“I have to get back to work. If you could just say what it is you need to say, I’d appreciate it.”
“Fine.” She could do that. “Your brother is capable of more than you might realize. With occupational therapy and job placement, he could potentially become employed and learn to care for himself in an assisted living or group home situation. I understand it may be difficult for you to envision him being self-sufficient, but I want you to know it is possible and I’d like your permission to explore his potential.”
“You want to put him to work?” It figured that was all he’d picked up from her statement.
“I want him to live the best life he can.”
“You’re saying I’m doing a bad job?”
“No. No! Definitely not. I’ve looked at his charts. You visit all the time and you take him home with you every weekend. I know he’s not just being parked.”
Brady’s eyes went wide at the same time she realized her mistake.
“Parked?”
“It’s a term we use to describe someone who could be in a personal home, but a family member doesn’t want to be bothered.” She appreciated his look of disgust at the thought.
“I have to travel for work. I needed a job that paid well and had good insurance so I could afford the best home for him. The downside of that is I’m not around a lot or I’d have him with me more often.”
“With some training, he might be able to stay by himself.” Brady shook his head, but she cut him off before he could contest. “Hunter is a twenty-year-old man. He has a long life ahead of him. Is this place all you want for him?”
“I appreciate the optimism, but he likes it here and we’re doing fine.”
Time to get tough.
“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this Mr. Martin, but you’ve given me no choice.” She straightened her shoulders, ready to fight fire with fire. She didn’t want to be the wicked bitch of Elmhurst, but he needed a good shaking. “You mentioned needing good insurance. Even the best insurance doesn’t pay for all of Hunter’s care.”
“Trust me, I’m aware of how much the insurance doesn’t pay.”
“Part of our process is patient evaluations for the insurance companies. Until now, Hunter has been reported as a long-term care candidate and your insurance pays the biggest portion of his care. If I change his status the insurance will decline to pay.”
“Are you kidding me? Your incompetent staff let my brother fall out of a tree, and now you’re threatening me? Is this some tactic to keep me from suing your asses?” He got up and walked to the door. She noticed a slight limp when he rushed out to where his brother was chatting with the nurses. Hunter’s leg was not propped up. “Come on, Hunter. We’re going.”
“But it’s not Saturday. It’s only Thursday.”
“I know. We’re mixing it up.”
Hunter smiled and waved at her as he followed his older brother out the door, carrying his crutches instead of using them.
“I get to go home with my brother on a Thursday.” He spent most of his time at Elmhurst, but his brother’s apartment was considered home.
* * *
It was obvious something was wrong when Brady walked into the office. Kenley could feel the tension coming off the already intimidating man. He had a younger man with him who had to be related to him. They looked so much alike.
“I have a huge favor to ask,” he said as he placed both palms on her desk and leaned over. “This is my brother, Hunter. Would it be okay if he sat in here with you until I get these boats loaded up? Then I’ll take him home.”
“Sure.” Kenley didn’t understand why he needed to be watched. Her confusion must have showed.
“Hunter, why don’t you go wash your hands?”
“Do I need my crutches?”
“Does it hurt when you walk?”
“No.”
“Then you can leave them here.”
Hunter walked down the hall and went in the right door on the first try. He must have been here before.
“When I was in Iraq, our drunk of a mother wrecked her car and nearly killed Hunter while managing to kill herself. I’ve been taking care of him ever since he woke up from the coma. He’s not dangerous. He hurt his ankle today at the home. I didn’t want to leave him there.”
His expression tensed on the last part, but she nodded.
“Sure. I’d love to have some company.” She was sick of staring out the window, thinking about Zane.
“He won’t be in the way. He’ll be fine to sit and look through magazines until I’m finished.” Hunter came out of the bathroom, waving his hands that weren’t quite dry.
“Hunter, this is Kenley.”
“Sidney is home with Baby Paige. We took her a stuffed rabbit last weekend.”
“Right. I want you to stay with Kenley until I come back, okay?”
“How many minutes?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know.”
“Okay.” Hunter took a seat and picked up the first magazine. “Don’t get in the car with Mom,” he said with a wave to his older brother.
Brady let out a sigh and went through the door that would take him out to the shop.
Other than the occasional swish of a turning page, Hunter was as quiet as a mouse. It meant she was able to focus on her job, but it also meant she found herself staring out the window again, thinking about Zane.
When Brady came in to collect Hunter, he thanked her profusely.
“It was no problem at all.”
“It was nice meeting you,” Hunter called by the door.
“It was nice to meet you too.”
When the brothers were gone, she locked up the building and headed out.
Following the directions she was given, Kenley pulled down a winding driveway to a large brick home. It looked as if it could easily house twelve people.
Sidney met her at the door before she even had the chance to knock.
“You’re a sight for sore eyes,” Sidney said, giving her a hug. “I haven’t had the chance to thank you for the flowers.”
“Of course. I understand.” Kenley rubbed her hands together. “So where is she?”
