Wife by Design

“I’ll pay you for your time to install them.”

“I’d rather you just be my friend.” Where the words had come from he didn’t know. But once they were out there, he couldn’t take them back. And couldn’t deny their truth, either.

Somewhere, in the midst of his fantasies, he’d begun to want more than sex.

“I told you why I was looking for you, now why were you looking for me?” she asked, neatly sidestepping the land mine he’d just thrown down between them.

Rightly so.

He had no ability to follow through on any personal relationship offer he’d make. Whether it was accepted or not.

“Darin’s been calling Maddie,” he said, getting himself back on track. “They’ve talked over a thousand minutes in the past two weeks.”

“That’s…”

“Over sixteen hours.”

“When?”

“Mostly at night. Since I took on the work at the shelter, we’ve been spending our evenings separately. Darin goes to his room with the TV on or he’s on his computer while I’m working. He plays the television kind of loud, or has his music on and it’s still going a lot of the time when I head to my room, which is on the other side of the house. We have a split master bedroom floor plan.”

And he still should have known his special-needs brother had been talking long into the night. On several occasions.

What kind of caregiver was he that he hadn’t known?

“They talk here, too, during the day.”

That he couldn’t have known.

“Maddie’s usually at my place while Kara takes her afternoon nap.”

The timing fit.

“I’ll talk to her.”

He shrugged. “And say what? That she’s not allowed to talk on her own phone? You’ve already said that Sara thinks this ‘friendship’ of theirs needs to play itself out.”

He’d just realized something else. Something he was deeply ashamed of. He was resentful. Darin had a woman he was talking to half the night while Grant lay in his bed and only fantasized about one.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it. Darin and I have a family calling plan with separate lines but shared minutes, and I switched it to unlimited minutes, which is cheaper than paying the overage charge. I’m certainly not going to tell my brother he can’t talk on the phone. I just thought you should know what’s going on. In case you want to tell Sara.”

Lynn nodded and glanced at her watch. “It’s almost time for lunch,” she said.

He wanted to ask her to have the meal with him. Away from the Stand. Away from Maddie and Darin.

And Kara.

Just the two of them. In a place where nothing else could intrude on their time together.

“You and Maddie and Kara have lunch at your house, right?”

“Maddie and Kara do. I share it with them as often as I can.”

She didn’t stand up. He took a couple of steps closer to the door, which put him closer to her.

She didn’t move away.

But her phone rang.

She glanced at the screen. “I’m sorry, I have to take this.”

Grant would have left, but didn’t want to go without telling her goodbye. Or so he told himself as he heard her say, “That’s fine…. No, I’m sure. It’s fine. I’ll have her bag packed and ready. But it’s important that you keep her on her schedule.”

She paused. The other voice was male. Grant stiffened.

“No, I know,” Lynn said, her voice changing. Getting softer. Familiar. “I know. I appreciate that.”

Jealousy flared inside him. Adding itself to the resentment that had flared earlier.

What the hell was the matter with him? He was normally an even-keeled type of guy. He didn’t often have emotional flare-ups of any kind, let alone one like this. Emotions that couldn’t possibly go anywhere…

He needed to get back to work.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“OKAY, I WILL. Bye.”

Grant was pacing by the time Lynn ended the call and slid her phone back into the pocket of her scrubs.

He took a deep breath. Warned himself that this situation was none of his business.

“Whose bag are you packing?” Maybe Maddie was going to visit her parents. Maybe she’d stay awhile. Which might create a bit of a babysitting situation for Lynn, but overall would be a very good thing.