Battling the Best Man: A Harmony Falls Novel, Book 2 (Crimson Romance) (19 page)

Will, I wish we could make this work.
Her brain finally finished the sentence her mouth refused to say. It would have been a waste of breath anyway. There wasn’t a reasonable way to make it work, but Will would disagree. He thought it was reasonable for her to stay in Harmony Falls. She laughed…until she cried.

Under different circumstances maybe it would be reasonable.

Kory imagined the happy, stress-free life of being an underachiever, picked by Will Mitchell to warm his bed, keep his house, and raise his kids. The tears blurred her vision, and she willed them away. She wasn’t cut out to be that woman.

The real kicker was Will wasn’t asking her to be. He offered her jobs. He offered himself. All he asked for in return was whatever she was willing to give. And he took it all, including the darkness she never knew was there.

Her head hurt. Her heart hurt. So she rolled the windows down and drowned out thoughts with the roar of the wind. When she finally pulled into the driveway and glanced into the rearview mirror, she realized she looked every bit as awful as she felt. Worse? Her mother was waiting on the porch, rocking in the chair closest to the door, knitting piled in her lap. Kory glanced at the time on her phone. Aunt Jeanie had dropped her off an hour before the usual time.

“Is everything okay?” Kory asked as she pushed out of the truck.

Mom nodded, taking her in as she stepped onto the porch, no doubt noting her disheveled appearance. “Everything is fine with your father,” she said. “But he was worried about you and thought I should come home early.” She offered a pointed gaze, the kind that only a mother could give, the kind that said she knew there was something to worry about.

“I’m fine,” Kory said, shrugging and pushing past her into the house. If she lingered and allowed a longer conversation, the truth would come out. Not the whole truth, but enough to validate her mother’s worry.

“Where were you?” The screen door clanged behind her.

“Resigning.”

“At Will’s house?”

Kory swallowed and nodded as she bent to pet the dogs, knowing the less she said the better.

Mom was quiet for a long time. “How’d he take it?”

It seemed completely inappropriate to say he took it hard. “We’ll all be a lot better off when I’m back in Chicago,” she mumbled, because she needed it to be true.

“Well, your father’s not so sure. He’s worried you’re leaving in a rush because of what you learned.”

Maybe. But not because she couldn’t handle what she learned, because it put things into perspective. Didn’t it?

She straightened, rolled her shoulders back and attempted to breathe, but the vice around her chest returned, and she knew relief wouldn’t come easy—maybe not at all, especially not without Will.
Or distance
, the practical part of her brain rebutted.
You never had trouble like this in Chicago.

Boosted by her final thought, Kory spun around and hugged her mother. “I’m good. I promise. I’m just tired. I’ll head up to bed, get some rest and talk to Dad in the morning.”

Things always looked better in the light of day.

Will pulled open the glass door to his office building, feeling like a Mack truck ran over him in his sleep. He hoped to God Kory felt the same. She deserved to share in the misery she caused him. But a second later, he changed his mind. He wouldn’t wish walking death on anyone.

“Good morning, boss.” Georgiana smiled at him overtop her laptop screen.

He wasn’t about to tell her just how lousy his morning was. He figured she’d catch on soon enough. “Morning,” he said, snatching the daily paper off the corner of her desk. “Do you still have the list of places we advertised for a nursing home medical director?”

She blinked up at him. “I do.”

“Re-run the ads immediately.” He greeted her shocked expression with a crisp nod and strode into his office, determined to let work overtake him.

By noon, he was tired of everything. In what now passed through his life as good fortune, Lance agreed to play interim nursing home medical director until they found a replacement for Kory, but now that the home was full, Will had to pay the opportunist even more money than before.

Back in the red
, but what choice did he have? People needed jobs, and his mother was still waiting in the wings with her “for sale” sign.

Will needed a break. He glanced at the clock on the wall. His lunch hour was to consist of a meeting about Justin’s mayoral campaign, but he didn’t want to deal with his family now.

He bolted.

