The Best Man

by Carol Hutchens

  The door closed.

  More hushed noises sounded through the wooden door. Kate thought she heard the rough tone of a male voice. Shivers shook her body. She waited, unsure if the door would open again, or if the director would ignore her plea.

  Kate didn’t dare glance over her shoulder. She was supposed to be here alone. But…what if…the director refused to let her enter? Should she call the police? Would they take her fears seriously, or shrug her off as a hysterical female? She didn’t like either implication.

  Even if she turned in a false lead, her intentions were in the best interest of the women seeking shelter in the Center. Would the director appreciate her interference?

  Kate’s stomach was roiling enough to make her nauseous by the time she heard the metallic clink of the safety chain. When the door eased open, she almost fainted with relief.

  “Thank you so much. I’ll just run look for my phone and be out of your hair in a jiffy.” She took one step forward and froze in panic. What if she made the situation worse by butting in like this? What if the intruder became violent because of her presence?

  “We don’t like visitors after hours, Ms. Sommers.”

  The director’s stern tone stopped Kate for more long seconds. Was she hinting that Kate should leave while she had the chance? Kate stepped through the door and gulped when the director turned to replace the chain. Every nerve in her body creamed.

  Don’t. Wait. Help.

  “I’m really sorry about this.” Kate rushed forward. “I won’t be here but a minute.”

  She had no wish of being locked in this house with a mad man. She wanted to rush outside to the safety of Luke’s arms.

  Then she remembered the women in this shelter needed her help. Women she’d spent time and effort to rescue from abusive relationships, needed her assistance. She lifted her chin and marched forward.

  She’d been kidding herself all these weeks since her return. She didn’t have the right to seek solace in Luke’s arms. She wouldn’t be the one inside a building where she suspected something was wrong, if he cared for her. Luke’s protective instinct would send him rushing to the rescue, leaving her in safety, if he cared.

  Courage and determination drained out of her, at thoughts of Luke not caring for her. Kate wrapped her arms around her middle to stop the pain and threw every acting skill she had into her role. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this, Director. I-it’s...so hard, not knowing if he’ll call. And it’s spooky, living alone.”

  There, she had dropped enough hints to attract every menacing type in the city. Why had she done that? She didn’t know who was listening. “I hope I didn’t wake you?”

  The director walked down the dark hallway at Kate’s side. “Make your search fast so we can get back to bed.”

  After tripping on a shadow, Kate almost suggested the director turn on some lights. Then she realized the person she sensed was hiding in the shadows wanted the dark.

  When they reached the dining room, the director flipped on a light switch. “Where were you sitting?”

  “Over—” Kate whipped around to point, and caught movement out of the corner of her eye. ***

  Luke lifted the collar of his jacket around his neck. He wasn’t cold. He wanted to hide the glare of his white dress shirt. Folding his lapels together, he hoped to be less visible in case anyone was watching.

  He pulled out his cell phone. Every instinct he possessed urged him to call the police. But he held back, staring at his watch, which he could barely see, and settled in to wait. He would give Kate ten minutes.

  Ten minutes.

  The longest six hundred seconds of his life.

  Why had he let Kate talk him into this? He should have been the one to go inside, but she insisted the director was more likely to let her in at this time of night.

  Luke shuffled his feet, conscious of the least sound revealing his hiding place. He tried not to think about what he could lose by standing here, waiting. The only thing in his world that mattered right now was Kate’s safe return and safety of the women in the Center, his conscience forced him to admit.

  And that was why Kate was inside facing possible danger, while he waited. They were protecting women in need. It was an honorable goal, but he doubted her could live with himself if anything happened to Kate. Why had he agreed to this plan?

  Once Kate came out of that house unharmed, he would find a way to salvage their relationship no matter what. Forget Joel, forget the firm...forget his need to protect Kate’s best interest. He would tell her he loved her, period.

  “There’s someone in there, all right. I just don’t know who.” Kate whispered at his elbow.

  Luke jerked around at the sound of her voice, and smothered the string of curses under his breath. So much for him being invisible, Kate had walked straight to his hiding place while he’d been dreaming of the future.

  “You didn’t see anyone?” He fought back the urge to hug Kate tight and kept his tone businesslike. If there was an intruder in the Center, they needed to save those women.

  “No, but the director didn’t act like herself at all.”

  “Maybe you woke her up. She was half-asleep.” He urged Kate through the shadowy darkness lining the street.

  “It was more than that,” she said, stopping in a dark shadow two houses down the street from the Center. “I felt someone’s presence, hiding in the shadows, and the director barely turned on any light. I think we should call the police.”

  ***

  “You saved lives tonight, Ms. Sommers.” The director clasped both her hands over Kate’s and gripped tight. “I can’t tell you how much we appreciate what you did.”

  Kate squeezed the woman’s hand in return. “I almost didn’t take your hint.” A nervous laugh escaped past the tightness in her chest. Now that the Center’s residents were safe, personal concerns held her in a vice grip. “For a while, after I left, I though you were serious about me cutting back on hours at the center.”

