A Merger...or Marriage?

Still, she couldn’t deny she found great comfort from Richard’s calm presence as they headed for the elevator. She always had, she remembered now. He had been a source of strength and comfort through high school and college—the one she always turned to for advice, for counsel, for encouragement.

And more.

She pushed the memories away, refusing to dwell on them. She couldn’t think about them right now, when he was only a few feet away looking blond and dangerously gorgeous.

They paused at the elevator to wait for a car and stood in silence, watching the numbers rise. She was just about to ask him about his other clients when she heard a commotion down the hall.

“Hold the elevator. The trauma lift isn’t working.”

Anna sucked in her breath as the familiar voice rang through the hallway. Her insides knotted with dread but she had no choice but to turn her head.

She wasn’t at all surprised to see her sister working an oxygen pump as a team of medical personnel pushed a gurney down the hall. Anna had a quick impression that the patient was a middle-aged woman with her face covered in blood.

Ella faltered for just a moment when she saw Anna but she didn’t break her stride. “Have the ER hold trauma room one,” she told a nurse running beside them. “And alert the surgical team that we’ve got a femoral compound fracture and possible head trauma.”

She snapped out other commands firmly in a crisp, focused tone that reminded Anna painfully of their father, leaving no doubt exactly who was in charge of the situation.

She had never seen her sister in a professional capacity, Anna realized, as a mixture of pride and awe washed through her.

She always knew Ella would kick butt as a doctor. Seeing her in action was all the confirmation she needed. Ella was cool, composed and completely in control—all the things Anna couldn’t quite manage during her single year of med school.

Anna and Richard stepped aside to allow the team access to the elevator. Just before the doors slid closed, Anna’s gaze met her sister’s for only a millisecond.

Everything on the periphery seemed to fade, and for a moment Anna was ten years old again, snuggling in her sleeping bag in a tent in their big backyard next to her sister and best friend while the stars popped out, sharing secrets and popcorn and dreams.

Oh, Ella. I miss you so much, she wanted to whisper, but she could never say the words tangled in her throat, and in an instant, the doors closed and the moment was gone.

She fought back tears, praying her emotions wouldn’t betray her in front of Richard.

“Wow,” he said after a moment. “Hurricane Ella, as usual.”

“Right.” She didn’t trust herself to say more than that as a thousand different regrets pinched at her.

Their rift was largely her fault, one that had been widening for eight years since she left Walnut River, and it had become an unbreachable chasm these days.

If she had told Ella and their brothers about her job with NHC, her involvement in the merger might not have come as such a shock to the other Wilders. Instead, for two long years she had chosen the coward’s way, avoiding their questions when they asked about her work, offering them half-truths and evasions.

She had suspected exactly how they would react. She supposed that was the reason she had deceived them for so long.

“Not a good time for sisterly conversation, obviously.”

She wrenched her mind away from her guilt to Richard, who was watching her with entirely too much perception in his blue eyes.

She forced a smile past her aching heart. “Ella runs a mile a minute. She always has. When we were kids, she was always on the go. You remember what she was like.”

“I do. There was never a quiet moment with the two Wilder girls around.”

She forced another smile, though she had a feeling it was probably as transparent as it felt. She could only hope he didn’t see the hurt washing through her in fierce waves.

“You never asked your question,” he said.

She blinked at him. “Sorry. What question was that?”

“I don’t know. You said you wanted to ask me something and then we were sidetracked.”

She frowned, replaying their conversation of the past few minutes in her mind. Suddenly she remembered the direction of her thoughts and she could feel herself flush.

If not for the encounter with Ella, she might have made some laughing remark and changed the subject. But her emotions were too raw for equivocation and for some strange reason she decided to be blunt.

“I did ask you, but you didn’t give me a straight answer. I’m just wondering if it’s business or personal.”

“What?”

“The…hostility. Coolness, antipathy, whatever you want to call it. I’m just wondering if you’re angry because I work for NHC or if there’s something else behind it.”

A strange light flickered in his eyes for just an instant before his handsome features became a mask once more. He opened his mouth but before he could say anything, the elevator arrived.

Only after they stepped inside and he pushed the button to return to the main floor did he turn to answer her.

“I suppose a little of both,” he said. “We were friends. You said it yourself. And for one night, we were far more than that. I guess I’m trying to figure out how a woman I considered a friend could turn her back on her family and this town.”

I didn’t, she wanted to cry. But she was already so tired of defending herself and her choices to everyone in Walnut River. Didn’t anyone think it was possible—just maybe—that she might have the community’s best interests at heart?

Richard certainly didn’t. She could see the censure in his eyes. She couldn’t argue with him. That was the hell of it. He had the right to his opinions and she suspected nothing she said would convince him her motives were anything other than crass profit.

The elevator arrived at the main floor and the doors sprang open. He walked with her through the lobby, past the censorious eyes and out of the hospital.

She wanted to thank him for providing a buffer, but she couldn’t figure out just how to put the words together.

“I’m parked over there,” he pointed.

“Oh. I’m on the other side. I guess I’ll see you around, then.”

“Probably not. I was only filling in temporarily today in the meeting. My partner is usually the one at our firm who represents the hospital. He should be back on the job tomorrow.”

She should be relieved, she told herself. The prospect of spending more time with this prickly, distant Richard who had once been so very dear to her was not appealing.

“Well, in that case, it was…good to see you today.”

“Right,” he answered.

She walked to her car, wondering why she felt worse leaving the hospital than she had going in.

Chapter Three

Twenty minutes later, Anna walked into her duplex apartment and was instantly assaulted by a miniature dynamo.

Her dark mood instantly lifted as if dozens of sunbeams had followed her home.