Battling the Best Man: A Harmony Falls Novel, Book 2 (Crimson Romance) (6 page)

With a sigh, she dropped her head to the steering wheel and closed her eyes, hoping Justin could convince Will one more patient didn’t matter.

• • •

“No.” Will’s jaw ticked as he said the word that made him sound like a heartless bastard.

“What do you mean no? What’s one more person?” Justin asked.

“One more person is a breach in Lance Palmer’s contract, and I have no doubt he’ll walk, leaving us without a medical director. Do you know how hard it was to find Dr. Render’s replacement? It was damn near impossible. If Lance walks, I guarantee you our mother will insist the home be closed—deal or no deal with Valley. As much as I want to help the Flemmings, I can’t sacrifice the people already here for them. Ken can get great care in Rileyville.”

It was the truth. It all made sense. But Will’s heart pinched anyway.

“Carole can’t drive, and those dogs need somebody checking on them throughout the day,” Justin said. He all but pleaded his case.

Of course Will’s bleeding-heart, politician brother had the luxury of championing the underdog. With the company resting squarely on Will’s shoulders, he was once again the bad guy, seemingly putting business first.

Will exhaled. “Then I’ll drive Carole to Rileyville every day if I have to, and I’ll let the dogs out while she’s there, but that’s all I can do.”

Three hours later, Will still felt like a jerk. He imagined Kory hearing the news that he wouldn’t allow her father to be admitted to Harmony Elder Care, and he couldn’t accept her going back to thinking he was a jerk. So he called Lance, looking for a miracle—or at least someone to share the burden of being the bad guy.

“What’s his condition? How long are we talking here?”

“I don’t know,” Will answered honestly. He jumped the gun with this phone call, which was unlike him. Normally, he didn’t initiate a call like this without having all the information he needed to make a persuasive case. He was definitely off his game, and had been since that damn wedding reception.

“Well, you need to know. The current patients are easily managed. I can’t run a private practice that’s forty-five minutes away and oversee a nursing home if you’re going to be adding a complex case. I can’t. I refuse. If he’s in bad shape and you bring him in, you’re going to need to find a new medical director.”

Will was afraid of that. Worse yet, there was no relief in having someone to share the burden of being the bad guy. When it came down to it, Will knew Kory would blame him.

• • •

Five days had passed since Kory’s father’s stroke, and she was running out of time and apparently options. Justin’s call earlier that morning revealed Lance Palmer refused the admission. It was an attempt to close the door on Harmony Elder Care. But as long as Kory had her arm in the crack, she still had a shot at getting her father in—even if that shot made her queasy.

Kory didn’t want to face Will, not after the stupid lapse of judgment she’d suffered at Alice’s wedding, but now was not the time to let high school histrionics dictate her next move. Despite the queasiness, Kory held her head high as she walked into the Mitchell Company, Inc. reception area. As the daughter of the town roofer and retired librarian, she’d never had cause or power to be inside the Mitchell family business compound. It was mildly intimidating.

“Hi,” Georgiana said, smiling. “How’s your dad?”

Kory answered that question on an average of ten times a day. “He’s been better.” She had stopped giving details after the second day. Everyone seemed to know the depressing truth anyway.

“I’m so sorry. I still smile when I remember how he squeezed in my little ole gutter repair between the Parrishes and Mitchells’ new roofs after that big storm—such a sweetheart! And if the number of prayer lists I hear he’s on has anything to do with it, he’ll be up and around in no time.”

Georgiana was sincere and sweet, but sadly mistaken. A man who suffered a large middle cerebral artery infarct wasn’t going to be up and around soon. But Kory wasn’t going to say that, especially not to a woman who saw the good in everything and everybody.

Kory inhaled and exhaled a small smile. “Thanks. Is Will in?”

Georgiana nodded. “But, uh, he had a call earlier. Wait here a minute, and I’ll see if he’s free.”

