For Everly

“I feel like I should be insulted on behalf of girls everywhere,” she said, taking the hat and getting to her feet. “Yet I just want to kiss you. And Margaret.”

  He also rose and stopped her before she could walk into the bathroom to use the mirror. His mouth brushed against hers. Once. Twice. Her breath left her in a sigh. He quickly took advantage of her parted lips, deepening the kiss. When her knees weakened, he held her more tightly against him.

  A throat clearing interrupted them. Everly blinked several times as Cole parted from her and looked to the open door.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Wyatt said. “The wheelchair is here.”

  Everly’s brain was slow to snap into focus. “Wheelchair?”

  “Hospital policy,” Wyatt explained with a grin. “Wouldn’t want you collapsing on the way to the car and filing a lawsuit.”

  “Oh.” Realizing she was still clinging to Cole, she let go of him. “I was just, um, putting on my hat.”

  “Is that right?” Wyatt drawled. “Sure as hell looked like you were kissing my brother.”

  Her face felt scorched. She realized that she wasn’t even holding the hat anymore. Cole bent down and retrieved it from the ground. When he handed it to her, she walked over to the bathroom with all of the dignity she could muster. Wyatt laughed when she passed him while holding the hat up to cover her face in an exaggerated display of embarrassment.

  “How bad is it?” Cole asked behind her as she put the hat on. It was really cute, she thought with a smile, and it did hide most of the bandage.

  “Bad,” Wyatt answered, catching her attention. She turned and looked at him. What were they talking about? “I’d say most news sources and a lot of less reputable ones, too. Fortunately, I know more ways out of this hospital than they do.”

  Cole nodded. “Thanks.” Then he caught her gaze. “Ready to go, Wheels?”

  “Absolutely.”

  He picked up her backpack, which contained her prescriptions, medication, and aftercare paperwork, and moved forward to take her left arm. She didn’t feel like she needed the extra support, but wasn’t about to pull away from his touch. The wheelchair and an orderly awaited her just outside the door.

  “Hi, Ms. Wallace,” the orderly said. “I’m Brian. I’ll be your navigator today.”

  She laughed and sat obediently in the chair, taking care not to jar her injuries. “Just try to avoid walls and stairwells, Brian, and I think we’ll get along just fine.”

  “You got it.”

  Only when the wheelchair turned to the right did Everly see the two police officers standing on the other side of a set of doors with glass windows in them. They glanced briefly her way, then turned back to the hallway beyond the doors. Finally, her brain connected Wyatt and Cole’s conversation with the added security.

  The paparazzi had picked up on the story.

  Once again, she considered what her role in Cole’s life might do to his career. He’d opted to work with her in the first place to avoid negative publicity. Granted, he hadn’t wanted anyone knowing about his injury, but wasn’t this even worse? She could read the headline now: Atlanta Pitcher’s Girlfriend Stalked and Attacked.

  What if the team decided that they didn’t want one of their players involved in something like this, regardless of his innocence?

  What if the press dug into her background and brought everything back up?

  She was so busy fretting that she didn’t notice where they were going until they were walking through a part of the hospital with unfinished walls and bare florescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. It was like the setting for a slasher film, she thought with a shudder.

  “Jesus, Wyatt,” Cole said. “Where the hell are you taking us?”

  “Away from the press,” Wyatt replied. “Rowan pulled my car around back.”

  Sure enough, they emerged from yet another set of double doors a minute later and saw Rowan behind the wheel of Wyatt’s Infinity. He got out when he saw them approaching and opened the front passenger side door.

  “Curbside service,” he said as the orderly locked the wheels of the wheelchair and Everly got to her feet.

  She smiled. “Thanks.”

  “You’ll have to let her sit next to Cole,” Wyatt said, walking to his car and opening the rear passenger door instead. “I don’t want to listen to his whining the entire drive home.”

  She glanced at Cole, who shrugged. “He’s right.”