  The Director’s glance darted away. She gave Kate’s hand one last squeeze and pulled back, and Kate sensed something was wrong before the woman opened her mouth.

  “I-I’m afraid I’m going to stick to those words, Ms. Sommers.”

  Kate felt the piercing pain of each word stab her heart as she stared at the director. It was happening all over again. She had given every minute of her free time to help these women, and still, it wasn’t enough.

  Fighting emotions threatening to drop her to her knees, she slammed an emotional door on feelings ready to leave her in a pool of tears. The old Kate, the woman she had been before the tsunami disaster, would have put on a happy face and pretended it didn’t matter if the Center didn’t want her help anymore.

  But the new Kate was made of stronger stuff. The director’s words hurt like hell. But, she would survive. She’d perfected the lessons she learned from her mother, but she was her father’s child, too. Working with him for two years before Joel arrived had taught her a thing or two.

  She knew how to hold her emotions in a grip so tight no one would guess she was in pain. How to stiffen her backbone and face the opponent without flinching, those were skills she needed this instant.

  “Well,” Kate cleared her throat and dared her voice to tremble. “You know what’s best for the Center, and my partners think I need to devote more time to the firm. This way everyone should be happy.” Kate nodded to the director and made her way to the exit. If she spent one more second in this building, she would burst into tears.

  By following her instincts, she’d lost Luke and the new start to controlling her life. She had failed to reach her goal and let Luke down in the process.

  If anything had happened to her in the Center, he would have lost the law firm to Joel’s controlling interest. She’d put his career at risk with her carelessness. Even when he cautioned her not to go into the Center, she insisted. How could she face him? How did she apologize to the man she loved when she had taken his wishes
so lightly?

  Having her instincts proven correct, eased some of her pain. Police officers had rescued the Center’s residents from one of the abusive husbands, after she and Luke had called for help. But she had still failed Luke. She’d put her need to prove herself above his wishes.

  Luke could never love her now. She couldn’t expect him to value her competence when she’d taken their situation so lightly. First thing tomorrow, she was seeing an attorney to make a will. It was something she should have done the minute she learned she was a partner in the firm. Her carelessness could have cost Luke all he had worked for.

  Still, that wasn’t her source of pain. Despite her efforts to pretend otherwise, learning the director wanted her to cut back on her pro bono cases, cut deep. If she hadn’t had a tiny shred of her father’s cold heart, she would bawl right this minute.

  Rejection hurt. And the pain was even worse when you were giving of your time and efforts for free. Like her feelings for Luke.

  Luke!

  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t avoid thinking about him. She was disappointed that she couldn’t help at the Center, but what really twisted her in knots was recalling how Luke agreed to her going in the Center and risking her life.

  He hadn’t known if it was safe in there or not. He couldn’t protect her from a distance, even if he had tried. Since her return, he’d kept his distance from her most of that time.

  Had she imagined that night in his arms?

  Had she dreamed they made love all through the night because she wanted him with every fiber of her being? Or, knowing her husband had dumped her for another woman, had he taken pity on her. Had sleeping with her been his way of offering comfort?

  By the time she pushed out the front door of the Center, her brain was in a swirl. Thoughts were racing in circles. Goals were confused with emotions pulling her in opposite directions.

  It was time to choose.

  Either she wanted to make a success of her career with the firm, or she wanted…

  “Ready to go home?” Luke’s voice reached out of the shadows.

  Kate stared into the dark and spotted him standing a few feet away, with a couple of officers in uniform. “Yes, if you don’t mind giving me a lift.”

  The trip back to her apartment was silent. The pizza crowd had long since deserted the parking lot. Only her lone car and the restaurant owner’s truck remained. Kate sighed with relief. Home!

  Her bones ached with exhaustion. Her stomach growled at the scent of pizza hanging in the pre-dawn dampness, reminding her she hadn’t eaten since lunch, yesterday. She inhaled another pepperoni and tomato scented breath, and turned toward Luke.

  She had put this off as long as she could. Staying silent during the short ride in the car only postponed the words she had to say.

  “The Director wants me to take a break from the Center.” Her voice clogged with emotion she was determined to hide. “I thought you would want to know I’ll be in the office full-time from now own.”

  “Kate, I—”

  She shoved the passenger door shut, and turned her back. “We’ll talk tomorrow, Luke. I’m dead on my feet.” She staggered a step back from the car. “Thanks for your help.”

  “Kate! We need to talk.”

  Kate turned and walked away, waving over her shoulder as she went. It was impossible to agree to Luke’s wishes and talk right now.

  Her father had deserted her as an infant.

  Her husband had deserted her after the tsunami and left her for dead.

  But worse than all that, tonight, Luke deserted her in the face of danger.

  Why couldn’t they love her? What was wrong with her that the men in her life always left her when she needed them most?

  She’d thought Luke was different. But she had been fooling herself. But no more…after tonight, she was taking a page out of her father’s book.

  Why waste energy on emotional involvement? She was locking her emotions up and throwing away the key. Then, and only then, she could compete with Luke and Joel, and she wouldn’t get hurt.

  Chapter 12

  “Luke, you have to do something.” Joel’s face matched his riled tone.

