She wasn’t the least surprised when the door opened by itself.
“Thank you,” she said and went up the stairs to her bedroom, closed the door, and locked it.
Thirty minutes later, she was in bed, wide awake. The joy of the shopping trip was gone and all she could think about were Todd’s words. What made her so deeply angry, what hurt the most, was that Todd was right. She was desperate for a family. She had been flirting with Jamie’s relatives. She hadn’t recognized it until now, but she realized that every moment since meeting them, she’d imagined being part of the big Montgomery-Taggert family.
But Todd was also wrong. She liked Jamie the best. From the first day they’d met, they’d worked together, talked and laughed as though they’d known each other forever. His injuries were the least of it. His laughter, his concern for others, all that was what she liked so very much.
As for Todd saying she’d marry any of them, that certainly wasn’t true. Adam was too remote. Hallie thought a woman would have to work too hard to really get to know him. Ian had the air of someone who would be happiest living in a tent on a mountainside. Raine…Well, there wasn’t anything wrong with Raine.
Except that he wasn’t Jamie.
As for Todd, she did not like him. How could he be Jamie’s brother? They didn’t even look alike. And the more she was around him, the less attractive he seemed.
But Hallie knew that what she thought about them wasn’t the problem. It was how they saw her.
Throughout her life, she’d always had goals. The only time she came close to giving up was when she learned that her father had allowed her college fund to be spent on Shelly’s many lessons. It had been a dreadful scene. Ruby had cried and said that when Shelly was a famous actress or singer or model she’d repay everything. “You’ll get it all back,” Ruby said, tears glistening in her once-pretty eyes.
Hallie had been devastated. As usual, her father dealt with the turmoil by getting in his car and driving away. As he went out the door, he mumbled, “Sorry, Hallie. I thought the money would be replaced by now.” She knew that Ruby had talked him into believing that Shelly was always just a day away from great success. But then Ruby knew enough to never let him attend any of Shelly’s lessons.
But Hallie had seen and heard them. Shelly couldn’t carry a tune, her acting was flat, and she was stiff in her dancing lessons. She couldn’t even master the runway walk in her modeling classes. It was Hallie’s opinion that the harder Ruby pushed, the worse Shelly did at every lesson—and furthermore, Hallie thought Shelly failed on purpose.
One time, when Hallie was driving her stepsister home from a session, she said, “If you don’t want to take all these lessons, then you should tell your mother so.”
“I guess you would do great at them, wouldn’t you?” Shelly said nastily. “Are you hiding some fabulous singing voice?”
Hallie’d just sighed. It was no use trying to talk to Shelly about anything.
On that horrible day when she’d been told that the money that had been put aside for her college tuition was gone, Hallie had gone into shock. Her dad left right away. Ruby was holding Shelly as though to shield her, her eyes daring Hallie to say something negative.
But Hallie knew that going into a rage wouldn’t put the money back in the bank. She went outside and without even thinking about what she was doing, she went across the street to the Westbrook house.
Only Braden was home. By that time he was in law school and had a girlfriend. He answered the door to Hallie but barely glanced at her.
“I’ve got something on the stove,” he said.
She followed him to the kitchen and sat down on a stool at the counter. She was too stunned to be able to speak.
Braden slid an omelet onto a plate. “I came home unexpectedly, but Mom still left for the weekend,” he said. “Looks like the honeymoon stage is over. I’m having to fend for myself. The worst thing is that I only know how to cook omelets so I’ve been eating them twice a day.” He put the plate in front of Hallie. “There. Eat it.”
“I can’t. It’s…” She was afraid to speak for fear she’d start crying. “If your mom isn’t here, I’d better go.”
“No,” he said firmly. “You and I have to eat because we need our strength for what’s coming.”
She looked at him.
“I know I’m not Mom, but you’re going to tell me every word of whatever Shelly and Ruby did to you this time.”
Hallie stared in horror. “I can’t…” she whispered.
“Can’t talk to a friend? I don’t believe that. Are you old enough to drink coffee?”
“I’m eighteen.”
“Are you?” Braden said. He had his back to her as he made a second omelet. The toaster popped up. “Could you get that? And put a lot of butter on mine. I need the energy for when I tell you what my girlfriend did to me.”
Hallie got off the stool and went to the toaster. “What did she do?”
“Nope. You first, but I bet I can top whatever you have to tell.”
“My dad let Ruby and Shelly take the college fund my grandparents set up for me. I don’t know how I’m going to pay for school.”
Braden halted with a plate in his hand and stared at her. “Hallie, that’s serious. Is all of it gone?”
“Every penny.”
“Did your dad leave?”
“So fast that he’s probably in Texas by now.”
Braden shook his head. “That’s some family you have. Come on, let’s take this into the study. We have to figure out how to get a brain like yours into school.”
She followed him down the hall and they spent hours figuring out what Hallie was going to do. Braden made calls and looked online.
In the end, Hallie didn’t get to attend the school she’d dreamed of, but she did go to college. And she did so well there that she qualified for a partial scholarship for the second year. But the summer after her first year, her father and Ruby were killed in a car accident and Hallie had to put her education on hold to take care of Shelly.
