Road to Recovery (31 page)

A few steps before the door, she heard
Cori’s voice on the other side. “Open up, Brooke. I know you’re in
there.”

Rushing forward in fear that Cori would
start shouting and wake the neighbors, she yanked the door
open.

“
Wow, you look like hell,”
Cori stated. Brooke stood in loose-fitting pajama pants that hung
lower than normal, thanks to her recent weight loss, and a tank top
that didn’t quite cover her stomach. Her hair was falling out of a
haphazard ponytail. Her eyes, which were swollen and red, indicated
the tears shed throughout the night.

“
Good morning to you, too,”
Brooke replied dryly. She stepped aside to let Cori in. “Let me
guess—Mac sent you.”

“
Nope, though he did send me
a text last night asking if I had heard from you. I told him you
were with Lucas and to try his phone. I didn’t think anything of it
until an hour ago when my phone went off and it was Lucas asking if
I’d talked to you. That got me nervous.” She followed Brooke into
the kitchen and groaned with relief when she saw her powering on
the one-cup coffee machine.

Cori sat down at the island. “Anyway, I
replied back to him that I hadn’t spoken to you and asked why. Of
course he wouldn’t tell me anything. No amount of nagging via text
was going to make him give up any information. Thanks,” she replied
when Brooke handed her a full cup of coffee.

Brooke started her own cup while she
watched Cori add her normal five spoons of sugar and then creamer.
“No, Lucas wouldn’t tell you anything. He’s loyal that
way.”

Cori’s snort told her that she didn’t
appreciate that quality of Lucas’s. “Well, I finally fall back to
sleep and my phone beeps again. And it’s Lucas.” She dug her phone
out of her pocket and shoved it under Brooke’s nose. “Here, read it
yourself.”

Brooke pushed the phone down
a bit so she could focus on the words.
I
need a big favor, Cori. Please go check on Brooke this morning.
Don’t ask any questions. Just go see if she is okay. And tell her I
won’t give up on her. Ever.

Brooke didn’t think she had any more
tears left to shed, but she was wrong. They started to fill in her
eyes.

Cori looked on in shock. “Please tell
me what is going on,” she begged.

Brooke blinked the tears out of her
eyes, shook her head wordlessly and walked back into her living
room, leaving Cori to follow. Slowly lowering her achy body onto
the couch, she placed her elbows on her knees and her head in her
hands. “I ruined everything,” Brooke murmured.

“
What is going on?” Cori
asked again, her voice rising higher than normal. No answer came
forth. After a minute of silence Cori said, “Fine, don’t tell me.
But go fix it then.”

Cori’s words finally registered,
causing Brooke to look up and ask, “How?”

“
How do I know?” Cori threw
her hands in the air. “I don’t even know what’s going
on.”

Suddenly Brooke realized
she
had
to fix it,
no matter what. She caused this mess, so it was up to her to fix
it. With more determination than ever before, she stood up and
walked to the door to get her keys. “You’re right, it’s up to me. I
need to go to him for once. I need to take the step.”

Cori rushed after her. “Wait!” She
grabbed Brooke’s arm. “Have you seen yourself this morning? Don’t
you even want to take a shower, or at least change your clothes?
Comb your hair—something?”

Brooke brushed Cori’s hand off, shook
her head. “No time. It has to be now.” She slipped her feet into
her flip-flops by the door, not caring what she looked like, and
walked out calling over her shoulder, “Lock up for me.”

***

Lucas stood on his deck staring at the
water, but not really seeing. He didn’t know how long he stood
there. The time blurred together.

He needed to know Brooke was okay, but
he didn’t dare call Cori again. He knew she would follow through
for him. Cori was good that way.

It was up to Brooke to
decide what to do. As much as he wanted to rush over this
morning—especially after Mac contacted him last night to say Brooke
wasn’t responding—he couldn’t continue to be the one to always take
the first step. At some point she needed to do it. They would never
be able to make it work if he always had to push her to do things.
She needed to do it on her own, needed to make her own decisions.
Her whole life was all about someone else making her decisions. He
wouldn’t do that to her. He
couldn’t
do that to her.

With a ragged breath, he lowered his
head, closed his eyes and began to wish with everything he had that
she would come to him.

He didn’t know if it was his wishful
thinking, or voices in his head, but he swore he heard her call his
name.

“
Lucas?” he heard again—and
realized it wasn’t in his head.

***

Brooke made the drive to Lucas’s in a
haze. She still had no idea what she was going to say when she got
there. She couldn’t even think of that right now. For once in her
life, she wasn’t going to overthink something. She wasn’t going to
plan it all out. She was going to go with her gut and see where it
took her.

Parking in the driveway, she saw the
garage door was shut. The clock on the dashboard read 9:00 a.m. and
she wondered how fast she actually drove, since she made it here in
record time. She took a deep breath and pulled the visor down in
the car to look at herself, then cringed at the image looking back
at her. Cori was right. She looked like hell.

With her limited resources, the best
she could do was to fix her ponytail. Then she noticed she was
still in her tank top and pajama pants, wasn’t even wearing a bra.
She didn’t know if she had ever in her life left the house without
proper undergarments on.

Shoving embarrassment about her
clothing aside, she climbed out of the car and made a split second
decision to walk around to the back of the house. She hoped the
view of the lake would calm her like it normally did.

