A Better Man. Emilie Rose

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СКАЧАТЬ thought the council was being considerate of Daddy by not flaunting the interview process in his face. Now I’m not so sure.”

      “It wasn’t considerate, Piper. It was underhanded. They started advertising for his position even before Lou resigned. I should have put the puzzle pieces together when Eloise Sterling canceled the lease on the tenants of her family’s home place. She only gave them thirty days to vacate.”

      “How is Daddy taking this?”

      “Not well. He immediately started predicting gloom and doom about you know who.” Ann Marie tilted her head toward Josh’s room. “Your father wants to come over and discuss our options.”

      Piper grimaced. Great. She’d have to play referee between her parents again. Any time they got together it tended to result in a verbal skirmish with Piper stuck in the middle while they took shots at each other. All because of the choices Piper had made twelve years ago. Guilt weighed on her.

      But if she’d given in to her father’s browbeating and gone through with the abortion or her mother’s pleas to give up the baby for adoption, then Piper wouldn’t have Josh, and he was the best thing that had ever happened to her. The negative result was that her decision had started a feud between her parents that hadn’t ended.

      They’d tried to keep that secret. Piper hadn’t learned until she’d returned to Quincey after her four-year exile that her pregnancy had ended her parents’ marriage. Well, not ended technically, since they were still legally married, but they lived on opposite sides of town with separate bank accounts, separate lives, and no amount of coaxing on her part had managed to get them to bury the hatchet.

      “I’ll talk to Dad.”

      “What good will that do? He’s too pigheaded to listen to any opinion except his own. But your father is right about one thing. Roth will find out about Josh.”

      Piper’s stomach churned. She should start dinner—and not just to keep her hands and mind occupied. When Josh ventured from his room he’d eat anything that didn’t run from him, and it would be better if his feast didn’t consist of six-dozen cookies.

      “Mom, we can’t undo the lies. We have our story, and we’re sticking to it.”

      “All Roth will have to do is demand a paternity test.”

      Piper had chewed off a couple of fingernails over that prospect this afternoon. “Please don’t borrow trouble. We have enough to worry about already. He didn’t want our child twelve years ago. Let’s hope that hasn’t changed.”

      Piper hoped it would be enough. Otherwise catastrophe could strike, and she could lose the most important thing in her life. Her son.

      * * *

      THE FRONT DOOR OPENED Friday as Piper was preparing to close for lunch. She looked up, expecting to see a frantic pet owner with an emergency.

      Roth Sterling filled the doorway—an entirely different kind of crisis. Even without the shoulder-length chestnut waves she’d once loved to run her fingers through there was no mistaking that rugged face, those seductive brown eyes or the mesmerizing mouth that had taught her so much about pleasure.

      A lead weight crash-landed in her stomach. The hum of the computer and the yap of the dogs in the kennel in the rear of the building faded into a whir of white noise.

      He looked the same. But different. Harder somehow, as if his youth had been chiseled away by age and experience that his spiky short hair only accentuated. His face was leaner, his cheekbones more pronounced. Shallow lines fanned from the corners of his eyes. Beneath a battered brown leather jacket his shoulders had filled out since the last time she’d seen him, held him, made love with him. Watched him walk away.

      “Hello, Piper.” Like his body, his voice had morphed into something steelier. Sexier.

      But despite all the changes, his effect on her hadn’t altered one iota. Her knees softened like butter in the sun and her breaths shortened. It took effort to force air through her vocal cords. “Hello, Roth.”

      He crossed the waiting room, a confident stride replacing his old cocky swagger. Thick thigh muscles strained the fabric of his faded jeans. He’d been lean and rangy at twenty. At thirty-two he looked sinewy and dangerous. “You’re looking good.”

      A hot flush started deep inside her, licking through her chest, up her neck and across her cheeks. She cursed the telling reaction.

      She’d checked the mirror two minutes ago when she’d washed up after their last patient. Her slipping ponytail, baggy lavender scrubs and walking shoes were nothing to brag about. But at least she’d applied makeup this morning, because she’d known that eventually she would bump into him. And most of it was still on despite doggie licks and sweat.

      “Liar.”

      His grin, as devilish and dangerous as she remembered, rocked her equilibrium. “I always call ’em like I see ’em.”

      Get a grip. Remember what he did to you?

      She straightened, trying to find her backbone and the anger that had driven her for years. Both appeared to be AWOL. “Did you need something?”

      “To say hello away from the prying eyes of Quincey.”

      “Those same prying eyes very likely tracked your path to the clinic. But thanks for stopping by. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to lock up for lunch.” She hoped her cool, unemotional tone sounded as convincing to him.

      His smile broadened. “That’s why I’m here. I came to take you to lunch.”

      Alarm erupted inside her like a Fourth of July fireworks display. She couldn’t risk a trip—or a slip—down memory lane. “I already have plans.”

      Piper reached for her keys and her knuckles bumped Josh’s school picture. One look at that photograph and Roth would know the truth. And he didn’t deserve to know. Not after what he’d done. Although he had no reason to come behind the high counter she wasn’t taking any chances. She scooted the frame behind her monitor.

      The light on the two-line phone went out, indicating Madison had ended her call. The sound of her boss’s desk drawer opening and closing filled Piper with urgency. She wanted Roth gone before Madison came out. Even though Madison had become more friend than employer over the past five years, Piper had never shared the intimate details of her history with Roth. She didn’t intend to start now.

      She circled the desk, opened the door and tipped her head to face her nemesis. She’d forgotten how tall he was.

      “Don’t let me keep you. Have a nice day.” She added a saccharine smile.

      “What? No welcome back?”

      “Did you really expect one?”

      Roth folded his arms and rocked back on his heels. “We need to talk about what happened, Piper.”

      “No, we don’t. The past is over. No need to rehash it.”

      “We left things…unsettled.”

      He had no idea what an understatement that was. Piper checked over her СКАЧАТЬ