Back in the Bachelor's Arms

But as long as she was in Northbridge, as long as he was in the situation he’d discovered when he’d arrived home last night, he’d rather have a temporary coexistence with Chloe that was amicable. And in order for it to be amicable, he knew he had to rise above his old wounds and make the best of things as they were right now.

“Hey. What’re you doing up so early?”

Reid’s brother surprised him from behind and Reid turned to find Luke obviously just out of bed, padding in on bare feet from the bedrooms down the hall.

“You won’t believe it when I tell you,” Reid responded, leaning one shoulder against the cold glass.

“The snow? It was falling before I went to sleep,” Luke said with a nod towards the big plate glass window that was bracing Reid’s weight.

“Not the snow. What the snow brought in with it.”

“Yeah? What did the snow bring in with it?” Luke asked.

“Chloe Carmichael,” Reid said as if he were dropping a bomb.

Bomb enough to wake up Luke. His eyes opened wide beneath arched brows and for a moment he was gape-jawed before he said, “Chloe Carmichael? She’s here? In Northbridge?”

Reid inclined his head at the window, too. “Not only in Northbridge. She’s across the street. Apparently staying at the house.”

Luke grimaced and let out an expletive as he joined Reid to look out at their soon-to-be rental property.

If Luke had been expecting to see signs of Chloe he was disappointed. There weren’t any to see. Which prompted him to say, “How do you know?”

“She ended up in my emergency room at midnight after hitting a telephone pole.”

“Was she hurt?”

“No,” Reid said. “Scrapes and bruises, but that’s it. At least I hope that’s it. I didn’t do as thorough an exam as I probably should have.”

“I need coffee,” Luke said as if he were suddenly desperate for the stuff and headed for the kitchen that was through an archway to the rear of the living room.

Reid finally gave up the spot he’d maintained at the window for nearly an hour and followed his brother, refilling his own mug once Luke had poured his. Then they both sat on vinyl chairs at the chrome and Formica kitchen table that had been in their mother’s basement for decades before they’d confiscated it for use in their own place.

“You’re not going to get sued for malpractice, are you?” Luke asked then.

“I’m reasonably sure she was okay.”

“And she’s at the house?”

“Surprise!”

“I guess. Did you tell her we were working on it?”

Betty, the Realtor, had given them the okay and the key. Betty had explained to them that Chloe had made it clear she didn’t want to be bothered with anything to do with the house or the sale. She’d given Betty written permission to hire any workmen of Betty’s choosing to do the necessary repairs and replacements to facilitate the process.

Betty had given Reid and Luke the option of doing the work themselves so that it was done to their specifications. She’d said that she was killing two birds with one stone—Chloe would have less expense because Reid and Luke would not charge for labor, and Reid and Luke would have things done the way they wanted, and in time for their renters to move right in after the closing.

Betty had warned them that they could be taking a risk, that if the sale didn’t go through for some reason their time could be wasted. But since no one doubted that the deal would close, Reid and Luke had decided to take that risk.

“I didn’t say anything about the house,” Reid told his brother. “I wasn’t really…nice.”

Luke frowned. “How not-nice were you? Like not-nice enough that Chloe might pull out of the deal?”

“She wants to sell. I doubt she’ll nix it just because I was unfriendly.” Unfriendly in the extreme—but Reid didn’t see any reason to worry his brother by elaborating. “Besides, we have a contract and the downpayment is in escrow—she can’t back out just because I was a little…disagreeable.”

“Not nice, unfriendly and disagreeable,” Luke said as if Reid was alarming him anyway.

“Let’s just say that I wasn’t particularly neighborly,” Reid amended. “For instance, I probably should have asked where she was staying and offered to drive her since her car was out of commission from the accident, but—”

“You didn’t.”

“No. Instead, Molly stepped in and offered her a lift, and then it was like some kind of caravan because there we were, the only two cars on the road, me driving right behind them until we got here. Where I pulled into our driveway and Molly let Chloe off across the street—”

“So that’s how you know she’s over there.”

