Her McKnight in Shining Armour
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“What’s wrong?” He knew something was bothering her by the way she chewed nervously on her bottom lip. He’d had a taste of it himself last night and wouldn’t have minded another of that, either.
“I suppose we have to talk about this.” Her expression said she’d rather walk barefoot on hot coals. “Like a bad cliché, I actually hate myself in the morning.”
“We could pretend it never happened.”
“Much as I’d like to slip quietly off y’all’s boat, Hastings Hart taught me to face situations head-on and play fair.”
A woman playing fair would be a refreshing change for him—if she’d actually learned the lesson from Hastings Hart.
“Your father?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t bring you here with the intention of seducing you. It just—”
“—happened,” she finished, studying him. “I believe you. And I didn’t come with you to be seduced.”
“So we’re even.”
“It was a mistake, Alex, and I take full responsibility.”
He’d made his own mistake, but that wasn’t what she meant. “What about we go fifty-fifty on the blame?”
“That’s fair.” She turned on her side, hand pressing against her chest to keep the sheet in place. “But here’s the thing...”
This had to be the weirdest post-sex-talk-in-bed ever. “I’m all ears.”
“If only that were true,” she muttered. “We’re working together. I make it a rule never to sleep with a coworker.”
“I hate to break this to you but that ship has sailed.” He looked around the cabin and added, “No pun intended.”
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” she said dryly. “I was here. But this really can’t happen again.”
“You sound pretty adamant about it.” Although he agreed in theory, part of him wanted to take the words as a challenge.
“There’s a good reason for that.” She lowered her gaze and long thick lashes stood out against the smooth skin above her cheek. “In college I was at the top of my class and interned with one of the best architectural firms in Dallas. They hired me after graduation and I was on my way. Finally, I was going to prove to my father and brothers that I could take care of myself.”
“What happened?” Something must have, or she wouldn’t have been defensive the first day she’d arrived. And she seemed to have a rule against sleeping with coworkers. Some day he might regret participating in the rule breaking, but not right this minute.
“I got involved with one of the partners, but he neglected to tell me he was married.”
“Sounds like a big company. No one else clued you in?”
“It should have been a red flag that he wanted to keep the relationship just between us. No one in the office knew. My bad that I believed his explanation about protecting me from employees who would resent my upward mobility and chalk it up to our relationship.”
“How did you find out?”
“His wife caught him. Email. Cell phone.” She gripped a handful of the sheet covering her breasts. “It doesn’t matter. But she chose to out him in a very public way. She came to the office and confronted me.”
“There was an ugly scene.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded miserably. “No one believed I was that naive and didn’t know he was married. They’re a conservative firm, and questionable behavior in the workplace was against company policy but they did me a favor and let me resign instead of firing me.”
Big of them, he thought angrily. So being fired wasn’t on her résumé, but she also couldn’t use her only work experience for a reference. “What did you do?”
“I left quietly and went to work for Hart Industries with my brother Lincoln. He runs the development branch of the company for my father.”
“Not a bad gig.”
“It was for me.” She smiled sadly. “Harts have long memories and I’ll never live it down, how I’m not so good at taking care of myself. I just want them to be proud, but now I’ve got to dig out of a really big hole.”
“This is where I point out the obvious—the guy is a bastard.” His tone was surprisingly even considering how angry he was.
“Y’all are preachin’ to the choir. But that didn’t change the fact that I had to lay low and let the dust settle. That was two years ago, and Mercy Medical Clinic here in Blackwater Lake is my second chance. There’s no way I’m going to mess it up. It’s time to reinvent myself, and mistakes aren’t an option.”
“I agree with you.”
“You do?” She sounded surprised, as if expecting some pushback.
“I’m a businessman, and most of my business is here in town. It’s small and getting involved with anyone is a very bad idea. When a relationship ends, and it always does, there can be hard feelings, word spreads, people take sides.” He shrugged. “None of the above is good for McKnight Construction.”
“So you really do have a personal life,” she said, her voice full of I knew it.
“Yes,” he agreed. “I just take it somewhere else for a long weekend.”
“I see.” She met his gaze. “So, we’re in agreement.”
