Chapter 15 #2
She stumbled out of bed, struggled into a thick chenille robe from her walk-in closet and staggered down the hall to the bathroom.
Assiduously avoiding her haggard reflection, she opened the medicine cabinet and rummaged around for the flu medication she’d dispensed to her mother less than a week ago.
To her dismay, the bottle was almost empty.
She unscrewed the cap anyway and chugged down the remaining cherry-flavored syrup, then tossed away the container with a disgusted, “Blech.”
She couldn’t afford to be sick. She had way too much to do, such as work on her case brief, outline her class notes, wash two loads of laundry. Oh, and devise the perfect scheme to seduce Caleb Thorne. She couldn’t seduce anyone looking like she belonged in a cold medicine commercial.
Since it was Saturday, her doctor’s office was closed, which meant she wouldn’t be able to get a prescription for Tamiflu until Monday.
In the meantime, she’d have to run to the store and buy more flu medicine.
But as she leaned over the bathtub to turn on the shower faucet, her head spun dizzily.
With a groan, she sank weakly onto the edge of the clawfoot tub and dropped her aching head in her hands.
She was in no condition to walk or drive anywhere.
When the dizziness had passed, she got up and shuffled back to her bedroom, where she crawled under the covers and fell asleep once again.
Three hours later she awakened feeling worse than before. Having no other choice, she reached for her phone on the nightstand.
“Janie?” she croaked when her sister-in-law answered on the second ring. “Sorry to bother you, but I need a huge favor.”
Janie arrived an hour later bearing an armload of groceries and a steaming pot of tortilla soup.
She whisked into the house using her spare key and headed straight for the kitchen, tsk-tsking at the piteous sight of Daniela curled up on the living room sofa dressed in her bathrobe, her hair in wild disarray.
“I’m gonna have to start charging your family a co-pay,” Janie teased.
Daniela made a face, pushing slowly to her feet and trailing her sister-in-law into the kitchen. She slumped into a chair at the breakfast table while Janie set down the grocery bag, then fished out a bottle of flu medicine and passed it to Daniela.
“Oh, God bless you.” When Daniela had swallowed four teaspoonfuls of the nasty but effective goop, she shook her head at the pot of tortilla soup now warming on the stove. “What, you always have a fresh batch on hand to feed the sick?”
Janie grinned, walking back to the table. “But of course.” She laid the back of her hand against Daniela’s forehead. “Yup, you’ve definitely got it,” she announced with a grimace. “You’re burning up.”
Daniela scowled. “Why haven’t you caught it?” she demanded, half accusingly. “You spent just as much time with my mom as I did when she had the flu.”
“I don’t get sick,” Janie stated matter-of-factly, pouring orange juice into a tall frosted glass and handing it to Daniela. “I have ‘Mommy Immunity.’ Looking after the twins through all their early childhood illnesses helped build my resistance to viruses.”
Daniela took a small sip of juice, wincing as it hit the back of her sore throat. She set the glass aside. “Speaking of KJ and Lourdes, where are they?”
“With my parents. I dropped them off on my way over here. Mom and Dad are taking the twins to Dave and Buster’s this afternoon, so they were both pretty excited about that.
But you’ll be happy to know that your niece and nephew stopped celebrating long enough to send you their love and wish you a speedy recovery.
And Mom provided the tortilla soup, much as I’d like to take credit for it. ”
Daniela smiled wanly. “Your mother is too good to me.”
“No kidding. She adores you. Every time I see her, she asks me what’s wrong with the men of our generation, allowing a smart, beautiful girl like you to remain single.
And then she just looks at me with an indignant expression on her face, as if she fully expects me to answer on behalf of all men between the ages of twenty-one and forty. ”
“No twenty-one-year-olds,” Daniela grumbled. “I have a hard enough time dealing with men my own age.” She wrinkled her nose. “Most of the guys in my law classes are twenty-five or younger, yet they seem like they’re still stuck in high school. So freaking immature.”