“Right. We ended up in some kind of synchronized arrival, walked up to the front doors at the same time, opened them, looked over at each other and then went in and closed the doors as if we didn’t even know each other. Molly must have thought I was crazy and it’s a good thing she didn’t have to go out of her way to get here or I would have felt bad about her driving in the snow when it ended up that I could easily have brought Chloe with me.”

“But Molly’s been in town only a few months. She doesn’t know anything about you and Chloe Carmichael.”

“She knew something was up. She couldn’t have missed it at the hospital.”

Luke nodded. “Why is Chloe here? Betty said she was firm about not wanting to come in for the closing and even that isn’t until a week from today.”

“I don’t know why she’s here. I stuck strictly to the medical stuff.”

“You didn’t ask why she was here and you didn’t even know she planned to stay at the house until you saw her go in?”

“Yeah, I know, those were probably things I should have gotten into. But I didn’t. I wasn’t in the mood.” Plus none of it had occurred to him until he’d seen her go into the house across the street because at the hospital he’d been so wrapped up in old resentments and anger that he hadn’t been able to think about anything except what touching her had done to him….

“How’s she look?” Luke asked then as if he’d read Reid’s mind.

“Freaking fantastic,” Reid blurted out before he even realized he was going to admit it.

It made Luke laugh but only barely before he caught himself. “What did you expect if you ever saw her again? That she would’ve grown warts?”

“Warts are no more than she deserved,” Reid muttered, hating that the simple question about how Chloe looked put her image right back into his head again after he’d fought numerous times through the night to get it out.

Damn her, anyway, for not having warts. For looking even better in full view than she had through the gap in the privacy curtain. For that gleaming black hair that waved around her alabaster skin like a picture frame. For those take-a-second-glance features that made her cute and striking and amazingly beautiful depending on her expression. For those straight white teeth and that smile—that smile that had shown itself only nervously last night—that was still bright enough to light a dark room. For those eyes that were the color of freshly washed summer blueberries. For that tight, compact little body on that barely five-foot-two-inch frame and those smallish breasts that had been the first ones he’d ever felt….

Just damn her, anyway, for haunting him!

“Okay, so she looks good,” Luke said then. “Was she as unfriendly to you as you were to her?”

“No. I was the only jerk in the room. She was fine. Not thrilled with me being her doctor, but what else can you expect?”

“So she was nice enough and you were still a jerk?”

“Yep.”

Luke shrugged. “Well, she does have some of that coming. I just wish it had come after the closing instead of before we get there. She didn’t give you any idea why she’s here?”

“I don’t think it’s for old times’ sake,” Reid snapped.

“What do we do now? Call Betty, have her go over and talk to Chloe? Smooth whatever feathers you might have ruffled?”

Reid already knew what he had to do. As a doctor and as a man. So he was prepared for that question and shook his head.

“I’ll wait for a decent hour and then I’m going to have to go myself. I need to make sure she’s still okay from the accident. I’ll apologize for not having my party face on last night, and maybe that’ll smooth any ruffled feathers.”

Luke didn’t jump at that solution. Instead his concerns now were obviously for Reid.

“Can you do that? Are you sure you want to?”

“I think I have to,” Reid admitted quietly. “For the sake of the sale, the renters and myself. I didn’t like me much last night.”

Luke nodded as if he understood. “It couldn’t have been easy for you to see her again. I know you had doubts about whether or not you wanted to live across the street from the Carmichaels’ old place fourteen months ago, and more doubts now about buying their old place. I know that I had to twist your arm to even get you in that door again when it came on the market.”

“No, it wasn’t easy to see Chloe again. Especially when I didn’t expect it and wasn’t prepared,” Reid acknowledged at least that much of what his brother had said. “But she’s here, we’re all tied up with the house and the sale and her as a result, and I’ll do what I have to. Besides, like I said, I’d better make sure she’s okay health-wise and that I didn’t miss something in the exam last night.”

“You’re sure? I mean, I know I took off work last week to play carpenter but I might be able to arrange something for this week, too, if you just can’t face her.”