  That made her laugh. She let Cole help her into the car, then got herself buckled in as everyone else took their seats. Before long, they were on the road. She listened as Rowan, Wyatt, and Cole filled the car with banal chatter. Cole held her left hand, entwining his fingers with hers. It fully sank in that his interest in her was far more than a pretense to protect his career. The realization was enough to have her battling a combination of joy and innate fear.

  Could her heart handle this?

  Could his?

  When they approached the gate leading to Cole’s home, they saw a slew of news vans blocking the way. Everly’s eyes widened.

  “Let me out,” Rowan said in a determined voice. “Circle for a few minutes. Then you can come back.”

  Rather than argue, Wyatt slowed to a stop and let him out. Once the door closed, Wyatt once again accelerated, driving past a rush of people charging the car with flashing cameras. When they pulled away, Everly turned to see Rowan engaging in crowd control. Whatever he said had everyone backing away.

  “Damn, he’s good,” Cole said, also observing through the window.

  “The best,” Wyatt agreed.

  Everly smiled. When they returned to the house less than ten minutes later, there wasn’t a soul in sight.

  “Where’s Rowan?” she asked.

  “Probably in the house,” Wyatt said. He pulled up alongside the security console and punched a series of buttons.

  She glanced at Cole, who explained, “My family has the gate code.”

  “Ah.”

  They drove around back. Everly saw her car parked in its usual spot. Once again, she glanced at Cole.

  “What? You didn’t expect me to leave Champ at Prix Fixe, did you?” he asked.

  Her heart tripped over itself. She squeezed his hand in gratitude.

  They all got out after Wyatt parked. Cole hurried around and offered Everly his arm. She slid her left hand around his bicep without comment. He led her upstairs to the kitchen, where Rowan was hunting in the refrigerator. He pulled out three bottles of beer.

  “Sorry you can’t drink on those meds, Ev,” he said, putting the bottles on the counter and turning to the drawer holding the bottle opener. The way he zeroed in on the exact drawer told her he’d been there a number of times. “How ‘bout some sweet tea?”

  “Sounds perfect, thanks,” she replied.

  She sat at the kitchen island, watching as Cole retrieved a glass from the cupboard and Wyatt pulled the pitcher from the fridge. Rowan walked over with the bottles and sat across from her. For some reason, his compassionate smile made her want to cry. To cover her emotion, she tugged the hat from her head and used her fingers to fluff her hair. She imagined she still looked a hot mess.

  Cole carried her glass of sweet tea over to the island and sat beside her. Wyatt sat on Rowan’s other side. When the three males lifted their beer bottles, Everly hurriedly lifted her glass.

  “To Everly,” Cole said.

  She froze with her glass in air. The guys all tapped their beer bottles to it and took a drink. Her eyes moved among all of them, her heart flooding with emotion.

  With love.

  They’d stood by her through one of the scariest experiences of her life. Not once had they made it seem like a hardship. Rather, they’d made her feel worth all of the fuss. She would never forget it.

  Knowing she could never fully thank them for all they’d done for her, she took a sip of her tea. Her silent toast differed from theirs, however.

  To friends like no other.

  Chapter 36
r />   Wyatt and Rowan stayed for about an hour before they headed home. Cole walked them out, then rejoined Everly in the kitchen. She looked tired, he thought.

  “I thought you wouldn’t object to pizza for dinner,” he said, grabbing his iPad and once again sitting beside her.

  She smiled. “And here I was, getting used to powdered eggs and fruit cups.”

  “Well, I’m sure I could whip something up, if that’s your fancy,” he said, pulling up the website of his favorite pizza joint. “The bar isn’t set very high, after all.”

  “I’ll suffer through the pizza, thanks.”

  He placed the order for a large pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms and an order of breadsticks. Then he gave Everly a careful study. She had propped her chin in her left hand and her eyelids were getting low.

  “You going to stay awake until the food gets here?” he asked.

