Page 41 of Just The Way You Aren't

I mean, really! How busy can one billionaire CEO be that he can’t even take half a minute to acknowledge what happened between us the night of the gala? Then again, he seemed to have forgotten all about our amazing night by thetime morning rolled around. God knows, he couldn’t seem to push me out of his house fast enough.

Maybe the sex wasn’t all that great in his opinion. He certainly seemed to be having a good time, but maybe that marathon of orgasms was just par for the course for Damien Langley’s carnal appetites. Maybe he was just scratching an itch that hadn’t been scratched in a while.

Still, that didn’t excuse his lack of communication, especially considering he was supposed to be lending a hand with Silver Hearts.

“Well, I’m busy, too,” I murmur to myself. I stop at Mrs. Steinburg’s house and the elderly woman, thin as a rail and wearing a threadbare housecoat, comes to the door. I immediately know something’s wrong when none of her eleven children and foster children come to the door with her. “Mrs. Steinburg?” I ask worriedly.

“Kevin is in the hospital again,” she tells me sadly.

“Oh no.” Kevin, her second-oldest biological son and the reason her husband left her many years ago, has Down Syndrome and has required the care of his mother all his life. Unfortunately, just about every disease someone with Down Syndrome is particularly susceptible to, Kevin has contracted at one time or another. He’s a happy-go-lucky guy most of the time and Mrs. Steinburg’s one eldest daughter, two adopted children, and seven foster children all adore him.

“This time, insurance is saying they won’t cover another surgery for his heart condition. The doctors are telling me the procedure is very risky and what they would need to do is experimental. Willow, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Mrs. Steinburg whispers.

I take a deep breath. “I want you to bring the paperwork that says how much the procedure will cost to Abby. Youknow we don’t usually provide services for adults under the age of sixty-five, but I hope we can make an exception for Kevin. Abby is a wiz at finding and writing grants.”

Mrs. Steinburg grips my hands. “Bless you, Willow. Bless you.”

Kiko, her youngest foster child, suddenly comes zipping to the door. “Dum-Dum?” she asks, giving me the biggest, most convincing smile, I’ve ever seen.

I laugh. “You liked the strawberry Dum-Dum Abby gave you, didn’t you?”

The four-year-old nods.

I put a finger to my lips and pull a lollipop out of my pocket. “Don’t tell the others where this came from.”

Kiko grins, then proceeds to run back into the house yelling, “Dum-Dums!”

Soon, I have six children’s heads poking out the door on top of each other like a totem pole and calling, “Dum-Dum!”

I laugh. “Okay, okay. But I have to go back to the van to get more.”

When I get to the vehicle, I see my phone still has no messages. My heart sinks a little.

I shake myself. No, I will not be one of those women who sit sighing by their phones, waiting for a call. I determinedly flip the phone over screen-down, only to hear it ring. I don’t even look at the ID. It has to be him.

“Hello?” I say brightly.

“Willow, it’s Abby. The toilet at the office just broke,” my assistant replies desperately.

The toilet? I groan. That thing has been hanging on by a thread for nearly two years now. The day has come, apparently. “What do you mean it ‘broke’? What’s it doing?”

“It’s spilling water everywhere!” she all but wails.

I heave a sigh. “Okay, turn the water valve off.”

“I tried! It came off in my hand and now it’s spewing water from there!”

Ugh, just what I don’t need right now. “All right. Call a plumber. We’ll just have to find some extra money in the budget?—”

“I already called. They can’t come until Wednesday. I tried everybody!” she shrieks. I can hear water in the background and know Abby is probably standing ankle-deep in the mess trying to make it stop. What a perfectly disgusting disaster to keep my mind off Damien for a couple hours.

“All right. Don’t panic,” I say calmly, even though I’m panicking now. “Um, just try to contain the water mess. Maybe put a bucket under it or something? Put down some towels. I’ll be back shortly, and we can figure it out together.”

“Okay.” She still sounds desperate. “Don’t be long!”

“I won’t be. I just have Mrs. Baumgartner left. Oh, and the Steinburg kids want lollipops. You’ve created little monsters!”

Abby manages a laugh and I know everything is going to be okay.

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