Help Wanted by Allison B Hanson (13)

Kenley felt better on Friday as she opened the office and started coffee. She had plans this weekend with her family and friends. She wouldn’t spend the whole time second-guessing her decision not to start something romantic with Zane. Not that she knew if he would have wanted such a thing. She’d ended it with him before he’d had the chance to end it with her. She paused with the carafe of water hovering over the coffeepot as that thought settled in.

She’d run away from Zane because she was afraid. It was not the first time she’d felt this way. It was ridiculous really. She’d been three when she’d been left at a small-town library. She didn’t remember her parents or being abandoned.

But something inside her always wondered why she’d been left there. If she had been given up for adoption as a baby it would have made more sense. If her mother wasn’t capable of caring for a child, adoption was a viable option. So why did they keep her until she was three and then give her up?

What had she done wrong?

She shook off the familiar irritation and continued with her day. A day that would be spent without Zane because he was—surprise—not in the office that day because he was going out of town to look at a boat. He could have really been going to look at a boat, but she knew how good he was at creating reasons to avoid her.

Brady came in with Hunter and she smiled.

“Hi, Hunter. Are you keeping me company today?” she asked as the brothers looked at one another.

“Would you mind?” Brady asked. “It shouldn’t be all day. I have a delivery to New Bedford, and I’ll be right back.”

“I don’t mind. It’s nice having him here. It’s so quiet and boring when everyone is out on the road.” Not that Hunter had been a big talker the day before, but she was going to work on that today.

“I’d take him with me, but he’s not great on trips.”

“I like to stop at all the McDonaldses,” Hunter supplied.

“Yes. All of them.”

She couldn’t help but laugh at Brady’s pained expression. “It’s really no problem. It will be fun.”

“Thanks. You’re the best.” With that Brady gave her a quick peck on the head and then hugged his brother. “Listen to Kenley. She’s in charge until I get back.”

“I was in charge last night while you went to the store.”

“Yes. But now Kenley’s in charge.”

“You were gone seventeen minutes.”

“I’m going to be gone longer this time.”

“How many minutes?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll let you know when I get back.” Hunter seemed to be okay with this answer, though she’d already heard it twice. And yesterday he hadn’t said how many minutes he was gone. She didn’t say that out loud though.

“Don’t ride with Mom in the car,” Hunter said while straightening his tattered magazines. This time Kenley noticed the pain that flashed in Brady’s eyes at the comment.

It was obvious Hunter wasn’t saying it to hurt his brother. It was probably something he’d been told repeatedly as a child and it stuck. Except the time it mattered most.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“But longer than seventeen minutes.”

“A little bit. Yeah.”

Hunter followed Brady to the door and then waved. With a sigh he came to sit in his usual spot and opened one of the magazines.

“Have you read those before?” She noticed there was one with boats. And two with motorcycles.

“Yes. They’re Brady’s, but he let me bring them here. He said to stay quiet.”

“You don’t have stay quiet all the time. Just when I’m on the phone.”

“Oh.” He looked around the space. “I could help you if you want. I used to water the plants for Sidney, but they’re not here anymore.” Thank God.

“Hmm. Well, I don’t really have anything I need help with. Since I only have the one computer.” She smiled and then had an idea. “Wait here a second.”

“A second?”

“How about seventy seconds?” she revised, realizing he was a stickler for time.

He nodded and she rushed out the back into the shop and gathered up a number of brass fittings and hardware that needed to be polished before they could be used. She picked up a pile of rags and the polish and came back to the office with a few seconds to spare.

“Did you want to help by cleaning up these parts and making them shiny?”

“They aren’t shiny.”

“Not now. But if you put this stuff on them and then rub them, the dirt will come off and they’ll be shiny underneath.” She demonstrated with one of the cleats, and watched his look of surprise when the gunk was removed. As if she had been trying to trick him.

“I can do that.”

“Sure you can. Here, we’ll set you up at this table.” She pulled the table from the corner and moved the papers from it. “Can you go get a chair from the lunchroom?”

“Yep.” He ran off, eager to help. His ankle didn’t seem to be an issue.

Once he was set on his task, he was a polishing machine. She’d come up with the job as something to keep him occupied, but now she felt kind of guilty for taking advantage of him. She’d had to go gather more items and it wasn’t even lunchtime.

She decided this was an executive decision.

How much would you pay to have your brass polished?

As soon as she sent the text to Zane she realized how it might sound.

Did you mean to send this text to me?

She did the math. Even if he was there all day it was adequate compensation.

He added a smiley face which made her smile before she reined it in.