Janie laughed, stirring the soup on the front burner. The fragrant aroma of chicken, onion and cilantro filled the room, a scent Daniela would have welcomed any other day. Today it only made her nauseous.
Janie turned, and seeing Daniela’s sickly expression, frowned sympathetically. “Go lie down on the sofa. I’ll bring you a cup of chamomile tea.”
Daniela obeyed, and a few minutes later Janie carried a silver serving tray into the living room and set it down on the cedar coffee table. Daniela emerged from beneath a thick comforter to accept a steaming cup of tea.
“I’m really sorry for stealing your Saturday like this,” she murmured, taking a grateful sip of the hot, soothing brew.
“Girl, please,” said Janie, waving a dismissive hand.
“Even if you hadn’t called, I still would have dropped the twins over at my parents’ house.
And then I would have gone back home and cleaned the house, washed and folded laundry, sorted clothes to be donated to the Salvation Army, putted around in the garden and maybe grabbed a power nap before picking up the twins this evening.
” Her smile was overly bright. “As you can see, it’s not like you interrupted any exciting plans. ”
“Where’s Kenny?” Daniela asked quietly.
“Where else? At the office catching up on paperwork. He left first thing this morning and said he probably wouldn’t be back until dinnertime.”
Daniela fell silent, hearing the pain in her sister-in-law’s voice, a pain she’d tried to conceal from the rest of the family for years.
But everyone knew that Janie and Kenneth were unhappy, that their marriage was in trouble and had been for a very long time.
Gone was the carefree couple who’d fallen madly in love when their eyes met across a crowded dance floor one night, the couple who’d once shared such sizzling chemistry that anyone within a fifty-foot radius felt singed by it.
That couple had been replaced by two polite strangers who shared a big, beautiful house and parenting duties, and not much more.
No one could pinpoint when the change in their relationship had occurred, though Daniela had her own suspicions.
“I need a favor from you.”
The quiet request interrupted Daniela’s grim musings. Her eyes snapped to Janie’s face. “Anything,” she said quickly. “Just name it.”
Janie stirred sugar into her tea, then lifted the cup and took a sip. She swallowed carefully, then pinned Daniela with a resolute look. “I want you to help me get a job at the agency.”
Daniela’s brows furrowed together. “At Roarke Investigations?” At Janie’s nod, her confusion grew. “Sure, but…what kind of job?”
“Noah tells me you’re going to have another vacancy for the secretary position.”
Daniela nodded, grimacing. “We’ve had shitty luck so far. The first one we hired called in sick every week, the second one couldn’t type a lick, and now…” She trailed off suddenly, gaping at Janie. “Wait a minute! Are you saying you want to be our new secretary?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
Daniela blinked, nonplussed. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, lifting a hand to her forehead. “I think this fever is starting to make me delirious. I’m hearing the strangest things.”
Janie chuckled. “You’re not delirious, El, and you heard me right. I want you guys to hire me.”
“Why?”
“Why not? This is a family business, isn’t it? Besides, you said it yourself. You’ve had the worst luck with the people you’ve hired so far. What’ve you got to lose by taking a chance on me?”
Daniela rolled her eyes. “I’m not worried about your competence, Janie. You have an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, for God’s sake.”
“And while I earned my stripes,” Janie interjected, “I made coffee, answered phones, typed memos, created spreadsheets, filed papers and did anything else the senior managers demanded. And let me tell you, they were very demanding.”
“They’ve got nothing on Kenny,” Daniela said. “Speaking of your husband, do you really think he’s going to agree to having you as our secretary? He’s the one who insisted that you stay home with the twins in the first place. How’s he going to feel about you returning to the workforce?”
Janie made a face. “Now that the twins are in school and involved in so many extracurricular activities, we both know they don’t need me around nearly as much as they used to.
Besides, I could arrange my schedule so that I come into the office early, then leave early enough to pick them up from school. We can make it work.”
