Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Willa
“ Y ou’ve been avoiding me.”
Magnolia stood in my office, wearing a lime-green jumpsuit topped with a black blazer. Her makeup was impeccable, and her trendy asymmetrical haircut was artfully mussed.
“Do you have an appointment?” I asked sweetly, hitting her with a smile.
“I brought lunch, and Mellie confirmed you have no patients until 1:45.”
She was right. I finally had a break. And God, was I starving. Also, Mags had been texting me nonstop since we returned from Vegas last week, so it was time to face the music.
My best friend was brilliant, and she had the time and resources to dig for the truth. We’d become friends as kids. Though she wasn’t a Lovewell resident like Lila and me, she spent her summers here. She’d regale us with stories of her Upper East Side prep school and bring us old issues of Seventeen magazine. As we traipsed through town, sunbathing at the lake and splitting milkshakes at the diner, a deep bond was formed.
She was the best kind of people. But she also could read me like a book.
She stepped into the office and closed the door behind her, then she pounced. “Start talking.” She pulled out a container and set it on the desk.
“Is this pad Thai?” I asked, my stomach growling at the divine scent filling the small room.
She nodded as she pulled out a second container.
“How?” I asked. “There’s no Thai food within fifty miles of this place.”
She shrugged. “I got a guy.”
“But this is still warm.”
“Exactly.” She took chopsticks and napkins out of the brown paper bag. “Don’t let it get cold.”
Obediently, I popped the lid off my container. As a whoosh of warm, heavenly-smelling air hit me, and I moaned. How the hell had she found pad Thai?
“It’s interesting,” she said. “You live on my property, yet I still can’t ever catch you.”
“The property is forty acres.”
She raised one eyebrow and angled forward. “We don’t lie to each other, Willa.”
Every muscle in my body went rigid at her tone.
“So.” She leaned forward, elbows on my desk, her fingers steepled. “What’s going on? I’m worried about you, and I need to know that you’re okay.”
“I’m okay,” I said firmly, looking her in the eye so she could see that was the truth.
“You marrying Cole is strange. You know? Especially because of how much you disliked him when he and Lila dated. That makes me think there’s more to the story. Is this a blackmail thing? Coercion? Did you lose a bet?”
I huffed. “Jesus, Magnolia. No.”
“Is the mafia involved?” She arched a brow.
“Of course not.”
“Okay.” She sat back a little and dug into her meal. “Because I know people. You know if you need help, all you have to do is ask. I’d do anything for you.”
I didn’t doubt that. Her loyalty ran deep, and her job as a party planner for New York’s elite had garnered her a lot of useful connections.
“What happened?”
“We got drunk and married,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. “There is no blackmail, kidnapping, or illegal activity at all.”
“And you’ve been secretly dating?” Her face was dubious.
Lips pressed together, I surveyed my friend. The woman who’d hired a private jet to get me from Baltimore to Portland when my dad had his stroke. If she hadn’t done that, I would have spent hours waiting for a flight. She literally sent a plane to get me when I thought I’d lose my father.
I couldn’t lie to her. I was so tired of lying.
“No,” I said softly, deflating. “We were not dating.”
“Of course not,” she scoffed.
My heart pinched at her tone. Yeah, I wasn’t his type, but jeez.
“Cole is a selfish man child,” she went on. “If you were dating him, I’d slap you around. I know pickings up here are slim, but really? You could date a pine tree with more integrity and better conversational skills.”
Anger flashed through me like a lightning strike. I clenched my fists. “Hey. That’s my husband you’re talking about.”
She frowned, her eyes swimming with pity. “If you need an annulment, I’ll call my lawyers. They do shit like this all the time.”
I pulled my shoulders back. “Had many annulments, have you?”
She shook her head and let out a laugh. “We both know I attract the crazy.”
Sure. Magnolia attracted a lot of things.
Six feet tall with bleached blond hair, she looked like a supermodel, lived like a seventy-year-old socialite, and dressed like a club kid from the ’80s. She had a long list of exes, both men and women, and left a lot of broken hearts in her wake.
“It happened,” I admitted. “I went to Vegas feeling sorry for myself and needing a break from my responsibilities. I’ve been feeling trapped and left behind and shitty.”
She hummed. “Nothing wrong with cutting loose.”
“And trust me, I know what I did was stupid. But I’ve spent years waiting for my life to begin in New York. Now, that life no longer exists. It’s not that I don’t want to be here, but I’m still mourning the loss of that version of myself.”
“It wasn’t stupid. You did all the right things, but shitty things happened and plans changed. You’re allowed to grieve the loss of them. The three of us spent years getting ready for our New York era. I get it. We’re all sad.”
“Not Lila.”
“Maybe, maybe not. Just because she’s happy in Boston with Owen doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss what we could have had.” She picked up another bite of pad Thai and assessed me. “We’re growing up. You and I are thirty, and she’s twenty-nine. We’ve all got adult responsibilities. Shit changes. But you’re allowed to be sad about it. You can be pissed. I don’t care. Please don’t fucking lie to me and go off and get married.”
“Sorry. It’s…” I blew out a breath, working out how to explain my marriage to Cole. “He’s not what I expected.”