  She blinked and sat straighter. “Yeah. I’m starving.” Then she looked down at herself. “I’d sure love a shower, though.”

  “You can’t get your stitches wet,” he reminded her.

  “I know. But I’m not going a week without washing my hair. I’ll figure something out.”

  Giving her a long, drawn-out sigh, he got to his feet. “I’ll never forgive myself if you fall while trying some weird acrobatic pose in the shower just to wash your hair.”

  She took his hand and trailed after him into his bedroom. “Weird acrobatic pose?”

  “Hey, let a guy dream.” He released her hand and walked into the bathroom. “Strip down,” he called over his shoulder as he turned on the water in his walk-in shower. “We’ve only got twenty minutes until the pizza arrives.”

  Following his own advice, he pulled his shirt over his head, then unfastened his belt and jeans. He was down to only his underwear within a minute. Turning, he saw Everly in the bathroom doorway wearing just the white bra and panties he’d grabbed for her.

  “I’ll leave the bandage over my stitches,” she said. “Just in case.”

  “Okay.” He stepped into the shower and removed the long-handled showerhead. “Come on in. The water’s fine.”

  She stepped inside, looking around as she did so. “Are those jets in the walls?”

  “Yep. We’ll leave those off for now or this will quickly turn into a scene from a bad porno.”

  Her eyebrows lifted as she walked over to him. He deliberately avoided looking at her right arm. Just the sight of the dark purple coloring was enough to make him want to kill someone.

  “Bad porno, huh?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “We do have clothes on, you know.”

  “Ah. We do seem to see a lot of each other in our underwear.”

  “It’s what gets me through the day. Turn around and bend your head back,” he instructed.

  He was sorry he did when she turned and he saw her back for the first time. Bruises covered most of her right upper torso. He thought of her fractured ribs and swallowed hard. She hadn’t issued one word of complaint since waking up that morning, but he knew she had to be in pain.

  Since he couldn’t speak, he focused on the task at hand. He avoided getting her stitches wet while going through the routine of shampooing and conditioning her hair. His actions were quick and purposeful since he knew they were on a schedule, but he took care not to hurt her.

  Helping her like this generated an entirely different set of feelings in him than he’d expected. After a few minutes, he realized that he hadn’t thought about sex once after making the decision to help her wash her hair.

  Though he knew what that meant, he continued to avoid acknowledging it. Instead, he finished with her hair and then put the showerhead back in its holder.

  “You’re all set,” he said. “Feel free to linger for twenty minutes doing whatever it is you girls do in here for that long. Don’t tell me. I want to leave it up to my imagination.” He opened the shower door and got out. “Just know that the amount of pizza reduces exponentially with each minute it spends in the kitchen alone with me.”

  “Roger that,” she said. “Thanks.”

  He reached for a towel and dried himself off. A second towel remained for Everly to use when she was ready. He couldn’t resist a glance over his shoulder when he left the bathroom and started to pull the door closed behind him. When he did, he watched Everly hang her wet bra over the side of the shower. What he saw of her side profile was enough to make him realize that his desire for her was only thinly veiled by his concern.

  Leaving her alone was one of the most challenging things he’d ever done.

  By the time the pizza arrived, he was dressed and ready with the payment for the delivery guy. He had no sooner set out plates and napkins than Everly emerged from his bedroom. She wore one of his long-sleeved T-shirts with the sleeves cuffed. It hit her at mid-thigh.

  “I guess I need to get some more of my clothes,” she said.

  “Actually, Margaret got you some things to wear,” he admitted as he poured them both some ice water. “I just got focused on the pizza and left them in the guest room.”

  “Oh.” She looked down the hallway.

  “Please don’t change,” he said.

  “But I’m not wearing any underwear.”

  Since he was only too aware of that fact, he dipped his head as if to say, And your point is?

  Rolling her eyes, she walked over to the island and took a seat. “All right. If it gets me to this pizza faster, I’ll cave in to your wanton ways.”

