Return of the Last McKenna (Harlequin Romance) (6 page)

Kate hefted the boxes. “An angel with dessert to the rescue!
I’m always more than happy to help you all out, Mrs. White.”

The older lady waved the last words off. “You know that calling
me Mrs. White makes me feel as old as my grandmother. Call me Tabitha, Kate, and
you’ll keep me young at heart.”

Kate laughed. “Of course, Tabitha. How could I forget
that?”

“Maybe you’re getting a little old, too, my dear,” Tabitha
said, with a grin. She beckoned them to follow. They headed down the hall and
into a room decked out for a party.

A pulsing disco ball hung from the ceiling, casting the
darkened room in a rainbow of lights. Couches had been pushed against the walls,
but few people sat on them. Jazz music pulsed from the sound system, while
couples and groups of seniors danced to the tunes, some on their own, some using
walkers and canes as partners. On the far wall, sat a table laden with food and
drinks, and a wide open space waiting for dessert.

A tall elderly man with a full head of thick white hair and
twinkling blue eyes, came up to Kate as soon as she entered the room. “Miss
Kate, are you here to give me that promised dance?”

“Of course, Mr. Roberts.” She rose to her toes and bussed a
kiss onto his cheek. “Let me get dessert set up and I’ll be ready to tango.”

“Glad to hear it. Oh, and I see you brought a partner for Mrs.
Williams.” The man nodded toward Brody. “I didn’t know you had another
brother.”

“Oh, he’s not my brother.”

“A beau?” Mr. Roberts grinned and shot a wink at Brody. “That’s
wonderful, Miss Kate. You deserve a man who will treat you right.” He eyed
Brody. “You
are
going to treat her right, aren’t
you?”

Brody sputtered for an answer, but Kate saved him by putting a
hand between the men. “Oh, no, Brody’s not a beau. Just a…friend.”

Friend. The kiss of death between a man and a woman, Brody
thought. But really, did he want anything more? Brody wanted to help Kate, not
be her boyfriend.

Yet the thought of them having nothing more than a cordial
relationship left him with a sense of disappointment. A war between what he
wanted and what he should have brewed in his chest. He opted for the should
have. Help her through this bump in her business, make sure she got back on
track, that she was happy and secure again, then go back to his life. No more.
No less.

“What, are you nuts, boy? This woman is a catch and a half. If
I was thirty, okay,” Mr. Roberts winked, “fifty years younger, I’d marry her
myself.”

“Mr. Roberts, you are an incorrigible flirt.”

“Keeps me young.” He grinned. “And keeps the ladies around here
on their toes.”

“Speaking of people on their toes,” Kate said, “I better get
dessert on the table before dinner is served.”

She and Brody headed across the room, and started loading the
cupcakes onto the waiting trays. A flock of eager and hungry partygoers lingered
to the side, waiting for them to finish. Several people greeted Kate by name,
and raved about her cupcakes. When she and Brody were done, they stowed the
empty boxes under the table, and stepped to the side.

“Tabitha wasn’t kidding.” Brody glanced around the room.
“People are dying for those cupcakes. I think if we waited any longer, you’d
have had a riot on your hands.”

Kate laughed. “It’s that way every month. I donate dessert for
the Senior Shindig, and people are always already lined up to get one, sometimes
before I even get here.”

“That’s because everyone here loves your desserts, and you,”
Brody said.

She brushed the bangs off her forehead and watched the
residents shimmy to a fifties be-bop tune. “This place has always had a tender
spot in my heart. Bringing the dessert for their events has sort of become a
family tradition. When Andrew and I were kids, my grandparents used to bake for
them. My great grandparents, Nora’s parents, lived here, and from the beginning,
the shop donated treats. On the weekends, Andrew and I would help deliver the
cupcakes. The residents got to know us and we got to know them. We’ve cried when
people have passed away, celebrated when they hit milestones, and helped them
weather storms whenever we could.”

“Weather storms?”

She leaned against the wall, while her gaze scanned the room.
“This place was started by a husband and wife team who wanted to provide a
low-cost but really nice option for retirees who needed a caring place to live.
Because of that, it’s faced some financial challenges, so my brother and I
followed in my grandparent’s footsteps, and over the years, we donated our time
and talents to help them out. As a result, a lot of these residents are…well,
friends. Sort of an extended family.”