Reid shook his head. “Last week was vacation-with-pay. If you took off this week, too, you’d have to do it on your own dime and I know you can’t afford that. Especially now, with this new mortgage hanging over our heads. Plus there’s my substitute coming in from Billings who would have to be compensated for his time and trouble and the trip here even if I have him turn around and go back. And I’m really not so spineless that I can’t face an old girlfriend.”

“I never said you were spineless. I don’t know if I could be anything but a bastard to Chloe Carmichael if I were in your shoes. And she was more than just an old girlfriend to you.”

“Still, I’ll do what needs to be done to get to the closing on the house. I’ll make sure I’m not in line for a malpractice suit, and then hopefully whatever Chloe came to Northbridge for won’t keep her here long. With any luck she’ll get the hell out of town before we know it, and I won’t ever have to see her again for the rest of my life—that’s the incentive.”

Luke didn’t seem convinced. “And you don’t have any feelings for her?”

“Only bad ones,” Reid said without hesitation.

And he counted as bad feelings the stirring he’d felt when he’d touched her and the fact that the revised mental picture of her had somehow etched itself indelibly on his brain.

Because in no way were they things he wanted to experience.

Chloe was not operating at top speed Monday morning. Car accident. Encountering Reid Walker. Having even a cursory physical exam performed by him. Finding when the nurse drove her home that Reid lived directly across the street. Having to clean the upstairs bathroom before she could use it. Needing to turn the mattress on the double bed in her room before covering it with two mattress pads, clean sheets, blanket and pillows she’d brought with her in order to be comfortable using things that had been the domain of college students for many years. And then having images of Reid climbing into that bed with her. All together it hadn’t made for a restful night’s sleep. Or for a relaxing lounge in bed when she’d awakened.

No, she was up by 7:20 a.m. to discover that her entire body was very stiff—no doubt a side effect of the accident.

The stiffness eased when she moved around though. And she did that because it had been so late when she’d arrived that she hadn’t explored all that was going on in the house. And she wanted to.

The living room was nearly finished being painted. There was a roll of new carpeting against a wall, waiting to be laid. Drapes had disappeared. The furniture her parents had left so the place could be considered furnished was gone. And only a single pole lamp with a bare bulb stood in one corner to provide some light after dark.

Luckily the new locks were merely near the front door and hadn’t yet been installed or she wouldn’t have been able to get in.

The first-floor bathroom had a new sink and toilet installed and had also been painted, as had the two bedrooms upstairs, where the carpeting had been removed and the hardwood floors refinished.

The kitchen was apparently next—and last—on the agenda once the living room was completed because there were tarps, rolls of masking tape and cans of paint waiting. Boxes of ceramic tile were also stacked in the corner to replace the linoleum and the backsplash, and the refrigerator was stocked with nothing but beer and soda.

And everywhere there were remnants of construction and cleanup that had apparently been left for the end with foam coffee cups, soda cans and beer bottles set here and there and forgotten.

Like finding Reid Walker to be her emergency room doctor, the house was not what Chloe had expected, and once she knew what was underway, she called her Realtor.

Betty.

Of course Betty was stunned to learn that Chloe had come into town. Why wouldn’t she be when Chloe had been adamant about not wanting any involvement in what was going on here?

“I was surprised to find the extent of the work already done and in progress on the house, though,” Chloe told the other women after explaining why she’d decided to see what was in the attic before paying to have it all shipped to Arizona.

“I’ve been e-mailing you step by step and you’ve authorized the cost of the materials,” Betty said.

“I guess I just wasn’t keeping track.” Probably because she’d wanted to dispense of anything that brought Northbridge to mind as quickly as possible, paying as little attention to it as she could manage, and then forgetting about it. “But I know I told you the maximum I was willing to spend on this and after seeing the extent of the work I’m a little worried that you aren’t staying within my budget.”

“All the work was necessary—as I told you when we spoke before, years of renters had taken a toll on the place. But we’ll actually come in under your budget because with Luke and Reid doing the work there aren’t any labor charges.”