“We are. I respect the fact that you don’t play fast and loose, but that’s the only way I want to play. Nothing gets in the way of my work, and it’s important that the expansion is completed on time and within budget. I have projects and a reputation to maintain. Delay isn’t an option for me,” he said, echoing her words.
“I’m glad to hear that.” She glanced up at the window. “So what do y’all think are the chances we can keep last night a secret what with the whole town at the wedding?”
“You live on the property and have a very good reason for your car being there. And I’ve been known to spend the night on my boat.” He saw her look and grinned. “To sleep.”
“Uh-huh.”
He ignored that. “What I’m saying is that no one will think twice about my car still being here.”
“I’m tickled to hear that.”
“You just need to get back to your place before the newlyweds and their curious little guy are up and around. They’re leaving on the honeymoon later today, but if they spot you in yesterday’s dress, questions will be asked.”
“So I better get going.” She started to get up, then looked at him.
“I guess you want privacy.” A little late for that, he thought. He’d seen, touched and kissed a lot of that soft skin and would remember last night for as long as he lived. “I’ll leave you alone.”
He didn’t care if she peeked at him and threw back the sheet, taking his time to gather up his clothes before leaving the cabin. Just outside he saw her dress and picked it up. After rubbing the sensuous silk between his fingers, he put it on the bed. “You’ll need this.”
Something else she wouldn’t want to hear was that he liked her dress a lot, but much preferred her without a stitch of clothing. Maybe just the high heels.
The thought made him smile until another, more sobering one took its place. There was one more thing he had to talk to her about.
By the time he had his pants on, Ellie emerged all dressed. She headed for the ladder that would take her topside. “See you tomorrow at work.”
“Just a second.”
With a hand on one of the rungs, she glanced at him. “What?”
“Is there any chance you’re on the pill?”
“No.” Her eyes went wide. “There’s been no reason. I don’t date. But you had a condom.”
“Yeah.” One that was way past the expiration date.
It both pleased and disturbed him that she wasn’t with another guy now and hadn’t been for a while. But he’d been thinking with every part of his body except his head, and the only protection he had with him was aged, and not in a good way.
“It broke,” he said.
“Thanks for telling me.” She nodded thoughtfully. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Don’t you worry.”
Yeah, he thought. That would happen.
Chapter Three
It was almost quitting time on Monday, and Ellie had never been so glad. She was exhausted from work, but mostly it was the strain of trying to act normal with Alex. How did you undo sex? How did you stop picturing your coworker naked when you’d actually seen him that way?
Good Lord, she’d slept with him but that wasn’t even the worst. The next morning they’d had a discussion about why it couldn’t happen again, all while still in his bed. How did a woman go to work and pretend it never happened when he was sitting at a desk just across the room?
Every time she looked at his brown bedroom eyes and broad shoulders, sex was all she could think about.
“The plumbing subcontractor will be here in the morning.” Alex looked up and caught her staring. His eyes narrowed with something dark and intense, as if he knew what she’d been thinking.
“Right.” The single word was almost a croak so she swallowed, trying to stay loose. Fat chance. Her stomach clenched and her chest felt tight. “You’re sure this is a good crew?”
“The best.”
“Good. I’m not worried about the public areas which they could probably do in their sleep. It’s the lines for the outpatient surgery and recovery rooms that make me nervous. We’re talking a delivery system for oxygen and nitrous oxide used for anesthesia.”
“These guys can handle it,” he said confidently.
He was confident about everything, even making love to a woman. Darn it. There she went again. Time to get out of here. “I’m going to look things over and make sure we’re good to go tomorrow before I leave for the day.”
“Which you’re planning to do soon, right? Leave for the day, I mean.”
“Yes.” Then she wondered if he was trying to get rid of her. “Why?”
“You look tired.”
The man was too perceptive. Her bad was wondering if that meant he cared. She wasn’t going to be one of those women who expected a man to have deeper feelings just because they’d slept together. Sex was a physical act between a man and a woman who found each other attractive. That’s all it had been or ever would be.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of hours.” She stood and closed her laptop. “But if I’d wanted a nine-to-five job, I’d have picked another profession.”
