Page 29 of Sweet Passions at Bayside
What?She shot a curious look at Dean, whose sexy smile was now aimed at her, sending her insides into a whole different type of flurry.
Chloe’s eyes widened. “You’re the back-care Wonder Woman Dean raves about?” She opened her arms and pulled Emery into an unexpected hug. “I am so glad to meet you. Dean said you worked wonders at Oak Falls Back Care and Rehab.”
Emery was at a loss for words. He’d networked for her? Did he also tell Chloe why she had left the practice? She finally managed, “He did?”
“Yes! He sings your praises like he’s your marketing rep,” she answered. “Didn’t he tell you? And of course my sister, Serena, told me all about how nice you were.”
Serena’s sister?The puzzle pieces were falling into place, and Emery felt like a fool, being jealous of someone Dean had grown up with.Being jealous at all.She didn’t like that feeling, and since she’d never been jealous before, she wasn’t sure she liked what it meant about how she felt about Dean.
Denial looks cute on you.
Like jealousy, denial wasn’t an emotion in which she was well versed. She glanced at Dean, who winked again. When did he start winking? Had he always done that? She tried to push past the truth in his observation and said, “He didn’t tell me.”
“Well, after I heard you were coming here, Ihadto Google you,” Chloe exclaimed. “I read the archived articles you wrote for the back-care center you worked for. I was astonished by the article about the sixty-five-year-old man who was bedridden after suffering a back injury at work. You were able to help him get back on his feet so quickly.”
“Mr. Wiles. The doctors had pumped him up on pain meds and basically left him to believe he’d suffer for the rest of his life. Patients don’t realize the negative impact becoming sedentary can have on them.” She remembered Mr. Wiles well. He was a curmudgeonly man who lived in the next town over. When they first started working together, he’d hated every session and had told her he was only doing it because his daughter, who had worked at the hospital and had referred patients to the back-care center, had insisted. With time and gentle care, he’d come to trust Emery, and with that trust had come a desire, and drive, to heal.
“I read that. But with your help, he was walking again within two months and nearly pain free four months later. That isveryimpressive.” Chloe pointed to the flyers in Emery’s hand. “Are those for your new business?”
“Thank you, and yes, well, sort of. They’re for my yoga classes, and they have my website address, which has my experience on it.” Emery handed her a flyer and then remembered how casually she was dressed. “I didn’t realize we were coming here to meet you today. I would have dressed more appropriately.”
Chloe waved a hand dismissively. “No worries. No one dresses up on the Cape in the summer. You look great.”
As Chloe scanned the flyer, Emery turned to thank Dean, but he was busy talking with the receptionist again. Just as he glanced her way, a tall brunette pushed a wheelchair into the lobby, and the elderly woman sitting in it said, “Dean, what a surprise. Are you here to take me out to tend to the flowers?”
Dean knelt beside the wheelchair and took the elderly woman’s hand in his. “How are you, Agnes?”
Her thin lips curved in a smile that reached her eyes. “I woke up this morning and saw a bright light. Thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Then I realized I had forgotten to close my curtains. I’ve been blessed with another day. That’s a good day in my book.”
“And in mine.” Dean rose to his feet, still holding the woman’s frail hand, and greeted the brunette behind the wheelchair. “Jenny, would you mind if I took Agnes out for a walk?”
He really did have a heart of gold.
“Not at all. But you know,” Jenny said with a mischievous grin, “once the ladies get wind of this, they’reallgoing to want to come out and work in the garden with you today.”
Dean held a finger in front of his lips. “Shh. This is mine and Agnes’s private date.”
He turned to Emery with a question in his eyes, as if he was asking if she wanted to come, or if she was okay with him disappearing for their walk. Her insides had gone all warm and fuzzy. She’d known he was generous to a fault. And now he’d not only gone out of his way to help her, but he was willing to put everything else aside to take this lovely woman out to see the gardens. She tried to close the emotional floodgates she’d so eagerly denied existed, but they were near to bursting.
Before she could say a word, Chloe said, “This is perfect. Now I can pick Emery’s brain and show her around.”
“Yes, perfect,” Emery said with her eyes on Dean and her heart in a quandary.
Chloe gave Emery a thorough tour of the facility, which was warm and homey and reminded Emery of the assisted living facility in Oak Falls where many of her clients had lived. During the tour, Chloe asking about the work Emery had done at the back-care specialty practice, and the more Emery talked about working with the patients, the stronger the pull became to get back into it.
They stepped outside and into a beautiful courtyard. The warmth of the sun shone down on them as they walked by several elderly men and women seated around a table playing cards. Chloe stopped to say a brief hello, and it was clear by the enthusiastic greetings how much the residents liked her. But Emery noticed more than their smiles. She noticed the way the woman on her right was favoring her right shoulder and the way the man on her left continually shifted in his chair, as if his hips were bothering him.
As they walked away, Chloe said, “You’ve got to watch Nelson, the one with the gray shirt. If you buy into the gossip, he’s some kind of cardshark.” She smiled and said, “And apparently has quite the social life, too. Anyway, now you’ve moved here for good, but you’re not starting a back-care specialty practice? Dean made it sound like that was what you loved most. I was really hoping you might want to get involved with our residents.”
“I would love to help the people here. There are so many ways to make a difference in their lives. But I’m going to be working at my friend Desiree Cleary’s—”
“I love Des! She and Violet are members of BNI, the business networking group I belong to. We shared a table at a local networking fair in the spring.”
“Really? Des and I grew up together, and she invited me to come stay at the inn and offer yoga to her customers. I’ll be working at Dean’s resort, too, so I really can’t start a full-blown back-care specialist practice, which would be my dream. I wouldn’t feel good about leaving either of them hanging after they’ve given me such a great opportunity and enabled me to move here and start over.” She noticed an elderly woman sitting in a wheelchair, hunched over a table. Her face was pinched, as if she was in pain, as she sorted flowers. Several flowers fell off the edge of the table and she mumbled something indiscernible.
“But I love working with the elderly, and I’d like to take on a few clients maybe once a week or so.” Emery walked over and picked up the flowers. She handed them to the woman and said, “Hi. These are beautiful.”
The woman’s pinched expression morphed into a pained smile. “Thank you, dear. This darn wheelchair has me hamstrung.”