As Hunter polished, she finished her payables, cutting Hunter a check along with her payment batch. She even put it in an official envelope.

“I need some more.”

“Again? Why don’t we go get some lunch?”

“It’s not lunchtime yet.”

“Right. But it will be lunch time in eleven minutes. I think it’s close enough.”

“Okay. Can we go to McDonald’s?”

“There isn’t one nearby. But if you like burgers we can get you one at the diner down the street.”

“Okay. I like burgers.”

She smiled when he took her hand as they crossed the street. He let go as soon as they were on the other sidewalk. Despite his slight impairment, he was very responsible.

They chatted while they ate. She asked him questions about his favorite movie and what color his bedroom was.

“I have two bedrooms. One at home that I sleep in on Saturday nights, and one at Elmhurst where I sleep all the other nights.”

“So Brady picks you up on Saturdays and takes you back to Elmhurst on Sunday night?”

“Yep. Except when we go on vacation in the summer. Then I stay with him the whole week. Sometimes we go camping, and sometimes we go on a boat. You can come with us.”

While seeing Brady with his little brother had made him less intimidating, Kenley knew he wasn’t for her. Her heart belonged to the surly owner of the company, no matter how much she wanted to pretend otherwise.

* * *

Brady was prepared to apologize to Kenley as he rushed into the shop at ten past four. He hadn’t planned to be that late, but of course he couldn’t catch a break. Neither delivery had gone as planned.

Maybe he’d take her out to dinner to thank her for her help. He was all ready to make his invite sound friendly instead of flirtatious when he opened the door to the office and found his brother… working.

“What are you doing?” he asked Hunter, but looked at Kenley for an answer.

“He wanted to help, so I gave him something to do.”

“Oh.” He wasn’t sure why he had a problem with it, but for some reason he did. “Well, we need to get going.”

“Can we wait just two minutes so I can finish this one?” Hunter asked, taking his exploitation seriously. Brady watched as Hunter rubbed the hardware, his tongue sticking out the side of his lips as he concentrated.

It didn’t take him the full two minutes to finish. When he was done he smiled and held it up to the light, taking in the sparkle from the freshly buffed metal.

“All done?” Kenley asked as she stepped over to the table.

“Yep.”

“You did good work today. Here’s your paycheck.”

Brady’s eyes widened in surprise. Brady wasn’t expecting that. It was clear that Hunter hadn’t expected it either. Brady knew his brother so well he could read every expression on his face as he went through them.

First was confusion. Kenley must have understood that one as well because she said, “You worked hard, so I talked to Zane and he said we should pay you.”

The expression that took the place of confusion was one Brady saw only once in a great while. It was utter joy.

“Brady, look! I got a paycheck! I can pay bills now, like you!”

Brady chuckled at the route his mind took.

“How much is it? Maybe you could do something better than pay bills with your money.”

He opened the envelope and held it up.

“A hundred dollars!”

Brady nodded and held out his hand. “I’ll hold it while you go wash up.” As soon as Hunter left he turned to Kenley.

“That was really nice of you.”

“He did good work. At first I thought it would just be something to keep him busy, but he’s very thorough and he seemed to enjoy it. I took him for lunch too.”

Brady realized he’d jumped to the wrong conclusion. Kenley wasn’t taking advantage of his brother, she was encouraging Hunter to excel in something.

“I’m not leaving until Tuesday, but I’ll be in Ohio by Thursday afternoon to deliver the boats to the new shop. I’ll take you out for dinner.”

“Sounds good.”

As he and Hunter drove to the bank so he could cash his very first paycheck, Brady realized he’d been wrong about the entire situation with Dr. Walker.

Now he’d have to figure out a way to apologize.

* * *

Zane took a deep breath before walking into his sister’s house on Saturday afternoon. His parents were there, which meant he was facing the trifecta of people telling him all the things he was doing wrong with his life.

Only his niece and his brother-in-law were safe.

Unfortunately, Paige was napping and Tim had run out to pick up ice cream.

“There you are.” His mother acted as though he were late, when there was no set time. It had begun. “Where’s your girlfriend?”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.”

“The girl who works for you. From the hospital.”

“She isn’t his girlfriend anymore, because he scared her off,” Sidney supplied helpfully.

“Good for you. Don’t get strapped down, son.”

“As if being married kept you from dating.” His mother scowled at his father, and Zane lost it.

“Would you all just shut the fuck up?” He rubbed his temple as they stared at him in shock. He’d always been the quiet one who just took it. Where had that gotten him? Nowhere!

“Zane—” His mom started, but he cut her off.