“That wasn’t criticism.” Alex stood, too. “I just wanted to run something by you while you’re doing the last inspection of the day, but if you’re too tired it can wait.”
“I’m fine. What is it?”
“I’ve been thinking about when we join the new part of the building with the clinic, and I think it’s going to require a special expansion joint along with a new reglet cut into the existing wall.”
She’d been thinking about that herself and knew he wanted the reglet, a flat, narrow architectural molding, to make the joining of the two structures strong and seamless. “Y’all think it won’t hold up otherwise?”
“That’s right.” He walked out from behind his desk and stopped halfway to hers. “I’ll show you what I mean, then you should go home.”
“Okay.”
By this time of day Ellie looked forward to kicking off her high heels. But when she met Alex in the middle of the room she was glad to have the extra height because of a weird, vulnerable feeling. Not about the work. He wasn’t one of those jerks who figured she didn’t know her eyebrow brush from an air duct. This was personal, and for some reason unclear to her at this moment, it was important to stand as tall as possible beside him.
“Okay. Let’s do this and get you the heck out of here.” He stepped in front of her and led the way, which was something he hadn’t done since the day she’d arrived.
After opening the door he walked outside and held it for her before descending the three metal stairs. All day when he’d turned his back, her gaze had been drawn to his outstanding butt and now was no exception. Alex McKnight was a good-looking man in or out of his jeans. Maybe if she’d never seen him naked...
She was looking at his backside instead of the last step and her heel caught. One second she was upright and the next she went down with a small scream. Her body twisted to the side but her shoe didn’t and she felt more than heard something in her ankle pop. Then a blinding pain ripped through her lower leg.
Alex was beside her instantly, one knee on the ground. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure. I think I twisted my ankle. It really hurts.”
When he freed her high heel she cried out. “Dammit. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. Oh...gosh, that hurts. Can you help me up?”
His mouth pulled tight as he slid an arm around her waist and took her weight to get her standing. When she set her foot on the blacktop parking lot, she cried out again. The pain took her breath away.
“That’s it.” Alex scooped her into his arms. “Good thing there’s a doctor right next door.”
“That’s not necessary. I’m sure it’s just a sprain.” Please, God.
“My brother can deal with that, too,” he said grimly.
“You’re sure I can’t talk you out of this?”
“Not a chance in hell.”
Truthfully, Ellie was glad he took over. She put her arms around his neck and gritted her teeth against the pain. Somewhere she’d heard that damage to the tendons and ligaments was painful and took longer to heal than a broken bone, but that seemed less incapacitating than the alternative. She couldn’t be incapacitated. That would mean a delay in the Mercy Medical Clinic project. Delays were never good, but she couldn’t afford one now while she was trying to reverse a black eye to her professional reputation.
* * *
Ellie was stretched out on the exam table at the clinic with her ankle elevated. She was waiting for the orthopedic specialist to return with the verdict—sprain or break. Dr. McKnight—he’d said to call him Ben—had told her it was probably broken, but the X-rays would tell definitively. After giving her something for the pain, he’d told her to rest. If only...
She’d never been so tired in her life. The pressure to be perfect on this job had taken a toll, and then there was Alex. Why couldn’t he have been a sixty-year-old hunchback who looked like a troll? She could work with a troll, and a gnarled little man probably wouldn’t have an award-winning butt capable of distracting a woman into falling down the stairs. Right this minute it was a toss-up about which was worse—pain or humiliation. Since the meds were working, she’d go with the latter for now.
When there was a soft knock on the exam room door, she carefully rolled to her side toward it, making the paper beneath her crinkle loudly. “Come in.”
A second later Ginny Irwin stood in the doorway. “How are you feeling, sweetie?” The nurse’s voice was firm and straightforward but not unkind.
“Better.” Ellie shifted on the table and winced at the dull pain radiating from ankle to thigh. “I’m sure it’s just a sprain.”
Ginny was sixtyish and tall, her gray hair cut in a pixie style. Pity mixed with the no-nonsense expression in her blue eyes. “Sometimes the worst of it is not knowing. Can’t take action until you know what action to take.”
