LITMIR.BIZ

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she had been doing with depressing regularity since he walked into the boardroom.

      “Richard, may I speak with you for a moment?”

      He checked his watch, his mind on the very important person waiting for him. “I’m afraid I’m in a hurry,” he answered.

      “Please. This won’t take long.”

      After a moment, he nodded tersely, doing his best to ignore the curious glances from J. D. and the NHC attorney as they both left the room.

      Anna closed the door behind the two men and he was suddenly aware of the elegant shape of her fingers against the wood grain and the soft tendrils of hair escaping her pins to curl at the base of her neck.

      She had changed perfumes, he noted. In college she had worn something light and flowery that had always reminded him of a sunwarmed garden. Now her scent was slightly more bold—and a hell of a lot more sexy, he had to admit. It curled through the room, tugging at his insides with subtle insistency.

      She turned to face him and for an instant, he was blinded by the sheer vibrancy of her smile. “Richard, I know I didn’t say this before, but it’s really wonderful to see you again! I’ve wondered so many times how you were.”

      He found that hard to believe. She had to know where he was. If she had wondered so much, she could have found out as easily as sending a simple e-mail or making a phone call.

      “I’ve been fine. Busy.”

      Too busy to spend time mooning over the only woman who had ever rejected him, he wanted to add, but managed to refrain.

      He was an adult, after all, something he would do well to remember right about now.

      “Rumor has it you got married,” she said after a moment. “Any kids? I always thought you would make a wonderful father.”

      “Did you?”

      She either missed the bite in his tone or she chose to ignore it.

      “I did,” she answered. “You were always so great with the neighborhood children. I can remember more than a few impromptu baseball games with you right in the middle of the action. You didn’t care how old the players were or anything about their ability level. You just tried to make sure everyone had fun.”

      He was trying really hard to ignore the softness in her eyes and the warmth in her voice.

      She had walked away from everything he wanted to offer her, without looking back. He had a right to be a little bitter, eight years later.

      “So do you have any children?” she asked. She seemed genuinely interested, much to his surprise.

      “One,” he finally answered, not at all pleased with her line of questioning. He didn’t like being reminded of old, tired dreams and newer failures.

      “Boy or girl?”

      “Boy. He’s just turned five.”

      And he would be waiting impatiently for his father to pick him up if Richard didn’t wrap things up quickly and escape.

      “I do the best I can with him, especially since his mother and I aren’t together anymore. The marriage ended right after he was born. I have full custody.”

      He wasn’t sure why he added that. It wasn’t something he just blurted out to people. If they hadn’t been friends so long ago, he probably would have kept the information to himself.

      Shock flickered in the depth of her blue eyes. “Oh. I hadn’t heard that part. I’m so sorry, Richard.”

      He shrugged. “I’m sorry she’s chosen to not be part of Ethan’s life, but I’m not sorry about the divorce. It was one of those mistakes that make themselves painfully clear minutes after it’s too late to be easily fixed.”

      “That doesn’t make it hurt less, I would imagine,” she murmured softly.

      “No, it doesn’t,” he answered, his voice short. He regretted saying anything at all about Ethan and especially mentioning his failed marriage that still stung.

      He gripped his briefcase, desperate to escape this awkwardness, but her words stopped him before he could do anything but put his hand on the doorknob.

      “Can I ask you something?”

      He eased his hand away, flashing her a wry look. “You haven’t seemed to have any problem asking questions for the last two hours. You’re amazingly good at it.”

      “That was different. Business. This is…not.”

      For the first time since the meeting she seemed to reveal her nerves weren’t completely steel-coated. Wariness flickered in her eyes and she appeared to be gripping a file folder with inordinate force.

      He ought to just push past her and get the hell out of there but he couldn’t quite bring himself to move.

      Instead, he shrugged. “Go ahead.”

      “I just wondered about this…hostility I’m sensing from you.”

      Apparently he wasn’t as good at concealing his inner turmoil as he’d thought. “I’m sure you’re imagining things.”

      “I don’t think so,” she answered, her voice pitched low. “I’m not an idiot, Richard.”

      Abruptly, suddenly, he was furious with her, as angry as he’d ever been with anyone. She had no right to come back, dredging up all these feelings he had buried long ago. The rejection, the hurt, the loss.

      He had thrown his heart at her feet eight years ago. The hell of it was, he couldn’t even say she had stomped on it. That might have been easier to handle, if she had shown any kind of malice.

      But he supposed that would have been too much bother for her and would have required her to care a little. Instead, she had politely walked around it on her way out the door.

      And then she dared to stand here now and ask him why he wasn’t thrilled to see her!

      This wasn’t personal, he reminded himself. Or if some part of him couldn’t help making it so, he shouldn’t let everything between them become about their shared past. He couldn’t afford it, not in his temporary role as hospital counsel.

      “Why would I be hostile?” he said instead. “You’re only the point man—or woman, I guess—for a company trying to destroy this hospital and this community.”

      She blinked a little at his frontal assault, but it only took her seconds to recover. “Not true. I would have thought as an attorney you could look at this with a little more objectivity than…” Her voice trailed off.

      “Than who? Your family?”

      She sighed. “Yes. They won’t listen to reason. Peter and David think I’ve betrayed the family name and Ella…well, Ella’s not speaking to me at all.”

      He didn’t expect the sympathy that suddenly tugged at him, fast on the heels of his own anger. Her family had always been important to her. Sometimes he thought she placed too much importance on their opinions. She had always seemed painfully aware that she was adopted and struggled hard to find a place for herself among the medicine-mad Wilders.

      As a single child himself, he could only imagine what she must be feeling now—alienated by her siblings and bearing the brunt of their anger over her role in the NHC takeover attempt.

      On the other hand, he instinctively sided with her siblings in this situation, not Anna.

      He pushed away the wholly inappropriate urge to offer her comfort. “How did you expect them to react, Anna? This hospital is in their blood. Your family is basically the heart of Walnut River General. Everyone here knows that. And the soul, the essence, of this place is the sense of community—neighbors reaching out to help neighbors. That’s what has made this hospital such an integral component to the quality of life in Walnut River. No one likes to go to the hospital,

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