“He’s your father,” Dolores snapped, some of her cool slipping.
“I don’t have a father.” Kelley’s jaw tightened. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a shame that man is dying only because I’d like to see him rot for eternity in that prison.”
Dolores’s face seemed to whiten. “You’re a stupid girl, just like your mother was.”
Kelley clenched her free hand into a fist. “Don’t you dare talk about my mother.”
The older woman gave a sniff. “You know your father didn’t kill her and you lied about him hitting you.”
“You can leave now.” Kelley pointed toward the door. “I don’t even know why you bothered to come here.”
“You should see your father before he passes away.” Dolores’s gray eyes were like flint. “And beg his forgiveness.”
Kelley’s jaw dropped. “You’re serious? You want me to beg forgiveness from that monster who killed my mother and physically abused me?”
“Still lying, I see.” Dolores narrowed her eyes. “I thought perhaps you would feel some guilt for what you did to Isaac. You’re just as delusional as you always were.”
“Get out.” Kelley struggled to calm herself and knew she was losing the battle. “And don’t ever come back.”
Kelley grabbed the door handle with her good hand and jerked the door open. “Go,” she said, her whole body taut with anger. “Don’t bother to ever come back.
Ever.
”
Dolores raised her chin. When she stood in the doorway, she paused to look down her nose at Kelley. “You’re just as bad as your mother was.”
Kelley barely kept from slamming the door into her grandmother’s face. It took every bit of her control to not say anything and shut the door quietly but firmly behind Dolores. She turned around, looking for something to throw. Instead, she grabbed a throw pillow off the couch, buried her face against it, and screamed her fury.
When she dropped the pillow, she didn’t feel any better. No, she needed to shoot something.
That
would make her feel better. A whole hell of a lot better. She had a couple of paper targets at the shooting range with her father’s and grandmother’s names on them.
By the time the doorbell rang again, Kelley was so worked up that she was wishing she had taken a quick jog on her treadmill. The only thing that had stopped her was the pain in her shoulder.
Nikki Carlyle was on the doorstep, Kelley’s closest friend. Nikki frowned when she saw Kelley’s expression. “Are you all right?”
Kelley pinched the bridge of nose with her thumb and forefinger. She took a deep breath then let it out slowly. When she looked at her friend she managed a strained smile. “Yeah, fine. Just had an unwelcome visitor.”
Nikki was still frowning. “Want to talk about it?”
Kelley shook her head. “I might kill something or someone if I talk about it now.”
“Okay.” Nikki offered Kelley a supportive smile. Nikki was the opposite of Kelley in so many ways. Nikki was tall and dark-haired while Kelley was petite and blonde. Kelley wasn’t trusting, not very social, didn’t date much, and kept mostly to herself. Nikki, on the other hand, was sanguine, what one would call a social butterfly, and a heartbreaker on top of that. She didn’t break hearts on purpose—her ADHD personality just made it difficult for one man to keep her attention for very long.
Nikki shook back her long dark hair. “Let’s get you to your physical therapy appointment.”
With a groan, Kelley said, “The PT appointment went straight out of my mind. Let me grab my purse and my phone.” She hadn’t been cleared for driving and Nikki had insisted on getting Kelley back and forth to PT as often as she could. Nikki owned an elegant antique store on Gurley and her schedule was flexible. Kelley hadn’t wanted to impose, but Nikki had insisted, and she definitely could be persistent.
A few moments later and they were climbing into Nikki’s sporty little two-seater BMW. Her wealthy father had given it to her for her birthday—he gave Nikki all a girl could ever want and then some. She admitted to being spoiled, but she was a sweetheart and Kelley liked everything about her.
The entire trip to the physical therapy office, Nikki talked while Kelley quietly seethed over her grandmother’s visit. Nikki’s enthusiastic chatter meant that Kelley didn’t have to do much talking, and she was grateful for that.
When they reached the PT office, Nikki said, “I’m going to run a couple of errands and stop by the store. Call me when you’re ready for me to pick you up.” She got out and hurried to the passenger side of the low-slung car as Kelley tried to climb out one-handed. Grudgingly, Kelley took Nikki’s hand, allowing her friend to help her out. She scowled. She hated being helpless in any way.
