Coming Back To You (22 page)

“Well, I’d love to try them.”

Karma swallowed another bite of her sub.
“Well, they’re in the car.” She gestured toward her Honda
Civic.

He frowned and glanced out the window.
“Aren’t you worried they’ll melt?”

“Would it matter if they did? I mean, they’re grainy
and taste weird.” She shouldn’t be so upset over the rantings of a
twelve-year-old in the middle of an identity crisis, but screw
that. It didn’t matter if the perpetrator was twelve or twenty.
Bullying and harassment, as well as disrespect, hurt.

He shot her a don’t-take-it-personally
glance.

“Don’t worry, they’re in a cooler.” She waved
him off. “I did my best to make sure they stayed perfectly intact,
even though I knew there was a good chance I’d be rebuffed.” She
stuffed the last bite of meatball sub in her mouth.

“And yet you did the right thing,
anyway.”

When had this conversation taken such a
pleasant turn?

“I tried.” She lifted her drink and leaned
back in her chair as she took a long swallow. “You know. I made a
special point to get up early to make them. I really tried to make
them perfect. Have you ever made truffles?”

“Once or twice.” He said it like once or
twice meant at least two dozen times.

“So you know how long they take to make.”

“Yes.”

“This was only my second batch, but I really
tried, and I put in all that effort, and then she—”

“Karma.” Mark sat forward with a stern
expression on his face. “Repeat after me. You can’t…please…
everybody.”

Seriously? He wanted her to do affirmations
now? Rolling her eyes, she said, “You can’t please everybody. I
know.”

“Then stop trying. The only person who
matters is you. As long as you’re happy, who really gives a damn?
Are
you
happy?
Are
you?”

Was she? Right this minute, she was probably
happier than she had been in a while, and that was only because
Mark was making her smile. But all day, she’d been a disaster. As
far away from happy as a person could get. And for the past month,
she hadn’t had much cause to smile, either. Brad was always
brushing her off. His work always took precedent when Jade didn’t.
Karma seemed destined to receive the scraps and nothing more.

“I don’t know,” she said weakly. Could she
really say she was happy when she felt so miserable?

He tucked his newspaper under his arm then
reached down and picked up his briefcase. “Well, maybe you need to
figure that out.” He stood. “Now, are you going to let me try those
grainy-assed, weird-tasting truffles or not?”

The way he said it and the comically
exasperated look on his face made her smile. “Fine, but don’t say I
didn’t warn you.” She grabbed her cookie and her drink then joined
him as he opened the door for her.

“See ya,” Andrew called from behind the
counter.

“Bye, Andrew.”

She led Mark to her car, leaned inside the
passenger door, and pulled the barely touched batch of truffles
from the cooler. “Here you go.” She turned around and pulled the
lid off the container.

Mark selected one covered with chopped
almonds and popped it in his mouth. A couple seconds later, he made
a face and planted his palm around his throat like he was
choking.

Great. Were they really that bad?

“Ack! Awful!” Then he winked and smiled as he
dug another one out of the bowl. “Just kidding.”

“You asshole.” She smacked his arm, making
him laugh as he ate one of the peppermint truffles.

“They’re not perfect, but they’re delicious,”
he said, licking his lips. He selected one covered with powdered
sugar. “The flavor’s there, you just need to perfect the technique.
You’ll get it.”

She put the cap back on the bowl. “You want
them?” She held the container toward him.

“Don’t you want to take them home and eat
them yourself?”

“Not really.”

He gently plucked the container from her
hand. “Bring back bad memories, do they?”

“Something like that.”

They stood in silence for several seconds.
What had started out as a crappy evening had turned out all right.
She was full, her headache was almost gone, and she had a smile on
her face.

“Don’t think I’m not on to you, Strong,” she
said, shutting the passenger door and pointing a warning finger at
him as she started around to the driver’s side.

“Me? Whatever do you mean?” Damn that sexy
smile and the man that went with it.