“Do you have any idea when the doctor will get the results of the X-rays?”
“I wish. We shoot the pictures, but a trained radiologist has to read them. In a perfect world there would be one available to interpret the films, but you’re in Blackwater Lake. The good news is you have Ben McKnight.”
“Oh?” And she’d slept with his brother. Would he hold that against her if he knew?
Ginny moved beside the table. “If this happened in Dallas you couldn’t have a better orthopedic specialist. I’ve never seen him call an X-ray wrong.”
“So he can tell me whether or not it’s broken—”
“’Fraid not, sweetie. In his opinion that would be making a guess, since that’s not his specialty.” Ginny pressed index and middle fingers to Ellie’s wrist, presumably taking a pulse. She nodded with satisfaction. “The films we took are remotely read. They’re emailed to the hospital, where the radiologist will make the determination and give Ben a report. There’s no telling how long it will be before we have the results.”
Ellie felt a little spurt of panic. “What happens if it gets too late?”
“Don’t borrow trouble,” the nurse advised. “We’ll cross that bridge when and if we have to. Here at Mercy Medical Clinic we’re good at improvising.”
“I didn’t mean to be pushy. No offense meant.”
“None taken. You’re hurting and handling it much better than some. It’s human nature when you’re in pain and scared to lash out. You’re impatient.” Ginny grinned. “No pun intended. I can handle that. It’s perfectly natural to wonder what’s going to happen.”
“I’ll try not to be too antsy.”
“Not on my account.” The older woman studied her with a critical eye. “Can I get you something? A snack? We’ve got cookies and fruit in the break room. Maybe something to drink? Ginger ale to give you something to keep up your strength?”
“No, thanks.” Her stomach was tied in knots. “I don’t think I could get anything down right now.”
“Yes, you can. I know just the thing.” Without waiting for a protest Ginny turned to leave. “Now you try to rest.”
Easier said than done, Ellie thought. She was feeling pathetically alone and abandoned when there was another knock on the door. She prayed it was Ben McKnight bearing good news.
“Come in.”
A moment later there was a McKnight in the doorway but not the one she’d hoped to see.
Alex was holding a can of ginger ale and a plastic cup with a flex straw in it. “Hi.”
Ellie was irritated that he could look so darn good when she felt like roadkill. “I told you to go home.”
Those had been her exact words right after he’d carried her all the way from the construction trailer to this exam room in the clinic. And he’d handled her as if she weighed no more than a child. Now she sounded witchy and ungrateful.
“I appreciate all your help, Alex. I didn’t mean to be rude.”
He put the can down on the counter by the sink and popped the tab. “Is that a Texas thing?”
“What?”
“You worrying about my feelings when you’ve got to be hurting like hell.”
“I was raised to have manners and to be kind and polite to everyone. And, just for the record, I don’t have to be hurting. I’m sure it’s just a sprain.”
“Even if you’re right, that doesn’t mean you’re not in pain. And if you want to take it out on me, go for it.” He poured the fizzy soda into the cup and waited for the bubbles to go down before bringing it over to the exam table. “Now, take a sip.”
“I told the nurse I didn’t care for anything.”
“There you go again with that well-bred, Southern fried stoic stuff. You don’t have energy to spare for manners, so cut yourself some slack. Now drink some of this. You’ve been through a trauma.” He must have seen the stubborn trickling through her, because he added, “I was told to make myself useful and give you liquids, and that’s what I intend to do. Ginny Irwin scares the crap out of me and everyone else in Blackwater Lake who comes here to Mercy Medical for treatment. If you’re as smart as I think you are, you’ll be scared of her, too, and do what you’re told.”
Ellie didn’t think anything or anyone could have made her even want to smile, but Alex and what he’d just said proved her wrong. She raised up on an elbow. “Okay. Since you put it that way...”
He held out the glass and steadied the straw while she drank. “That’s a good girl.”
After getting about half of it down, she stretched out on her side again and gingerly adjusted her injured leg. Strangely enough, she did feel a little better. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He scanned her from face to feet. “How do you feel?”
“How do I look?” The way his mouth pulled tight wasn’t very reassuring. “Tell me the truth.”
