Dream Runner (17 page)

I don’t even know why I expected this to be easy.
Defensive, AJ raised his hands. “You’re making way too much of this. You knew that you would have to leave the hospital sooner or later—or did you plan to make this hospital room your permanent residence? Your time is up here, Marlea. Bottom line: your post-surgical follow-up will be done by another doctor, and your therapy stays with me. Meanwhile, they need the bed and you’re well enough to move on.”

Marlea toyed with a cup from her bedside table. “It would be nice to be out of here, but with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” AJ looked down at himself then back at her.

“A lot of things.” Marlea tried hard but couldn’t quite bite back her smile.

“Like what?”

“You don’t take direction very well, for one thing.” Marlea tried not to think of what she had felt the last time he touched her. A rivulet of memory teased her core, and she pressed her thumbs hard against the cup.

“I’ll try to do better, and your stay with me won’t be for long, just until we get your therapy back on track.”

“And what about when Dr. Reynolds returns?”

Not gonna happen!
AJ swallowed audibly. “I’m still only handling the therapy end of your case, and I think you’re making way more of this than you need to.”
Lord, please let her buy this before my thin lie falls apart.
Leaning against the wall, AJ tried to look cool, but it was a struggle.

“What about your wife, or your woman, or your…whoever? What will she think if you drag me home and move me in?” AJ threw his head back and laughed. Marlea pressed on. “I’m telling you right now, I’m not about to be a charity case, and I’m not trying to pay room and board by being your ‘something on the side.’” He was still laughing. “Don’t laugh. Whoever she is, she deserves better than that.”

“The only women at my house are my sister and the housekeeper. Other than that, there’s nobody.” He grinned.

“Why?”

“What do you mean?” AJ crossed his arms and stared. When she said nothing, he shook his head, amazed. “Nosy, aren’t you?”

“You just invited me to move into your home—right after my doctor ducked out without so much as a fare thee well, and you’re claiming that there are no strings attached. I have a right to know what I’m getting into, don’t I?”

“So you’re at least considering it?”

“I still don’t know why I can’t go back to my own place.”

AJ thanked a generous God for the topic change and felt his chest loosen. “Because you would be alone, and your home is not set up for your needs. How will you get up and down the stairs, or what if you fell, Marlea?”

“I guess I didn’t think of that.” Her eyes shifted, and she gave him a look that made him think of his mother. “You never answered my question,” she insisted, setting the cup aside. “Why is a man like you out here in the world all alone?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“But you won’t, ’cause I asked you first.” Sliding her hands over her legs, Marlea leaned forward as though trying to x-ray him to get to the truth.

What kind of man does she think I am?
Thinking of the little she knew of him, a couple of sadistic images ran through his head.
She probably thinks I’m some kind of…what the hell am I about to get myself into?

“I guess you could say I never met the right woman.”
That’s an understatement.
“But that has nothing to do with your making this temporary move. My house is large enough, plenty of room to safely accommodate you.”
It’s not like I can tell her about the women who used to follow the teams, or the ones that send the drawers in the mail.”
My office and a small clinic are right there, so you can’t beat it for convenience.”

“You’re dodging the question, aren’t you?”

Is it that obvious?
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yeah, right.” Marlea’s hands smoothed along the satiny track of her thighs again. “C’mon, you can tell me. Why aren’t you in a relationship? Why are you still available?”

She said the last word slowly, her teeth and tongue massaging every letter.
I SURE can’t try to explain Bianca—I don’t understand her myself
.
“I’m kind of selective. Got no babies, no baby’s mamas, and therefore no baby/mama drama. How about you?”

“I could say the same thing—pretty much.” Her eyes dropped, hiding something that they denied when they rose again. “So if I move in—just ‘til I can take care of myself again—I won’t have to deal with any drama?”

“Not unless you bring it.” He offered his hand. “Want to shake on it?” She dropped her eyes and blushed.
Now what’s up with that?
he wondered.

Her firm grip met his before he could ask.

Chapter 16

Man, look at me. I’m actin’ worse than some old lady,
AJ grinned. Strangely elated, not sure why, he headed for his jeep, feeling as if he had won something good—something real good.