Kory watched the woman disappear into the room behind her. When the door closed, she contemplated walking out. She did not want to be here. She most certainly did not want to enter that room and close the door. Her face flushed on memories of their kiss, but she wasn’t here for a repeat performance. She was here for a showdown. Fighting with Will was the last thing she wanted. But this wasn’t about what she wanted. This was about her parents, two people who had always put Kory’s wants and needs first.

It was time to return the favor. Georgiana reappeared, and Kory’s nerves reached a rapid boil. “You can go in.” She lifted her purse by the strap off the back of her desk chair. “I’m going to grab some lunch. Probably won’t be back before you leave, so good luck to your dad, and tell your mom I’m here if she needs anything.”

Kory nodded and tried to swallow down the nervous bubble. She wished she could make Georgiana stay, because the idea of walking into Will’s office and closing the door was a bit more manageable if his secretary was right outside. And that was ridiculous. Kory put one foot in front of the other until she gripped the knob with sweaty hands.
This is about Dad. Not you. Not Will.

She pushed into the room.

Tense opera music filled the air. Will was standing with his back to her, his body facing the window that overlooked the pond. He turned his head in her direction, and when their eyes met, awareness of what transpired between them the last time they’d shared a closed-off room heated her skin and restricted her chest.

He looked away first, facing the window again, and shoved his hands into his dress pants pockets. A light blue dress shirt covered his back, stretching across his broad shoulders. Kory could see those shoulders rising and falling. He looked bigger, more formidable, certainly less relaxed than the last time she saw him. She struggled to contain the attraction building inside of her, causing her feet to step toward him and her palms to crave the feel of him.

The rough sound of him clearing his throat rose over the melancholy music and halted her progress.

“My hands are tied. There’s nothing I can do.” He couldn’t even look at her when he said it.

The words put an end to her attraction. “Can you at least look me in the eyes when you tell me business is more important than people?” she asked.

He looked at her, shoulders back, chin lifted, eyes bleak. “The success of a business ensures the success of the people.”

Kory sneered. “This isn’t an economics lecture, but hey, whatever helps you sleep.”

He exhaled, deflating a bit, and when his head bowed, she hardened her muscles against the onslaught of pity. She didn’t want a soft spot for Will Mitchell when she was trying to beat him at his own game. She didn’t. But…

“I tried, Kory. I swear. I asked Lance. When he heard your father’s prognosis, he said no way.”

“What kind of doctor stands in the way of what’s best for a patient? What kind of man hires a doctor like that?”

“A man who didn’t have any other options. There’s not many doctors who’d sign up to run a failing nursing home in a struggling small town.” He righted his posture, and stared at her hard enough to make her avert her eyes to the window behind him. The sky was gray and thick with clouds. The scene was as fitting as the music, building to a crescendo. “I certainly didn’t see your application cross my desk,” he continued. “But then it’s not nearly as
challenging
as a flashy Chicago rehab hospital, is it?”

She flinched. The truth hurt. She couldn’t imagine how desperate she’d have to be to build a career in Harmony Falls, or if what she would build could even be called a career. That probably said more about her than she cared to consider, so she deflected his personal attack. “Don’t make this about me.”

He stepped toward her. “Then whom should I make it about? Your father? Isn’t he going to get arguably better care in Rileyville at a newer, bigger facility?”

She’d asked herself the same question, and had tried to convince both her parents of the same thing. Rileyville could offer more, but her parents had been adamant.

“He doesn’t want to be there. He wants to be here. He wants to be home near my mother and the rest of his family and friends.”

“I understand that, but—”

“Do you? I don’t think you do. Because if you did, you’d be trying harder to keep that home up and running.”

“So this is about me and my shortcomings as a business man?”

“Maybe.”

He grunted and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She laughed. “After the training I’ve had, I could run that place into the black with my eyes closed.”

And just like that, the air wooshed from the room.

“Are you proposing a challenge?”

Of course she wasn’t. Of course he would think she was. Of course everything was out of control.

She pressed a palm to her overheated cheek and inhaled, annoyed by the situation, annoyed by her surroundings. “You know I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have a fellowship to finish and a job waiting for me in Chicago and…”

“We all have priorities.” The intensity of his gaze made her want to smack him.

