Chapter 1
Tasha
I parked my BMW in the Wilson driveway, cutting the engine and sighing in resignation at the vision in front of me. The garage door was open and two tennis shoes poked out from beneath a pale blue vintage car.
The shoes belonged to my “patient,” Caden Wilson. Cade, as he was known to his friends. I called him Cade too, though I’m not exactly sure he considered me his friend. I wasn’t sure what we were.
I stepped out of my own vehicle, tugging down my short jean skirt as my sparkly flats hit the concrete driveway. The moment the snow had thawed, I was filled with gratitude that winter was over. Much as I love my boots, I’m a spring girl. New beginnings and fresh starts and all that.
I debated for a second before leaning back into the driver’s side and grabbing my backpack from the passenger seat. Cade hated this pack because it represented the work he had to do to regain his speech. I was here to help. I had a job to do. If he didn’t see it that way, it wasn’t my problem.
After his accident, I filled in as his physical therapist when he’d fired every other therapist who came his way. He hadn’t let me do much before and allowed me to do almost nothing now. His physical injuries were no longer an issue.
Cade’s problem was with his tongue.
I wasn’t a speech therapist, but Cade’s father didn’t care about titles. As long as Cade was willing to work with me, Paul Wilson wanted me around. Paul and I spent a lot of hours next to Cade’s hospital bed those first few days. I’d witnessed the accident that night, and every instinct told me that Cade needed a friend to wake up to. When most of his friends bailed, since street racing was illegal and an ambulance plus cops had been on the way, that left me as his only friend.
Paul was grateful I stuck around. He’d been my father’s accountant for years, so I’d seen him around even before our rendezvous at the hospital. Mine and Cade’s past wasn’t peachy, but knowing he was hurting, I couldn’t walk away.
So I didn’t.
I was also pulling an internship over at Ridgeway Rehabilitation Institute. I’d been there a few months and I enjoyed it. I was good at it according to my instructor, and I was working with patients who didn’t hate me, so that was a plus. By summer, I planned to start my career and obtain a PTA position.
Working with Cade was a blip on that otherwise wide-spanning radar. Soon I’d be on to bigger and better things. Or so I told myself.
I took a deep breath, about to announce my arrival, but then someone else did it for me.
“Hey, Tasha.” My best friend’s boyfriend, in all his tall, dark, suited beauty, appeared in the garage, bag on his shoulder.
Devlin Calvary. He was also Cade’s half brother, an unforeseen twist that had surprised them both.
Devlin adjusted the duffel bag on his shoulder. He was dressed for work in a suit, a blue tie arrowing down to an expensive leather belt. He was the owner of a high-end restaurant, which was why he dressed to impress. He might be wily, but since he’d fallen for my best friend, he’d become…well, not tamed. But there was a light air around him that hadn’t existed before they met. Since this past winter they’ve been inseparable, and Devlin had changed for the better. Rena was finally getting the happiness she deserved. They brought out the best in each other like couples were supposed to do.
Devlin kicked his brother’s shoe. “Therapist is here.”
Cade didn’t respond. That wasn’t unusual.
“You are a glutton for punishment, Montgomery,” Devlin said when he was standing in front of me. His mouth twisted into a smirk—the one my best friend Rena favored.
“Yeah, yeah.” His comment wasn’t venomous. He used to be a jerk. Now he was…different. Less intense. Getting used to him being cordial was an adjustment.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Devlin had lived here with Cade and Paul when he was younger, and then he’d returned to help after Cade’s accident. Recently Devlin moved into Rena’s apartment. Their relationship had moved fast, I thought maybe too fast, but part of me conceded that a thick band of envy had clouded my judgment. I wasn’t proud of that ping of jealousy, but it didn’t mean it wasn’t there. At one point I’d held out hope that my ex, Tony, might pursue our future together.
Boy, was I wrong.
“This is the last of my stuff,” Dev said, thumb hooked under the strap on the bag hanging from his shoulder. “So…”
We glanced into the garage. Cade hadn’t moved from under the car, one leg straight out, the other foot on the ground where he’d crooked a knee.
“Enjoy your session with Mr. Sunshine.” Devlin’s full lips pulled into a smile.
Okay, he was a looker, I’d give him that. Rena and Devlin suited each other. She wasn’t anything like me. She was a bad girl who played good. I was the last of the good girls, a type A, perfectionist only child who knew her place—who measured her value by how much she could achieve.
“Gee, thanks,” I answered, casting another look at Cade. The sound of a wrench cranking came from beneath the rust bucket he was under.
“Well.” Devlin pushed a hand through his medium-length black hair and flicked a glance at the upstairs window where Cade had spent nearly every waking and sleeping hour since his accident. “He’s outside, so there’s that.”