. She knew what he was thinking. She was leaving, leaving him in a lurch, and Lance was the best he could do on such short notice.

You could stay.
Her mother’s voice echoed in Kory’s head, and it remained even as she rushed Lance out and gathered her things. The louder the words grew, the more frustrated she became. She couldn’t stay, just like that. People were counting on her. Her leave of absence from the rehab center impacted everyone else on the call schedule, and she’d verbally committed to a job that would need to be filled soon.

Still, Lance prattled on, and Kory squirmed under the weight of guilt that came along with leaving these people, people she cared about, with someone as uncaring as him. When he finally left, she rushed down the hall toward her father’s room, acutely aware that these people were counting on her, too.

The pressure in her head fuzzed her vision. She’d thought she’d made her choice already. Chicago. Hands down. But as her pace quickened, she realized she was still stuck between a life of premeditation and this life of chance.

It was time to really choose.

When Will returned to his office, his mother was waiting for him.

“Where have you been?” she asked, sounding every bit as annoyed as he expected her to be.

“Justin and I had a few drinks.” And thankfully the sense of freedom lingered.

“In the middle of the day?” Her eyes were bulging.

“Yes, Mother, in the middle of the day. I have a lot on my mind. Kory gave her notice, and I’ve re-hired Lance.”

His mother rolled her eyes. “Now, will you listen to me and sell that thing? It’s nothing but a headache.”

Will sat at his desk. “That
thing
is called home to forty-five people.”

Mother wrinkled her nose and looked away.

“What do you have against Harmony Elder Care?” he asked. “I get the sense it’s about more than profit margins.”

She folded her hands in her lap and adjusted in her seat, refusing to look at him.

“Was Dad ever there?” Will couldn’t remember every detail about his father’s battle with cancer, probably because he blocked much of it out.

“Of course not.” She scoffed. “I would’ve never disrespected him or our marriage by letting him waste away in there.”

“Nobody’s wasting away in there.” Not under Kory’s watch. Will pushed away the melancholy thought.

Mother huffed. “That’s what your generation tells itself so you can go on with your lives without the burden of taking care of your parents.”

“What are you talking about? Mark takes damn good care of you.”

“And what if something happens to Mark?” She looked at Will, her wrinkled lips trembling. “You and Justin will lock me away.”

Will’s jaw dropped. “Wow. Your opinion of us is high.”

Her silence contributed to the sinking in Will’s gut. His mother really could be a coldhearted woman.

“So let me get this straight,” he said.” You want to sell that home because you’re afraid of it.”

“Don’t be stupid.” She looked away again. But it wasn’t enough of a shield for him to miss the single tear, streaming down her cheek.

Will stood and rounded the desk. When he reached her side, he bent to pull her into a hug. “Nobody’s going to put you anywhere you don’t want to be.”

She squirmed in his arms, and her inability to accept his comfort was even sadder than her fear. He stood and reclaimed his seat.

It was always going to be this way, wasn’t it? Her thinking the worst of life and people in general. Her picking at him until he was making decisions solely with an aim to please.

Justin’s words echoed:
Trying to please her and striving for her stark approval led me places I never wanted to be.

Me, too
, Will thought. And he definitely wanted a life filled with more than that.

• • •

By the time she reached her father’s room, Kory’s mother was gone, off to run errands in town like she did every Monday afternoon: the post office, the library, and the dollar store. Kory smiled, because the trip meant a fresh batch of hard candy on the kitchen counter tonight. But her smile faded when she realized she’d be getting her favorite candy through the mail this time next week.

“Hey, Dad,” Kory said.

He smiled, and some of the tension she’d been holding in her shoulders went away. The half-smile that used to make her pity him was now a reminder of how far he’d come.

“How are you feeling today?” She moved in, grabbing his hands to test his grip strength.

He pulled his strong hand away. “Pull up a chair.”

She lifted her brows. Normally, she thrilled at anything he said, but she was wary today. After her run in with her mother last night, Kory was certain her father was about to treat her to his first post-stroke lecture.

“I’m fine,” she said, hoping to cut him off at the parental pass.

“Sit down,” he said, so clearly she couldn’t refuse.

When Kory perched on the edge of a bedside chair, he grabbed her hand again and squeezed. “I am proud of you.”

“I know.” She’d heard it so many times it sort of lost its impact.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” A routine exchange, as well, until she remembered the time immediately surrounding his stroke, when she wasn’t sure she’d hear him say anything ever again.

Her heart fluttered against her ribs as she watched his lips twitch in preparation for more words.

“I do not have any regrets. Any,” he said, squeezing her hand.

She nodded, fighting tears. “I know. It was a long time ago, and I don’t hold any of it against either of you.”

“No. You are not hearing me.” He winced at the failing clarity of his words, and then he took a breath. “I am glad you are here, of course. But I am glad I am here. I would not change a thing.”

He couldn’t be talking about the hospital bed or the nursing home. Surely he’d like to get the heck out of here. “You’re glad you’re in Harmony Falls?” she asked.

He squeezed her hand again. “Everything I love is here.” He tried to level her with his raised-brow-dad eye, and the lopsided attempt was endearing. He was clearly very tired, and she needed to let him rest.

It was Kory’s turn to squeeze him. “That’s good to know, Dad,” she said, as she leaned forward, placing a kiss on his cheek.

“Love matters most,” he whispered in her ear.

Kory flung an arm across him and rested her head on his chest. “Yep,” she said, halting the word when it wavered with tears.

It was true. People didn’t know how much they had until they almost lost it.

She lay there like that, listening to her father’s heartbeat, so damn thankful that he was here and she was here…

“You could stay,” said a voice from behind Kory.

She lifted her head from her father’s chest.

“I’d like you to stay.”

She faced the teary-eyed woman gripping shopping bags, standing in the doorway.

“Your father and I would like you to stay.”

Dad squeezed Kory’s arm.

“But you have to do what you want to do,” Mom said, crossing the room and placing her bags on the dormant radiator. “Thank you for putting your life on hold for us. Having you here has been a tremendous comfort.” She wrapped her arms around Kory, creating an awkward family hug. “And we just want you to know you’re always welcome here.”

Dad echoed Mom’s sentiments.

Stuck between them, Kory stared into space. She’d waited a long time to hear those words, so long that she expected them to pack more of a punch. Maybe they didn’t because they were just words she’d put too much emphasis on. Maybe they didn’t matter now, because her heart always knew what her head had been too busy overanalyzing to see. Here, there, anywhere, her parents wanted her to be happy—no matter what it took.

What would it take?

For the first time in her life, Kory wasn’t sure.

Flipping a pen to his desk, Will cranked up the volume on his stereo, pressed his back to the chair, and closed his eyes, wishing away his obligations. He’d spent too much time at the bar with Justin and too much time trying to make sense of his meeting with his mother. As a result, he was going to have to work later than he’d planned, which sucked, because he didn’t want to be here.

What if he could make it all go away?
Everything except Kory.

Chicago.
He yawned as the word floated in his head. He could see Kory there, rushing down shiny sterile halls, barking out commands. His chest squeezed, but he pushed through the discomfort and the next thing he knew, he was imagining himself there, too. He had enough education and experience to find employment outside Harmony Falls. He had enough money to start another business, too. And like Justin said, they were
replaceable
.

Chicago?
He sat up, smacking his palms to the desk. What the hell was wrong with him? Why was he even entertaining such a thing? It didn’t make sense. Why would he give up everything he’d accomplished here to take a chance there? Unless…Kory meant more.