Road to Recovery (8 page)

Figuring she opened the can of worms,
she would go with it. There was something about Cori that always
made Brooke drop her defenses a little bit. “It’s not what you
think. And trust me, this is way too long of a story for tonight.
But let’s say my mother and I are total opposites.”

Brooke paused, took a sip of her wine.
“My mother has never worked a day in her life. And as for
cooking—ha—that is a laugh. She’s good at planning dinner. But the
cook prepared the actual meals, or the nanny, whoever was working
that night.”

With a big sigh and another gulp of
wine, Brooke continued. “My mother spends most of her time going to
committee meetings, doing and saying all the right things. Making
sure the world sees us as the perfect little family. I think she
felt I was a doll. You know, dress me up, and pose just right,
looking and acting perfect in every situation.” For the life of
her, Brooke couldn’t explain why she confessed all that to
Cori.

“
Wow, I had no idea. I mean
I guess that makes some sense. You do seem very controlled at
times.” Brooke frowned, and Cori hastily added, “I don’t mean to
insult you. It’s just you always look so polished and put together
regardless of the situation. Except the gym. There you aren’t so
polished, but like you said, you fit in fine, too. So I guess all
those years of grooming did rub off.”

“
Yeah, well, some things are
ingrained, I guess. It’s not always a bad thing to be in control.
And I can thank her for some things.”

Brooke gazed around the room absently,
starting to feel guilty and disrespectful toward her mother. She
was raised better, so she added, “I’m not trying to make it all so
bad. My mother loved my brother and me. Her version of love, I
suppose. My brother did what was expected of him, followed my
father into medicine. Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Malone. Because when you’re
successful, it’s expected to have a nickname,” she added,
dryly.

Cori snorted, but Brooke continued on
after another healthy gulp of wine. She was in this deep, might as
well roll with it. “So anyway, back to the nickname thing. It was
good for my brother, but not me. Brooklyn Anne Malone, never
Brooke. Brooke didn’t come about until college really. When I had a
bit of freedom to be myself. But to this day I’m still Brooklyn to
my family. Well, to my parents. Mac actually is the only one in the
family who calls me Brooke, much to my parents’
disgust.”

“
But Brooklyn is an awesome
name. Was it only rebelling that made your shorten it, or was it
you wanted to be like your brother?”

Brooke stood up, picked up her plate.
“You done here, or would like some more?” At Cori’s headshake,
Brooke walked to the sink to rinse out both dishes. “I guess that
might be part of it. I never really looked at it that way. I think
it was more that I knew I couldn’t fit into that mold. I never
wanted to be that girl. Getting away, that was my chance to make
the change. Besides, my name was a bit embarrassing in
school.”

Brooke opened the
dishwasher, mused for a minute. “Most of the boys thought I was
stuck up. They never realized I wasn’t allowed to date. But anyway,
when I said I wasn’t interested in one particular boy, he started
saying things along the lines of ‘I’ve never been
in
Brooklyn before. I
wonder what it’s like
in
Brooklyn.’ Well, you know how it can snowball from
there.” She shrugged, shut the dishwasher door, walked back to the
kitchen island, and sat back down.

“
Ha, sorry, but that is
pretty funny.” Cori snorted out a laugh. “I bet you didn’t think so
at the time though. I’m sorry to say, that is something I would
have done to a classmate back in high school. Just for the hell of
it. But you don’t intimidate me. Even with that calm stare you give
to shut someone down. And that’s what those boys were, intimidated
by you.”

“
I don’t know. I still look
back and all I can think of is I couldn’t wait to get out of high
school. Away from everything and everybody that was trying to make
me into something or someone I wasn’t. And well, that is enough for
now. Trust me, I’ve moved on, no hard feelings. We all have to grow
up sometime.”

Pointing her nearly empty wine glass at
Cori now, Brooke said, “Your turn. So tell me the story of your
life, or the shortened version, if you will.” She sincerely hoped
she wouldn’t regret any of her confessions come morning.

“
Not much to tell. Though I
find it funny we have the name thing in common.” At Brooke’s blank
stare, Cori explained. “Cortland Marie. Which I have to say is
pretty stupid. My parents met in college and thought it would be
cute to name their kid after an apple.” She ended with a snarl that
she couldn’t pull off since her eyes were still wide and bright.
“Guess it makes sense with the red hair. Either way, I was just as
happy they decided to shorten it to Cori.”

Reaching over, Cori opened the lid on
the bakery box. “Not sure about you, but we might as well pump some
sugar into our veins now. Need to offset some of this
wine.”

After slicing two generous slabs and
putting them on plates, Cori said, “So, back to me. Only child,
working class parents, both teachers and gearing up for their
retirement soon. Though my parents were more...liberal I guess is
the best word. I was allowed to pretty much do what I wanted. ‘How
will you ever learn if you don’t try and either succeed or fail’
was their motto. I think I mainly failed.” She laughed at herself.
“Not much more to say. What you see is what you get with me, if you
haven’t figured that out by now,” Cori said with a
shrug.

Taking a dainty bite of the rich
chocolate dessert, Brooke prayed she wouldn’t lie in bed all night
with a sugar rush. Maybe the alcohol would counter it. “That’s what
I like about you. I’m pretty upfront and honest too, but in a
different way. You say what everyone else wishes they could, but
wouldn’t.”

Seeing that 100-watt smile light up
Cori’s face, Brooke added, “I don’t mean that in a bad way, though
you seem to think that is a good thing by the look on your face.
It’s that you have a way of saying what is on your mind, without
ruffling feathers. If I say what’s on my mind, I can almost see
them biting back from calling me a bitch.”