What was he insinuating? That her career was more of a priority than her father regaining use of his body? If that were the case, she’d be no better than Will, putting business before people.

Kory scoffed. This was so not the same.

“I shouldn’t have come. It’s obvious there’s no compromise here.” She spun around on the cork heels of her sandals and stalked to the door.

“If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

There wasn’t a chance in hell that was going to happen.

• • •

Will slumped into his leather desk chair and blasted air across his loose lips just in time for Puccini’s “Nessun dorma” to end. A heavy, fitting silence echoed in the empty office.

What was that?
Kory came to him for help, and he offered her a job—more like dangled one in front of her face, and not because she needed one, but because he supposed she was desperate enough to consider it. In all honesty, he was the desperate one, wasn’t he?

He opened the email from Chris Kent at Valley, re-reading the third sentence:
We’re going to have to postpone the purchase indefinitely.
Nothing before or after those words mattered. His mother was going to be livid. Without the Valley Hospital System deal, Will had two options. He could close the home effective immediately, which would no doubt make his mother happy and at least cap the mounting debt. It would also make a dozen residents homeless and a complete nursing home staff jobless. Or, he could fight his mother, because contrary to what Kory thought of him, he didn’t like putting business first. If he could find a doctor to replace Lance, one with a vested interest in the impossible task of making Harmony Elder Care a success, he might be able to convince his mother to keep the home off the “for sale” list.

Too bad that doctor just walked out of his office, undoubtedly never to return.

Her mother blinked at Kory from overtop the rim of her coffee cup. “I appreciate you being here. I do, but you need to go back to Chicago, before everything you’ve worked so hard for gets messed up. Your dreams are there.”

No matter how sweetly Mom managed to assemble and say the words, they stung, making it feel like Kory had overstayed her welcome, again. It happened every time she was home, and this time, it was wearing her thin.

Kory picked a blueberry out of the top of her muffin and licked the sweet goo from her fingertip. “Chicago’s not going anywhere.”

“Won’t they get mad?”

“My dad just had a major stroke. I’m entitled to get things in order. They understand.” And after meeting with Will Mitchell, Kory understood getting things in order wasn’t going to be easy.

Mom nodded and sipped from her cup again. Kory dug another blueberry out of the muffin. It wasn’t that she always ate so painstakingly slow. On the contrary, she normally couldn’t remember what she ate and when she even ate it. But sitting in the hospital cafeteria, picking blueberries out of her muffin was one way to prolong the return to her father’s room—not that she didn’t want to see him. It was just hard to see him like that and not want to take over his care, tell everyone how everything should be done. She’d already made a not-so-nice name for herself with the nursing staff.

“The Manions are going to take Smith and Wesson.”

Kory looked up from her mutilated muffin. “Take them where?”

“Take them in. They have all those acres, and Selma works from home. It will be good for them.”

“You’re giving away the dogs?” Kory gaped.

“I don’t know what else to do. I need to be here, and they’re not used to being home alone. It seems like a reasonable solution.”

Well, shoot. Kory flattened palms against the table and inhaled. As if things didn’t suck enough already. She exhaled and tipped her face to the ceiling. Her father would be devastated if he knew they were even having this discussion. Smith and Wesson were his girls—maybe more so than Kory was. The trio never missed a hunting season.

“It won’t be forever. As soon as he’s well enough to come home, I’ll bring them back.” Mom placed her crinkled napkin on her empty plate and stood. “We should get going. You ready?”

No. Kory wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready to return to the room where her father couldn’t move freely. She wasn’t ready to give the dogs away. She wasn’t ready to resume life in Chicago, where she was some gifted doctor on the cusp of a fast-paced, enviable career. Not when everything here was falling apart. There had to be something more she could do.

Will.
A fuzzy image of his smug face popped into her head as his challenge-turned-job-offer rang in her ears. He couldn’t want her to work for him anymore than she wanted to work for him, but she couldn’t completely ignore the option.