And why couldn’t he have changed more? Maybe gotten fat, or zits, or lost his hair? Oh no. His hair shined as glossy and black as when she used to run her hands through it as he lay across her lap. There wasn’t a blemish or clogged pore to ruin his stern, dark, sexy face. For John rarely smiled. But when he did smile, his dark eyes crinkled in the corners, and his lips quirked up to the side. She’d at one time felt like she found a speck of gold in a pile of sand when she’d made John smile. Not so much the affect he had on her nowadays.
They’d both moved on in the ten years since they’d broken up. John from the college bound freshman she had known to become a successful doctor. He had flourished beyond even the normal idea of success while she had screwed up nearly everything in her life to the point that her marriage was now detrimental to her health.
Cassie sighed. She pressed a hand to her chest to calm her racing heart as she tried to tune back into the inane chatter of Nurse Bishop. She had to stop thinking about John. Her present life was too much stress at this point, let alone to be wool gathering about a love affair gone wrong from ten years ago. She had to make sure John didn’t find a way to get her fired. Because what John didn’t understand was that she had a son to protect. John thought he could scare or intimidate her away from this job. It made her want to laugh out loud. Yeah, like John’s belligerence could even touch the total dysfunction of the rest of her life.
****
John rubbed his eyes. It had been a crappy day. It was nearly eight o’clock. Time to go home.
John glanced at the small square building that housed the medical clinic. He shook his head. It still jolted him how small the building was, and how small the town around it was. None of this was anything he’d dreamed of. He’d been working at a large clinic in Portland, Oregon when he had gotten the call that had brought him to Seaclusion. His brother, Luke’s, wife had died in a car accident, so John came to Seaclusion to be with him.
At first he’d planned to stay a few weeks to console his brother. That hadn’t been enough time. He’d ended up commuting back and forth to Portland for over a year finishing up his residency. Once that was complete he’d realized he still couldn’t leave his then nearly suicidal brother. So he’d sought out Harry Everhart for a job. Luke needed him here in Seaclusion, more than he needed to be in Portland.
And to John’s surprise he’d started to like the small town that he’d never meant to settle into. The familiarity and the caring he shared with his patients helped take the sting out of not practicing medicine in a busy metropolitan hospital, as he’d once dreamed of doing. Now at twenty-eight years old, being a small town doctor felt right.
John pulled his car into the empty garage. Luke wasn’t home. He worried when his brother was out late. He worried no matter what Luke did. There had been times in the past years he’d been afraid to enter the house for fear of what he’d find. But since he’d decided to stay in Seaclusion, Luke seemed to be marginally better.
Inside the house, he took his cell from the counter where he’d left it this morning. His mother had called. He’d need to call her back. He’d also missed a call from his girlfriend, Sarah. Good. At least she could help him banish the memories of an adolescent crush gone wrong.
He threw a pizza into the microwave and blinked as the numbers hypnotically counted down the minutes. Same routine. He always got home late. Always ate a frozen, tasteless dinner. And he always wondered where his brother was. Unlike most days in Seaclusion, today he’d been jarred out of his usual by Cassie. How was it possible? How could they end up in another town working for the same clinic? Pressure built in his temples at the thought of her being there tomorrow.
So what if at eighteen he’d thought Cassie was going to be the love of his life? So what if Cassie’s sudden appearance had sent his heart racing and fists clenching? It didn’t mean anything. They had history. Bad history. Didn’t mean he’d ever forgive her. And it didn’t mean he couldn’t control how he reacted around her. Now that the initial surprise was over, he’d make it his day’s goal that she realize how much he didn’t want her there.
Still, what the hell had happened to her? Today standing in his office she’d been a faded, black and white version of the girl he’d once loved. Her hair, once blonde, was now a dirty dishwater color, and her clothes looked as if she bought them from an elderly matron’s garage sale. And yet even looking like that, her voice had sent his guts twisting in half at the sight of her.
