Vita inclined her head. “No, you were definitely not a pushover,” she agreed, and turned toward Felicia. “Now you can see why we were all so very protective of Nicole. Underneath it all, she was always our standard-bearer. More than anything, we all wanted to make sure that nothing but the right things was done by her.”
“Well, I will do my very best to make sure not to disappoint her—or you,” Felicia promised.
“I know you will,” Nicole responded before her sister-in-law could comment on the assurance. “Now let’s stop all this talking and speculation and just sit down and have a very nice lunch.” She led both women over to the functional kitchen table and gestured toward it. “I wasn’t sure what you were in the mood for,” she told her physical therapist, “so I made a potpourri lunch. There’s a little bit of everything here—individual pizzas, sandwiches, soup and, to top it all off, a wide selection of desserts to choose from.”
Felicia looked at the impressive selection in awe. “You did all this after you called to offer me the job?” she asked in wonder.
Nicole laughed, amused by the young woman’s wonder. “I’m fast, dear, but I’m not that fast,” she assured Felicia. “What you see here is the new menu that I was working on when I put in a call to you.” Her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Let’s just say that the idea of hiring you inspired me to do a little creating.”
While Felicia appreciated Nicole’s creative bent, she was concerned about the woman’s health. In her estimation, Nicole was spending much too much time on her feet.
“Aren’t you pushing yourself a little too much?” she asked.
It was Vita who answered her. “You’ll get used to this after a while,” she promised. “This is just Nicole being Nicole.”
Suddenly all this was pushed into the background as they all heard a deep, masculine voice calling out from the front of the house.
“Hey, Mom, where are you?”
“And that,” Nicole announced, glancing at Felicia, “is Aaron about to be Aaron. Brace yourself, Fee,” she warned just before she responded, “I’m in the kitchen, dear!”
Felicia had no idea why, but hearing the deep voice, her heart began to beat just a little harder.
Chapter 4
As he drove up to his childhood home, Aaron Colton had told himself that he had no intentions of interfering with his mother’s choice of a nurse, or whatever this person she wanted to hire chose to ultimately call herself. Whoever his mother decided on hiring was fine with him.
But by the same token, Aaron felt he needed to know that the woman was qualified to care for his mother. He was not about to allow just anyone to come waltzing into his mother’s home and try to hoodwink her.
Not that his mother was a fool, but she did possess an exceedingly kind heart and that at times caused her to turn a blind eye to certain flaws a person might have. Otherwise, how could he have explained his mother marrying his father?
He just wanted to check out this person whom his mother was entrusting with her care, and after he was satisfied, he would be on his way.
But he did need to be satisfied. After all, Nicole Colton was his mother and he wanted to ensure that she was well taken care of. Since she absolutely refused to allow him to check her into a rehab facility, which, in his opinion, was the better way to go, he had to be content with his mother getting professional care.
And since his mother had to be satisfied that he wasn’t going to attempt to push her into accepting his decision, he had agreed to back off.
However, that only went so far. In this case, it involved his final approval of his mother’s choice of a caregiver.
In that light Nicole Colton might have been able to intimidate his two half brothers and get them to go along with whatever her choice was, but he was not them. He took a stand. Not an unreasonable one, he liked to think, but a definite stand nonetheless.
Walking into the house, Aaron looked around for his mother and the woman he had come to meet.
However prepared Aaron Colton might have thought he was to meet his mother’s new physical therapist, he was wrong.
Dead wrong.
For one thing, the woman, whose name he had been told was Felicia Wagner, wasn’t some middle-aged nurse type in thick-soled, sensible shoes. Instead she was a young woman who looked as if she would have been far more at home on the cover of a fashion magazine touting the future stars of tomorrow.
Maybe he had made a mistake, Aaron thought. Maybe she was just a friend his mother had made at the rehab facility. Youthful in spirit, his mother had the ability to attract young and old alike.
“Hello,” he said, stepping forward and putting his hand out to the young woman. “I’m Aaron Colton, Nicole’s son.”
Belatedly, Felicia took his hand and shook it. “Yes, I know. Your mother talked about you a great deal, as well as about your brothers,” she added, thinking it was safer mentioning all of them in the same breath.
She had to admit that Nicole’s oldest son was far more distractingly good-looking than she had first imagined he would be, given what Nicole had said about him. She had to concentrate in order to keep her mind on the subject at hand.
“You have me at a disadvantage,” Aaron confessed, feeling just the slightest bit awkward. He certainly wasn’t prepared to be this taken with the woman his mother had hired. With her long, light blond hair and brilliant blue eyes the woman was flat-out gorgeous. That made him doubtful about her capabilities. “Mother didn’t exactly mention a lot about you. Mother?” he asked, glancing in Nicole’s direction to have his mother fill him in on the details.
“I mentioned her all right. You just don’t listen,” she told her son. “All right, let’s make this formal,” Nicole declared. “Aaron, I’d like you to meet Felicia Wagner. Felicia is the young woman you practically hounded me into hiring—no offense, dear,” she added as an aside to Felicia.