“Luke and Reid are doing the work? You didn’t tell me that!”

“I did. I’ve kept copies of all my e-mails to you and that was one of the first. You didn’t answer it, but I thought that since you’d left it to me to choose whatever handymen or workmen were required, you didn’t care and didn’t feel the need to respond.”

Betty went on to explain the advantages of the arrangement to all parties but Chloe only heard it peripherally. Her mind was stalled on one thing: Reid Walker was doing the work on the house.

It was only when Betty began to talk about how Reid had taken vacation time this week to finish the job that Chloe tuned in again.

“He’ll be here? All week? While I’m here?” she demanded of the Realtor.

Harshly, apparently, because Betty stopped short and there was only silence on the other end of the line for a long moment.

And when Betty spoke again her tone was cool and clipped. “Yes, Reid is scheduled to be there all week. Which I would have been happy to tell you had you let me know you were coming into town and intended to stay at the house. But you were very clear about how much you didn’t want to be anywhere near here.”

That was true. And that had been her intention. And because she’d wanted to simply slip into town without drawing any attention to herself she hadn’t informed her Realtor.

“Can that be changed?” Chloe asked then. “Reid working on the house this week? Can I say no?”

“Well, of course that would be your prerogative but it would hardly be fair to—”

The doorbell rang just then.

Chloe wanted to scream with frustration. But she knew this was all her fault. Her own fault for not having paid close attention to Betty’s e-mails. For not having let the Realtor know she was coming to Northbridge.

And screaming wouldn’t accomplish anything and neither was this phone call.

“Someone is at the door. I’ll just deal with this,” Chloe said, cutting off the guilt-trip the woman was laying on her, and hanging up so she could move to the door.

Chloe hadn’t showered yet. She hadn’t done anything with her hair since getting up, so the ponytail she’d put it in before going to bed was lopsided and spilling strands of hair. She was wearing what she’d slept in—a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt that weren’t revealing in the slightest, but that also weren’t what she wanted to be wearing to answer the door.

On the second ring of the bell, however, she realized there was nothing she could do about her appearance and answered it anyway.

To find Reid, who was standing on the front porch holding two steaming cups of coffee.

He held one of them aloft and said, “Truce?”

“Are we at war?” Chloe asked, trying not to notice how good he looked standing there in a pair of ancient jeans and a plain white crew-necked T-shirt under a jean jacket.

There was more form to him dressed in those clothes than had been in evidence in his hospital scrubs the night before and she couldn’t help noticing that his shoulders were broader and more muscular than they had been years ago. His biceps seemed to fill his jacket sleeves to capacity.

His chest was expansive beneath the T-shirt, narrowing to a waist and hips that were taut and toned, easing into thighs massive enough not to leave any spare room in those jeans.

Plus, unless she was mistaken, he was a couple of inches taller than the six feet he’d sported at eighteen. All of which made him very imposing, coffee-truce in hand or no coffee-truce.

“I don’t want to be at war, no,” he was saying in answer to her question as she forced her attention away from cataloguing the attributes of the man’s body that were vastly improved over that of the boy’s. “But I think I sort of mounted the first attack last night, so I wouldn’t blame you if you’re arming yourself for the second.”

Chloe considered how to handle this. He might have had the advantage the night before but it was on her side now. She could take it and give him a taste of his own medicine, or she could choose the high ground.

But being in Northbridge, in the same house, seeing him again, was bad enough. Fighting with him would only make it worse. So she decided on the high ground.

“I’ll take the coffee,” she said, reaching for the cup.

“Can we talk?” he asked as she took her first sip.

A slight frown beetled his brow but this time she didn’t think for even a moment that he was referring to talking about what had happened fourteen years ago. Instead she was reasonably certain the house and what was going on with it was more what he had in mind.

Chloe stepped out of the way of the door as an invitation. “Looks like we’d better,” she said, pointedly glancing at the disarray of the living room that the front door opened into.

Reid accepted the invitation, closing the door behind himself. When he had, he nodded in the same direction. “Luke and I have been working on the place.”

