Storybook Dad (Harlequin American Romance) (10 page)

He had to make her understand. “I have to make a better choice
for Seth. It’s my job.”

“A better choice?” she whispered through suddenly clenched
teeth. “Wait a minute. I get this now. This isn’t about finding someone better.
It’s about finding someone healthy, isn’t it? Someone who doesn’t have to take
shots, or have bruises all over her body? Someone who won’t slow you down or
embarrass you because she slurs her speech in front of your friends.”

When he didn’t respond, she scooted to the edge of the bed and
traded the sheet for the towel she’d shed on the floor. With three easy strides,
she crossed the room and pulled the pile of clothes off his dresser.

He fought back tears as he watched her march toward the door,
the sight of her retreating back making it hard to breathe. But he had to let
her go. He really had no choice. His life choices weren’t about him. Not
anymore.

Yet as she reached the doorway, he couldn’t help but call her
back one more time. For one more glimpse at the ray of sunshine that had graced
his life and his bed for one amazing evening he knew he’d never forget.

“Emily?”

Without turning to look at him, she paused there.

“Please know that the Folks Helping Folks Foundation is here to
help you in whatever way you need as this disease progresses. It’s what we do,
and we’re really very good at it. And the Longfeld donation I told you about
yesterday? That could really help you in ways you may not even be able to
realize yet.” He could hear his voice growing hoarser with each passing word,
the overwhelming sadness at losing this woman making it difficult to speak. “So,
please, give it some thought. If you decide to come on board and let us help,
I’ll assign Bob to your case—he’s the best. He’d take good care of anyone, but
if I give him a heads-up that I know you, he’ll take even better care of you. I
promise.”

Slowly she turned, her clothes clutched against her body with
trembling hands. “Let me make this crystal clear to you, Mark. I don’t want or
need Bob’s help and I most certainly don’t want or need yours, either. I am
fine, and I will continue to be fine. On my own. The way it’s supposed to
be.”

He opened his mouth to protest, but shut it as she continued,
her voice, her demeanor, taking on an icy quality.

“And just in case it’s unclear, being on my own is the way I
want
it to be.”

Chapter Ten

Emily pulled into the parking lot beside Perk It Up and
cut the engine, the only tangible remnant of her morning a dull ache above her
eyes that more than served her right. She’d been a fool giving Mark a second
thought, and an even bigger one for giving him a chance at her heart.

But it wouldn’t happen again, that was for sure.

Leaning forward, she peered into the rearview mirror for any
sign of the tears that had birthed the headache, aware of the trouble she’d be
in if Kate suspected she’d been crying. Then again, she could always pin her
red-rimmed eyes on the aches and pains that had racked her body all morning
long.

A rap on her driver’s side window made her jump.

“Would you stop checking yourself out in that mirror and get
moving, already? I’m in desperate need of my jumbo size mocha latte.
Now
.”

With a quick swipe of her hand through her hair, Emily grabbed
her purse from the passenger seat, mustered the best smile she could and met
Kate on the walkway that led to their favorite coffee shop. “Long morning?” she
joked as they headed inside for their weekly get-together that had been a
tradition since they graduated from college.

“Long night, long morning, take your pick. It’s all kind of
blending together at this point.” Kate swept her hand toward the seating area.
“Why don’t you get us a table and I’ll get our drinks. That way there won’t be
an issue finding a table. You want your usual?”

Emily considered saying no and asking for a simple glass of
water, but knew it was best just to nod. Any deviation from normal where Kate
was concerned was too risky. Especially today, when Emily was one funny look
away from screaming at the top of her lungs until the men in white suits arrived
to cart her off to some padded room somewhere.

No, her best chance of getting through the next hour was to act
as normal as possible and keep control of the conversation, steering it toward
innocuous subjects like work, Kate’s favorite reality show, Joe and the status
of Kate’s baby-making quest.

Selecting a table beside the large plate-glass window, Emily
peered out at the comings and goings of downtown Winoka. Everywhere she looked
there were couples—teenage couples, young married couples, elderly couples, and
everything in between. It was as if the only way people got from point A to
point B in this town was by holding hands and stopping every few feet to make
googly eyes at one another.

It was maddening, really. A little nauseating, even.

“You do realize I’ve been climbing the walls ever since you
left the barbecue last night, don’t you? I think I checked my cell phone close
to a hundred times before Joe finally hid it in his den somewhere.” Kate paused
beside Emily’s chair and studied the bold black initials snaking their way down
the seam of both foam cups. “Okay, here you go, this one is yours.”

Claiming the empty lattice-back stool across from her, Kate
perched on the edge and widened her eyes, waiting. “Well? What do you have to
say?”

