The Daughter Dilemma

“Who’s watching the lodge?” Nick asked. He glanced at his watch. Nearly nine-thirty. The hired help would be long gone by now.

“Tessa’s at the front desk,” his father replied. “It was quiet when we left. This may be a good time for her to get more involved in the business. Perhaps she can take on some of Adriana’s responsibilities. The dining room, laundry…”

Aunt Sofia glanced at Nick. “She could clean late checkouts after school and do turn-down service in the evening.”

Nick frowned. “I don’t want her doing anything that interferes with homework.”

“We’ll need some temporary help,” his mother said. The consummate field marshal, she was already planning ahead.

“Clay Watts at Eagle’s Rest owes me a favor,” Nick said. “I’ll see if he can send over a couple of housekeepers tomorrow until I arrange something with a temp service.”

Nick had started to head out of the room when he nearly collided with one of the nurses. He thought her name was Sharon—a roommate of one of the nurses he’d dated a few years ago. She’d previously come in to tell them that Kari Churchill was doing just fine down in Exam Room One.

Now she tapped the chart in her hand. “Miss Churchill’s going to be discharged in a few minutes. She’s asking to see your sister before she goes. Or you.”

Nick shook his head. “Tell her that’s not necessary.”

“Nick!” Addy exclaimed with some of her old spirit. “Don’t you dare speak for me.”

Nick ignored her. “Tell her if she wants to leave an address, I’ll see to it that her stuff on board the chopper gets sent to her.”

“After what she’s been through, that’s no way to treat a customer,” his mother scolded.

“And I want to see her,” Addy said.

His father looked at him sharply. “You have a responsibility to make sure she’s all right, Nick. You know that.”

Aware that every eye in the family was on him, Nick lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. I’ll check on her before I call Clay.”

Dead silence followed. Before anyone could comment, Nick stalked out.

He glanced down the corridor toward Exam Room One. He didn’t want to go there. “Play nice with the customers,” his sister was fond of saying, but he didn’t feel like coming face-to-face again with the woman who had helped bring such trouble to their door.

On the other hand, if he didn’t, there could be consequences. The family counted on him to put things right. In all the years the business had been operating, there had never been a single lawsuit brought against the company. His father was especially proud of that fact.

Muttering a curse under his breath, Nick wove down the hall, past harried nurses and around complicated-looking equipment.

Civil, but not subservient. Solicitous, but not admitting to any culpability. He knew how to handle women like Kari Churchill. He scrubbed a hand over his face, annoyed with his own need for an internal pep talk. Come on. Just get it over with.

When he walked into the room he didn’t see her right away. The doctor was busy giving last-minute instructions. “So don’t be surprised if you have an occasional headache over the next few days.”

“All things considered, if that’s all I have to deal with, I won’t complain,” Kari replied softly.

Nick moved into her line of sight, positioning himself at the end of the gurney. She turned her head in his direction as the doctor moved away.

He realized suddenly that he hadn’t remembered her right. He mentally cataloged her appearance all over again, searching for the hard, tough broad he’d built her up to be in his mind. Right now all he saw was a woman who looked pale and tired and a little shaky. Probably trying not to think too much about what a close brush she’d had with death this night.

She sat up straighter, and he noticed.

Nervous? he wondered. Good. He stopped seeing how sweetly appealing she looked lying there and thought about how pleased she must have been when she knew she’d successfully manipulated Addy.

“Hello,” she said, her voice full of wary restraint.

He gave her a short nod of acknowledgment, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew his features were too stern, but his willpower was in full force. “You asked to see one of us?” he stated.

“How’s Addy?”

“She’s tough. She’ll mend.”

“Her arms…?”

“The left is broken. The other one’s a sprained wrist.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “I mean, I hoped it would be nothing more serious than that.”

The look of relief in her eyes was touchingly real. He indicated the small bandage covering Kari Churchill’s right temple. “I hear you’re going to be all right.”

She fingered her forehead as if she’d already forgotten the injury. “Yes. It’s nothing, really.”

“Good.”

There was an awkward, tense silence then. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but he knew his own thoughts were more charitable than he liked. It had been easier when he’d thought of her purely as Satan’s sister.

She licked her lips and offered him a small smile. “We were both very lucky.”

“Yep. Definitely a lucky day, I’d say.”