Cassie was five years older than him, a fact that had made their long ago relationship taboo. He hadn’t cared in the least, but she’d been adamant that no one could know about them. Today however, Cassie looked ten years older than her thirty-three years. She didn’t smile. She didn’t seem to even comb her hair. The change in her looks and style was drastic and dismal.
Almost as drastic was her strange need to be a receptionist at his clinic. Why was she so desperate to keep this job? Why had she not turned and fled all on her own, at the sight of him?
He shook his head. If only he could shake out Cassie and the memories she stirred up. He grabbed the phone to call Sarah. He had to do something other than think about Cassie. Sarah answered, her sexy, low voice perking up when she recognized his. His gut started to untwist as Sarah chatted, and finally some of the stress from Cassie’s presence eased. Sarah asked to come over. John agreed, because anything was better than being alone with memories of a girl he’d spent too many years getting over.
****
John swore under his breath the next morning when he arrived at work and realized Cassie had beaten him there. She said a pleasant hello and asked if he wanted coffee as she flashed him a syrupy smile. He didn’t say a word of response, nor did he glance at her as he walked by and slammed the door to his office. He’d be damned if he’d be civil to her.
The rest of the day, he ignored her. She simply wasn’t there to him. If she spoke, he didn’t answer. If she was in a room, he left it. If she came into a room he was in, he turned and walked out no matter what he was doing. He frowned at her, scowled at her, and only spoke directly to her when he was forced to by the proximity of patients or other employees. She was barely tolerated, and he made sure she knew it.
It was a small office. The chill would get to her sooner or later.
Unfortunately, she didn’t utter a word in protest but went about her work quickly and efficiently. In reaction to his rudeness, Cassie simply avoided him.
John spent a week with her in the office and managed to almost completely avoid speaking to her. Until he looked up one afternoon and his brother was standing at Cassie’s desk.
****
“Cassie Reeves?”
Cassie turned in her chair, startled to hear her name. Her heart froze for a second, until she realized who was addressing her; Luke Tyler. He smiled at Nurse Bishop, then returned his gaze to her, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Hello Luke,” she said, smiling. “My name is Cassie Reynolds now.”
“What are you doing here?”
She straightened. “I work here.”
“Really? John didn’t mention that. I wonder why he didn’t let me know you were in town and working for him.”
Cassie opened her mouth to answer just as John come out of one of the exam rooms. He was with a young couple who were holding their infant. He smiled and nodded at them, until he noticed Luke. His gaze sharpened, and his mouth turned down. He finished speaking to the couple then came toward them.
Cassie sighed. She recognized John’s angry walk. He managed to look as if he wanted to punch the floor when he stepped.
Cassie noted with annoyance that his navy slacks were perfectly creased and that they contrasted sharply with the white of his doctor’s coat. Dammit. He looked good. As always. Even though he looked at her like he hoped she’d swallow a jug of anti-freeze, it was impossible to deny how handsome the good doctor John was.
“John, why didn’t you mention that Cassie was in town? That she was working with you, for Gods sakes?” Luke asked without preamble.
“She works for the office, not me, and I didn’t realize you’d care.” John waved goodbye to the couple and set their file on Cassie’s desk. He wrote on the folder, then clicked the pen shut and put it into his pocket, pushing the file toward Cassie without looking at her. She took it and sighed. His cold dismissal of her was painstakingly obvious.
Cassie looked up at Luke and smiled sweetly. “John’s trying to get Harry to fire me so he was hoping I wouldn’t be around long enough for anyone to actually know that I was here.”
Luke looked to his brother, brows drawn together. “Why would you do that?”
John sent Cassie a chilly look and said to his brother, “Let’s go into my office.”
“I’ll talk to you later,” Luke said to Cassie. “We should get together and catch up.”
Cassie smiled brightly, ignoring John’s angry scowl. “That would be nice.”
What would John tell him? Cassie took Luke’s cheerful demeanor toward her to mean that he knew nothing of the events of a decade ago. He would have no idea just how close she’d been to his younger brother. While she and Luke had been casual friends in high school, there had never been anything strained or important about their relationship. What Luke had never guessed was that he’d inadvertently introduced her to his younger brother, who she’d had a strained and much too important relationship with. That was of course, before she’d betrayed him.