Damn it, she was
not
helpless.
By the time she reached the physical therapy office, she was worked up about her grandmother’s visit, with no outlet. She was afraid she was going to blow up. She waved goodbye to Nikki and headed into the office.
“You’ll be working with Johan,” the PT director introduced her to a tall, muscular blond man who looked and sounded Swedish when he spoke. He was one gorgeous hunk of male.
“How is your day, Kelley?” Johan asked as they walked into the little gym used for physical therapy. “You look as if something is bothering you.”
Kelley gritted her teeth. “You don’t want to know.”
“Try me.” He grinned as he helped her take off her sling. “Talking with your physical therapist is like talking to a bartender. It is good.”
She shook her head. “That’s one I’ve never heard before.”
He began her therapy session by asking questions about her injury before moving her arm and finding out what she could do now and what she needed to work up to.
Two other therapists were working with clients while Johan worked with Kelley. He showed her exercises and then had her do each exercise in sets. Some of them hurt but she was determined to do everything. The sooner she got her arm back to full strength, the better.
As he worked with her, she learned that he had come from Sweden alone when he was twelve to stay with an uncle in Prescott after his parents died in small plane crash. He worked hard in school, excelled at American football, and got a full ride scholarship to Arizona State University for football after he’d graduated from high school.
His second year at ASU he’d had a career-ending injury. After having worked with physical therapists to recover from his injury, he’d decided to become a physical therapist to help people in the same situation as his—people whose dreams had been interrupted or altered thanks to a life-changing injury.
As he told her about his own background, he got Kelley to tell him a little bit about her childhood. Surprisingly, she was finding that it wasn’t hard to open up to him.
“Ten times,” he instructed her as he showed her another exercise to strengthen her shoulder. “Now why don’t you tell me?” he said once she started the exercise.
She grimaced as her shoulder ached from the movement as she did the exercise. “Tell you what?”
He met her gaze. He had kind eyes. She was an excellent judge of character, and she could tell he genuinely cared as he asked the question. “Why were you upset when you arrived?”
She thought about it for a moment. What would it hurt to tell him? He had nothing to do with her line of work and it wasn’t like she would be seeing him anywhere outside of physical therapy.
And considering she refused to see a shrink or other therapist, maybe it would help to get it out to someone who was impartial.
“Well,” she said slowly, “the grandmother from hell showed up on my doorstep today.”
“That bad?” he said.
Kelley nodded. “Worse.”
“Tell me about it,” he said as he showed her another exercise.
She sighed. “It’s a long and not so nice story.”
“Go on.”
She found herself telling him about her grandmother’s visit from the moment she arrived until Kelley made her leave, and about her father, too. Johan felt safe…and so far removed from her everyday life that it wouldn’t matter how he looked at her after telling him. He was right—it was a little like telling a bartender her woes.
As they did the exercises and she told him about her grandmother and father, he didn’t look at her with pity and she didn’t sense that he thought any differently of her than he would have when she walked in the front door, and he didn’t see her as emotionally weak. There was sympathy and understanding, yes, but not pity. He asked her questions as she told him of her past, but his questions didn’t feel intrusive.
To her surprise, after talking with Johan her heart felt lighter and she felt more able to process her anger about what had happened with her grandmother.
“Thank you for your point of view and the conversation,” she said with a smile.
“My pleasure.” He smiled at her in return. “Now let me show you a couple of relaxation exercises that will help clear your mind and help you deal with some of the chaotic thoughts and feelings you have going on inside.”
He was remarkably intuitive and had great bedside manner.
When they finished with the exercises, she was sore as Johan put his arm around her shoulders. She smiled up at him as he walked with her out to the waiting room to find Reese watching and waiting.
Chapter 4
“I will see you the day after tomorrow, same time, yes?” Johan asked.
Kelley nodded. “As long as I can get a ride, I’ll be here.”
“She’ll have a ride.” Reese stood up and moved to her side. “I’ll make sure of it.”
For some reason, Kelley felt like she needed to explain why Johan had his arm around her shoulders. She slipped out from under his hold and smiled. “Johan, this is my partner, Detective McBride.” To Reese she said, “This is Johan, my physical therapist.”