“She’s napping.”
Kenley didn’t hide her disappointment, letting her shoulders fall with an “Awww.”
“That’s okay. I’m sure you also came to visit me and will be happy to wait to hold my child.”
“Yeah. I guess so.” Kenley laughed and Sidney playfully swatted her on the shoulder.
“So how are things going?”
“Fine. Good.” She hadn’t come there to bash Zane. At least not unless Sidney started it first. “Brady brought his brother in to the office today. He’s a sweetie.”
“He is. It breaks my heart that a mother is capable of hurting her child. The worst thing is how he always tells Brady ‘not to ride with Mom.’” Kenley had noticed that, but hadn’t asked. “If he’d done just that when he was eleven, who knows what he’d be doing today. I’m sure it tears Brady up every time he says it. The poor guy feels terrible about what happened, but it wasn’t like he could help. He was in a hospital in Germany when the accident happened.”
“Why was Brady in the hospital?” Kenley asked.
Sidney looked a little surprised and then said, “He lost his foot in Iraq.”
“Oh. I had no idea.” She’d noticed a slight limp, but nothing to indicate it was that serious.
“I guess that’s the point, that he’s able to walk well enough no one would know it’s a prosthetic.” She shrugged.
“Brady is like a different person when Hunter is around. No joking or flirting. I didn’t realize he could be serious.”
“He’s spent a lot of his life being way too serious.” Before she could ask what Sidney meant, they were distracted by the sound of Paige’s slight whimper on the baby monitor.
“She’s up! I get to hold her.”
Sidney rolled her eyes, but led her to the nursery. Once Kenley was settled i
n the rocker with the baby in her arms she felt the stress of the last week flow away.
“She’s beautiful,” Kenley said while sniffing her hair. “And she smells so good.”
“Trust me. Sometimes she doesn’t smell good at all.” The sound of someone coming in the front door caused Sidney to stop laughing and go investigate.
Kenley heard the low rumble of his voice before he stepped into the room.
Perfect. Zane was here.
* * *
To say Zane was shocked to see Kenley in his sister’s home rocking his niece was an understatement. He’d been on the phone when he arrived and didn’t notice her car.
Then he remembered he didn’t have any reason to hide. Not that he needed a reason, obviously. He’d been doing a fair job of it since the night she’d gone out with Scott.
He knew that hadn’t gone anywhere. For a cop, Officer Porter didn’t seem to realize when someone was manipulating information out of him.
He’d been almost chatty about how he’d kissed Kenley—a statement that made Zane cringe—but it hadn’t been right. They’d had no chemistry.
Zane knew for a fact, the fault wasn’t Kenley’s. The two of them had plenty of chemistry. Too much, in fact.
“Hi, Kenley.”
“Zane.” She managed to say his name, though she didn’t look up from the baby.
While he knew his niece was adorable and could captivate anyone’s attention, it was pretty obvious Kenley was uncomfortable.
She still did a great job at work, but she’d yet to speak, text or email him about anything other than business. He didn’t know what to do. Or if he should do anything. Wasn’t this what he’d been hoping for? That they could go back to what they’d had before without the tension? Except there was still a lot of tension.
He’d suggested they talk about what had happened, but she’d resisted. And he’d backed off, but maybe things still needed to be addressed.
He told himself every day this was for the best. It was bound to come to the same end. Eventually he would have done something to mess it up.
“Sorry. I didn’t know I needed to make an appointment,” Zane joked. Again, Kenley didn’t look up.
“I should get going.” Kenley moved to get up and Zane stopped her.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to leave on my account. I’m the uncle. I get to hold her anytime I want.”
She passed a now sleeping Paige over to Sidney, who glared at him, but spoke to Kenley.
“You don’t have to go. If you want, I can kick this big doofus out of my house so we can visit longer.”
“I just remembered I need to go pick up a few things for my trip on Monday.”
“Trip?” he asked.
“You told me to set up the office in Ohio. Is that not what you want?”
It was, but he had planned to stay in the office all next week so he could try to work things out with her. If he changed his plans now it would be too obvious.
“That’s fine. I didn’t realize.”
“I put a note on your desk.” A note he wouldn’t have seen because he’d been away. He let out a sigh.
“Okay. Good. Thanks.”
“I’ll stop in when I get back next week,” she promised Sidney, who put the baby back in the crib and walked her out.
He watched Paige breathing while listening to the murmurs downstairs. He couldn’t make out the words, but it didn’t matter. They were most likely complaining about him. After the sound of the door opening and closing, Zane braced for battle.
“Tell me this is not still about your stupidity at the hospital,” Sidney snapped when she walked back into the nursery.
Zane put his index finger to his lips and pointed into the crib in an effort to silence the woman, but it didn’t work.
“Paige is used to it. She had a front-row seat for the last nine months.”
He let out a breath and shrugged.
“We decided it would be better if we kept things professional.”
Sid tilted her head to the side as if to contemplate his position.
