meeting with the hospital attorney and the administrator.”
The instant she heard Anna’s name, the woman’s smile slid away as if a cold breeze had just blown through the room.
“I’m here for a three o’clock meeting with the hospital attorney and the administrator.”
“Phil Crandall, the hospital attorney, is not here yet, Ms. Wilder. But Mr. Sumner and your attorney are in the boardroom. They’re waiting for you.”
Though she spoke politely enough, Anna thought she saw a tiny sliver of disdain in the woman’s eyes.
She fished around in her mind for something she might say to alter the woman’s negative impression, then checked the impulse.
She was working hard to break the habits of a lifetime, that hunger for approval she couldn’t quite shake. Did it really matter what J.D.’s receptionist thought of her? It certainly wouldn’t change anything about her mission here in Walnut River.
“Thank you,” she answered, mustering a smile she hoped was at least polite if not completely genuine. She headed for the door the receptionist indicated, tilting her chin up and hoping she projected confidence and competence.
This was it. Her chance to cinch the promotion at NHC and cement her growing reputation as a rainmaker there.
Or she could blow the merger, lose her job, and end up begging on the street somewhere.
Think positive, she ordered herself. You can do this. You’ve done it before. As she pushed open the door, she visualized herself handing over the signed deal to her bosses, both her direct supervisor, Wallace Jeffers—vice president for mergers and acquisitions—and the NHC chief executive officer who had given her this assignment, Alfred Daly.
It was a heady, enticing image, one she clung to as she faced the two men at the boardroom table, papers spread out in front of them.
Two men sat at a boardroom table talking, papers spread out in front of them. She knew both of them and smiled at J. D. Sumner and Walter Posey, the NHC attorney.
“I’m sorry if I’ve kept you waiting. I didn’t realize there would be so much construction surrounding the hospital.”
J.D. nodded. “Walnut River is growing. You just have to walk outside to see it.”
“Which is one factor that makes this hospital an attractive opportunity for NHC, as you well know.”
J.D. had first come to Walnut River as an employee of NHC. He had ended up falling—literally—for her sister, Ella, resigning from NHC and taking the job as hospital administrator.
She didn’t know all the details but she knew Ella had treated J.D. after he was injured in a bad tumble on some icy steps when leaving the hospital. Something significant must have happened between them to compel a man like J.D. to fall for his orthopedic surgeon and leave a promising career at Northeastern HealthCare to take the reins of Walnut River General Hospital.
She couldn’t imagine giving up everything she had worked so hard to attain for something as ephemeral as love, but she had to admit part of her envied her sister. J.D. must love Ella very much.
She could only hope his relationship with Ella had turned him soft. Judging by his track record at NHC, Anna feared he would be a formidable foe in her efforts to make the merger happen.
“Our attorney was caught up in the traffic snarl, as well,” J.D. answered. “He just called and was still parking his car but he should be here any moment.”
Though he spoke cordially enough, there was a reserve in his voice she couldn’t miss.
She had only known him casually when he worked for NHC, but their interactions as coworkers had always been marked by friendly respect. Now, though, they were on opposite sides of what was shaping up to be an ugly fight over the future of the hospital.
He didn’t seem antagonistic, as she had feared, only distant. She had to admit she was relieved. He and Ella were engaged, from what she understood. This was bound to be awkward enough between them without outright antipathy.
“I’m going for some coffee before we get started,” the NHC attorney announced. “Can I get either of you anything?”
Anna shook her head at Walter, whom she had worked with before on these due diligence reviews. “None for me, thanks.”
“Sumner?”
J.D. shook his head. “I’m good.”
As soon as Walter left the room, J.D. leaned back in his chair and studied her carefully, until Anna squirmed under the weight of his green-eyed gaze.
“So how are you? I mean, how are you really?”
She blinked at the unexpected personal question and was slow to answer, choosing her words carefully. “I’m managing. I suppose you heard I tried to stay out of this one, obviously without success.”
He nodded, his brow furrowed. “I heard. Does Daly really think your family connection will make anyone happier about NHC’s efforts to take over the hospital?”
“Hope springs eternal, I suppose,” she muttered.
J.D. laughed. “Alfred Daly obviously doesn’t know your stubborn siblings, does he?”
If her boss had any idea what he was up against, Anna had a feeling he never would have initiated the merger proceedings at Walnut River General.
“How’s Ella?” The question slipped out before she could yank it back.
J.D.’s eyes widened with surprise for just an instant that she would ask before they softened into a dreamy kind of look that filled her with no small amount of envy.
“She’s great. Wonderful. Except the wedding next month is making her a little crazy. I told her to just leave the details to someone else, but she won’t hear of it.” He paused. “She misses you.”
I miss her, too. The words tangled on her tongue and dried there. She couldn’t say them, of course. She could never tell J.D. how she hated this distance between her and her sister.
They used to be so close—best friends as well as sisters, only a year apart. They had shared everything—clothes, secrets, friends.
She remembered lying on her stomach in their backyard, daydreaming and giggling over boys.
“You’re going to be my maid of honor,” Ella declared more than once. “And I’ll be yours.”
“One of us will have to get married first,” she remembered answering. “So one of us will have to be a matron of honor.”
“That sounds so old! Like one of the gray-haired ladies at the hospital! How about we’ll both still be maids of honor, even if one of us is already married?”
Anna remembered shaking her head at Ella’s twisted logic but in the end, she had agreed, just like she usually did.
That had always been their plan. But now Ella and J.D. were getting married in a month and Anna wasn’t even sure she would receive an invitation.
Especially not if she successfully carried out her objective of making this merger a reality.
Her career or her family.
A miserable choice.
“You should talk to her,” J.D. said into the silence, with a sudden gentleness that made her want to cry again.
“I wish this were something that a little conversation could fix,” she murmured. “I’m afraid it’s not that easy.”
“You never know until you try,” he answered.
She didn’t know how to answer him, and to her relief she was spared from having to try when the door opened.
She looked up, expecting Walter with his coffee,