“Dad cheated on you. It was a cowardly, despicable thing to do.” He looked right at his father, who flinched. “But you didn’t kick him out or leave him, so you made the decision to accept it. You need to stop bringing it up, and you”—he pointed to his father now—“need to stop giving me advice as if I would ever want to follow in your footsteps.” Finally he turned to his sister. Her eyes were wide.

“I love you, Sid. I know you want to help me. You’ve always wanted to help me. But I’m a grown man. I messed up with Kenley. I know that. I’m working out how to fix it. I need to do this on my own. Please just let me figure it out for myself.”

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him.

“Good for you.” Her words were rough with tears. Great. He’d made her cry.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to go to three stores until I found the right ice cream.” Tim took in the scene in his kitchen and frowned. Chances were good Tim had never seen his mother-in-law so silent.

Sidney wiped her eyes and went to hug her husband. “I’m fine. I’m just so proud of my little brother.” She smiled. “He said a bad word in front of our parents.”

The sound of Paige fussing on the baby monitor snapped everyone out of the surreal moment. Life went on. Peaceably. They spent their meal talking about the weather in Florida, Paige, and the new shop he was opening in Ohio.

There were no comments on his love life, and his parents didn’t take stabs at one another. Overall it was a nice visit.

He found his father alone on the patio where he went to smoke.

“You heading out?”

“Yeah. I’ve been gone all week. I have a pile of laundry that won’t do itself.”

“You need a wife.” His father chuckled at his own comment and pulled in a lungful of smoke.

“Is that all you think wives are good for?” Zane frowned. He hated facing the truth of who his father really was, but it was time. He’d spent too much of his life trying not to be like his dad. It was obvious he didn’t need to worry. They had nothing in common.

“Relax. It was just a joke.”

“It wasn’t funny.” Zane started to walk away and then stopped. His father smoked like a fiend and drank too much. He might not be around for long. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“Why did you cheat on Mom? Was it worth it? All this misery afterward?” He’d been a senior in high school and hadn’t known why his mother was crying all the time. When Sidney had broken the news to him, his first instinct was to beat up his father. But his father had apologized to him. Told him he’d made a mistake. Back then Zane believed him, but now he wasn’t so sure. “Tell me the truth.”

Twin flumes of smoke exited his nostrils and he tilted his head to the side as if contemplating whether or not to answer. With a glance toward the door, his father nodded. “Yeah. It was worth it. Two reasons.”

Zane folded his arms across his chest, waiting to hear them.

“I never loved your mother. I knew it when I proposed to her, but she expected it. My parents expected it. Her parents expected it. I thought it was the right thing to do. It wasn’t. I didn’t love the woman I had the affair with either, but for a moment it was nice not to have to pretend. So, yeah, I’m glad it happened.”

He drew in another drag from his cigarette and put it out in the can he’d brought out with him.

“The other reason was it woke me up. I realized that while I don’t love your mother, I do love you kids, and that I came really close to losing everything I’d worked so hard for.”

“So you stay with mom because it’s easier?”

“Yeah. I know it’s pathetic and not fair to her. But she knows the truth and she’s not made any moves to change anything either. If she ever asked me for a divorce, I’d sign in a heartbeat and wish her the best, but she never asked. And she never loved me either.”

Zane shook his head, not sure if knowing this helped in any way.

“I know you hate it when I give you advice, and I realize the way I do it is all wrong, but the message is important. Don’t settle for someone who doesn’t make you happy. I’ve never been in love so I don’t know what it should feel like, but I know what it shouldn’t be.”

That seemed reasonable.

“You shouldn’t have to hide who you really are. You shouldn’t be afraid of sharing every part of you. And you shouldn’t want to rip your own ears off when you hear their voice. Instead, I think you should be excited to see her, look forward to it even. You should laugh together. She should know you as well as you know yourself.”

“Mom knows you pretty well.”

“That is familiarity, not love. She hates everything she knows about me.”

Zane couldn’t argue. It did seem like that. “What are you going to do? You can’t live the rest of your life unhappy.”

“Are you sure about that?” his father asked, tapping out another cigarette and lighting it. “You’ve been doing it so far.”

Christ. His father was right.

* * *

The familiar smells of the subway greeted Kenley as she stepped off the train and headed up the stairs. She hadn’t missed the feeling of being crowded and jostled as she crested the surface of the earth into a new swarm of people on the street.

She hooked her thumbs in the straps of her bulging backpack and made her way to the building where she used to work.

Unwilling to go up, she waited for Alyssa on a bench outside. Alyssa’s roommate was going away for the weekend, so that left the loveseat in their tiny apartment up for grabs. Kenley had jumped at the opportunity to hang out with her friend and get away from her thoughts.