I can’t believe it. She agreed to leave the hospital—with me!
He felt like an old lady again.
What the hell do I know about preparing for a lady houseguest? Whew! This is nothing like getting things together when Bianca was around. Then all I had to do was make sure that the sheets were clean, the bath salts were expensive, and that there was plenty of that champagne she likes.

He left out the part about making sure that there was money in her accounts and that her bills were paid.
And damned if I didn’t do it.
He shook his head as he walked, careful not to speak out loud. It wouldn’t do to have people thinking he had completely lost his mind.

But his thoughts still were still haunted by the bruised memory of Bianca.
Guess I was still young enough to believe in love at first sight, and falling in love with the perfect woman. Bianca looked perfect, and I fell for it.
Dench had a word for that—punked. He had a saying, too. He always said,
“Just ’cause you fall in love, you ain’t got to fall into stupid”
.

“And the boy ain’t never lied,” AJ had to admit. He had no plans for getting punked like that ever again.

But this time is different. Marlea Kellogg is nothing like Bianca Coltrane, and our situation is entirely different. She’s not my lover, though she could become a friend. In the meantime, this is about her health and business, and if I don’t make a list, I’ m sure to leave something out, and I don’t want her to be without anything.

Sitting in his jeep, he reached for his Palm Pilot and started making notes. First on the list: where to put her. Dench was in the guesthouse, but the small suite at the end of the main floor would be perfect for Marlea. She would have privacy—a bedroom, a sitting room, a bath, and she would be close to the elevator.

He scribbled the note and searched his memory for other things he knew about Marlea. Television—she didn’t like network television, but she did like videos. The kids from her school kept sending her stuff. She would need a VCR and maybe a DVD player, too. He scrawled another note. By the time he reached item eleven, he remembered where he was: the parking deck at Grady Memorial Hospital.

“Got too much to do to spend my time here, and I’ve got to get this list home.” He tossed the Palm Pilot onto the passenger seat and jammed the key into the ignition. “Mrs. Baldwin’s gonna love her,” he figured, thinking of his housekeeper. “One more body in that big house, another mouth to feed, and a mind of her own. Yep, Marlea’s her kind of girl.”

Wheeling the jeep away from the hospital and onto the highway, AJ thought of Marlea’s impact on the rest of his small household. Dench would fall in love with her because she was an athlete, a pretty athlete, even if she wasn’t on the track these days. She might not be Rissa, but she would catch and hold his buddy’s attention, for sure. And Rissa? Marlea Kellogg would be another human target for her insatiable curiosity.

Reaching to tune the CD player, AJ had to laugh
. My little sister is nosy like nobody else I’ve ever known. And to top it off, the girl’s mouth won’t hold water. She digs up the information, and then tells it as fast as she can.

She had been that way for as long as anybody could remember.

“Like when she was four and found our Christmas stuff. Couldn’t even read. She took one look at the pictures on the boxes and came running to me as fast as her little legs could carry her, told me Daddy lied to Mom. Bad enough she snooped and found the stuff Santa Claus was supposedly bringing, but then she had to put two and two together and come up with six. Since Dad told her about Santa, she figured he told Mom, too. ’Cause the toys were in the house, Daddy had to have brought them in, then lied and said Santa did it, and Rissa couldn’t wait to tell it. Lord, that child couldn’t wait to carry that tale from me to grandma and Aunt Kate, Cousin Art, and a bunch of the neighborhood kids.”

The memory was funny and good, and AJ hooted as he turned up the CD volume. Randy Crawford filled the jeep, and he pulled onto I-20 still thinking about his sister. “Man, I still remember the time she…” His ringing cellphone stopped him. Thumbing the call button, he opened his mouth to speak, but Rissa Yarborough beat him to it.

“Hey, AJ, how you doin’?” she drawled into the phone.

“I’m good. You were just on my mind,” he said, nodding to the pair of flirting redheads in the Mustang on his right.

“That’s what I like about you, brother dear. You always have a good thought.”

“I do what I can.” AJ wondered which of the red-haired women was steering the car when the driver lifted her shirt and extended a bare-breasted invitation. Declining, he raised a hand and sped up. The Mustang changed lanes behind him.