As he’d intended, she caught the sarcasm. “Look, I don’t want you to think…I realize you didn’t want…I guess what I’m trying to say is…I apologize.”

He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at her. “Why would you feel the need to do that, Miss Churchill?”

Her cheeks went a pretty shade of pink under the harsh hospital lighting. “You know perfectly well why,” she replied.

“You mean, because you managed to talk my sister into taking you up? Because your determination to get your own way nearly got the both of you killed? Yeah, that might be a reason to apologize.”

The pink turned to red, twin flags of annoyance. “Now wait just a minute,” she said. “I admit I shouldn’t have coerced your sister into taking me. I feel horrible about that. But she’s a grown woman. I didn’t trick her into anything.” She chewed her lip a moment, then, as if deciding what she’d been thinking deserved to be said, she gave him a hard, hostile look of her own. “Did it ever occur to you that if you weren’t such an overbearing dictator, Addy might not have felt the need to prove herself? She did great up there. Even after the lightning hit us, she was in control. You underestimate your sister, Mr. D’Angelo. If you treated her with a little respect, she might surprise you.”

He stared at her, letting the words settle in his gut. It would serve no good purpose to heave into further argument. Truthfully, he couldn’t say that he totally disagreed with her. But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Expelling a slow, deliberate breath, he came around the end of the gurney and approached her. She watched him move without flinching, chin tipped up, and if it hadn’t been for her white-knuckled grip on the sheet, he’d have bought this defiant, steely charade.

“I’m not here to talk about my relationship with Addy,” he said in a quiet, terse voice. “I’m here to make sure you’re all right.”

“Yes, I can see you’re eaten up with anxiety,” she snapped.

He counted to ten and tried to wrangle his patience under control. “As the head of Angel Air, I’m naturally interested—”

“Oh, I think I understand what you’re interested in,” she cut in, giving him a narrowed glance. “What you’d really like to know is if I intend to take this little accident any further. Like to court.”

“Do you?”

She looked away for a moment. He had to admit, she had a damn fine profile, all haughty elegance and sleek lines.

“I don’t think…” She took a deep breath, turning back to look at him with cold disdain. “I like your sister very much. I don’t want to hurt her by causing trouble for her family. My injuries are minor, so there’s no reason to blow this out of proportion. Accidents happen. Why don’t we leave it at that?”

The words were flat, though heat wove through them like a thin ribbon. He stared at her, wondering if he could believe her. No way to tell, really. As sneaky as she’d probably been with Addy, he wasn’t sure her signature in blood would suffice.

And then she did a strange thing. She laughed.

Nick frowned at her.

She shook her head. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met a man as openly skeptical as you are. If I told you the sky was blue, would you insist on going outside to check?” Without waiting for a response, she waved a slim hand toward the outer corridor. “Find a lawyer out there. As busy as this place is, there’s bound to be some ambulance-chaser hanging around who can draw up an affidavit for me to sign.” She cocked her head at him. “Just tell me one thing. Are you like this with everyone, or is it just me?”

It was crazy, considering the fact that he was being insulted, that he felt the urge to smile. In spite of the fact that she’d been trouble from the get-go, she had a lively, sharp assertiveness that made him realize that her strong chin and intense gaze weren’t to be taken lightly.

Definitely not a desirable response. He searched through the debris of his anger to find a more comfortable reaction. He knew one thing. He wasn’t about to discuss his character traits—good, bad or otherwise.

“Let’s just agree that this entire experience has been…unpleasant for everyone concerned,” he said, trying for a reasonable tone. “But it’s over and we can all move on. My company will take care of the hospital bill, of course. If you’ll leave word where you’d like your things sent, I’ll have them delivered to you first thing in the morning. Will that suffice?”

She looked as if she might object, then took another deep breath. “Fine.”

“Good. That should be about it, then.”

“Any reason why I can’t stop in to see Addy before I leave?”

“I’m sure she’ll want to say goodbye. But not too long, if you don’t mind. She’s very tired.”

She frowned, clearly annoyed that he would think her that insensitive. “Of course.”

He held out his hand. “I hope the rest of your trip to Colorado is enjoyable, Miss Churchill. Good luck.”

She lifted her chin again and took his hand. “Thank you, Mr. D’Angelo,” she replied in a tight tone that bore no warmth. Not a flicker. “I’m sure whatever happens during the rest of my stay, it can’t possibly compare to what I experienced today.”

