Chapter 2 #2
But the odd, almost muffled sounds and her lack of awareness of the people around her contrasted with the extremely heightened awareness she had for one person. One man.
No, she wasn’t in shock. At least not from the danger she had survived again.
Cillian kept looking her way as he talked to the officer.
She noticed every glance, each one like a jolt to her nervous system. Why was he here? How could he be?
He abruptly turned away from the officer. He was walking her way.
She wasn’t ready. She swallowed, the unnerving feeling of watching a ghost from her past crawling through her.
But he wasn’t exactly the same. Her mind seemed to latch on to his appearance for something to think about as a defense against his approach.
The thick black hair he’d let grow to his shoulders as a teen was now tamed into a flattering style that was medium length on top and not too short on the sides.
The shoulders she’d thought were broad when they had dated had filled out along with the rest of his muscular physique, matching his increased height.
He was taller than either of her brothers, perhaps six foot three, judging from how far she had to tilt her chin to see him—when he stopped directly in front of her.
His dark brown eyes landed on her, full of the intensity and heat that emanated from him. Still.
Her breath caught.
She’d forgotten. Forgotten how handsome he was. How her heart tried to smash through her ribs when he was near. How his presence and attention made her feel things she never had before and hadn’t experienced since.
“Victoria Weston.” His deep voice oozed like hot lava through her insides.
His mouth angled in the lopsided grin she hadn’t forgotten, though she’d tried.
Oh, how she’d tried, telling herself he was a boy of her youth.
Her first crush. He was simply a part of her coming of age that could be left behind as a distant, forgotten memory.
But the man standing before her was no teen memory. He had come of age, as well. The results were enough to scatter her senses and—
“Looks like you’re still getting yourself into trouble.” His grin and tone said he meant it to be humorous.
But the remark rang with echoes of other words she hadn’t left behind. “You’re going to be in worse trouble if you don’t stop letting him control you.”
She clenched her jaw against the memory, the pain of it. The many reasons she’d shut out those days came rushing back, the reasons she’d had to close the vault of her heart to Cillian Doherty. And it seemed he hadn’t changed as much as his appearance suggested.
Whatever his reason for the sudden re-appearance, she didn’t need to know what it was. She needed to excuse herself from him before he led her into trouble again.
“And you called me a thrill-seeker. If this is what your job is like every day, I guess I should’ve become a PT.” Teasing twinkled in his admittedly hypnotic eyes.
But it wasn’t working on her. He was clearly still the person she’d known before. Flippant, flirty—a charmer focused on fun and adventure. He’d always preferred to bail on real life, never taking anything seriously, even when her—
No. She would not walk down that memory lane.
She didn’t have to worry. She was no longer an adolescent girl with her first crush.
She was an independent, thirty-one-year-old woman who knew better than to be charmed and led astray by any man, no matter how handsome.
Ironically, she had Cillian to thank for her first lesson in resisting such men and her own misguided feelings.
She should make clear to him, as soon as possible, that his wiles would no longer work on her and were not welcome. “I’m sure it still wouldn’t be what you’re looking for. We focus on patient care, not self-centered fun and games.”
Surprise flickered in the depths of those dark orbs. Likely astonished she had the gumption to answer him back, since she never had when they were teens.
But then his grin widened, stretching across his face. “I see I have a lot to learn. I may have to shadow you for a while so you can teach me what that patient care looks like.” His suggestive tone curled a shiver through her. Or was it a tremor of trepidation?
“What do you mean?”
He folded his arms over his mock-neck blue sweater, challenge glinting in his gaze. “Well, clearly you’re the expert on how to not have any fun and how to take care of everyone perfectly.”
She resisted the urge to take the bait, the reference to their shared past. Her more alarming concern at the moment was his inference that she still didn’t understand. “Why would you shadow me?”
“I told you.” His mouth formed a smirk that she itched to wipe off. But that would require physical contact.
She harnessed the mental control she usually had in spades and focused on the more pressing question. “Why are you here?”
“To rescue you, of course.”
Honestly, he had a knack for getting under her skin. She had to fight not to roll her eyes like the teenager she was trying not to be. “And you knew somehow that I was in danger at this particular client’s house?”
“Yes.”
She pinched her lips together. She would not meet him at his level. She instead gave him the silent stare that worked on her younger siblings, even Spring. The one that said they knew their behavior was inappropriate, and she would wait for them to do the right thing.
He chuckled, lowering his arms to land his hands on his hips. “I heard it at the office. I was there when you called in. Or right after anyway.”