“I tried you at home, and Mrs. Baldwin said you were out. Where are you?”

Eyes on the rearview mirror, AJ caught sight of the Mustang. “I’m headed home now. You?”

“At the office. I just left the courthouse and I’m about ready to go home. That all-day mediation was rough, but we finally came to an agreement, and I filed the papers. You were just on my mind.”

AJ almost wondered what he would do if the Mustang caught up with him, but the women found a more likely target for their charms. A man’s arm emerged from the driver’s side window of a big black Expedition and waved. It looked like a done deal—so much for that.

“AJ?” Rissa’s voice was sharp, bringing her brother’s attention back to her.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Listen, I was gonna call you. I just wanted to give you a heads-up on something. I’m going to be bringing a patient home to stay for a while.”

“Today?”

“Tomorrow, more than likely. She hasn’t been released yet.”

Rissa hummed into the phone. “Why are you bringing her to the house, AJ?”

“She’s an amputee, and we’ll be working on balance and functional training.”

“Why, brother dear, did I hear you say ‘she’?” AJ could almost hear his sister’s pique. Her sharp mind was racing, looking for signals, testing for possibilities. “You’re being very…shall we say, clinical? And I really don’t want to use the word ‘circumspect,’ but it almost sounds…interesting. What’s her name?”

“Marlea. Marlea Kellogg.”

“Marlea,” Rissa repeated, trying it out. “Marlea Kellogg. Pretty name. How do you spell it?” Reaching for a pad and pen, she doodled the name as AJ spelled it, then waited a beat. “Is she going to be…interesting?”

“Rissa,” AJ laughed. “She’s an athlete, if that’s what you mean.”

“Okay, if that’s how you want to put it.” Rissa underlined the name with broad strokes. “She must be something special if you want to bring her home. How long have you known her?”

“Rissa, I barely know this woman. She’s been a patient at Grady since her accident. All I want you to do is help me make a comfortable place for her for as long as she needs it.”

“She’s been at Grady? What kind of accident?”

“Car accident. She lost a couple of toes when they had to cut her out of the car.” AJ gripped the steering wheel. No conversation was ever easy with Rissa.

“Toes?” Rissa circled the underlined name. “Are you kidding? Which toes? Is that bad?”

“It is for a runner. Messes up their balance, gait, speed, all that.”

“That’s sad, but you barely know this runner and you want to bring her to the house? Where’s her doctor?” AJ could hear her thinking and wished she would stop.

“That’s part of the problem. He’s been arrested.”

“Arrested?” Rissa’s pen slashed diagonally across the page. “What kind of mess is that? Why was he arrested, AJ? What were the charges—do you know? What’s his name? Would I know him? When was he arrested?” Rissa’s mind ticked over what she had seen and heard at work.

“You know I can’t tell you any of that.”

“No fair,” she pouted. “You can’t just tease me like that, AJ. Who’s the doctor?”

“Rissa,” he warned.

She wrote ‘doctor’ on her pad, followed by a string of question marks. “Okay. It is your house. So you’ve got it, big brother. How old is she? Does she, did she, run for a living? Where is she from? Where’s her family? How does it happen that you’re stepping in to…”

She caught herself and AJ could almost hear her asserting self-control. The questions stopped. If the woman was coming out to the house to stay, there would be plenty of time to get all the answers. She put her pen down. “It might be fun to have another woman around the house.”

“Thanks, Rissa. I knew I could count on you.” AJ aimed the jeep for the Cascade Road exit.

“Of course you can, AJ.” Rissa waited for her brother to disconnect before she hung up the phone and smiled. Leaning across her desk, she touched the intercom button. “Helen, I’m going to be leaving for the rest of the day. Please hold my calls.” Then she had another thought. Reaching for the button again, she almost changed her mind—but curiosity got the better of her. “Helen, can you get that folder together for Grady? No need for a messenger; I’ll run it over. It’s on my way.”

Glancing at her watch, she wondered about traffic. “I should be able to get there in about ten minutes. That’ll give us a couple of hours for a visit.” Collecting her Prada bag, Rissa Yarborough hit the wall switch on her way out. Grady Hospital wasn’t that far away.