The sound of Jamie on the stairs brought her back to the present. In spite of his crutches and the brace, he made little noise. He went into his bedroom and she heard the shower running. There was a bit of quiet, then she heard him go downstairs.
A few minutes later he was again on the stairs, but his gait was hesitant. Her first thought was that he’d reinjured his knee, and her impulse was to run to him.
But she didn’t move.
When he tapped lightly on her door she didn’t respond, but then it was as though Todd’s words were screaming in her head. Playing over and over.
“Hallie?” Jamie said. “I made us some tea. It has lots of milk in it, the way we like it.”
Don’t be a coward, she told herself, then she got out of bed. She grabbed her robe from the back of the closet, put it on, and opened the door.
To her dismay, Jamie was shirtless. He had on gray sweatpants that were barely hanging on to his hips. A tiny tug on the drawstring and they’d fall to the floor. In spite of all his scars, he looked so good her heart started pounding. If Todd’s words weren’t in her head, she would have dragged him back to bed with her.
But she didn’t. Instead, she smiled pleasantly and took both mugs of tea from him. “How did you manage to get up the stairs on crutches with these in your hands?”
“Juliana and Hyacinth carried them up for me.”
She didn’t laugh, and when he took a step forward as though he meant to go into her bedroom, Hallie slipped past him to the sitting room. She sat down on the window seat, put one mug on the sill, and began sipping from the other.
She saw the frown he gave as he turned and took the other end of the seat. “Aren’t you cold like that?” she asked.
“I’m still sweating. I did two workouts today. The first one was with Todd and Raine.”
My enemy and my supposed lover, she thought but didn’t say. “I’m sorry I didn’t work on your knee today.”
“What you did this morning was the best therapy I’ve ever had.”
“I guess I’m good at my job.” She heard the underlying anger in her voice.
“Are you okay? Did something bad happen?”
“I think I’m a little homesick,” she said. “I guess being around your family makes me miss my own. My dad’s birthday is in a few days and I really miss him. He and I used to drive from Boston to Fort Lauderdale to see my grandparents. We’d spend a week at a time with them.”
“Did you?” He sounded surprised. “You never talk about your father or your stepmother, or Shelly.”
“I guess I don’t. Maybe it was because my mother had passed away, but it made my dad and me closer. He bought me my own cell phone when I was just five and he called me every day. When I got older, he included me in his work. By the time I was ten I was pretty much his secretary.”
“Isn’t that asking a lot of a child?”
“I loved it!” Hallie said. “It made me feel needed. He’d call and say someone had a question about some drug. He knew I’d have read all the info on it so I had the answer. My teachers used to laugh at the way I rattled off the scientific names of prescription drugs. There was an anti-drug campaign at my school and I was called on for advice.”
“I had no idea,” Jamie said.
He was leaning back against a cushion and he looked so very good. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. The only light was from the open door into her bedroom, and it showed the curves of his muscles. How easy it would be to put her mug down and slide forward. She knew how his skin would feel under her hands.
But, no, the words that were in her head were stronger.
He ran his hand over his bare stomach. “You know, I think I’ve lost weight too.” When Hallie didn’t remark on that, he said, “What about Ruby?”
Hallie gave a little laugh. “She was a character! She never cleaned anything, couldn’t cook, didn’t understand the concept of organization, but she was fun! If it snowed, she’d drag Shelly and me outside to build a snowman and we’d drape it with every piece of costume jewelry Ruby had. Our snow lady would have four-inch-long rhinestone earrings and a tiara.”
Jamie was looking at her in surprise. “I got the idea that things in your family were different. What about your stepsister?”
Hallie took a moment to answer. While she could sugarcoat Ruby and her father, she knew she wasn’t creative enough to gloss over Shelly. “We learned to live together,” Hallie said. “But then I always had Braden and his mother nearby, and they made it bearable.”
“Braden seems to have been a big part of your life.”
Hallie saw the way Jamie’s jaw muscles tightened at the mention of the name and she was glad of it. “Yes, he was. Whenever Shelly pulled one of her tricks on me, Braden was there to make me laugh. He’d tell me how smart I was and how people liked me so very much. He’s a truly honorable, caring man.”
“I guess you’ll be glad to see him when he gets here,” he said softly.
“I look forward to it very, very much.” When Hallie glanced at Jamie she saw what looked like pain in his eyes. If she hadn’t heard what Todd said, she would have told him that even when she was an adult, Braden always treated her as a child.
But she didn’t reassure Jamie. Instead, she waited in silence. If there was the possibility of anything permanent between them, wouldn’t he say something? Even if it was just a hint?
But Jamie said nothing.
Hallie put her empty mug on the windowsill and got up. “I need to go back to bed. Thank you for the tea. It was very thoughtful of you.”
“You said you were homesick, but the people you love are…gone. So is it Braden who you’re homesick for?”
“I guess so,” Hallie said, even though it was a lie. But letting him think that was better than Jamie believing what Todd had said—that she was desperate for his family. What a terrible word. Desperate.
