er stop treating her like a small child.
It had been glorious. Having her own space, her own life...she’d luxuriated in it.
And now, seven years later, she was back.
She needed to get out. But her mother didn’t want to let her leave. Teri’s car was totaled, so she couldn’t get around town easily. Until a couple of weeks ago, she hadn’t even been able to walk without a cane, and she still got tired quickly. That meant that if she wanted to go anywhere, someone else needed to drive her.
So she couldn’t apply for jobs until her mother agreed to let her start working again. She’d thought about trying to find work online, but her laptop had been in her car with her and had been destroyed. So her only option was the family computer, which was slow...and which her mother kept a strict eye on.
Without a job, she couldn’t afford to move out. She couldn’t offer to pay her own bills. She was completely beholden to her parents. Meaning her mother, because her dad was happy to agree with anything her mother said.
She tried to be grateful. She knew that many people didn’t have a family who’d take care of them full-time like her mother had. She reminded herself of the money they were spending for her. She was lucky.
But it was hard to remember when she was this frustrated. When no one listened to anything she said, and no one was on her side—not her mother, not her sister, not her doctor. Teri rubbed her eyes viciously, chasing away a prickle of tears.
“Are you okay?”
Teri jumped a mile in the air, and then immediately braced herself for a rush of pain. Sudden movement like that was going to hurt.
But nothing happened. She was a little stiff, but that was it. The expectation of pain had been an instinct; for months, everything had hurt. But she was really healing.
“I’m fine,” she said, turning to look at the man who’d spoken.
It was the same man she’d seen walking back and forth earlier. What she hadn’t noticed from a distance was that he was gorgeous.
Tall, incredibly muscular, with sandy-blond hair and eyes that were a surprising silver-gray color, the guy was straight out of a GQ fantasy. Desire rushed through her body, pooling in the pit of her stomach, and Teri wondered faintly if he would mind if she just climbed him like a tree.
Where did that come from? She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so viscerally, physically attracted to a man. Forget since the accident, since forever.
“I’m sorry to startle you,” he was saying. “You just looked...upset. Do you need help with anything? Can I do anything for you?”
“No,” she said firmly. “I’m just fine.” Because she was, and she had the pain-free body to prove it.
“Oh. Then I’m very sorry to bother you.”
The novelty of being believed staggered her for a minute. And then she realized that because he believed her, this insanely handsome man was about to turn around and leave.
Thinking of how he’d been walking back and forth earlier, she asked him, “Do you need help with anything? You looked lost.”
He seemed taken aback to have the question turned back on him.
“Well...yes,” he said slowly. “I just moved here a couple months ago, and I guess I still don’t know where everything is.”
New in town. That made sense, because the town was not large and Teri knew she would’ve remembered a man this attractive if she’d ever seen him before. “What’re you looking for?”
“Sam’s Hardware. A coworker of mine said it’s right along this road, but I’ve been up and down it for about ten minutes and I can’t seem to find it.”
Aha. That made sense. “That’s because it’s disguised.”
His eyebrows went up. “Well, no wonder I couldn’t find it, I guess. But that’s a strange kind of business practice.”
“True,” Teri agreed. “It does seem to work for Sam, though.”
“So what sort of secret society do I have to join to learn where it is? Is there a password or a special knock?”
He smiled to show he was joking, and it was so warm, Teri couldn’t look away. What were they talking about again?
Sam’s Hardware. Right. “No, you just have to know. This way.” She glanced back at Lillian—still on the phone—and led the way three more doors down the sidewalk, then held out her hands. “Voila.”