Aaron looked a little perplexed. “I didn’t tell you to hire her,” he protested, still thinking his mother was hiring someone who looked like a sensible nurse.
“Yes, you did. You told me you wanted me to hire someone I liked having around. Someone who would be helpful and could work with me when it came to physical therapy. Well, this is her,” Nicole announced, gesturing toward Felicia.
Aaron was having trouble reconciling the idea that a woman this beautiful could have a useful skill. She was just too damn attractive in his eyes for that sort of thing.
“Her?” he asked his mother dubiously.
“Yes, dear, her,” Nicole said with finality. She looked at Felicia. “He usually has better manners than this, although in his defense, he did sustain more blows to the head in the ring than I was happy about. Thank heavens he quit when he did, because I shudder to think what might have happened if he had decided to continue that dangerous boxing career,” she told her new confidante with a sigh.
“We’re not talking about me, Mom,” Aaron told his mother pointedly, uncomfortable with the personal reference. “We’re talking about your exceedingly young-looking physical therapist here and her qualifications. You do have qualifications, don’t you?” he asked, focusing his attention on Felicia.
“Aaron,” his mother said sharply, appalled by his probing tone.
She had been subjected to worse, Felicia thought. Much worse. “That’s all right, Nicole. He’s your son and he’s concerned. He has every right to ask about my qualifications.” Felicia turned to Aaron. “I received my education from the Austin School of Physical Therapy. I graduated with a certificate in the field.”
It was all well and good to claim that she had certification from a school, but he needed more than just her word for it. He knew this was going to sound hard-nosed, but this was his mother and he was not about to be careless about this.
“You don’t mind if I ask to see it, do you?” Aaron inquired.
There was
a problem with that, Felicia thought. The documentation wasn’t in her name. Not the one she was currently using at any rate. And her real name had become a secret she needed to guard. “Unfortunately, it was lost in the move I made from Texas to Chicago.”
Much as he would have wanted to believe her, Aaron found her story highly suspect. “How convenient,” he commented.
Nicole instantly felt her back going up. She had had just about enough of her son’s behavior. “Aaron, I didn’t raise you to browbeat a young woman I have chosen to work with me and help me.” Her eyebrows drew together in a deep V as she frowned at her oldest son. “Maybe I should hire someone to teach you manners, since I didn’t seem to have done a good enough job of that myself.
“Now, this might have escaped you,” Nicole continued, “but I am still your mother and I am still capable of making my own decisions. I have decided to hire Felicia as my physical therapist.
“And if you are finished giving this poor young woman the third degree when her only sin was to agree to come live here and help me attempt to become as flexible as I was before I took that dreadful flier across the floor,” she crisply informed her son, “you can join us for lunch.”
Aaron was nowhere near done asking questions, but he knew his mother and that tone. She was not about to stand for what she obviously viewed as his interrogation of this cover model. He could only hope that this either worked out for the best or that his mother became disenchanted with the young woman on her own.
A third alternative was for him to track down Felicia Wagner’s PT certification, which he still might attempt to do, he thought, debating that course of action.
As for lunch, he was going to have to take a pass. “Sorry, Mom. Maybe some other time.” Aaron leaned over and kissed his mother’s temple. “Nash and I are meeting with Dad to find out why he’s pursuing this lawsuit against the newly discovered branch of the family.” At least, he thought, new to him and his brothers and two cousins.
The lawsuit was something new and he wanted to look into it. Both he and Nash had a feeling that this undertaking was not Erik Colton’s idea, although he knew that there was no love lost between their father and the newly unearthed other half of the Colton family.
Still, it wasn’t like his father to instigate this kind of legal action on his own. There had to be something or someone behind it.
Aaron nodded at the table with its tempting layout. “I’m going to have to take a rain check,” he told his mother. Turning toward Felicia, he nodded politely. “Nice meeting you.” To be continued, he added silently.
Felicia had her doubts about the sincerity of Aaron’s statement, but saying as much right now was definitely not the way to go—unless she wanted to lose this position. While she felt that her new friend genuinely liked her, Felicia knew that if the woman were put in the position where she had to choose between her physical therapist and her son, she would no doubt side with the latter.
Going along with things was definitely the safer way to go.
So Felicia mustered the best smile that she was able to manage and told him, “Same here.”
For the briefest of moments, their eyes met, and without thinking Aaron found himself smiling at the woman he had just challenged.
“You know, I almost believe you,” he told her. And then he issued what could have been seen as a warning of sorts. “Take good care of her, Ms. Wagner. She’s the best mother in town.”
Vita, who had tactfully kept out of the exchange between her nephew and the young woman her sister-in-law had just hired, finally spoke up in an attempt to lighten the mood.
“I think I’ve just been hurt, Aaron,” she told her nephew.
Aaron turned toward Vita and kissed his aunt’s cheek. “You know I think you’re great, Aunt Vita. But Mom expects me to lay it on thick when I talk about her,” he said with a wink. “I’ll see you both very soon,” he told the two women, then spared a final glance toward the young woman who had just been ushered into this dynamic. “And you, too, Ms. Wagner—if you decide to stay,” he deliberately added.