“Your face is white as a sheet and your ankle is swollen. A lot.”
“I appreciate your candor.” And she sincerely meant that. Honesty was very important to her, but it didn’t make the increasingly panicked feeling go away.
“Everything will be okay, Ellie.”
How will everything be all right? she wanted to ask. A broken ankle would slow her down. It wasn’t in her comeback plan or her schedule. She’d already lost too much time with that darn, stupid emotional detour on the road to professional success. There wasn’t any flexibility in her blueprint to rehabilitate her reputation and resurrect her career.
“I have no doubt that things will work out.” She was pretty sure the words had just enough confidence to be convincing.
“Darn right. Whatever happens, if you need anything, just ask.”
Not going there, she thought. She’d trusted a man once, and it hadn’t gone well. She would get through this on her own. What didn’t kill you made you stronger.
“I’m sure I won’t need anything, Alex, but the offer is awfully nice.” She smiled as sincerely as possible. “It’s way past quitting time. Y’all should head home.”
“I’m in no hurry.”
That made one of them. She was in a huge hurry for him to take his care and concern out of here before she started to believe in it.
“Really,” she said. “I’m okay. There’s no reason to waste any more of your evening on me.”
“I don’t mind—”
A knock interrupted him just before the door opened. Ben came in with X-rays in his hand. “Hey, Alex. I didn’t know you were still here.”
“I was just telling him he should go,” Ellie said.
The doctor looked at her. “I’ve got the radiologist report.”
“Finally.” Now that it was here she was dreading the results.
The two brothers stood side by side, and the family resemblance was obvious. The shapes of their faces were identical right down to the strong chin and rugged cheekbones. Their coloring was slightly different; the doctor’s hair was lighter. Alex was just a shade taller, broader in the shoulders. His hair was darker, his brown eyes more intense. When he made no move to leave, Ben cleared his voice.
“Obviously you two are friends, but I need to talk to Ellie privately. It’s a patient confidentiality issue.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.” Alex set the plastic glass and straw on the counter beside the soda can and left the room.
When the door closed behind him, Ellie didn’t know whether to be relieved that he’d listened to his brother or to miss his reassuring support. But this mess wasn’t his baby to rock.
“Okay, then. What’s up, Doc?”
He shoved the X-ray films on the viewer box and even the untrained eye could see the bones of the foot, ankle and lower leg. Using his pen as a pointer he indicated an irregularity.
“I’m sorry, Ellie. I know you were hoping it was just a sprain, but that’s not the case. There’s definitely a fracture here.”
“Okay.” She took a deep but not very calming breath. “So what now? You put it in a cast. Maybe the walking kind,” she said hopefully. “So I can get back to work.”
“I’ll put a cast on it so you don’t make the injury worse while we wait for the swelling to go down.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “What happens then?”
“I need to do the repair in surgery. It will require a plate to hold the bone together while it heals. But here’s the thing...”
“What?” The knots in her stomach pulled tighter.
“When the clinic addition is finished, a procedure like this can be done here, on an outpatient basis, but you can’t wait that long. We need the hospital and it’s pretty far away.”
Close to that cute little airport where she’d flown in from Dallas. “How much work time will I lose?”
“The day of the surgery, then one or two after because there might be some discomfort from the procedure.”
“And can I work in the meantime?”
“Yes, if you can do what you need to on crutches. You can’t put any weight on the leg, and common sense is essential. Keep the foot elevated as much as possible to get the swelling down. The sooner the surgery is done, the sooner you’ll be back on your feet.”
“Okay.”
“Do you have any other questions?” There was sympathy in the doctor’s dark eyes.
“Not right now, but I’m sure I will.”
“When you do, don’t hesitate to ask.”
She nodded numbly.
Ellie figured she was in shock. It was the only explanation for her state of calm through the process of getting the cast on. When it was done, Ginny gave her crutches and instructions, then helped her into a wheelchair. She was on her way to the clinic waiting area and about to ask the nurse for the favor of a bit longer ride to her car in the lot by the construction trailer. Before getting the words out, she spotted Alex sitting in a chair.