As she neared the deck she saw Lucas
standing there with his shoulders slumped and head bowed, almost in
prayer. When she heard his ragged sigh, she called his name without
thought. When he didn’t respond, she walked closer and called it a
bit louder. He whipped his head around that time and pinned her
with a stare. Not moving an inch.

She knew in her heart he wasn’t going
to come to her. She had to make her way to him.

Her eyes locked on his while she walked
around to the stairs that led to the deck, led her right to Lucas.
She didn’t stop until she was standing right in front of
him.

Without a word she reached out and ran
her hand down his unshaven cheek, loved the contrast of the
rough-looking side of him, mixed with the charming side that she
fell in love with.

She said the only thing that came to
mind, what she had known all along but refused to acknowledge until
last night—when she thought she threw it all away. “You didn’t give
up on me.”

He pulled her close and wrapped his
arms around her. “Never,” he whispered into her hair.
“Ever.”

With her head on his chest, his heart
beating under her ear, she finally said what she had been holding
back all along. “I love you.”

Releasing the breath he had been
holding, he replied, “I know.”

She snorted out a laugh. “You aren’t
supposed to gloat.”

“
No? What am I supposed to
do then?” he asked with a grin.

“
You’re supposed to say it
back to me,” she said in all seriousness.

He lifted her off the ground in a huge
hug that caused her to laugh. Then set her back down, framed her
face in both of his hands, placed a kiss on her lips, his pale blue
eyes drilling into her whiskey-colored ones, then said, “I. Love.
You.” Punctuating each word with a kiss on the lips.

Three months later, December
12th

Brooke was finishing up dinner
preparations. Lucas would be over any minute and she wanted tonight
to be special.

The last few months had been the best
of her life and she had him to thank for it. She finally let go of
all her pain and anger and she felt lighter. She smiled more, she
laughed more, and she loved more.

She still was as logical and practical
as ever, still organized everything just right, and maintained all
her lists. Some habits were too hard to break. Besides, just
because she was happier, didn’t mean she didn’t like everything in
an orderly manner. It all seemed different though,
carefree.

She even made progress with her father.
After the weekend of her birthday months ago, Lucas urged her to
take the step with him too. She was finding that her father had as
many regrets about her upbringing as she did. And he was trying his
best to make it up to her.

Her mother on the other hand hadn’t
changed, and most likely never would. But at least she knew she had
her father in her corner. And Mac. Always Mac.

Spreading the last of the cheese on her
lasagna dish, she opened the oven and slid it in. She was putting a
salad together when the front door opened. Lucas walked in holding
a bottle of wine in his hands. He set it down and leaned in for
quick hello kiss. “Sorry I’m late. Mike stopped me as I was
leaving.”

Brooke frowned. “What
did
Dr. Lester
want
this time?”

Lucas chuckled. “Guess Mike was a
little behind on the hospital gossip. He wanted to apologize to
me.”

She raised her eyebrow, but he smiled.
“For what?” She could only imagine. Mike wasn’t her favorite
person.

“
Nothing important,” he
assured her. “A momentary lapse in judgment on his part when
speaking about an employee a few months ago.”

“
Oh really?” She decided she
didn’t want to know. “Well, he’s a smooth talker. Guess he decided
he needs you on his side for the next time he has a momentary lapse
in judgment and needs legal advice.”

“
Hmmm.” He turned and pulled
her close, gave her a hug. “Something smells good.”

“
That’s dinner,” she
explained, letting him have his way with the subject
change.

“
No, it’s you,” he
clarified, then reached in the drawer to get the wine
opener.

“
Here, let me pour that. You
sit down. It’s your birthday. Relax, and let me wait on you.” She
loved looking at him, sitting there in her kitchen looking sexy as
ever in his tailored suit. He had loosened his tie and his hair was
windblown, just the way she liked it.

“
You’re staring at me. Do I
have something on my face?” he asked, reminding her of their first
encounter in the elevator.

“
No. Just like looking at
you,” she replied with a grin. “Dinner should be ready in about
twenty minutes. So, you never told me what you wanted for your
birthday.”

“
I already got what I wanted
for my birthday.” He leaned over and kissed her again.

“
You did?”

“
Yep,” he answered with his
famous grin.

“
Well, what is it?” she
asked, confused.

He got off the stool, reached in his
pocket and pulled out a ring box. Flipping the lid back, he looked
into her eyes. “You.”

Her breath was coming fast, her eyes
filled with tears. She had cried more in the last few months than
she had in her entire life.

He took the two-carat solitaire ring
set in platinum out of the box. Just her style, simple and classy.
Lifting her shaky hand, he slid the ring onto her finger. “I should
ask you, but I’m not going to, because I always get what I want on
my birthday. Always.” He smiled brightly, his own eyes shimmering
with tears.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she
kissed him softly and whispered against his lips, “Yes, you
do.”

Road to Redemption
—Book 2— buy
here
on Amazon

Relocating to Albany, New York, after
the death of his wife, Dr. Jack Reynolds has decided he is better
off alone. No worries, no headaches, no stress. The last thing he
needs is the complication of a tiny redheaded nurse who has her
sights set on making him see that life isn’t meant to be
lonely.

Cori Summers thinks life is a bowl of
cherries––covered in chocolate, that is. She’s fast moving, witty
and the life of the party. Why can’t everyone smile throughout the
day, just like her? Life is easier that way. No worries, no
headaches and no stress.

Yes, opposites really
do
attract, but is Cori’s
big personality enough to overcome all the obstacles that Jack is
determined to put in her way?

Road to Reality
—Book 3 Buy
here
on Amazon