Emily looked from her to her coffee cup and back again. “Oh,
yeah. Sorry.” With an appropriately timed cringe, she remembered her manners.
“Thanks for the coffee, Kate. I’ll pick them up next week, okay?”

Her friend shook her head and laughed. “Nice try.”

Slowly she lifted her cup to her mouth and took a sip, Kate’s
gaze never leaving her face. “What? What am I failing to say?”

A squeal from her friend took her and the rest of the patrons
in the coffee house by surprise. “I want to hear everything. And by everything,
I mean
everything
. Don’t leave anything out. Not one
single, solitary thing.”

“That last sentence was rather redundant, don’t you think?”
Emily set her cup back on the table and wrapped her hands around it. “But
really, Kate, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Pushing her own cup to the side, She leaned in. “You know, I
told Joe you were going to do this. In fact, I think I nailed your line almost
verbatim.” A pause for reflection gave way to a slow, yet self-satisfied nod.
“Actually, you know what? There’s no
almost
about
it. I got every last word with the exact same inflection and everything. Wow.
I’ve really got you down, don’t I?”

“Kate. Would you knock it off, please? I have absolutely no
earthly idea what you’re babbling—”

And then she knew.

There would be no time-killing conversation about her upcoming
fall classes, no stories starring Joe as the perfect husband, no idle chitchat
about the latest fashion trends being worn about town that day. And there would
be no graphic details about Kate’s ovulation cycle or the number of times the
happy couple did it during the primo thirty-six hour target that month.

No, the conversation had already been picked out for them hours
earlier, when she’d made the mistake of bringing a male guest to Kate and Joe’s
barbecue....

“You do realize I could sit here and give you all sorts of
grief over you having gone out to dinner with this guy and his son
days ago
and never saying a word, but I won’t. I could
also give you all sorts of grief over your failure to call and fill me in on
everything when you got home last night, but I won’t. Part of being a good
friend is patience and understanding, right? Which, technically, I gave you by
not bugging you for details until now.” Kate grabbed her cup and took a big sip,
fanning her mouth as she did. “Ow. Hot.”

“There’s nothing to tell, Kate.”

“You have pizza with a super hot guy, bring him along to my
barbecue and then forget to call me with all the deets afterward, and you expect
me to believe there’s nothing to tell? Are you nuts?”

Pushing away the image of Mark’s bare chest as it rose and fell
above her body countless times throughout the night, Emily addressed her
friend’s inquiry as quickly and succinctly as possible. “Look, I saw him and his
son at the beach when I was kayaking. I let him take Seth out in the kayak for a
few minutes, and they tipped over. Seth was fine because he had on Floaties, but
I swam in and got him nonetheless. To thank me, they took me out for pizza. No
big deal.”

“Most no-big-deals don’t look at a woman the way yours looked
at you last night,” Kate said.

Emily lifted her cup, only to set it back down as her hands
began to tremble ever so slightly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Mark
wasn’t looking at me in any special way last night.”

“Oh, no? Then I guess every single one of my friends who
commented to me about the two of you last night was imagining the same thing I
was?”

“And what was that?” she asked, exasperated.

“That your no-big-deal is more than a little hot for you.”

Hot for her.

She couldn’t help it—she laughed. It was either that or cry.
And she knew if she opted for the latter, she wouldn’t be able to stop anytime
soon. “I think you
and
your friends all need your
eyes checked.”

Kate took another sip. “It sounds to me like you’re the one who
needs your eyes checked. I mean, c’mon, Em. That guy couldn’t keep his eyes off
you. And when you talked…either to him or with one of us? He
listened
. And I mean, really
listened. As if the words coming out of your mouth were the most
fascinating things he’d ever heard.” Kate eyed her across the lid of her cup.
“Are you really going to sit there and tell me you weren’t aware of that?”

Emily pulled her hands from around her own drink and dropped
them into her lap. She’d revisited Kate’s barbecue innumerable times that
morning, reliving many of the things her friend was spouting. Of course she’d
seen the looks Mark had sent in her direction. Of course she’d been aware of the
way he listened when she spoke. And yes, she remembered every single minute of
their time together. But none of that erased the cold hard facts.

Kate released a long, dreamy sigh through pursed lips. “I mean,
Emily…really. Mark turned heads last night. Happily married heads, I might add.
And it wasn’t just because he’s good-looking. A lot of it was because of how
attentive he was to you.” A quick laugh gave way to a faraway look. “He was
gentle and kind and funny, and so helpful with everything where you were
concerned.”

Emily glanced up. “Helpful?”

“He carried your plate out to the Adirondack chairs, didn’t he?
He opened the door for you every time you went in the house, and picked up your
horseshoes after every round you played.”