Johan grinned and held out his hand. Reese took it and gave a nod.
“I’m expecting another client soon.” Johan smiled at Kelley. “Do your exercises at home and try the meditation on your own, too.”
“I will.” She returned his smile. She already felt like they were old friends, something she rarely if ever felt with people she’d just met.
Johan turned and walked back into the physical therapy room and Kelley looked at Reese. He was so much taller than her—almost a foot over her five-two—that she had to look up at him.
She found herself frowning. “What are you doing here? Nikki is supposed to pick me up.”
Reese gave a nod toward the front entrance. “Sorry to disappoint you, but I offered to take you home when I ran into Nikki downtown. She had a little crisis at her store.”
Kelley felt a little chagrined as they walked into the late afternoon sunshine. “Not that I’m not appreciative, it’s just that I didn’t expect you.”
They reached Reese’s truck that was parked in a spot directly in front of the entrance and he unlocked the door. “I told her I was planning on coming to see you this evening anyway.”
“Oh?” Kelley let him help her up into the cab of the truck. “You were?”
“Yep,” he said before closing the passenger door and she waited for him to go around to the driver’s side.
Once he’d climbed in and settled himself into the driver’s seat, she said, “Why?”
He looked amused. “Can’t I come see my partner when she’s out of commission?”
She couldn’t help a smile at his little grin. “Of course.”
“How was PT?” he asked as he drove toward her home.
She tried to shrug but it hurt her shoulder so she said, “It was okay.”
“You don’t have to act tough.” He put on his blinker before he turned the truck turned left at an intersection. “I already know you are.”
“I’m not acting tough.” She looked out the window. Hell if she’d complain about it being painful to use her arm in the exercises. It was true that she didn’t like the perception of being weak in any way. “It was fine.”
When she glanced back at him, he was concentrating on the road. He looked like he had something on his mind.
She tilted her head to the side. “What’s up with you?”
“I hope you like tortellini.” He pulled his truck up to her house and killed the engine. He clearly was changing the subject this time. “Because that’s what you’re getting for dinner.”
“Oh, yeah?” She raised her brows.
He nodded. “That’s right.”
She shook her head as he jumped out of the truck and went around to her side to help her out. He had a chivalrous cowboy nature, but when they worked together he never tried to open a car door for her. Doing that in her line of work would have undermined her authority as a cop.
After she was out of the truck, he grabbed two big grocery bags then locked his truck and walked with her up to her front door.
She unlocked it, stepped inside, and held the door open for him. “What’s in the bags?”
“You’ll see soon enough.” He walked in and headed toward the kitchen while she shut the front door.
She followed him, curious, and he set the bags on the counter. She peered into one bag as he emptied the other. Two packages of fresh cheese and spinach tortellini, grated Parmesan cheese, a big onion, a garlic bulb, a stick of butter, fresh basil, and a small carton of half-and-half. Out of the other bag he produced a loaf of French bread, a package of pre-made salad along with tomatoes, a bottle of bleu cheese dressing, a can of chicken broth, a box of corn starch, a can of black olives, and a small chocolate cake with chocolate Ganache icing.
“You know how much I love chocolate.” She felt better just looking at all that yummy chocolate icing. “You’d already won me over even without the tortellini, but now you’re my favorite person in the universe.”
“For today.” He gave her a quick smile as he emptied the sack she’d been looking in. “I know the way to your heart, Petrova.”
It wasn’t long before water was boiling on the stove and the house was filled with the delicious smells of garlic and onion sizzling in a pan. She watched him move efficiently around the kitchen. The fact that he was missing two fingers didn’t seem to affect him, or at least he didn’t show it if it did.
As she watched him, a warm squishy sensation went through her belly that she’d never felt before with anyone. Ever. Tall and muscular, he looked so damned good, standing there in front of her stove. She studied his profile, his hard but handsome features, his well-cut and defined biceps and triceps, and the way his T-shirt molded to his impressive physique. His Wrangler jeans showed what a nice ass he had. It was hard not to love a cowboy in Wranglers.