Parker's Passion

by York, Sabrina

  Parker shot them a grin and then turned back to Kaitlin. He tipped his head toward the battalion. “But if you could? Leave your guard dogs at home?”

  She glanced over her shoulder and then threw her head back with a laugh.

  And he laughed too as elation trilled through him.

  Because he was going to see her again in four days.

  And then despair.

  How the hell was he going to make it that long?

  But he didn’t see her.

  He missed their rendezvous. It devastated him, but he missed it.

  To his surprise, it wasn’t work that scuttled his plans. It was family.

  Which was odd, because Parker had no family. They had all perished in the fire that had nearly claimed his life.

  On Wednesday, his world imploded. Ash called to say that his father had had a massive heart attack and was on his deathbed. Something cold invaded Parker’s soul at the news. Adam Bristol was as close to a father as he’d ever had. And Ash was like a brother. He couldn’t not respond to the call. He couldn’t not go sit with his friend as they waited for news.

  In retrospect, he realized he should have asked for her number. For something.

  But, giddy with excitement, it had slipped his mind.

  So he missed their date.

  It just about killed him.

  Chapter Seven

  Kaitlin was floating on a cloud when she returned home from the island. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Parker—and her heart as well. There was something about him, something magical perhaps.

  When he’d slipped his arm around her on the deck of the ferry, she’d felt protected and warm. And there had been no pain, no snarl of sensation whatsoever. It was peaceful being with him, despite the angst and dark memories that sometimes surrounded him.

  She could tell her presence was a balm to him as well.

  She was a healer. It was part of her job. But her gift had never pleased her as much as it did with Parker. They soothed each other, somehow.

  The guys were annoyed with her, of course, when she came back inside and took her seat. She could tell from their roiling intent, they wanted to pepper her with questions, the way they’d peppered Emily, but Kaitlin did not allow it.

  When Cam sat back and crossed his arms and drawled, “So…” she’d shot him a cool glance and his lips had snapped shut and that had been the end of it.

  Drew was another story altogether.

  He’d always been a hoverer, but now it seemed he was a hoverer on steroids. He called her that night as she made herself a bowl of soup for dinner. He wanted to come over. She told him no.

  He called her at work and texted her several times the next day and then the next. After a while, she quit taking his calls. To which he responded by texting more often.

  Thursday was her day at the shelter. She was in a session with Susan and Lily when her phone buzzed, once again. She didn’t need to check it to know it was Drew.

  She loved him, really she did, but if he didn’t back off, she was going to have to smack him. It was an annoying intrusion because she was nervous about her date with Parker. If she weren’t humming with excitement and trepidation, she wouldn’t have minded. But as it was, each buzz from her phone set her teeth on edge.

  “Do you need to take that?” Susan asked.

  Kaitlin set it to ‘silence’ and dropped it into her purse. She hated that he was interrupting her work. “No.” She smiled and patted Susan’s hand. While the sweet woman was getting better, there were still some nasty bruises on her cheek. She tried to cover them up with makeup, but some bruises refused to be hidden. “So tell me,” Kaitlin said, forcing her attention back where it belonged…on her clients. “How is Lily doing?”

  Susan sighed and gazed at her daughter who was playing with dolls in the corner. Dolls were helpful, Kaitlin found, in working through the pain. Lily held the boy doll up in front of the girl doll and then bashed them together making “Kussssh Kussssh” sounds. “She’s…okay.”

  “It will take some time.” Kaitlin nibbled on her lip. Possibly the memory would never be wiped away. “Any word?”

  Susan flinched.

  Kaitlin felt a thread of remorse for the question, but she needed to know.

  “He wants custody.”

  Kaitlin froze. She glanced at Lily, the adorable three year old, whose father had sent her to the hospital with a broken arm. Her cast was a brash reminder of his fury.

  Susan shook her head. “He doesn’t want custody. He wants power. Over me. But I can’t let him have her. I can’t.” Panic rose in her voice.

