A Merger...or Marriage?

“We’ve covered a great deal of ground. I appreciate your forthrightness and the hospital’s compliance with the municipal council’s disclosure order. You’ve been very helpful. I’ll take this information back to my superiors and we can go from there.”

Richard gritted his teeth. Until they could find a way out of it, the hospital administration had no choice but to comply with the municipal council’s strictures.

For now, city council members controlled the purse strings and they appeared eager to escape the costly hospital business that had been a drain on taxpayers for years.

Even the NHC contretemps a few weeks ago involving charges of corporate espionage hadn’t dissuaded them.

The only bright spot in the entire takeover attempt was that the municipal council seemed genuinely committed to listening to the opinion of the hospital board of directors before making a final decision to move forward with the sale of the hospital to NHC.

Right now, the board members were leaning only slightly against the sale, though he knew the slightest factor could tip that ultimate decision in either direction.

Who knows? Maybe the NHC bigwigs would take a look at the hospital’s tangled financial and personnel disclosures and decide another facility might be more lucrative.

Though he was committed to doing all he could to block the sale, Richard was nothing if not realistic. He wasn’t even the hospital’s lead attorney, he was only filling in for his partner, who had called begging the favor only an hour before the meeting.

Before he knew Anna Wilder was on board as the NHC deal-closer, he would have jumped at the chance to step up and handle the merger discussions. Seeing her at the board table with her sleek blond hair yanked ruthlessly into a bun and her brisk business suit and her painfully familiar blue eyes changed everything.

He sighed as he gathered his laptop and papers and slipped them into his briefcase. He was zipping it closed when Anna managed to surprise him yet again, as she had been doing with depressing regularity since he walked into the boardroom.

“Richard, may I speak with you for a moment?”

He checked his watch, his mind on the very important person waiting for him. “I’m afraid I’m in a hurry,” he answered.

“Please. This won’t take long.”

After a moment, he nodded tersely, doing his best to ignore the curious glances from J. D. and the NHC attorney as they both left the room.

Anna closed the door behind the two men and he was suddenly aware of the elegant shape of her fingers against the wood grain and the soft tendrils of hair escaping her pins to curl at the base of her neck.

She had changed perfumes, he noted. In college she had worn something light and flowery that had always reminded him of a sunwarmed garden. Now her scent was slightly more bold—and a hell of a lot more sexy, he had to admit. It curled through the room, tugging at his insides with subtle insistency.

She turned to face him and for an instant, he was blinded by the sheer vibrancy of her smile. “Richard, I know I didn’t say this before, but it’s really wonderful to see you again! I’ve wondered so many times how you were.”

He found that hard to believe. She had to know where he was. If she had wondered so much, she could have found out as easily as sending a simple e-mail or making a phone call.

“I’ve been fine. Busy.”

Too busy to spend time mooning over the only woman who had ever rejected him, he wanted to add, but managed to refrain.

He was an adult, after all, something he would do well to remember right about now.

“Rumor has it you got married,” she said after a moment. “Any kids? I always thought you would make a wonderful father.”

“Did you?”

She either missed the bite in his tone or she chose to ignore it.

“I did,” she answered. “You were always so great with the neighborhood children. I can remember more than a few impromptu baseball games with you right in the middle of the action. You didn’t care how old the players were or anything about their ability level. You just tried to make sure everyone had fun.”

He was trying really hard to ignore the softness in her eyes and the warmth in her voice.

She had walked away from everything he wanted to offer her, without looking back. He had a right to be a little bitter, eight years later.

“So do you have any children?” she asked. She seemed genuinely interested, much to his surprise.

“One,” he finally answered, not at all pleased with her line of questioning. He didn’t like being reminded of old, tired dreams and newer failures.

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy. He’s just turned five.”

And he would be waiting impatiently for his father to pick him up if Richard didn’t wrap things up quickly and escape.

“I do the best I can with him, especially since his mother and I aren’t together anymore. The marriage ended right after he was born. I have full custody.”

He wasn’t sure why he added that. It wasn’t something he just blurted out to people. If they hadn’t been friends so long ago, he probably would have kept the information to himself.

Shock flickered in the depth of her blue eyes. “Oh. I hadn’t heard that part. I’m so sorry, Richard.”

He shrugged. “I’m sorry she’s chosen to not be part of Ethan’s life, but I’m not sorry about the divorce. It was one of those mistakes that make themselves painfully clear minutes after it’s too late to be easily fixed.”

“That doesn’t make it hurt less, I would imagine,” she murmured softly.

“No, it doesn’t,” he answered, his voice short. He regretted saying anything at all about Ethan and especially mentioning his failed marriage that still stung.

He gripped his briefcase, desperate to escape this awkwardness, but her words stopped him before he could do anything but put his hand on the doorknob.

“Can I ask you something?”

He eased his hand away, flashing her a wry look. “You haven’t seemed to have any problem asking questions for the last two hours. You’re amazingly good at it.”

“That was different. Business. This is…not.”

For the first time since the meeting she seemed to reveal her nerves weren’t completely steel-coated. Wariness flickered in her eyes and she appeared to be gripping a file folder with inordinate force.

He ought to just push past her and get the hell out of there but he couldn’t quite bring himself to move.

Instead, he shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“I just wondered about this…hostility I’m sensing from you.”

Apparently he wasn’t as good at concealing his inner turmoil as he’d thought. “I’m sure you’re imagining things.”

“I don’t think so,” she answered, her voice pitched low. “I’m not an idiot, Richard.”

Abruptly, suddenly, he was furious with her, as angry as he’d ever been with anyone. She had no right to come back, dredging up all these feelings he had buried long ago. The rejection, the hurt, the loss.

He had thrown his heart at her feet eight years ago. The hell of it was, he couldn’t even say she had stomped on it. That might have been easier to handle, if she had shown any kind of malice.