Before she could fully process everything Kate was saying, her
friend continued on in a voice that had suddenly grown more hushed. “He really
seemed to care about you, Em. Like he’d do just about anything you needed him to
do, if you’d only
let
him.”

Instantly, she remembered being in his arms, the sensation of
his hands on her face so strong in her mind that she could actually feel
them.

“I mean, you’re so wrapped up in this stupid nightmare you keep
having about being a burden that you’re missing the possibility of what could
very well be right in front of your face. In an extremely attractive package, I
might add.”

“Stupid nightmare?” Emily echoed.

“Yes. A stupid nightmare. I mean, come on, Em. Don’t you
realize how silly it is to let some recurring dream keep you from the one thing
you’ve wanted since we were little?”

“I wanted lots of things when we were little,” she reminded
Kate before slipping off her stool and tossing her nearly full cup into a nearby
trash can. “And I’m living them right now.”

“Not all of them.”

“I’m living the ones I have control over.”

Kate grabbed Emily’s hands and held them tight. “No man who has
a clue what you’re worth would ever shy away from you because of the MS. It just
wouldn’t happen.”

She clenched her teeth and muttered, “Oh? You don’t think
so?”

“Of course I don’t. Joe doesn’t, either. You just need to let
the right guy see the true you—without that silly nightmare clouding the
picture. The rest will fall into place. We’re sure of it.”

Emily weighed her response as she gathered her purse in her
hands and hooked it over her shoulder, her desire to hide her hurt superceded by
a need to make things clear. “Then perhaps it’s not your eyesight that needs to
be checked, but rather, your intuition. And if you have Joe’s checked, too,
maybe you can get a discount. You know, a check-one-check-the-second-for-free
kind of thing.”

It was Kate’s turn to protest. “Why are you being so negative?
This isn’t like you.”

Closing her eyes, she counted to ten, praying for patience and
something resembling civility.

“Are you going to let your diagnosis make you shut down Bucket
List 101?” Kate challenged.

Emily opened her eyes as she hit five. “Of course not. You know
better than that.”

“Then why would you let it keep you from finding someone
special? That makes absolutely no sense to me, Em!”

“Then let me spell it out for you, Kate. Living my dream with
Bucket List 101 affects me and me only.”

“That’s not true. What about Trish?”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Trish is nineteen. She’ll be married in
a few years. And once she and Tommy have kids, she won’t be working anymore. But
if I build a life with another person, this illness will affect him at some
point, too.
That
isn’t fair.”

“And you think a guy like Mark couldn’t handle your MS?”

“I don’t
think,
Kate. I
know
.” She saw the way her friend jumped back at the
anger in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. She’d had enough. Her head had
come out of the clouds the second the neurologist had walked into her hospital
room and uttered her diagnosis six months earlier. It was time for Kate’s head
to come out of the clouds now, too. “So Mr. No-Big-Deal can find someone else to
open doors for, and carry plates for, and pretend to listen to as if she’s the
only woman on the face of the earth.”

Emily’s breath hitched as the tears she’d vowed she wouldn’t
cry in front of her friend began to form in the corners of her eyes. “I just
hope, for her sake, she has a super strong immune system, capable of
withstanding the common cold and flu. Because if she doesn’t, she’ll surely be
getting the Mark Reynolds seal of disapproval where it comes to him and his
son.”

Kate’s gasp netted more than a few curious looks in their
direction. “Emily! You can’t truly believe that.”

“Oh, no? Hmm. Do you know why I didn’t call you last night when
I got home from your barbecue?”

“No…”

“Well, here are some deets for you, Kate. I didn’t phone
because I didn’t go home after the barbecue.”

Emily lowered her voice, abruptly aware of the hush at several
neighboring tables. “I took Mark to the office and taught him how to climb. We
laughed, we joked, we had a great time. And then, when we were done climbing, I
went home with him…and we slept together. When we woke up, I shared a few of my
realities with him, only to have him essentially toss me out of his bed
and
his life. So don’t you dare sit there and tell me
I can’t believe what I just said, because I can and I do.”

Stopping for a much-needed breath, she steadied her voice and
her emotions until she could finally escape to the privacy of her car. “But no
worries, Kate, I’m fine. I’d much rather live my life in a way that fits
me
. Besides, for what it’s worth, the days of wanting
that fairy tale prince—from that silly picture I drew at your kitchen table a
lifetime ago—to sweep me off my feet are long gone. And you know what? I’m okay
with that. A-okay, as a matter of fact.”

A flash of pain skittered across Kate’s face. “But—”

“Because when it comes right down to it, I’d much rather walk
on my own two feet than count on anyone else, anyway. It’s the surest way I know
to get where I’m going, don’t you think?”