  “You’re safe here.” Kaitlin sent her a calming wave. “No one knows you’re here.”

  “But what if—”

  “He won’t find you.” She forced a smile. “That’s what we do here. We keep women safe.”

  “He has money. He has friends. He could track us…”

  “Then we’ll move you. Susan. Look at me.” Kaitlin touched her face, to the side, where the swelling wasn’t so bad. “You’re safe here. You need to focus on getting better. Let me help.”

  “I…okay.”

  Kaitlin stood and walked behind her and placed her hands on Susan’s slender shoulders and began to work.

  She forced all thoughts of Drew and Parker and everyone else from her mind and focused on this. On what mattered. On helping someone heal.

  The pain was excruciating.

  When she went home that night, she ate an entire chocolate bar. One of the big ones.

  Drew called just as she was getting ready for her date with Parker. If she hadn’t been so frazzled—changing outfits six times—she wouldn’t have picked up.

  “Hey, babe.” His warm voice flooded over the line. “What are you doing?”

  “Oh. Hi, Drew. I’m kind of busy.”

  “Yeah. Okay. So I was thinking about going to the island this weekend. Are you going to be there?”

  She juggled the phone as she tossed another dress onto the bed. Maybe this one was better? “I can’t this weekend Drew. I’m helping Emily prepare for a charity thing.”

  “Ug,” he snorted. “She roped you in?”

  These shoes? Or these? Kaitlin laid them out on the bed side by side and studied them. She tried to tap into Parker’s energy, to assess which he would prefer, but Drew kept chattering in her ear.

  “She’s a storm trooper when it comes to those charity things. Which one is this?”

  “Teen Waystation.”

  “Oh yeah. I think she mentioned that this weekend.”

  “It’s important to her.” Okay. The black ones. Not too high of a heel, but not too casual.

  “So…what are you doing for dinner tonight?”

  “I have a date.” She winced as soon as the words left her lips. Good gravy. She could feel his hurt wafting toward her over the line.

  Silence. And then, “A…date?”

  Kaitlin sighed. “Yes, Drew. A date.”

  “With him?”

  Really, it was none of his business. Except he was her friend. And he cared. And he deserved better than to be sloughed off or lied to. “I really like him, Drew.”

  “He’s a jerk!”

  “He’s not.”

  “Kaitlin, don’t go.”

  She took a deep cleansing breath and sent him a calming wave too. It didn’t work. The threads connecting them bristled with tension. “Drew, I really like him. He’s…different.”

  “Everybody’s different.”

  “Not like Parker.”

  Drew made a sound, something like a snarl. “I’m coming over.”

  “No, Drew, don’t—”

  But he’d disconnected.

  Kaitlin glanced at the clock and figured she had about ten minutes to get dressed and get out of the house before Drew showed up. It was probably cowardly to run like this, run and hide, but she really didn’t have the inclination to fight with him about this.

  She grabbed the dress on the top of the pile
and the shoes closest at hand and got dressed. Ripping a brush through her hair and grabbing her purse, she bolted.

  Needless to say, she was early for their date. She got a table and ordered a sparkling water and waited for Parker. And waited. And waited. All the while, trying to ignore her panic as they minutes ticked by. The time for their date came and went.

  After an hour, she ordered her dinner, to go, and took it home in a humiliating white box.

  She tried to disregard the devastation welling within her.

  He’d stood her up.

  Worse than that, she didn’t have his number, or anything. She had no way to contact him again.

  As wonderful as it had been, as wonderful as he had been, it was over.

  She snorted a laugh to herself as she got out of her car and headed for her little house on Queen Anne Hill overlooking the Seattle skyline. Yeah. She hadn’t seen that coming.

  Wasn’t that the way it always was? Infinite universal truths exposed to her—in the shower—but something that really mattered to her? A mystery.

  Thank God she had chocolate in the cupboard. She was going to need it tonight.