* * *

She couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t sat here before. There were enough chairs in the room; she just had never thought to use one before. Yet today, this afternoon, sitting by the window and looking out at the people coming and going seemed the most natural thing in the world. The setting sun splashed light along the marble windowsill, reminding her of the passing time.
It’s nearly five o’clock and still light
, Marlea noted.
It’s still summer.
So much had happened in the last few weeks.
How can it still be summer?

A quick knock and the creaking door broke the silence in the room. Startled, Marlea turned in time to see the tall woman’s fingertips come around the edge of her door.

Stylish to a fault, the woman’s lightweight suit draped her figure to graceful perfection. Belted at her narrow waist, the jacket stopped above her hipline, and the narrow skirt stopped at her knee, revealing a pair of the best legs Marlea had ever seen on another woman.

Marlea brought her hand to the throat of her white tee shirt. Just looking at this woman made her feel totally dowdy, and she didn’t have a clue as to who she was.

“Hi, I’m Marissa Yarborough, AJ’s sister.”

“Oh,” Marlea managed.
Well, I knew she wasn’t a nurse. She kind of looks like him, though. Same eyes and mouth, but softer. But what is she doing here?
Disconcerted by Rissa’s designer suit, flawless makeup, and her short and sleek razor-cut hair, Marlea self-consciously smoothed her own hair, making a vain effort to catch the strays that had escaped her ponytail. She touched her chapped lips, wondering how she had managed to forget makeup.

Checking her appearance. She hasn’t had many visitors; doesn’t look too bad, though.
Making no effort to hide her appraisal, Rissa moved into the room, took Marlea’s hand, and forged ahead. “I hope you don’t mind my dropping in, but I thought we should meet. I talked to AJ and he told me that you would be with us for a while.”

“Only until I can get back to my own place.”

“Of course.”
Defensive,
Rissa noted, releasing Marlea’s hand.
That’s not a bad thing.
“But if we’re going to live together, we might as well get to know each other, and frankly, I’m not content to wait for AJ. So here I am.” She smiled, then looked for a chair. “You mind? I’ve been in court-ordered mediation all day, and I could use the seat.”

Politely waiting for Marlea’s nod, she turned the chair toward the window. “This is nice, kind of peaceful, you know?” Leaning back in the chair, she kicked off her shoes and grinned. “Hope you don’t mind, but since we’re going to share a house, you might as well know that when nobody’s looking, I break down, girl. I get real comfortable, real quick.”

She used the toes of one foot to massage the other, then closed her eyes and moaned with relief. When she opened her eyes, Marlea was staring.

“Oh, my goodness! Was that rude? Am I being insensitive?” Rissa’s mouth fell open and her eyes shot to Marlea’s feet. “Oh, I am so sorry. I…I don’t know what to say…”

“You pretty much just said it all.” Marlea pressed her lips together, but the smile crept around the edges. “If we’re going to live in the same house, you can’t go around apologizing every time someone says something about a shoe, or a sock, or a foot. What happened happened, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it. But I would feel a whole lot better if we didn’t have to make an issue out of it. Is that okay?”

“Fine by me.” Rissa pulled a leg beneath her in the chair. “How did it happen?”

“I honestly don’t know. Mostly all I remember is the Peachtree Road Race and being in Piedmont Park. I really don’t even remember most of that.” Marlea took a deep breath and looked out the window. “I was just sitting here marveling at the fact that it’s still summer—out there.”

“You haven’t been outside since you got here, have you?” Rissa guessed. “You are so going to love it at the house. We call it ‘the house,’ but it’s really a small estate. It sits on four acres on the southwest side of the city. There’s a pool and some other stuff, but I think you’ll like the windows and the terraces best. Lots of privacy and lots of space. Lots of places for you to get back in touch with nature and with yourself, you know? Places to catch up on some of the time you lost being here.”

“I look like I need that?”

“Yeah, you do. You look like you need a little sun, some good food, some good gossip, and a little girl time.” Rissa reached across to tuck a few more hairs behind Marlea’s ear. “Sister, I’m gonna hook you up!”

“Thanks, I think.” Marlea plucked at her hair again. “I am getting a little tired of always getting what’s supposed to be good for me in here.”