  “Sucker.”

  They dug in. Although he wanted to ask her about what he’d overheard her father say in her hospital room, he didn’t. She’d been through enough in the past couple of days as it was. That didn’t keep him from wishing she’d just tell him. Surely she realized that he’d been standing on the other side of the curtain when her father threatened her. Didn’t she?

  What had happened to her all those years ago?

  The question circled around his brain as they ate and again when they moved into the family room to watch television. After setting her up on one of the sofa’s recliners, he moved the coffee table closer so he could put his feet up while he sat beside her. She snuggled against his right side, smelling like his shampoo and body wash. Thinking of her sitting there in his shirt without any undergarments on made him want to scoop her up and take her to his bed.

  Less than an hour later, he found himself doing just that. She fell asleep during a Hawks game. Since he hadn’t done much more than doze in a waiting room chair the night before, he was more than ready to call it a night.

  Rather than carry her to the guest room, though, he brought her to his room. He settled her under the covers, then went and collected her things from the other room, including her medication. He set everything on the nightstand where she could see it in case she woke up in the middle of the night. Then he went to shower away the grime from the past twenty-four hours.

  By the time he had dried himself off, brushed his teeth, and pulled on his cotton sleep shorts, his vision had all but crossed from exhaustion. Leaving the subtle over-shower light on, he pulled the door almost all the way closed and stumbled to his bed.

  Then, since she wasn’t awake to object, he pulled Everly up against him and slept.

  * * *

  Everly woke to find herself draped over Cole.

  It took her a long moment to remember where she was. She blinked blearily in the faint sunlight that filtered into the room and allowed the memories to return. She remembered the time during the night when Cole woke her and forced her to take a pain pill. He told her that she was making noises in her sleep. Then she remembered trying to get comfortable. She hadn’t been able to do so until she was on her left side, her right arm thrown over Cole’s waist.

  That didn’t explain the leg she’d also thrown over him, she thought now.

  Since he was also on his side, she faced his back and felt free to bite her bottom lip as she fully realized she was in Cole Parker’s bed. Her hand lay
against his muscular abdomen. Her left leg pressed against his backside while her right leg was over his thigh.

  When she moved her right hand, she quickly found her fingers entangled in his.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked in a sleepy voice.

  She grinned. Pressing her forehead against his back, she replied, “I have this physical therapy gig. It pays well, so…”

  He slowly turned so he was on his back and she was nestled in the crook of his arm. His fingers ran idly through her hair, caressing her neck and the side of her jaw. Goosebumps sprang up on her arms. She traced a mindless pattern on his chest that mimicked his touch.

  “How much would I have to pay you to get you to stay here with me instead?” he asked.

  She pretended to think about it. “Maybe…a million dollars?”

  “Done.”

  She laughed. “Nice try. You’re not getting out of your exercises today.”

  “You’re such a hardass.”

  His fingers brushed against her earlobe, making her shiver. She found herself wishing he’d use his lips and teeth instead.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I have a lot of interest in getting this particular client to full health.”

  “Hmm.”

  She noted that when she reached certain areas of his upper body, he tensed and held his breath. Curious, she allowed her hand to drift to those areas more often. After a minute, his hand reached up and stilled hers.

  Interesting.

  “I might be convinced to dawdle a bit if you kissed me,” she said in a soft voice.

  Since she wasn’t looking at his face, she was unprepared for his sudden movement. Before she realized it, she was on her back and he held himself above her on his elbows. Pain twinged in her side, but it paled in comparison to the feelings generated by the look in his eyes.

  “You’re playing with fire, Ms. Wallace,” he murmured, looking at her mouth.

  “I know.” The words were a breathless whisper.

  Then he kissed her. It wasn’t a quick, gentle encounter. He started it with purpose, parting her lips and rubbing his tongue roughly against hers. She met him stroke for stroke, not in the mood to dance around how she felt any more than he was.