“You know what I mean.” He was working his
way back into her life. Or at least trying to. And yet she couldn’t
quite bring herself to be mad at him for it. In fact, she kind of
enjoyed the attention. “Enjoy the truffles. Oh, and I want my bowl
back.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He lifted the container in
acknowledgement.

With an exasperated shake of her head, she
got in her car and, with one last glance Mark’s way, pulled out of
her parking space and toward the exit. By the time she pulled into
her apartment complex, she was tapping her fingers on the steering
wheel and singing along with the song on the radio.

Chapter 24

The next few weeks proved unable to mend the broken
fence between her and Brad. Karma wanted him to see the double
standard he was setting and how he was enabling Jade to continue
disrespecting her, and Brad couldn’t see either.

To make matters worse, Brad had asked her to
join him and Jade on a trip to Florida during Jade’s fall break
from school only to renege the offer. He and Jade planned on
visiting his parents during the two-week trip, and Karma was
supposed to spend the first week with them. Get to meet the future
in-laws type stuff.

Nix that. After Jade’s outburst at the zoo,
Brad thought it would be better if he and Jade went alone. He
claimed he could smooth things over better that way and thought the
time together would help soften Jade to the idea of him marrying
Karma.

So, instead of packing her bags and heading
off to the airport for a week in sunny Florida, Karma had cancelled
her vacation and now sat on her couch, eating a banana, watching
reruns of
Miami Vice
on an overcast and chilly mid-October
Saturday afternoon.

Not the view of Miami she’d hoped for, but it
would have to do.

Around eight o’clock, she started
sneezing.

By nine, her throat was sore.

By ten, she was running a one-hundred-degree
fever and rising.

Great. Maybe she should have kept her
vacation on Solar’s books. Looked like she was coming down with one
helluva cold.

By Sunday morning, she no longer thought it
was a cold. This was full-on flu.

Her body felt like a train had run over it
ten times, her chest was as congested as a Los Angeles freeway, and
her fever spiked to one hundred three.

She wasn’t much better Monday morning and
called in sick.

Tuesday, she seriously considered drowning in
the bathtub as she took yet another Epsom salt bath in an effort to
coax the germs out of her body.

On Wednesday morning, she felt a little
better, so she dragged herself to work.

Big mistake. By the time she reached the top
of the stairs, she was out of breath and sweating profusely. Maybe
that meant her fever had finally broken.

Or not.

At her desk, she blew her nose and tried
focusing on her e-mail through a blurry cloud.

“Karma?”

She glanced up as a coughing fit seized her.
Mark was standing at her counter, a look of concern on his
face.

“Good mordink.” She sounded like a bullfrog
with a plugged-up nose.

“Oh, no, no, no.” He flicked his hand toward
her. “You’re going home.”

Home sounded good. Real good. Especially her
bed or the couch or even the floor, as long as she could lay
down.

“I’m…ah…ah…AH-CHOO! Fine.”

He shook his head. “You are not fine. You’re
sick.” He walked around her desk and placed his hand on her
forehead. “And you’re burning up. How long have you had this
fever?”

She had to think a second. Brain processes
weren’t high on her body’s priorities under an apocalypse of germ
warfare. “Since…”
sniffle,
“Saturday.”

“Shut off your computer.” He took a step back
and waited. “Come on. Turn it off.”

“Mark.” His name came out sounding like
Bark
.

“I’m taking you to the doctor. Let’s go.” He
picked up her bags and nodded toward the hallway.

Part of her didn’t want to be treated like a
baby, but the other part of her just wanted to suck her thumb like
one. There was something calming about someone else taking control
of her life for a change, because right now, trying to get from day
to day was wearing her down. That was probably why she was so sick.
She’d let herself get run down. She’d let the stress of what was
going on with Brad and Jade mutilate her immune system.

Only half reluctantly, she shut down her
computer, stood, and let Mark help her down the stairs. She was so
damn weak.

“Nancy, I’m taking Karma to the urgent care
facility,” he said to the receptionist as he passed her desk.
“Could you please cancel my meetings and take messages from anyone
looking for me?”

“Absolutely.”

“I’ll call in later.”

Nancy swooshed them out the door.

