Page 17 of Falling For The Enemy (The Gilbert Curse)

“No. Mom loved it. Sometimes she’d even entice Dad to join us.”

Rory turned to her brother and saw that usual mix of love and concern but also something else. Maybe a hint of sadness. She barely remembered her parents as she’d only been six when they died in a plane crash; but Dash had more memories. “I wish I could remember them.”

“Me, too, ladybug,” he said, then he looked past her to Kit. “Thank you for helping Rory with this.”

“No problem,” Kit said. “That’s what I’m here for.”

“Is it? I thought you were an old friend.”

“He is. He meant that’s what friends are for. He’s helping me with all the things I can’t remember doing and all the things I want to,” Rory explained.

“Like what things?”

“All the things,” she said again. She wasn’t going to mention kissing because, to be fair, she wouldn’t have kissed a life coach. Or would she? Her life was full of extraordinary surprises. Maybe she would have kissed anyone who was attractive and spent this much time with her.

If Rory was honest, she was sure it was only Kit whom she wanted to kiss. But then again, she hadn’t really been around a lot of other men that weren’t related to her, since coming out of the coma. There was Hank, of course, but he was married and also was always forcing her to do exercises that hurt. She glanced back over at Kit.

Wanting something didn’t mean she’d get it. She also had to be careful with her emotions. She had no real idea of the woman she’d been before but this woman she was today wanted connections. Wanted friends of her own, and after that kiss, a lover to call her own. She wanted it to be Kit, but was she just forming an attachment to him because he was the first hot guy she’d been around?

“Are you okay?” Kit asked.

“Yes,” she said. “The pie should be cooled down enough for us to have some now.”

“I’m looking forward to trying it,” he said.

“It looks delicious. What kind is it?” Dash asked as they walked back to the cement pad outside her back door. She noticed he’d put a towel down on the floor when they came back in.

They all sat down in the doorway one at a time and dried their feet. Rory went first and once she was in the house went to the linen cabinet and grabbed bigger towels for Dash and Kit.

They took them and toweled off in the doorway. “I’m going to go and change quickly,” she said. “Will you two be okay?”

“Of course. It will give us a chance to get to know one another,” Dash said.

“Don’t be...”

“What?” her brother asked.

“You,” she responded with a grin. “Be nice.”

“I can’t be anyone other than myself,” he told her.

She looked over at Kit and he just winked at her, which she assumed meant he’d be fine. She just didn’t want Dash to say anything that would make Kit leave her. Then she realized how silly that was. Kit wasn’t the kind of man to do anything he didn’t want to do.

Kit hadn’t been in the same room as Dash Gilbert since he’d been a boy, long before his family had started working their way up the corporate ladder at the factory and long before the night when his brother had died. In his mind he’d spent so many years hating Dash because he was the face of the company that was to blame for his family’s hardships.

But this man didn’tlookevil.

“Thank you,” he said as they both finished toweling off and moved into the kitchen. “I know that Rory needs this kind of activity but I can’t get past my fear that she’s going to fall and be back in the hospital.”

There was no doubting Dash’s sincerity. “She’s capable of more than you realize.”

“No doubt. Want some coffee?” Dash asked, deftly changing the subject.

“Sure,” Kit said.

Dash moved around the kitchen, clearly familiar with the layout and where everything was, and started making coffee with the single-use pot that was on the counter. “So, what is it you do exactly?”

“I run my family’s business,” he replied. “You?”

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