She paused at her bedroom door. “I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Anything,” he said.
The look in his eyes made her want to go to him. It was a kind of emptiness that she’d seen flashes of, but it had never lasted long. Now it seemed to be there permanently. “Could you ask your family to stay away tomorrow?”
Jamie’s eyes brightened. “You want us to stay here alone, just the two of us? I’d like that too. We could—”
“No, that isn’t what I meant. All this”—she waved her hand to indicate the house—“has made me think about things. I’m a single, unattached female with good credentials. I can live anywhere in the U.S. No! In the world. So I’m going to try to get a really fabulous job in some place that’s glorious. Do you think I could get your father to write me a recommendation?”
“Yes. Everyone in my family will write letters praising you. My uncles know people who can help you find a job—if that’s what you want.” His voice had a tone of resignation to it, as though he knew he’d just lost something important.
“That’s a very kind offer, but no thanks. I’d like to be hired on my own merits, not because I know the right people. I was thinking that in a week or so you’ll have healed enough that you’ll no longer need twenty-four-hour supervision. Once you leave, I’ll be free to go and do anything. See the world.” She smiled at him as sweetly as she could manage. “I owe all of your family. You’ve made me see possibilities. Goodnight. See you tomorrow.”
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her.
Hallie went into her bedroom and shut the door behind her. As she leaned back against it, she couldn’t help the tears that came to her eyes. She’d wanted to know if there could be anything more than work between her and James Taggert, and now she knew. It looked like his little jealous fit about Braden had been just that. A male marking his territory.
It had been a spur-of-the-moment idea to apply for a job somewhere. What had she expected him to say? “No, don’t leave. Stay here and let’s get to know each other better?”
How ridiculous that was!
But as much as Todd’s words had hurt—especially about her father—Hallie also remembered what he’d said about her work. Maybe she wasn’t good enough to be part of his illustrious family, but she was good at her job. “Magic” and “brilliant” were the words Todd had used.
She got back into bed and turned out the light, but she didn’t sleep. She waited until she heard Jamie go to his own bedroom. His walk was slower, as though his leg was hurting him. Only when she heard the clink of his crutches as he dropped them did she start to settle.
“Are you happy now?” she whispered into the dark, meaning her words for the ghosts in the house. “So much for matching people up.”
She felt like crying, but then she began to feel very calm. When she’d first heard that the Tea Ladies showed themselves only to people who’d not yet found their True Loves, she’d immediately thought that hers was Braden. All she had to do was make him see that she was all grown up and he’d realize how compatible they were. They’d had a lifetime of sharing laughter and good times. They knew each other, understood each other. So why not keep on with it?
“Is that it?” she whispered. “I was getting too close to Jamie? I was forgetting Braden? Are he and I True Loves?”
She couldn’t remain awake. As she heard the swish of a silk skirt, sleep overcame her. She didn’t awaken at two A.M. and if Jamie had a nightmare, she didn’t hear it.
Chapter Eighteen
Hallie put the papers she’d printed out down on the desk and leaned back in the chair. Her shoulders were stiff from sitting in front of a computer for most of the day. When she woke up this morning she’d made a plan to be as cool as possible to Jamie. She’d be professional but nothing else. No joking, no teasing, just do her job as best she could.
Jamie had done what she asked and his family had stayed away, so all day it had been just the two of them.
In the early morning she’d worked on his knee. No full massage, but she’d manip
ulated his leg deeply. She could feel that a lot of the tension had come back into his body, but she didn’t work on it.
Only once did he refer to her near silence.
She was directing him in some gentle leg lifts and she could see by the sweat on his forehead that he was in pain. He didn’t complain. What he said was “If you want to talk, I’m here.”
In answer, she gave him a cool look but no words.
Ever since they’d met, their attention had been on him—and rightfully so. His war injuries, the skiing accident, his fears, all took precedence.
But today had been about Hallie. Whatever his personal feelings about her applying for a job were, he’d put them aside and helped her. He called people and got information. His uncle Frank had had a few good suggestions.
“The trouble is that I have so little experience in physical therapy,” Hallie said as she looked at her updated résumé. “Massage, yes, and I worked part-time at the hospital with a great teacher, but…”
“You need to include what you did for your father,” Jamie said.
“How do I put that on my résumé? Do I tell that when I was fourteen the principal called me in to ask about the drugs they’d found in an illegal search of the kids’ lockers? Kids were putting oxy in bottles labeled for allergy medicines.”
She looked at Jamie, her eyes wide.
“Think your principal would write a recommendation for you?”
“A glowing one.” She turned back to the computer. “Thanks,” she said.
All day Jamie stayed in the room and read one of his detective novels. It seemed natural to discuss with him whatever she was writing or finding on the Internet.
“What about San Francisco?” she asked. “I could apply there.”
“Beautiful city. Hard driving on the hills, but a nice place.”
“Portland sounds good. Or maybe I should go south. Maybe Arizona. Or California.”
“They’d all be lucky to have you,” he’d said and gone back to his book.
Only once did he again suggest Colorado. “My family would love it if you lived there.”