  But ah. As if being stood up by Parker weren’t bad enough, Drew was lounging on her stoop. It was embarrassing to have to explain her tears to him. Painful beyond bearing to have him wrap her in his arms and hold her while she told her tale of woe.

  Crushing to have to stop him when he tried to kiss her later, and see his wounded expression.

  It broke her heart.

  He loved her. Loved her.

  He was a wonderful person and a marvelous friend, if a little too persistent.

  Why couldn’t she just love Drew?

  Why did life have to be so difficult?

  Parker sat in the uncomfortable plastic chair in the hospital cafeteria and stared at his hands. His fingers were linked so tightly, his knuckles were white.

  It had been a hell of a week. Thank God it was Friday, though the weekend wasn’t looking any better. On top of the devastation of Adam being so sick, he’d missed his date with Kaitlin when his mentor had had another heart attack.

  He would probably never see her again.

  To make matters even worse, work sucked balls. The case he was embroiled in was slippery, a nasty divorce, and the client was an important one.

  Barstow had poked his head into Parker’s office on Monday and smiled. That in itself was horrifying. But then his boss had gone on to say, “We’re counting on you Rieth. Counting on you to make this happen. If you can pull this off and please Tucker, that corner office is yours.”

  Just like that. The office was his.

  All he had to do was pull some freaking rabbit out of a hat.

  Hell, he couldn’t even serve the papers.

  Tucker’s wife had run off to the south of France or someplace like that. How did you serve papers on someone you couldn’t find?

  Parker had Gilley on it. Gilley was one of the best P.I.s on the payroll. If anyone could find Mrs. Tucker, it would be him. But it had been over a week with absolutely no news. No records of transit, no hits on her passport and nothing on her credit cards.

  He didn’t know why it was suddenly his responsibility to find Susan Tucker, but it was.

  He sighed and scrubbed his neck, though it didn’t ease the pinging of his migraine. The headaches had come back in the last day or so. There had been a glorious release from them, but only for a short time. He tracked the reprieve to the moment he’d seen Kaitlin. Touched her. Possibly when she’d taken him in her mouth.

  But he couldn’t think about that. About her. Not here. Not now.

  He hated hospitals. Always had. The smell, the squeak of the nurses’ shoes, the whispers. Even the fluorescent lights gave him the heebie jeebies. He glared up at them.

  He should just go home. Ash had, for God’s sake. Ash and Michelle and Trish…they’d all gone. Adam’s surgery was tomorrow and they wanted to be fresh. Besides, Ash had said, there was nothing more they could do here tonight.

  But Parker didn’t see it that way. Staying here, standing vigil, felt like something.

  Too bad the food sucked. He poked at his cherry pie. It bled. Some neon red, cherry-like substance. He didn’t know why he’d gotten it. Probably just to have something to poke.

  He tried to pretend it wasn’t Drew.

  He tried not to think of her.

  A laugh at the register caught his attention. His heart jolted. His breath snagged. His head whipped up and, holy shit, there she was.

  He didn’t bother to wonder why she was here at the hospital. Or so late at night. Or if he was, perhaps, hallucinating. When she picked up a cardboard container and nodded at the cashier and headed for the door he leapt to his feet and called her name.

  Tried to call her name. It clogged in his throat.

  Panicked, he ran after her—although it felt like slow motion.

  Oh hell.

  How horrible would it be to lose her now? When he’d found her again?

  He rounded the corner to see her step on the elevator. She turned and pressed the button and the doors slid closed.

  Desolation slithered through him.

  And then, their eyes met. Hers widened in surprise through the ever shrinking crack.

  In a moment. In a moment, she would be gone.

  But no. She thrust her hand between the doors and stopped them. She stepped out, toward him, her lips parted, her features rumpled.

  “Parker?” Her voice was like a balm. It shivered over his skin. He shuddered.

  “Kaitlin.” Thank God. He’d caught her.

  She glanced around the empty hallway. “What are you doing here?”

  “I, ah…” He poked his finger toward the ceiling. “Someone’s in the hospital.”