“So I understand. I just got off the phone with Betty. She tells me you plan to work here all week.”

“Yeah, that was the plan.”

“And since you saw me get dropped off here last night you thought maybe you should be a little nicer to me so I’d agree to let you go through with it.”

“Actually, no,” he said very matter-of-factly. “When I saw Molly drop you off here last night I went in and kicked the couch and cussed for a while. It wasn’t until after that that I decided—and not because of the remodel plan, but for other reasons—that I needed to come over this morning and start again. So, let me do that by backing up and asking if you’re okay. Physically.”

“I’m fine.”

“Seriously? Because I can’t say that was the best exam I’ve ever done and by now the doc from Billings who’s filling in for me this week should be at the hospital. He could do a recheck. I wouldn’t have to have anything to do with it.”

“Seriously, I’m fine. I was stiff when I got out of bed, but even that’s better.”

“No bruises that appeared overnight? No abdominal pain? No nausea? No headache or neckache? No difficulty breathing when you went to bed or going up or down the stairs? No—”

“No nothing. I’m fine and I don’t need the Billings doctor to confirm that. I was probably not even going ten miles an hour when I hit that pole. If the cop hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t have gone in to a hospital at all.”

Reid nodded slowly, as if he wanted to believe her reassurance but was still skeptical.

Then he said, “If you’re absolutely sure you’re all right, then it’s a relief. I’m ordinarily not that lousy a doctor.”

“You were pretty lousy,” Chloe couldn’t resist confirming just because it was obviously bothering him and she thought she’d earned at least that much retribution for his bad attitude the previous evening.

“And,” he continued, “I should have asked where you were staying, I should have offered you a ride to wherever you needed to go. I was a jerk.”

“Yes, you were.”

“But this isn’t easy for me. You have to know that.”

“It isn’t easy for me, either,” she countered quietly, somberly.

That seemed to bring about a stalemate and silence reigned for longer than Chloe was comfortable with.

When she got too uncomfortable, she ended it.

“So, you’re really needing to work here this week,” she said to get back on the track they were both better able to deal with.

“I’m afraid I do. Northbridge has some support medical staff, but I’m the only doctor in town. I don’t get a lot of vacations and when I do take one, it’s complicated and really tough to back out on after everything has been set into motion. And our renters really need to get in as soon as it’s humanly possible, and we’ve promised that the minute we close the place it will be ready for them. I know it’s inconvenient for you, but Betty didn’t say anything about you coming—”

“Betty didn’t know.”

“Well, we’re in a bind.”

Guess you shouldn’t have been so contrary to me…

It was on the tip of Chloe’s tongue but she didn’t say it. After all, his scorn of the night before wasn’t altogether uncalled for. And if accommodating the work he needed to get done on the house would put that scorn and contempt in check so she didn’t have to deal with it while she was in Northbridge, she knew it was for the best.

“It looks like you’d be mainly working downstairs,” she said with a question in her tone.

“I would be.”

“I suppose I should have let Betty know I’d decided to do it, but I came to go through the stuff in the attic. I need to know what should be moved and what can just be thrown out. But with you down here and me up there, there would be a whole floor between us so maybe we wouldn’t get in each other’s way.”

“We probably wouldn’t.”

“I guess it might be okay,” she finally concluded, sounding hesitant, but less hesitant than she felt.

“I appreciate that,” he said. Although getting what he wanted seemed to be double-edged.

Then he added, “If you are feeling all right, I’ll leave and give you a little breathing room to get your day started. There are some supplies I need to pick up at the hardware store and I won’t be losing much time if I come back in a couple of hours.”

“That would be good,” Chloe said.

“Okay then.”

Reid hadn’t moved more than a few steps from the door and he retraced those steps to open it again.

But before he went outside, he hesitated and glanced back at her from over one big, broad shoulder. “You’re sure you don’t have any signs of physical problems from the accident?”

“Positive.”

He nodded but his gaze remained on her anyway for another moment before he actually did go out and close the door behind him.