Leaving the building and bypassing his car in the lot, Will walked the length of sidewalk parallel to the offices, and then turned right toward town. Fresh air. Sunshine. He walked at a brisk pace around the block. Maybe then he could settle and get back to business as usual.

One block turned into two.

Nodding and smiling at people who passed, Will felt like a fraud. He wasn’t in any mood to be friendly. The fresh air and sunshine that dragged him outside with the promise of new perspective simply made him more miserable. It was too hot for a walk in a suit. But he kept going, because turning around and resigning himself to business as usual would mean facing the truth. Kory was leaving in a week, and the nursing home would likely fail without her. He wasn’t going to fare much better, and there was nothing he could do.

The farther he walked, the hotter he got until he was uncomfortable enough to look for a break from the sun. Standing on the corner of Sixth and Main streets, his choices were few: the post office, the credit union or the pub.

We’ve got a winner
, Will thought as he walked into the air-conditioned chill. Taking the nearest stool, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d sidled up to a bar in the middle of the day. In his current mental state, it seemed ridiculously appropriate.

“Hey, Willy. This is a treat. What can I get you?” Dison Nabor tossed a white towel over his broad shoulder and reached across the bar for a handshake.

“A minute to think,” Will said. A drink sounded awfully good, but which drink? A beer wasn’t going to cut it.

“You got it. Flag me down when you’re ready.”

Alone with his thoughts—again—Will stared at the bottles gleaming on the glass shelves. They held every color of the rainbow. He wondered how many bottles he could sample before he keeled over. Not that he would ever try.

His pants pocket vibrated. Probably his mother. Again. He could imagine her pacing the floor of his office, wondering where he’d run off to.

Dison walked toward him, a tumbler of piss-yellow liquid in hand. “Try this.” He set it in front of Will, and the liquid sloshed from the glass.

“What is it?” he asked, leaning in for whiff, holding his tie in place with the palm of his hand.

Dison laughed. “Fresh squeezed lemonade. Made it myself.”

Will blinked up at him. “No, seriously. What is it?”

“I am serious. Thought you might like to start light since you’re looking pretty heavy. You know if you do it in reverse, you’re asking for trouble.”

Will shook his head and lifted the glass.
Lemonade.
You’ve got to be kidding.
But he didn’t want to be rude.

When the bell above the door chimed, Will didn’t turn around.

When Dison called out, “Two Mitchells in one day,” Will didn’t have a choice.

He turned to see Justin at the same time Justin’s palm smacked against Will’s back.

“How’s it going, Dison?” Justin asked, sliding onto the stool beside Will.

“Can’t complain. How ‘bout you?”

“Newly married, remember? I can’t complain either.”

Dison’s laugh echoed through the mostly empty bar, somehow managing to make Will feel worse.

“Why are you here?” Will asked, his voice low and directed at Justin. “Aren’t you supposed to be in a campaign meeting with Mother?”

“I bailed. Alice had an emergency at the theatre.” By the look of Justin’s ridiculous smile the emergency involved little clothing.

That disgusted Will even more. “How does the candidate skip his own campaign meeting?”

“By setting his priorities. Happy wife. Happy life.” Justin laughed.

Will shook his head. He did not want to be a prick about his brother’s happiness, but in the face of his misery, it seemed cruel. “Seriously, Justin. Why are you here?”

“Well, I have people, and my people saw you walking into a bar in the middle of the day. They were concerned. I thought I should check on you.”

Will couldn’t begin to name Justin’s people. This whole damn town would be on the list. So he shrugged, sighed and looked up at the bottles again. “I’m trying to figure out what to drink, something that will either give me enough balls to get on with things, or something that will knock me out cold so I don’t have to deal with anything.”

“Difficult decision,” Justin said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw his brother hold up two fingers, and in a blink, two beers were sliding toward them.

“Start slow,” Justin said. “That way you can always change your mind.”

“I got similar advice from the keeper.” Will lifted the mug in a salute to Dison.

“Smart man,” Justin said.

They drank in silence.

Four swigs in, Will set down his mug and angled his body toward Justin. “What will you do when Alice leaves you?”

Justin crossed arms over the bar and stared at Will. “Do you know something I don’t know?”