“
We’re different people. I
don’t know, I think I can get away with it because everyone seems
to pat me on the head. They look at me as the brainless party girl,
the one that doesn’t know any better than to keep her opinion to
herself. Besides, shocking people can be fun,” Cori added with a
bob of her head.

Cori scraped up the last bit of cake
off her plate, groaned and pushed the plate a bit further from her.
Then eyed the cake that Brooke had barely put a dent in. “The truth
is I know better, only I don’t care enough. But it helps that
people almost expect those things to come out of my mouth too.
Gives me a bit more freedom with my words.” She chuckled. “No one
seems to take me serious anyway.”

Climbing off the stool, Cori grabbed
her plate and went to the sink to rinse it off and help Brooke
clean up the few pans from dinner. “I should probably be on my way.
I’m sure you’ve got work that you need to get to.”

Brooke’s face indicated her guilt and
Cori chuckled again. “I appreciate you cooking for me. This was
fun. I would say I’d return the favor next time, but I really can’t
cook, so next time I’ll bring takeout.”

Shutting the door behind Cori a few
minutes later, Brooke thought back on the night. She said more to
Cori tonight about her family than to any of the friends she had
growing up in high school, or even college. She wasn’t sure why and
was too tired to analyze it now.

Normally a good judge of character, she
hoped the wine hadn’t clouded her judgment into saying more than
she intended.

Suddenly the combination of all the
rich food and alcohol made her yawn. Realizing that she wasn’t
going to get much work done anyway, she grabbed the remote and
started to channel surf for something interesting to take her mind
off the last twenty-four hours.

She knew she had to make a
decision soon regarding Lucas. And no matter how loose her tongue
felt tonight, or how relaxed she was, she didn’t even consider
talking about
that
with Cori.

She was pretty sure she knew what
Cori’s thoughts were on that matter, and didn’t need someone else
pushing her toward Lucas. She was doing a pretty good job of that
herself. She only hoped she could survive it a second
time.

Giving up on the TV, she clicked it
off, grabbed her e-reader and started to lose herself in one of the
latest romance novels. She’d always been a sucker for
romance.

***

Hands full with coffee and binder,
Brooke stepped into the elevator the next morning. Realizing she
had to push the button to her floor, she carefully tried to move
her coffee to the hand gripping the binder, when another hand moved
past her to take care of her problem.

Looking up to thank the helping hand,
she recognized the boyish grin and crystal clear blue eyes. Eyes
that seemed to be laughing at her. Her bag started to slip off her
shoulder and he reached for her once again in an attempt to help.
“Morning, Brooke, need some help there?”

Shrugging her shoulder in an attempt to
stop the fall of her bag, she quickly replied, “No, I’ve got it,
thanks.”

But his hand moved forward anyway, only
this time landing on top of hers holding her coffee, sending
tingling sensations up her arm from the connection. She knew he
felt her stiffen, but he continued to grin and started a gentle tug
of war with her cup, until she finally relented out of fear of
spilling the hot liquid.

Momentarily frozen, she watched Lucas
bring her cup to his mouth and take a sip.

“
Did you think of me last
night?” he asked, his eyes scanning the elevator, void of anyone
but them.

The ding of the elevator brought her
out of her stupor, and her struggling voice simply replied,
“No.”

As the elevator started to fill up, she
was forced to take a step back, bringing her closer to him. Hating
how her body involuntarily responded to him, and fearful he could
tell, she kept quiet, not wanting to draw any attention to
them.

Just as the doors were opening on their
floor, Lucas leaned forward and whispered in her ear,
“Liar.”

Then he held up her cup in a salute.
“Thanks for the coffee.” And he sauntered down the hall toward his
office, her much-needed shot of caffeine disappearing with
him.

Other people exiting the elevator
brought her out of her stupor, causing her to exit as well. Turning
on autopilot, she walked toward her office.

What the heck had happened? And there
went her coffee, which she desperately needed, thanks to another
sleepless night. Because Lucas was right, she thought of him all
night. And some of those thoughts made her restless, in more ways
than one.

She walked into her office, set the
binder on her desk, placed her bag in its designated spot, and then
headed to the conference room for her second cup of coffee of the
day. Maybe this one she would actually be able to drink.

Hours after he had stolen her coffee,
Lucas sent her a quick email.

Thanks again for the
coffee, just what I needed after another sleepless night. I’m
heading to a conference today and will be back on Friday. My
secretary knows where I am, if you need me…

P.S. Consider this your
reprieve

Lucas

Reading the email again, she got the
same feeling she did when she first received it days ago. She knew
the exact meaning behind every word. And it never failed to make
the butterflies flutter in her stomach.

It had been so long since she felt any
type of attraction to another man. She hated to even think how long
it had been since she had been touched, let alone
kissed.

Well, if she actually wanted to think
about it, she could say a month before her accident. She was coming
up on a year soon. A year was a long time to go without being held
by another person, touched, caressed or kissed. And the truth of
the matter was—she was missing it.

She was also missing Lucas,
his presence, his smile, his charm and his thoughtfulness. She
hadn’t realized how much she had come to depend on his smiling face
each day, or the little things he did that always seemed to put a
smile on
her
face.
Joking with her in the gym, winking at her when he caught her
staring at him, stopping by with a coffee in the guise of a work
issue.

He said he would be back on Friday.
Well, it was Friday. Not knowing when she would see him today, she
went about her day as normal, but remained on edge.

As she tried to focus and get work
done, that low drum of anticipation never left. She knew beyond a
doubt she would see him before the day was out. And by this time
tomorrow everything would stay the same or change completely.
Because she had some things to say first and she wasn’t sure how he
would react.