Nick had a feeling she was referring to more than just the accident, but he wasn’t about to comment. He nodded and made his escape.

KARI HAD JUST SLIPPED into her jeans when the nurse came back to the room. Except for a killer headache and some stiff muscles in her back, she felt fine. Maybe a little drained from the ordeal she’d been through, but who wouldn’t be? The fact that both she and Addy D’Angelo had managed to come out of the crash in one piece was pretty amazing.

Even more amazing was the fact that she’d kept her conversation with Nick D’Angelo semi-civil. If ever there was a man who could make a woman scream in frustration, he was it.

Of course, she had to concede that he had some right to be angry with her. She had taken advantage of Addy, and that knowledge had left her struggling with enough guilt to choke a horse. Her mother had always complained that she was too much like her father. When Madison Churchill set his sights on something, he went barreling in and damned the consequences. Kari had certainly inherited that trait.

The nurse who’d assisted the doctor came into the room. She handed Kari a prescription for a muscle relaxer and a mild pain reliever. “You’re all set to go,” she said. She handed Kari a third piece of paper. “Nick said to give you this. It’s the phone number for a couple of motels down by the interstate.”

Kari slipped the prescriptions and the phone numbers into the back pocket of her jeans. She realized suddenly that the nurse, a pretty brunette about her age, had used D’Angelo’s first name. “You know Mr. D’Angelo?” she asked.

The woman had already begun to strip the hospital gurney of its sheets. She glanced back over her shoulder. “Everyone around these parts knows Nick. He’s been baby-sitting Lightning River Lodge for his family for five years now.”

“Has he always been so…”

“Sexy?”

“No!” Kari nearly gasped. That thought hadn’t entered her mind. “I was going to say…dictatorial.”

The nurse’s eyes flickered with honest amusement. “Honey, you’d better have the doc check you over again. Make sure your brain didn’t get scrambled. Every woman in the Lightning River area would like to lasso Nick D’Angelo. Myself included.” She dumped the soiled sheets into a hamper and smiled at Kari. “I haven’t seen him look this grim since his dad had his stroke. You certainly seem to have gotten on his bad side.”

“Oh, you mean there’s a good side?” Kari said. “I sure didn’t see it.”

“Nick’s just protective of his family. He takes his responsibilities very seriously. But he can be a real sweetie.”

“I must have missed the sweetness in between all the yelling and threats,” Kari said with a laugh. “In fact, are you sure we’re talking about the same Nick D’Angelo? The guy I know is the most arrogant, annoying, rock-headed man I’ve ever met.”

“One and the same man, I’m afraid.”

That slightly rough-voiced response came from behind Kari, and she started. She turned to find an older man in a wheelchair parked in the doorway. His features were worn and tired-looking, but a spark of vibrant life burned in his dark eyes.

Kari swallowed hard. This had to be one of the D’Angelos. He had the same direct way of looking at a person that Nick had. The same commanding presence in spite of whatever illness had put him in that chair.

But did they share the same temper, too?

The man moved his chair forward, until he sat right in front of her. “I’m Sam D’Angelo,” he said in a calm voice. “Nick’s and Adriana’s father.”

She’d been afraid of that.

She wet her lips. “Mr. D’Angelo, you have a perfect right to be upset about what happened. I’d like to explain—”

He held up one hand. “That isn’t really necessary. I think I have a clear picture. Adriana shouldn’t have taken you up, but she can be very…single-minded and impetuous sometimes.” He grinned. “She gets that from her mother’s side of the family, I’m afraid.”

A little of Kari’s anxiety settled. This man wasn’t nearly the ill-tempered grouch his son was.

But then he tilted his head at her, as though seeing a very unusual bug for the first time. “Besides, I wanted to meet the woman who has my son in such an uproar. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him like this.”

“Like what? You mean, angry enough to drop me from the nearest cliff?”

“Yes. That’s one emotion you seem to have brought out in him. Perhaps there are others.”

She frowned, not sure what he meant by that. “I’m dreadfully sorry about all this. I really wish I could turn back the clock twenty-four hours. Addy told me everyone in your family is working double-time in preparation for some wedding your resort is catering. Will you be terribly short-handed without her help?”

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