“Good luck with that.”
Chapter 13
Kenley felt better on Friday as she opened the office and started coffee. She had plans this weekend with her family and friends. She wouldn’t spend the whole time second-guessing her decision not to start something romantic with Zane. Not that she knew if he would have wanted such a thing. She’d ended it with him before he’d had the chance to end it with her. She paused with the carafe of water hovering over the coffeepot as that thought settled in.
She’d run away from Zane because she was afraid. It was not the first time she’d felt this way. It was ridiculous really. She’d been three when she’d been left at a small-town library. She didn’t remember her parents or being abandoned.
But something inside her always wondered why she’d been left there. If she had been given up for adoption as a baby it would have made more sense. If her mother wasn’t capable of caring for a child, adoption was a viable option. So why did they keep her until she was three and then give her up?
What had she done wrong?
She shook off the familiar irritation and continued with her day. A day that would be spent without Zane because he was—surprise—not in the office that day because he was going out of town to look at a boat. He could have really been going to look at a boat, but she knew how good he was at creating reasons to avoid her.
Brady came in with Hunter and she smiled.
“Hi, Hunter. Are you keeping me company today?” she asked as the brothers looked at one another.
“Would you mind?” Brady asked. “It shouldn’t be all day. I have a delivery to New Bedford, and I’ll be right back.”
“I don’t mind. It’s nice having him here. It’s so quiet and boring when everyone is out on the road.” Not that Hunter had been a big talker the day before, but she was going to work on that today.
“I’d take him with me, but he’s not great on trips.”
“I like to stop at all the McDonaldses,” Hunter supplied.
“Yes. All of them.”
She couldn’t help but laugh at Brady’s pained expression. “It’s really no problem. It will be fun.”
“Thanks. You’re the best.” With that Brady gave her a quick peck on the head and then hugged his brother. “Listen to Kenley. She’s in charge until I get back.”
“I was in charge last night while you went to the store.”
“Yes. But now Kenley’s in charge.”
“You were gone seventeen minutes.”
“I’m going to be gone longer this time.”
“How many minutes?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll let you know when I get back.” Hunter seemed to be okay with this answer, though she’d already heard it twice. And yesterday he hadn’t said how many minutes he was gone. She didn’t say that out loud though.
“Don’t ride with Mom in the car,” Hunter said while straightening his tattered magazines. This time Kenley noticed the pain that flashed in Brady’s eyes at the comment.
It was obvious Hunter wasn’t saying it to hurt his brother. It was probably something he’d been told repeatedly as a child and it stuck. Except the time it mattered most.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“But longer than seventeen minutes.”
“A little bit. Yeah.”
Hunter followed Brady to the door and then waved. With a sigh he came to sit in his usual spot and opened one of the magazines.
“Have you read those before?” She noticed there was one with boats. And two with motorcycles.
“Yes. They’re Brady’s, but he let me bring them here. He said to stay quiet.”
“You don’t have stay quiet all the time. Just when I’m on the phone.”
“Oh.” He looked around the space. “I could help you if you want. I used to water the plants for Sidney, but they’re not here anymore.” Thank God.
“Hmm. Well, I don’t real
ly have anything I need help with. Since I only have the one computer.” She smiled and then had an idea. “Wait here a second.”
“A second?”
“How about seventy seconds?” she revised, realizing he was a stickler for time.
He nodded and she rushed out the back into the shop and gathered up a number of brass fittings and hardware that needed to be polished before they could be used. She picked up a pile of rags and the polish and came back to the office with a few seconds to spare.
“Did you want to help by cleaning up these parts and making them shiny?”
“They aren’t shiny.”
“Not now. But if you put this stuff on them and then rub them, the dirt will come off and they’ll be shiny underneath.” She demonstrated with one of the cleats, and watched his look of surprise when the gunk was removed. As if she had been trying to trick him.
“I can do that.”
“Sure you can. Here, we’ll set you up at this table.” She pulled the table from the corner and moved the papers from it. “Can you go get a chair from the lunchroom?”
“Yep.” He ran off, eager to help. His ankle didn’t seem to be an issue.
Once he was set on his task, he was a polishing machine. She’d come up with the job as something to keep him occupied, but now she felt kind of guilty for taking advantage of him. She’d had to go gather more items and it wasn’t even lunchtime.
She decided this was an executive decision.
How much would you pay to have your brass polished?
As soon as she sent the text to Zane she realized how it might sound.
Did you mean to send this text to me?
Yes. Hunter is in the office with me today. He’s polished a bunch of fittings. I thought we should pay him. What do you think?
Hundred bucks?
She did the math. Even if he was there all day it was adequate compensation.
Sounds good. Thank you.
Thank you.
He added a smiley face which made her smile before she reined it in.
As Hunter polished, she finished her payables, cutting Hunter a check along with her payment batch. She even put it in an official envelope.
“I need some more.”
“Again? Why don’t we go get some lunch?”
Help Wanted Page 15