All in keeping with the jovial, caring hero that Brody had met
in Afghanistan. A young man who would put his life in front of another’s without
thinking twice. Kate possessed those same admirable traits. Brody’s esteem for
her rose several notches, and so, too, did his connection with her. He could see
some of the same spirit that had driven him into medicine, shining in her eyes
as she took in the room. Kate was what Brody’s grandmother would call a “good
soul,” the kind of woman who put others ahead of herself. “So you’re not just
the baker, but the dance partner as well?”

She laughed. “I like coming here. The residents remind me of
what’s important and what I get to look forward to.”

“You’re looking forward to the days of walkers and canes and
wheelchairs?”

“In a way, yes. I mean, look at them.” She waved toward the
people around them. “These truly are their golden years. These are people who
are happy and content with who they are. They’ve achieved their goals, realized
their dreams, for the most part, and now they want to enjoy their lives. If a
red devil cupcake can help in that a little bit, I’m more than happy to bake a
few dozen.”

“But doesn’t that put you behind on your other work?”

“Some work,” Kate said, her voice soft while she watched the
crowd of people move about the room, “pays so much more than money. That’s what
Andrew always said, and it’s true.”

“I agree.” Brody watched the happy faces of the residents as
they greeted Kate, complimented the cupcakes. “That’s how I feel about working
in medicine. It’s not about the money—and the medical mission work is all
volunteer, so there’s no money there at all, it’s about the return on my time.
The satisfaction at the end of the day is—”

“Priceless.” She turned to him and smiled. “Then that’s
something we have in common.”

He could feel the thread extending in the space between them,
interlocking him more and more every minute with Kate Spencer. “It is
indeed.”

They were bonding, he realized, doing the very thing he had
told himself not to do. But a part of Brody couldn’t resist this intriguing
woman who blushed at compliments and gave of her heart to so many around
her.

Mr. Roberts stepped up to Kate and put out his arm. Just as she
put her hand on the older man’s arm, the perky elderly woman who had greeted
them at the door sidled up to Brody. “Care to dance, young man? I hope you know
the foxtrot.”

“Be careful.” Kate laid a hand on Brody’s. “Tabitha can cut a
rug better than Ginger Rogers.”

“Now don’t say that, Kate,” the other lady said. “You’ll scare
off my dancing partner.”

“I’m not much of a dancer.” Brody offered up a sheepish grin.
“That’s my brother Riley’s department.”

“You’re young and you have your original hips,” Tabitha said.
“That’s good enough for me. Come on, honey, let’s show those young kids we can
outdance them.” She took his hand and led him to the floor, followed by Kate and
Mr. Roberts. The music shifted to a slow paced waltz, and Brody put out a hand
and an arm to Tabitha. The older lady slipped into the space with a very young
giggle, and they were off, stepping around the room with ease.

He tried to keep his attention on the chatty woman in his arms,
but Brody’s gaze kept straying to Kate. She laughed at something Mr. Roberts
said, her head thrown back, that wild mane of rich dark brown hair cascading
down her shoulders, swinging across his back, begging to be touched. Her lithe
body swung from step to step, a sure sign she’d danced dozens of times before.
As she danced a circle with Mr. Roberts, the people in the room said hello,
thanked her for the cupcakes, and each one received a kind word or a friendly
smile in return.

Too often, Brody had seen business people who cared about
dollars and cents, not about people. Kate had that unique combination of heart
and grace, coupled with killer baking skills. He admired that about her. He
admired a lot about her, in fact.

Mr. Roberts swung Kate over to the space beside Brody, then
sent a wink Tabitha’s way. “Hey, Tabby, isn’t it partner
change
time?”

“Partner change time?” The other woman gave him a blank look,
paused, then a slow, knowing nod. “Oh, yes, of course. Partner change time.
Thanks for the dance, kiddo.” She stepped out of Brody’s arms and into Mr.
Roberts’s, leaving Kate standing on the floor.

She laughed and watched the older couple spin away. “Not
exactly subtle, are they?”