“The office? You mean CareFull Home Health?”
“What other office do you have?”
She held back a frustrated grunt. “Do you want to tell me what you were doing there sometime today? Or should I leave now for my next client?”
He laughed again, a low and familiar sound that threatened to undermine her irritation. “You’re looking at CareFull’s new clinical social worker.”
The statement hit a wall in her brain, stopping it from being absorbed. That couldn’t be. But Racquelle had mentioned they’d finally found a candidate for the social worker position. Victoria had been too busy to inquire further about the candidate at the time. A fatal mistake, apparently.
But even if she believed in chance, the odds would be too ridiculous for such a coincidence to be possible.
Cillian couldn’t have happened to return after sixteen years and end up taking a job at the very business where she was employed.
And he’d never had any interest in becoming a social worker when he was seventeen.
“Are you telling me you didn’t know I worked there?”
“No.” He didn’t look away or blink. The man’s confidence, or arrogance, was unshakable. He suddenly leaned toward her, shrinking the space between them. “I took the job because you work there.”
She blinked, stomach twisting as her pulse thrummed in her ears. Either from his closeness or from the alarming admission he hadn’t even tried to hide.
She should probably be grateful for his honesty. He’d had plenty of vices, but lying was never one of them and, apparently, still was not. “Why—”
“How about I fill you in over lunch?” He glanced at their surroundings. “This probably isn’t the best place to rehash old times.”
She pulled her gaze from him, taking in the police officers, Delilah, and others who still talked and gathered evidence. How had she not heard or seen them from the moment Cillian moved close to her?
Her reaction to him didn’t matter nearly as much as what he’d admitted. He’d come to Chicago, even taken a job at her workplace, because of her. What did he mean?
“Expert on not having fun and taking care of people perfectly…Still getting yourself into trouble.”
What he’d said in their brief exchange returned like sound bites of evidence, clicking into place. References to their past. To the worst part.
The memory, the thought of what he knew—the secret—squeezed her lungs as if it might choke her.
She had kept the truth to herself all these years for good reasons. For her family.
Only one other person knew the secret. And he was standing in front of her, seeming to taunt her with it.
Was that why he had returned? To expose what had happened as some sort of delayed revenge?
The possibility robbed her of words, of air.
“Come on. You’re not afraid to have a little lunch with me, are you?” The daring technique. Always his next tactic when she didn’t acquiesce to what he wanted immediately.
Well, that kind of persuasion didn’t work on her anymore. “I’m late for my next client as it is.” She pointedly checked her wristwatch, breathing a little easier as she broke from the pressure of his gaze. “I couldn’t possibly meet for lunch.”
“Dinner, then.”
She lifted her chin, her strength returning as she thought of an easy answer. “I don’t date coworkers.”
His grin returned. “Drinks.”
She should’ve known he’d keep trying. He never did give up until he got what he wanted. “I don’t—”
“You don’t drink? You know you’re an adult now, right?” The amusement in his gaze irked her enough to solidify her resolve even more.
“That is why I choose not to consume alcoholic beverages.”
His lips twitched as he watched her, the grin gone, but apparently not for long. “Okay. Dessert or coffee, then.”
She couldn’t say she didn’t consume dessert or coffee, since that would be a lie.
“I promise I’ll tell you everything you want to know about why I’m here.” The confidence in his eyes said he knew that would convince her.
Which should make her turn and run the other way. She should at least stand her ground and refuse to meet with him or speak to him again.
But as irritating as it was for her to admit, even to herself, he was right. She needed to learn what he was doing here, what he wanted, and what his intentions were. She had to know if he planned to reveal her secret.
It still wasn’t the right time. The division and problems the revelation could wreak in her family were unthinkable. She couldn’t allow him to expose the truth. She needed to share that at the appropriate time herself, if there ever was a need to do so.
“Very well. I will meet you at Mason Grill at eight p.m.” Choosing the time and place herself gave her the modicum of control she desperately needed.
She could not have him thinking she was as easy to persuade as her fifteen-year-old self, the young girl who had let him lead her into making the most tragic mistake of her life.
“It’s a date.” He’d likely said that to bait her. Yes, the amusement in his eyes left no doubt.
But she bit her tongue and stepped around him, holding her head high as she left the house without looking back.
She had only agreed to learn why he was here. She would likely need the knowledge to counteract whatever he had in mind.
Cillian Doherty may have materialized at the perfect time to save her life, but she had the feeling his next move would be to upend it.