“You are not going to believe what happened today,” Alyssa said as soon as she saw her. She paused for a brief hug and then went on with the story. “Ruth was fired.”

“No way. Why?”

“Mr. Hasher’s stepson apparently wanted a job, and Mr. Hasher worked it out for him. Chuck didn’t want to be treated differently, so he asked Mr. Hasher not to tell anyone about the relationship. It turns out he ended up working for Ruth. She ended up propositioning him, and when he turned her down, she fired him.”

“Wow.” There was no other word to describe the mound of shit Ruth had unleashed upon herself.

“I bet you could get your old job back if you wanted it. Hell, maybe you could even get Ruth’s job. You were doing it anyway.”

Kenley felt dizzy for a moment. Move back to New York? Away from Zane?

“I don’t know.”

“Come on. You hated that you had to move home. And just two days ago you sent me this text.” Alyssa pulled out her phone and scrolled until she found the right one. “I can’t wait to come stay with you this weekend. This new job is sucking my will to live.”

“Right. But it’s not the job really. It’s something else.”

“Your boss, whom you slept with.” Alyssa smirked. “You see why that is so funny, right? I mean you were fired for sleeping with the boss’s husband and now you’ve—”

“Yep. I get it.”

“You need to let it go. Men mess up anything with thinking involved. They try to anticipate what we want and they don’t have a clue. They’re constantly tripping over their dicks.” Alyssa rolled her eyes and pulled Kenley out of the way of a tourist. “Things would be so much better if people could just make appointments for sex like they do with the dentist. They could show up for their appointment, do it, and leave.”

“As I recall, I usually leave the dentist in some kind of pain.”

Alyssa ignored this and pushed her way through the mobs of people to the subway.

* * *

After dropping off their stuff and changing into suitable club attire, they caught a cab to Alyssa’s favorite hunting grounds.

Alyssa didn’t date. Like she’d said, she approached the whole concept of men as she would a business proposition. She had a need, and the other party could fill the need. Once the transaction was completed, she moved on.

It wasn’t that she was a slut. Or that she had some empty place she was trying to fill with sex. She just had the unerring ability to keep it from being emotional.

Kenley wondered if she was heading down that path. She knew from her glimpse at a sex life that tying emotions to the act made it more painful than a root canal.

She also knew she wouldn’t find anyone at the club who stirred those emotions like Zane had.

* * *

“Will they think I’m late?” Hunter asked as they pulled into the drive at Elmhurst on Monday morning. “I’m supposed to be back on Sunday night.”

“This is not a prison. You’re allowed to come and go as you please,” Brady assured his brother.

“I always come back on Sunday night.”

“I know, but we were having fun and I wasn’t ready to bring you back last night.” He also hadn’t figured out what to say to Dr. Walker.

Hunter had asked when he would be allowed to work with Kenley again at least ten times over the weekend. He’d also spent a lot of time considering what he might do with his first paycheck. Every time Brady suggested a game or something fun, Hunter resisted, saying he wanted to pay bills or buy groceries with his money like Brady did. In the end, Hunter had given the money back to Brady so he could put it in Hunter’s savings account.

Hunter raced ahead and was already telling the story of his paycheck when Brady caught up to him at the front desk. The women were smiling and telling him how proud they were of him, which made Hunter even happier.

“Is Dr. Walker available?” Brady asked the receptionist.

“Let me see.” She picked up the phone and punched a couple numbers. “Hunter Martin is back. Uh-huh. His brother would like to see you.” A pause and then a nod. “I’ll send him right in.”

Brady was already moving down the hall. “Hunter, I’ll stop in your room before I leave.”

“Okay.” He went right back into the hallway without even looking up.

The doctor opened her door before he got the chance to knock.

“Please, come in. Did you really bring him back? I was so afraid you wouldn’t and after what I did I couldn’t blame you. I’m so very sorry. After you left, I realized what I’d done and I was so stupid. I can’t believe I threatened you. I crossed the line and I can’t apologize eno—”

“Enough,” Brady said, finishing her sentence, and put up his hand to stop her confession. “Take a breath.”

As she did what he said, he noticed the rise and fall of her perfect breasts. Yes, the doctor had breasts. He hadn’t really noticed the last time. Mainly because he’d been angry, but also because she was the doctor in charge of caring for his brother, and therefore off limits as far as breast-noticing was concerned.

Now that he’d noticed said breasts, he couldn’t help but appraise the rest of the package. From her silky blond hair to her bright blue eyes and those lips. Oh, those lips.