“About as subtle as a bull horn.” Until that moment, Brody
hadn’t realized how much he had been waiting for an opportunity to dance with
Kate. To feel her in his arms, instead of watching her in another’s. This woman
had intrigued him, captivated him, and even as he told himself this was a
bad idea
on a hundred levels, he put out his arms.
“Shall we, partner?”

“I think we shall.” She stepped into the circle created by his
embrace, and they began to move together to the music. The big band sounds
swirled in the air around them, as other couples whooshed back and forth in a
flurry of colors and low conversations.

As they danced, the other people in the room disappeared, the
lights narrowed their focus, and every ounce of Kate’s attention honed in on
Brody. She could have been dancing on the moon and wouldn’t have noticed a
thirty-foot crater underfoot. Her heart beat in rhythm with the steps, and her
body tuned to his hand pressed to the small of her back, the warmth of his palm
against hers, the way his dark woodsy cologne wrapped around them in a tempting
cloud. She could see the slight five o’clock shadow on his chin, watch the
movement of his lips with each breath, and she wondered how it would feel if he
kissed her.

Working through some stuff.

That was what he had given as his reason for wanting to help
her. Kate wanted to ask, to probe, to find out what had caused the shadows in
his eyes. What he wasn’t telling her—and what had been in all those odd comments
that he’d never explained. But Kate Simpson didn’t want anyone asking about the
shadows in her own eyes, so she sure as heck wasn’t going to ask about his.

And that meant not letting one dance distract her, or wrap her
in a spell. She’d stick to business only. Period.

“Thank you again for dinner and for helping me with the
delivery tonight,” she said.

“I wasn’t a bad cupcake transporter?” he asked as he turned her
to the right, exerting a slight bit of pressure to help her move. How she wanted
to lean into that touch, but she didn’t.

She knew better than to try to step up and solve another man’s
problems. To be the shoulder he cried on, the heart he leaned on, only to leave
her alone in the end when he returned to his busy life. How many times had she
seen her mother crying, alone? How many times had she heard their fights,
watched the destruction of their marriage a little at a time? She’d come close
herself to repeating that mistake with her last boyfriend, and had no intentions
of doing that again.

“Not bad at all,” she said.

“Thanks.” He chuckled. “It’s always nice to have a back up
career, should there ever be a sudden need for cupcake transportation throughout
the greater Massachusetts area.”

She laughed. The song had come to an end, and they broke apart,
and made their way to where the parquet met carpet, carving out a corner of the
room for themselves, apart from the others. Despite her reservations, and her
determination to keep things platonic, she liked Brody. Liked spending time with
him. He had a wit that could coax a laugh out of her on her worst day, a smile
that made her forget her stress, and eyes that inspired all kind of other
thoughts that had nothing to do with work.

It might not be so bad to have him around, particularly when
the days got long and her thoughts drifted toward Andrew, and she found herself
ready to cry. Her brother, she knew, wouldn’t want her to do that, but getting
past the loss was far from easy.

Easier, though, when Brody was around, she’d found. Maybe it
wouldn’t be so bad to have him in her kitchen for a time. “If you want to learn
the baking business, I’d be a fool to turn down free help. Especially sort of
experienced free help.”

Brody nodded toward Mr. Roberts and Tabitha, who were watching
from the sidelines. Tabitha sent up a little wave. “I do come with the
recommendations of Tabitha. Wait, that was just for my dancing skills. Is there
a lot of call for dancing in your bakery?”

“Not so much, but I’m sure we can figure something out.” She
put out her hand. “Just remember—in the cupcake operating room, I’m the one in
charge.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned, then took her hand and when they
shook, the warm connection sent a tremor through Kate’s veins.

She dropped his hand and vowed that no matter what, the only
thing she’d be cooking up in her kitchen over the next few days was dessert. Not
a relationship with a handsome doctor. She could see in his eyes, in those
shadows and in his soft words, that he needed someone.

And the one thing Kate vowed never to be again was the kind of
person who filled that gap. To be a temporary pillow before the man returned to
his driven life and discarded her like a forgotten towel on the floor. Because
her heart was already scarred and one more blow would surely damage it
forever.