****
“What was that about out there?” Luke asked once they were alone in the office.
“Nothing. I just don’t like old friends working for me.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’m busy. What did you want?”
“What do I want? I have to have an appointment to stop by now?”
“Not as long as you mind your own business. And don’t even think of trying to hit on her.”
John felt like a shithead when Luke flinched. Like Luke ever came onto women these days, not since his pregnant wife had died in a car wreck. John cursed under his breath. Damn Cassie. Having her around was making him be a prick to his own brother.
“I wasn’t trying to hit on her. I was trying to figure out why she worked for you and why you hadn’t mentioned it to me. So why are you so bent out of shape over my talking to her?”
“I’m not. I just don’t like her.”
“Why would you dislike her?”
“I have to get back to work.” Turning his back to his brother, John moved behind his desk.
Luke’s silence spoke volumes. Finally he said, “You do realize you’re being an asshole don’t you?”
John let out a long breath. “She’s just annoying as hell.”
“Cassie looks like hell. It took me a moment to place who she is. Any idea why she looks like that?”
“No. I don’t even know why she works here.”
A fact that stuck in John’s gut and it was damn time he found out why. It made no sense. Any of it. John glanced at his watch. Harry was gone tonight. Maybe tomorrow it was time to revisit the reason Cassie Reeves worked for them.
Chapter Two
Cassie came into work early and was surprised to see the lights on under Harry’s door and to hear the quiet murmur of voices. Two voices. As in John’s and Harry’s voices. She plunked down in her chair, frowning at the closed door. Something was up.
She was sure by the early hour, and that no one else was there, that John was using this time to try and get her fired. She tapped her fingers against her desk for several moments, before she finally pushed back her chair and stood. She was not going to let John get her fired. She straightened her back and held her head up; there was no use in letting either of them see how desperate she was. John would be sure to pounce on that. Cassie stomped over to Harry’s door and opened it before they could answer her knock.
John turned at her entrance, his mouth tightened in dismay. Harry looked up at her, his face carefully blank. Cassie shut the door behind her.
She looked directly at John. “I need this job.”
“There are dozens of other jobs out there, you don’t need this one.”
“Yes I do.” She turned to Harry. “Please Harry, you know why I need to work here.”
John glared at her. “What is so damn important about you being here?”
Harry stood up, his unexpected movements silencing Cassie’s sarcastic retort. “Here’s the thing, Cassie, John says he’ll quit if you stay. I don’t want that. So now I’m asking you to explain to him why you have to be here.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. She hadn’t expected John to take that drastic of a stance against her. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “It won’t make a difference. He’ll tell you to throw me out anyways.”
Harry looked first at her, then at John who stood with his arms crossed on the other side of the room. “Look Cassie, you both have my hands tied. I trust John with your situation more than I would anyone else. But we can’t keep working like this. You two need to talk and figure out some way to tolerate each other.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’m afraid one of you will have to leave.”
Cassie’s shoulders dropped.
Harry glanced at John. “Please hear her out.”
“Nothing she has to say is going to change my decision about her working here.”
Cassie winced. Triumph gleamed in John’s eyes. He had Harry’s permission to fire her. She couldn’t believe Harry was doing this to her. Or to Tim. Didn’t Harry care that her son needed the protection this job provided? For God sakes Harry’s own wife babysat Tim while she was at work. How could he even contemplate letting John have control over her?
Harry left the office, leaving them staring at each other in total silence. Cassie’s stomach tightened, and her breathing hitched.
This wasn’t good
. John stepped closer to her and suddenly clasped her arm, pulling her close to him. In a deadly voice he whispered, “You killed our child. How could you think I’d forget that?”
Cassie jerked her arm out of his tight grasp. Rubbing absently at where his fingers pressed into her skin she rolled her eyes. “Don’t you dare. It wasn’t like that, and you damn well know it. I had an abortion, but—“