Daniela chuckled dryly. “I’m not the one you need to convince. Your husband is, and something tells me he’ll never go for it.”
Janie sat forward in the armchair. “He will if you ask him.”
“What do I have to do with this?”
“You’re the only one he’ll listen to.”
“What!” Daniela exclaimed. “Okay, this time I’m definitely hearing things. Since when does Kenneth Roarke listen to anyone but himself?”
Janie smiled cryptically. “I know you may find it hard to believe, El, but Kenny does value your opinion. Whenever something happens in the family, he’s always worried about what you’ll say or think or do.
Oh, he tries to pretend otherwise, tries to put up a macho front.
But I know better. He cares what you think of him. ”
Daniela scowled. “If he spent less time worrying about my opinion and more time concentrating on your feelings, maybe he wouldn’t—” Seeing Janie flinch, she snapped her mouth shut, but it was too late. Shame engulfed her at once.
Wishing she could take back the harsh words, she said quietly, “I’m sorry, Janie—”
Janie held up a hand, looking grim. “It’s all right.
I know there’s no love lost between you and your brother, and I know you blame him for the problems in our marriage.
But just remember there are two sides to every story, and you shouldn’t allow your personal issues with Kenny to cloud your objectivity where he and I are concerned. You’re bigger than that.”
“I know,” Daniela murmured, suitably chastened.
“Want to talk about it?” Janie gently prodded.
An awkward silence ensued, the silence of two people who wanted to move forward but were afraid to take the next step. This was uncharted territory for them. In all the years they’d been friends, they had never discussed Janie’s marriage, or Daniela’s strained relationship with her brother.
At length, Daniela drew a deep breath and prayed she was doing the right thing by speaking her mind.
“As you well know, Kenny can be an incredibly selfish person. For as long as I can remember, he’s always put his own needs above everyone else’s.
Whenever we needed him, he was nowhere to be found.
He caused my mother a great deal of stress and heartache, and I grew up resenting him for that.
” She stared into the golden contents of her teacup.
“I guess I’ve never really forgiven him.
Sadly enough, whenever he acts like an asshole, it reinforces my opinion of him and justifies the way I feel.
I’m not saying that’s right or wrong. It’s just the way it is. ”
Janie gazed at her with an expression of gentle understanding.
“I think you and your brother have a lot to talk about and work through. Knowing him the way I do, I can tell you that he probably doesn’t have a clue where to begin to make things right between you two.
I think he feels a lot of guilt over the way he let you guys down in the past, but instead of facing that guilt, he pretends it doesn’t exist.”
Daniela nodded slowly. “That’s probably true.” She gave Janie a long, measured look. “So you hope that by working in the same office, you and Kenny will see more of each other, giving you a greater opportunity to work through some of your own issues.”
Janie nodded, her eyes dark and earnest. “I love your brother, and I know he loves me. We both have our shortcomings, and God knows we’ve each played a hand in the situation we now find ourselves in.
But I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure we don’t lose each other, once and for all.
If working at the agency helps me save my marriage, then so be it. Will you help me, Daniela?”
Daniela felt a constriction in her throat that had nothing to do with her sickness. “Of course I’ll help you,” she said, gruff and tender.
“Thanks, El,” Janie murmured gratefully.
“Don’t thank me. I only agreed because I was afraid you’d turn into Nurse Ratched if I didn’t.”
The two women laughed until a violent coughing spasm overtook Daniela. With a tortured groan, she set aside her unfinished tea, then dragged her aching body from the sofa and down the hall to her room.
She climbed into bed, and as she willed herself to sleep, an image of Caleb Thorne permeated her thoughts.
The memory of their encounter—the searing brand of his mouth, the furious grind of his hips, the iron-hard press of his massive cock—made her temperature spike several degrees, which was the last thing she needed in her current condition.
She had to get better quickly. It was now a matter of personal safety, because if she didn’t have Caleb soon, she was going to burst into flames.