  “I’m sorry.” She touched his hand. A skim, nothing more. His headache abated. Or he was delusional. “That’s terrible.”

  Yeah. It was.

  “They won’t let me see him.” He didn’t know why he said that. Of course they wouldn’t let him in to see Adam. Only family was allowed in and…he wasn’t family. He felt like family, though. Fury at the stupid hospital rules swelled up in him. He tried to swallow it down.

  “Do you…want to talk?”

  God. She always just seemed to know what he needed.

  “Do you have time?”

  She smiled. “Of course. I’m off duty now.”

  Together, they walked back to the plastic cafeteria and sat at his table with the bleeding pie and ice cold coffee. Her attention fell on his plate and her nose curled up.

  “You shouldn’t have gotten the cherry pie,” she said.

  “Tell me about it.”

  “The chocolate cream is pretty good.”

  “Maybe I should get some of that.” He was not inclined to move. Couldn’t bear to walk away from her. Even for pie.

  She tipped her head and curled her hair behind her ear. “Do you want me to get some for you?”

  “No. I don’t really want pie.” He poked the slice again, just to make a point. “I’m sorry I missed our date. I was here. And I didn’t have your number.”

  “It’s okay.” But he noticed she lowered her lashes. He hadn’t known her long, but he could tell when she told a lie. She always dropped her gaze when she lied.

  “Did-did you wait long?”

  “No.” Another lie.

  Shit. He raked his fingers through his hair. “I was really looking forward to it.”

  “So was I.” Thank God, she met his gaze at that.

  “Maybe we should try again?”

  She tipped her chin. Toyed with a fork.

  Silence stretched between them, punctuated by the beat of his heart. Finally she said, “So who’s your friend?”

  “My…what?”

  “Your friend. In the hospital.”

  “My… um, Ash’s dad. He had a heart attack.”

  “Ah. So he’s up on four.”

  Parker nodded. He’d spent a lot
of time on four lately.

  “I’m so sorry. Are you close?”

  Parker snorted. He didn’t mean to snort. It was terribly disrespectful. He hoped she understood. “He was…is like a father to me.”

  “I see.” And she did, didn’t she? She seemed to understand everything.

  “I’m worried that—”

  She covered his hand. “That you won’t get to see him again?”

  “He’s having surgery tomorrow. Open heart.” He forced back some cold coffee. It was hideous.

  “It’s a shame you can’t see him.”

  “Yeah. It’s killing me.”

  She sat back and studied him. While it hurt when she drew away, her gaze was warm, comforting. Then, unaccountably, she grinned. It was a wicked grin. “Come with me,” she said, grabbing hold of his sleeve.

  “Where.”

  “We’re going to four.”

  He followed her, although he didn’t know why, other than the bald fact that he would probably follow her anywhere she led. When they stepped into the elevator, she threaded her fingers in his. Her smile broadened. She raised up on her toes in a little bounce.

  Damn. Everything about her was joyful.

  Everything.

  The door dinged open and she sailed out as though she owned the place, still clutching his hand. She smiled at the grumpy nurse guarding the ICU wing. “Hey Clara,” she chirped.

  Clara—and apparently that was her name, not Battleaxe as he had assumed—smiled back. Astonishing, considering…what a battleaxe she was. “Well, hello there Kaitlin. We haven’t seen you in a while. How have you been, honey?”

  “I’m good. Real good. I, ah… could we see Adam Bristol?”

  “Adam Bristol?” Clara’s caterpillar brows rose. She glanced at Parker and her familiar sour mien slipped into place.

  “Just for a minute. Please?”

  Clara shuffled some papers and grumbled a little bit, but in the end, she relented. “All right,” she said, handing them facemasks. “But just for a minute. He’s got surgery in the morning. He’s in four-oh-six.”

  And as easily as that, he was in. Through those heavy double doors marked CARDIAC UNIT: ABSOLUTELY NO ADMITTANCE and on his way down the echoey hall toward Adam’s room.