“You don’t have to do this,” Karma said as he
loaded her into the passenger seat of his car and tossed her bags
in back.

He didn’t have to, but she was grateful he
was.

He climbed behind the wheel. “I know, but I’m
going to anyway. So, just relax and let me handle everything,
okay?”

Fine. She would let him handle it. She closed
her eyes and leaned her blazing forehead against the cool glass.
Somehow, she dozed off, waking up as Mark pulled into a parking
space at the local MedCheck and shut off the engine.

Once again, he helped her out and guided her
inside.

Another coughing fit hit her, and she could
barely stay upright as the spasms doubled her over.

The lady behind the desk took one look and
knew Karma’s ailment wasn’t good. Luckily, the place wasn’t busy,
and within minutes, Mark practically carried her back to an exam
room.

After a nurse took her vitals and made a few
notes about Karma’s symptoms, she left the room. Mark sat beside
her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He felt good. Solid.
A pillar of strength keeping her upright.

She rested her head on his shoulder and
closed her eyes. If only she’d stayed home and not tried to go to
work.

“I’ll take care of you,” he whispered against
her hair, rocking her as he caressed her face.

Her body relaxed, and she snuggled a little
closer.

A few minutes later, the doctor came in.

Karma gently pushed away from Mark’s
body.

“I’m Dr. Kane,” he said with a smile.

“Hi.” Just one syllable was enough to send
her into another coughing spasm.

“That doesn’t sound good. How about you have
a seat up here for me.” He patted the white tissue paper covering
the examination table.

She did as he asked, and he slipped his
stethoscope up the back of her shirt and asked her to take several
deep breaths.

After listening for a few seconds, he placed
his stethoscope around his neck.

He continued to examine her then sat down.
She took her seat back beside Mark.

“I don’t hear anything that would indicate
pneumonia, just a bad case of the flu,” Dr. Kane said. “We’ve been
seeing a lot this over the past few weeks. The violent coughing is
caused by bronchospasms. I’m going to prescribe an inhaler that
should help relax the bronchioles and put a stop to that.”

“What about the fever?” Mark asked.

“Tylenol, lots of rest, lots of fluids, and
cold compresses.”

“That’s it?” Mark’s arm was back around her
shoulders. “No antibiotics?”

The doctor smiled. “Antibiotics won’t help
this. It’s a virus. But, of course, if your wife gets worse, that
may indicate a secondary infection, which could require
antibiotics, but right now, I think she’s just dealing with a bad
case of the standard flu.”

“Okay, Thanks.” Mark took the inhaler
prescription and tucked it into his jacket pocket.

Wait. Rewind. What? Had the doctor just
referred to her as Mark’s wife?

A few minutes later, as she sat in the
passenger seat of Mark’s car, she glanced across the seat. “He
called me your wife.”

“I know. I caught that.” He backed out of the
parking space.

“You didn’t correct him.”

He kept his eyes forward, but Karma caught
the way his jaw clenched ever so slightly. “I didn’t think it was
important enough to correct him.”

* * *

Mark had smiled when the doctor called Karma his
wife. She hadn’t been looking at him at the time, so she missed his
reaction, but something about someone else acknowledging how
perfect they looked together was deeply gratifying.

On the way back to her apartment, he swung by
the store, and while she waited in the car, he dropped off her
prescription at the pharmacy, grabbed some Tylenol and cold
medicine, then grabbed the ingredients for homemade chicken soup
before heading back to the pharmacy for her inhaler.

“What’s all this?” she said as he loaded the
groceries into the car. Poor thing sounded like someone had run
sandpaper down her vocal chords.

“I’m going to make you some soup.”

“Mark—”

“Hush. I’m going to do this, and you’re not
going to stop me.” He handed her the white pharmacy bag containing
her inhaler.

She took it out and took two puffs, as Dr.
Kane had instructed.

Back at her apartment, he helped her up the
stairs and carried her bags inside.

“I’m going to go down and get the rest of the
groceries. Why don’t you go change into your pajamas and get in
bed. I’ll bring you some Tylenol and juice in a few minutes.”