“No, but one way or another, she’s going to. Either she’ll walk away, or they’ll wheel her away in a casket.”

“Jesus,” Justin said, throwing back his beer for a good long drink. “I see you haven’t made any progress in your mood since the wedding.”

“What? I’m being practical.”

“You’re being miserable. And let me tell you, that’s not going to help whatever has you miserable in the first place.”

“Yeah? What will?”

Justin drank again. “Enjoying life while you can. Knowing when you’ve got it good. Can it be rough? Absolutely. Can it be wonderful? It can. Beyond your wildest dreams, man, but you’ve gotta take risks to get there.”

“I don’t even recognize you, man,” Will said noticing the evaporating foam at the top of his beer. “What happened to the guy who touted familial duty before personal desire?” Will looked up. “By the way, you missed a button.” He pointed to the third button on Justin’s dress shirt, which was hidden behind his tie, but from Will’s vantage point, it was obviously missing its hole.

Justin fiddled with the fastenings, righting the wrong, and then smoothing his tie back into place. He wore a smile the entire time. Will wanted to feel that carefree.

“That guy learned that there’s more to life than pleasing powerful people who were never really going to have his back.” Justin leaned closer, glancing at the other end of the bar where Dison chatted with a waitress. “Our mother could be included on that list. Trying to please her and striving for her stark approval led me places I never wanted to be. I didn’t want a lifetime of that. I wanted more. Alice showed me more. And whether I have it for a lifetime, a decade, or a year doesn’t matter, because in the end I had it, and it’s proof I’m worth more than my last name and business acumen.”

Kory showed Will more, too, and that’s why her leaving hurt. Knowing he was more than his last name and business successes wasn’t much of a consolation prize. “Maybe I’m more like Mother than you are. Maybe I’m destined for a cold life.”

“Our mother isn’t naturally happy, but she’s not miserable by circumstance, either. She told me once there was no greater show of love to Dad than seeing his dreams through to fruition. She’s not running this business and boosting this town for the personal power and accolades. She’s doing this for him, because she loves him, because every time she walks into a meeting and sits at the head of the table, where he would’ve sat, she feels close to him. Say what you want about her warped lack of affection for us, but our mother loves our father as much, if not more, today than she did the day she married him. She just doesn’t want to live a single day without him at the forefront of her mind, otherwise she would’ve dumped this business off on us completely and totally the minute we were old enough to run it.”

Will sipped his beer, letting Justin’s words ruminate. So what did that mean for Will?

“You know the sad truth? You and I are probably replaceable,” Justin continued. “She could hire some other poor souls like she did after Dad died and we were too young to work. She could easily tell hired hands what to do. Mark, however, has job security, because nobody in his right mind would live with that woman and take care of her twenty-four hours a day.”

Sad as it was, they laughed. The levity broke up some of the heaviness tightening Will’s chest. Knowing he was replaceable probably should’ve upset him more than it did, but instead there was an odd sense of freedom that came with Justin’s revelation. All these years, Will had felt somewhat trapped by his birthright, like the decision to take over the daily operations of Mitchell Company, Inc. wasn’t his to make. Instead, he simply accepted it as his destiny, like Kory accepted Chicago as hers. Maybe they were both wrong. Maybe they had choices neither one of them was willing to make.

Will didn’t know if that made him feel better or worse.

“Fill ‘er up,” Will called to Dison, pointing to the lemonade glass.

Until he figured something out, he wasn’t going anywhere.

• • •

Kory rounded on patients slower than usual. After last night with Will, she was emotionally, mentally, and physically spent, which meant she was too raw and worn for her usual manic pace. Whatever happened between them had messed her up more than she wanted to admit. Even the bright light of day didn’t take away the restlessness that lingered.

As she wandered the halls, moving in and out of rooms, she realized something else. Her days here were numbered. She suddenly and acutely found it bittersweet.

The red light glowed over Mrs. Ryan’s door, signaling the need for an aide or nurse. In Chicago, Kory would’ve walked on by, but two months in Harmony Falls and ignoring a person in need simply because responding wasn’t in her job description seemed inhumane.