Chapter 5

“So you survived your first day?” Ari’s voice was a welcome one at the end of the day as Emma sat in her temporary office, trying to clear a space on the desk.

“After a not-very-auspicious start, yes.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. Suffice to say I met the hottest man I’ve ever seen, but I did so without my shirt on.”

Ari squeaked on the other end of the phone. “You are not serious.”

“I am so serious.”

“This is so unfair.”

“Define unfair! Did you not hear the part about most embarrassing moment ever?”

“I stopped listening after hottest man I’ve ever seen. The rest was white noise.”

“Love you, too, Ari.”

Ariana laughed. “So besides starting the day half-naked—which, wow, can’t even fathom how that happened—how is the place?”

“Well, you know how I pictured this sort of backwoods, run-down-in-a-quaint-way sort of nursing home?”

“Not that?”

“It’s not that at all. It’s huge, first of all. I got lost four times today, and I’m not even sure how it happened. The home is basically a square with a courtyard in the middle, but then there are all of these extra hallways shooting off in different directions.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it figured out soon enough.”

“Either that or I’m going to have to start leaving a trail of bread crumbs.” Emma smiled to herself as she remembered Jasper’s rat comment from earlier in the day.

Ari sneezed. “So, hot guy. Dish.”

“Are you already sick again?”

“Job hazard, but it’s okay. My excellent salary makes up for the constant illness. But listen to you! You’re the one on antibiotics this time.”

“Because I caught your strep.”

“Details. Hot guy. Go.”

“His father is a resident here.”

“Nice. So chances are good you’ll run into him again, then? Maybe with more clothes on next time?”

“Funny. Thank you.”

“Any chance you checked for a ring?”

“Ari, half of married men don’t wear them. That’s no longer a reliable marker.”

“Did he have one on?”

“No.”

Ari laughed. “Ha! You checked!”

“Maybe.” Emma rolled her eyes. “But I wasn’t obvious about it.”

“Hey, wait a minute. I don’t care how hot he is, you are not going to fall in love and move to Montana.”

“Because we’re not getting ahead of ourselves at all?”

Ari sighed. “Please tell me you at least had a good bra on.”

“My new purple Victoria’s one.”

“Then he’s a goner. Nicely done.” Ari sneezed again. “So besides those mountains—which I think I’m going to need a daily picture of, by the way—what’s it like out there? Does the sky actually look bigger?”

“It’s kind of surreal, actually. I mean, we’re used to blue skies, but it’s just—I don’t know—different. The air feels different. Crisper or something.”

“Because you’re not walking out the door and into a sauna? Go figure. My classroom was like the Amazon jungle today. Do you have any idea how a ninety-three-degree classroom with twenty-two sweaty kids in it smells?”

Emma laughed. “Almost as bad as the maintenance guy who keeps promising to fix the air conditioning?”

“Exactly. So.” Ari paused. “Hear from your parents yet?”

“They’re in Paris.”

Yes, that was why they hadn’t managed to respond to her news about her temporary gig. It didn’t have anything to do with disinterest…or disappointment.

“Well, screwez-vous them, then.”

Emma smiled. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Unless I win the Nobel Prize for Elder Care, there’s nothing I’m going to do to outshine Princess Annabelle, and I’m okay with that.”

“I know you are but still.”

“Non-issue, Ari.” Emma fidgeted with her earring, then dropped her hand when she realized she was doing it. She might say she was fine with it all, but she knew her body language said otherwise.

“Okay, I should get to bed so I can deal with my overheated urchins tomorrow. Before I go, though, tell me who hot guy looks like.”

“I can’t decide. I’m getting a Hemsworth vibe mixed with an Eastwood vibe mixed with that guy from the cop show you love.”

“Now you’re just trying to make me jealous. Also, see if he has a brother.”

Emma laughed. “G’night, Ari. I’ll send you some pics from downtown later, if I manage to find it. First I have to make a dent in the piles of paper in this office, though.”

“Hey, Em?”

“Don’t even talk to me right now about burning the midnight oil and yadda yadda, woman who was at school till ten o’clock last night decorating her classroom.”

“Fine. But seriously, you know what?”

“I’m afraid to ask.”

“You’ve got three months to just…whatever! Nobody from corporate looking over your shoulder, no proposals to present, no deadlines to meet. You can totally leave the ladder-climbing to the other peons for twelve weeks, and just maybe—I don’t know—try to enjoy yourself out there?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“I’m serious, Em. Maybe there’s a reason they sent you out there. Maybe they see something in you that you don’t see in yourself. Have you thought about that?”

“Um, no. Pretty sure they saw ‘Emergency Surgery’ on someone’s leave form, and then said, ‘Who has no life and can leave at a moment’s notice? Ooh! Emma Winthrop can!’ ”

“You’re impossible.”