She rolled her eyes. Her opinion of him, like mine, was mainly based on what we’d learned from Lila over the years. They’d had a long, angsty relationship through most of their twenties, and it had ended badly.
“He’s sad and struggling to find his place in the world. And he’s kind.”
“Sure he is.”
“I mean it,” I said, rankled by her dismissive tone. “And he’s helpful.”
She barked a laugh. “Yeah, because you gave him a free place to live.”
“He doesn’t need it. He’s got money,” I explained. “I think he needs a friend. He’s working on himself.”
She slapped the table, startling me. “No fucking way, Willa. God, this is so, so… you!”
I slumped. “You’re being a bit dramatic.”
“No I’m not. You love a fixer upper. This is your MO. You’re a doctor, God complex and all. You think you can fix everyone you meet. Shit, you are in deep.” She stood and paced my tiny, cramped office, chopsticks in hand. “I should have intervened sooner. That’s on me. We can work on this.”
“Magnolia, stop,” I said firmly, setting my own chopsticks on my napkin. “We got married, and we’ve decided to stay married for a bit. Our relationship is strictly platonic, but pretending helps both of us out for various reasons.”
She shook her head. “It’s platonic for now, but lines will blur. He’s a wounded puppy. You’ll be fucking him in no time.”
Heat flashed through me. “Stop it.”
“You’ve thought about it,” she accused.
“No. We’ve kissed. In Vegas. Nothing since. We don’t even flirt.”
That was not entirely true. We flirted often—mildly, of course—but Cole was playful and funny. It was like his default setting. So maybe he sometimes put his arm around me while we watched Jeopardy . It was all very benign.
And then there was the wrist kiss. I had pushed thoughts of it to the back of my mind because I could drive myself crazy analyzing every facet. Neither of us had mentioned it, and I was happy to pretend it never happened. Unpacking the intensity, the attraction, and the pure lust of that moment would only lead to disaster. Best to ignore it all and keep pushing forward.
“We have firm boundaries, and he’s quite respectful.”
“Are we talking about the same guy? Cole Hebert? Arrested six months ago for vandalism at his own family’s company? Ignored our friend for years, despite how she followed him around, taking care of him and acting as his personal cheerleader?”
“People change, Mags. You said it yourself. We’re grown up now.”
She’d had a front-row seat to all my romantic humiliation and heartbreak over the years. There hadn’t been much, but she’d held my hand through a very complicated situationship with another resident last year. I appreciated her love for me, but I needed to handle this myself.
She shook her head. “I love you. I don’t want you getting hurt. If you fess up to your parents, they will forgive you.”
“No. I can’t do that. They’re over the moon. They’re thankful that I’ve got someone looking out for me. You know how overprotective they are. They’re so worried I’m in over my head with the practice. I was shocked how relieved they were, knowing that I have a husband looking out for me.”
“Gross. I always thought Roger and Susan were more evolved than that.”
“Not like that.” I chuckled. “They’re relieved to know that I have someone to lean on. My dad worked himself almost to death, but he always had my mom to help.”
Her expression softened. “Your mom is pretty awesome.”
“After Christmas, they’re going to rehab in Portland for a few months. Then, in the spring, when Dad is better,Cole and I will separate and start the annulment process. He’s trying to figure out his career, and let’s face it, there aren’t many opportunities here.”
“I’ll give him a job.” She dropped back into her seat and crossed one leg over the other. “In New York. He can assist in planning events. He did a good job with RiverFest.”
“He crushed it,” I said as pride filled my chest.
She frowned at me. “He’s smart and has good problem-solving skills. I’ll give him that.” She hummed. “I’ll give him a job if he promises to get out of town and leave my best friend alone.”
My heart sank. Of course.
“I mean it. This is not going to end well. I know in your mind, it’s all tidy and neat. But Willa, I’ve done so much stupid shit. Please . Learn from my mistakes.”
I raised one eyebrow.
“You’re a good girl. You play by the rules. A guy like Cole? He’s gonna blow up every single one of them and leave you hurting.”
“Wow.” My stomach knotted, and suddenly, I’d lost my appetite. “I didn’t realize you had so little faith in me. Maybe I can handle myself.”
Head cocked, she blinked at me. “You don’t exactly have a ton of life experience.”
“Sorry I was so busy becoming a doctor I didn’t have enough time to date dozens of people.”
“I’m not judging,” she argued. “You know how fucking proud I am. Recall how embarrassed you were when I hired a skywriter at your med school graduation?”
One corner of my lips twitched without my permission as I nodded.
“Please be careful. And whatever you do, don’t sleep with him.”
I bit back a guffaw. That was not even a remote possibility. “I promise. It’s not like that. There is no attraction.”
Her eye roll could rival that of any teenage girl. “Do I need to go talk to him? Make sure he knows if he fucks with you, he will disappear?”
“Please don’t tell anyone,” I begged, my heart clenching at the possibility. “I’m protecting his reputation as much as my own.”
“I won’t. But I don’t like this, and I don’t trust him. As long as you don’t sleep together, maybe there is a chance this doesn’t blow up in your face.”
“I love it when you’re optimistic.”
“Only for you, bestie.”