Nicole sighed and shook her head. “I do apologize for my son,” she told Felicia even before her son had left the house.
“No need,” Felicia assured the older woman with genuine feeling. “He’s your son and he has every right in the world to worry about your care. He doesn’t know me from Adam.”
A whimsical smile curved Nicole’s lips. “If that were the case, I’d be far more worried about him than I am now,” she told Felicia with a laugh. And then she looked at the two women who were at her side. “All right, I am only going to say this one last time—let’s eat, ladies.”
“Well, you don’t have to twist my arm,” Vita proclaimed, slipping into a seat at the kitchen table. She smiled whimsically. “The only reason I hang around here is because of the food.”
Felicia took a seat opposite Vita. Nicole sat between them at the head of the table. Felicia looked at the woman who had hired her. “You mentioned you had a catering business,” she said, changing the subject.
“Not just a catering business,” Vita proudly interjected. “Possibly the best catering business this side of Chicago.”
“She’s only saying that because when she’s not running her nursery with her husband, Rick,” Nicole told Felicia, “she’s trying to tell me how to run my business.”
“I’m just trying to give you helpful suggestions, dear. Just giving you helpful suggestions,” Vita emphasized cheerfully.
“Ha!” Nicole pretended to dismiss Vita’s claim with a laugh. “She’s ordering me around like she’s some kind of decommissioned general. You’ll find that on occasion, Vita entertains delusions of grandeur,” Nicole confided, leaning in toward Felicia.
Felicia made no comment; she merely sat back and enjoyed the semiplayful exchange between the two women. She had never managed to find anyone in her own life whom she trusted or liked enough to be able to indulge in this sort of banter. But then, she had been too consumed with attempting to hide out of the way and avoid any sort of detection. One wrong move and it would be all over for her.
Nicole and, by association, Vita were as close to women she was able to trust as she had ever come. Even so, she still kept her guard up because one never knew where and when Greg was liable to turn up. Whatever else his shortcomings might be, her ex had always been very good at charming information out of women.
There was a time a little more than five years ago, when she was still very trusting, that Greg was able to get her to admit to things that he was able to use against her, innocent though they were.
She eventually became afraid to talk because Greg was able to twist almost anything she said.
Now that she had moved here, she would have given anything to be able to relax, to take things at face value and not be constantly on her guard. But those days were gone and she knew it.
All she could do at the moment was enjoy the fact that at least she had a job and that for a little while, she was able to contribute to someone else’s well-being.
But she wasn’t fooling herself. This wasn’t going to last.
“I hope Aaron didn’t wind up spoiling your appetite,” Nicole was saying as she gave Felicia another serving of soup. “He means well, but sometimes he gets a little too heavy-handed.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” Felicia assured her. “I already told you, you’re lucky to have someone who cares about you that much. Actually, from what I gather, you have several ‘someones.’ A lot of people would give anything to be in your shoes.”
Nicole exchanged glances with her sister-in-law. It was clear to Vita that Nicole thought Felicia was among those who found themselves wishing they were in that position.
Nicole resolved to find out what Felicia’s story was and just what was behind those very sad, dark blue eyes of hers.
“I’ve decided that wh
ile you’re working to get me more fit, I am going to do my damnedest to fatten you up a little, dear,” she informed Felicia.
“I don’t think you can,” Felicia said. “I’ve always been on the thin side.”
“Much too thin if you ask me,” Nicole said with a smile.
“Leave the girl alone, Nic. She has a right to be thin. The rest of us only wish we were,” Vita told Felicia, leaning forward and putting her hand warmly over the young woman’s. She gave it a quick, affectionate squeeze.
“I just don’t want her getting sick,” Nicole protested. “How would that look? I take her into my home so she can help me get back to my former active self, and as a reward, I get her ill?”
“Among other things,” Vita told Felicia in an aside, “you might have noticed that Nicole is a worrier.”
“Speaking of worrying,” Nicole interjected, thinking of her son’s reason for not staying for lunch, “what do you think Erik is up to?”
Vita shook her head. “Thinking about that will only ruin your digestion,” she warned. “Nothing that our former husbands do would bear up to any sort of close scrutiny.”
“Most likely, it has something to do with Carin,” she guessed.
“Carin?” Felicia couldn’t help asking, looking from one woman to the other for an explanation.
“Our former mother-in-law, otherwise known as the Wicked Witch of the West,” Nicole said.
“As well as of the East and every other direction to boot,” Vita added. “Forget about her,” she told Nicole, waving her hand. She raised her glass of fruit juice high in a mock toast. “Here’s to your more than full recovery,” she declared.
Felicia followed suit, raising her own glass and more than willing to join in. “I will definitely drink to that.”
Chapter 5
Aaron was not looking forward to being in the same room with his father, much less confronting him. However, he felt that he needed to get to the bottom of what was currently going on purportedly in the name of his family. He didn’t understand why his father was suing the recently discovered other half of the family—the one that had been fathered by his grandfather Dean’s legitimate twin sons. He was painfully aware that his father and his uncle, another set of twins as it turned out, were not viewed as being in the same category.
Colton 911: Secret Defender Page 4