  Luke looked up from a client’s file on his desk. “What’s wrong?”

  Joel threw himself in the chair in front of Luke’s desk and expelled a noisy gust of air. “It’s Kate. There’s no reasoning with her. In the past two months she’s taken on enough work for two attorneys.” Joel stopped for breath. “I know, I sound like a school kid telling tales, but she’s working herself in the ground.”

  Luke arched a brow as he studied his partner. Joel’s new suit, navy with stripes, looked like flashy as a television news castor so his concern didn’t come from financial worry. And the best he could tell, Joel didn’t have any tender feelings for his former wife, so what was up? “You don’t think she can handle the load?”

  He wasn’t about to share his concerns with Joel. Since the night police rescued the Center from the hostage situation, Kate had given him the cool treatment. If he entered a room, she departed. If he suggested a working lunch or dinner, she had other plans. He didn’t need a degree in Psychology to know she was avoiding him.

  He missed her. He wanted to be with her, hold her. Her scent floated through the office, making his days one massive reaction to her presence. His nights were long dark hours of longing. One whiff of her shampoo reminded him of running his fingers through her hair. When he went to the copy machine, the hint of her fragrance lingering in the warm air, made him want to touch her body with tender loving strokes.

  But her aloofness was driving him mad. He had thought her lost, when she was missing after the tsunami. He didn’t want to go through that again.

  In his mind, he’d let her down that night at the center. Since then, Kate had put distance between them and he suspected it was because of that night’s events. How could he tell her all he was feeling? How could he prove she was wrong?

  “She can’t handle enough cases for two—”

  “So, you think I can’t hold up my end of this partnership?” Kate demanded.

  Luke’s glance darted to the doorway. Storm clouds filled Kate’s dark eyes, turning them almost as black as the suit she wore. Her hair had grown and now brushed against her collar. She wore gold hoop earrings and a thin gold bracelet around one arm. Otherwise, she was in black from head to her toe. She looked wonderful.

  And she looked as distant as an iceberg.

  His gaze took a leisurely tour of her stormy features as she approached her former husband. Luke settled back in his chair, prepared to wait for the outburst he sensed was coming.

  This was why he’d kept his feelings to himself over the past few weeks. Kate was out to prove something. He though it was important to give her room, no matter how hard it was to stand back and watch.

  She was overworking. He knew it. She knew it. Now, Joel’s words made it clear that he knew it. But Luke wasn’t making an issue of her workload. Leave that to Joel. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, but just the opposite.

  Luke picked his battles with Kate. Getting her stirred up over work wasn’t worth the hassle. She had something to work out of her system. He recognized the symptoms. When she reached a solution, he would talk to her.

  “Have a seat, Kate.” If he had learned anything that night at the Center, it was how much Kate meant to him. Feelings for her twisted his insides, causing a battle between wanting to smother her with protection, and wanting her to fulfill her goals.

  Their night together had touched him like nothing in his past ever had. He wanted to tell her. But the time needed to be right. Then he would explain why he tried so hard to let her find her own way.

  She might not believe he’d learned to loosen control of his emotions. So, he intended to let his actions show her he had changed from the man she first met.

  Kate’s head whipped toward Joel. “I can’t believe this.” She waved a sweeping hand. “First you complain tha
t I’m doing too much pro bono work.”

  Joel’s face turned the color of an over-ripe tomato. Luke bit the inside of his cheek and kept his expression calm as she flopped in the chair beside Joel’s, spewing a breath of air.

  “Now…I’m working night and day to earn billable hours and you complain about that.”

  “I give up!” Joel threw his hands up in the air. “You two are priceless, you know that?”

  “What are you talking about?” Confusion marked Kate’s face.

  Joel shot to his feet. “Look, I’m not the world’s best choice to give advice, okay,” he glared from one to the other, and took a deep breath, “but, I owe both of you.”

  Kate’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean?”

  Joel raked a hand through his expertly styled hair, disrupting the tawny locks. “I wormed my way into your lives on purpose.”

  He swiveled around as Luke made a sound. “It’s true. Luke knows as well as I do. We weren’t close in law school.” He lifted an elegantly clothed shoulder. “I suspect he tolerated me, at best.” Joel shoved his hands in his pockets. “I came here sniffing out an opportunity.”

  His glance skimmed past the shocked expression on Kate’s face. “That’s why I started wooing you, Kate.”

  She gasped. Color drained from her face. “You intentionally—”

  “Joel!” Luke jumped up. “Don’t do this—”

  Joel waved Luke back to his seat. “I have to. It’s time, don’t you see?” He glanced first at Luke then back at Kate. “I messed up everything.” He stared at Kate as he admitted. “I knew you were attracted to Luke when I first came here.”

  Kate made a muffled sound.

  “I saw an easy way to make a new life for myself. I took it.” Joel paced in front of the desk. “I didn’t consider who I’d hurt.” He stopped in front of Kate and looked down into her eyes. “I knew you wanted to impress your father. But I jumped in, anyway. I attracted his attention, so he made me partner, instead of you.” Joel’s strength seemed to drain from his body as he sank into his chair.