“I’m a realist.”

“Fine. Have a miserable time, suffer through your twelve weeks, and do not talk to the hot guy ever again. It’s a plan.”

Emma laughed. “I can do two of those things.”

“Ha. You can do the third, as well, Ms. Winthrop.”

“All set with that?” Jasper reached over the counter for Liam’s mug the next morning, anxious to clean up from the early rush and get up the hill to see his dad.

“No.” Liam shook his head. “And what’s the hurry? You’re like a hamster on speed back there this morning.”

“Just being efficient. I need to get up to see my old man before the physical therapist takes him hostage.”

“He okay?”

“Far as I know, yep.”

“Any other reason you need to get up there in a hurry?”

Liam’s voice was nonchalant as he lifted his mug to his mouth, averting his eyes, but Jasper heard an undertone.

“No reason, no. Why are you asking?”

“I don’t know. Might be the clean shirt.”

Jasper looked down at his standard-issue flannel. Ten years ago, he’d had twenty high-end, crisp white dress shirts that went under one of his ten designer suits with attorney-appropriate neckties. Now he prided himself on a closet full of comfort—flannel, cotton, and not a tie in sight.

“My shirts are always clean, dumbass.”

“Maybe, but today it looks like you combed your hair, too. There’s a woman, isn’t there?”

Jasper reached for his mug. “Gimme that. You’re cut off.”

Liam laughed. “Hit a nerve?”

“Nope. And there isn’t a woman within fifty miles who’d have me.”

“Smart.”

“Thank you. Price is double on coffee today, by the way.”

“I’ll pay it.” Liam laughed again. “But first, you gotta tell me the story about the new nursing home director.”

Jasper froze. “What story?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Liam poured himself another mug from the carafe on the counter, then made a show of settling his ass on a stool, eyebrows up. “The one about how your lack of knocking skills got you into hot water yesterday?”

Oh. That story.

Shit.

Jasper rolled his eyes as he turned to the sink. The only thing his lack of knocking skills had gotten him was a desire for cold water…of the cold shower variety.

“So?” Liam continued. “Your concern about some old steely-haired battle-axe from down South coming in to run the place was unfounded?”

“Little bit, apparently.”

Liam put down his mug, smiling widely. “Well, in the realm of how-I-met-your-mother stories, this one rates right up there.”

“There’s no how-I-met-your-anything. Jesus, she’s here for twelve weeks, and that’s only if Bette doesn’t bust ass back to work before the doctors say she can. I have no delusions about dating the poor woman, even if she’d say yes, which there’s no way in hell she would.”

Jasper pictured Emma the way she’d looked yesterday as she’d come out of Bette’s office, all flustered and blushy and looking like she’d do a dead sprint for a plane back to Florida if one happened to be waiting in the Shady Acres parking lot.

Then he pictured her in the dining room, lost but not wanting to admit it, trying to be imperious about whipped cream while he’d tried to rip his eyes away from the dimples in her cheeks.

“Why not?”

Jasper sighed. “Did you not hear the part about twelve weeks?”

“Heard it. Just choosing to ignore it.” Liam lifted his chin toward the wall-mounted glass tubes that held Jasper’s coffee beans. “Has she tasted your coffee yet?”

“No. She was too busy wearing her coffee yesterday. Thus the nake—never mind. Don’t you have a music shop to run?”

Liam looked at his watch, then shivered dramatically. “Nope. It’s lesson day at the elementary school. I’m gonna need more coffee. You haven’t lived till you’ve had thirty kids in a room playing percussion.”

“I’ll leave that to you and your imminent deafness.”

“Yep.” Liam got up and tossed five bucks on the counter. Then he pulled out a fifty and laid it beside the fiver. “Fifty bucks says you don’t have the guts to ask out the director.”

Jasper rolled his eyes. “Five hundred bucks says the same thing. But it’s not a guts issue. It’s a reality issue.”

“Pansy.”

“Smart.”

Liam put the fifty back in his pocket. “Long winter coming.”

“You and Gunnar reading from the same script this week?” Jasper sighed. “I’m not looking for a woman.”

“You might be happier with one.”

Jasper felt a familiar stab to his gut. Yeah, maybe he would. He had been, once. But that had been in another time…another life.

“Big talker. When’s the last time you had a date?”

“More recently than you,” Liam grumbled.

“Well, feel free to ask her out yourself.”

“Nah. Bro-code prevents it.”

Jasper put up his hands in consternation. “How, exactly?”

“Simple.” Liam stared at him for one beat too long, grinning, then thumped the counter with his fist as he poured the rest of his coffee into a travel mug, topping it off from the carafe. “You’ve already seen her naked.”