“Are you going to sue me?” she asked with a little wince that he found adorable.

He tried desperately to put her back into the off-limits, doctor spot, but he only noticed more enticing things about her. Most appealing was the fact she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

Scanning her desk and the cabinet behind her, he found only pictures of her with an older couple he guessed were her parents, and a number of photos of a brown lab.

“I’m not going to sue you.”

Her shoulders sagged in relief and a smile took over her face. He’d definitely not noticed the smile the last time. No way would he have forgotten it if he had. She had dimples. Perfectly matched on either cheek.

“Oh, thank you. Please have a seat.” She gestured to the chair he’d sat in the last time and walked around to the back of the desk. He had a split-second view of her perfect ass.

He sat down, hoping he’d be able to get back up with the erection growing in his pants.

“How is Hunter?” she asked.

Hunter. Right. She was Hunter’s doctor. The woman he needed to apologize to, and whom he hoped would have a plan to help his brother get a job. He couldn’t mess things up for his brother because he was lusting over the hot doctor.

“He’s great. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

“Are you taking him out of Elmhurst?” She worried her bottom lip and he shifted in his seat. He was trapped with her in the small room. The blinds were shut and the door closed. The smell of her perfume luring him in as intensely as the way she looked down at his lips. Focus. Focus.

“No. Not right now anyway. I wanted to apologize to you for losing my temper.” Losing his temper most likely meant he’d lost whatever shot he might have had. Women didn’t like scary guys. He was definitely scary. He remembered the way Kenley used to step away from him whenever he walked in the room.

“You had every right—”

“No. I didn’t. You were looking out for my brother, and I was being stubborn. I thought over what you said, plus something happened this weekend that made me realize you were right. Hunter is capable of more in his life. I think it would make him happy to have a job. I have to say, the idea of having him living on his own and going to work terrifies me, but I’ll have to work on it.”

“You’ve been taking care of him for a very long time. It’s going to be difficult for you to take a different role in his life.”

He wanted to argue with her assessment, but once again he knew she was right.

“I’m willing to give it a shot. What do we need to do?”

She smiled at him again, flashing those dimples. Then she pulled out a file.

“The first thing would be the occupational therapy I spoke of. We would teach him some basic skills and evaluate the types of things that interest him. Then we can do a job shadow session. Where he would sit with someone and try the job to see if he enjoys it. Then we would move into job placement. I would suggest going slow with Hunter. While he’s always pleasant, it’s obvious any change from his routine causes stress.”

Brady nodded, remembering how many times Hunter had asked if he was going home on Sunday night. He would have brought him back the night before, but he wasn’t sure if Dr. Walker—Michaela, he’d seen on her business cards—was working that late.

“Would you ever consider having him live with you at your home full time?”

Brady sat up straighter. “I’m away a lot. There wouldn’t be anyone to watch him.”

“If it got to the point that he didn’t need anyone to watch him?”

“He would be welcome, if that’s what you’re asking. My place isn’t much since most of my income goes to paying for this place.” He hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation but she frowned.

“I want you to know, I would never, ever do anything to change your insurance coverage for Hunter. He qualifies to stay here. I was desperate last week and I overstepped.”

“You probably wouldn’t have been so desperate if I hadn’t been so hardheaded.” He grinned at her and watched her eyes widen in response.

Thank God, it wasn’t just him. There was something going on from the other side of the desk too. It meant he had a chance. He would start with a little flirting today. Maybe by next week he could step it up to asking her out.

He was still working out the elaborate plan when she stood and nodded.

“I’m so glad you’re willing to give this a try. I’ll set up the first session tomorrow, and I’ll call you with the results.” She stepped around the desk and he briefly checked out her curves.

“Thanks.” He stood too. It was obvious she wanted him to go. Maybe he was making her uncomfortable. “I really appreciate what you and your staff do for my brother. I’m glad there are other people who care about him. I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to realize I’m not in this alone.”

She hadn’t backed away like he’d expected. They were standing way too close. He could see the amber flecks in her blue eyes.

And then, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, he bent down and kissed her. It started out as a tender kiss of appreciation—both physical and professional. But then she engaged.

It was as if each touch escalated the situation. When her hands wound around his waist, he pulled her closer, pressing those breasts up against his chest. When her tongue reached out for his, he moved his hands down to cup her firm ass. In only a matter of a minute or two he had her pushed back on her desk, and his hand was under the edge of her shirt moving up.

At the sound of her gasp, reality forced him back. They blinked at each other for a second before she spoke in a rough voice. “What just happened?”

“Chemistry. A whole hell of a lot of it.”