Chapter 1 #2
“Then tell him to buy one.” Kaylee’s flat voice made me laugh, as I’d known it would. “Or he can have another kid, if he wants to try again for a boy.”
We both laughed, her more sarcastically than me. There was a tinge of hurt in my laughter, because I was convinced that he’d really wanted a boy all along.
“Listen, if it’s meant for you to have a baby, you will. It’ll happen. And in the meantime, we can get drunk and flirt with sexy men.”
“Or in your case, take them home and help them lose their innocence.” I grinned out at the road as Kaylee laughed harder.
“You’re thinking about Bret, aren’t you?” she asked once she’d calmed her giggles.
I sighed. “Well, I wasn’t, until you brought him up.”
“You’re a terrible liar. Have you seen him lately?”
It was impossible to work at the hospital and not see him. He was half the reason I usually went to the cafe and not the cafeteria. He liked the full service of the cafeteria and went there most often for his lunches.
“I don’t care about Bret or his life, or his new baby mama.”
“The offer to burn his house down stands.”
Bret had been my college boyfriend, and then fiancé.
We’d lived together in a large apartment near the hospital in downtown Bluewater Cove.
The wedding date had come and gone this past winter while Bret was at our apartment with his new fiancé and her pregnant belly.
He’d been cheating on me all along, apparently, and it only came to light when his current squeeze got pregnant.
He’d then tried to blame me by saying I was too busy and worked too many hours.
He was lonely.
“And I still might take you up on it, but honestly, Kaylee, the hurt isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be.
And me thinking about babies might have been spurred a little by them, but it’s a valid question.
At my age, don’t I have the right to be wondering if it’s time to get pregnant?
” I’d be turning thirty-five soon, and that was considered a geriatric pregnancy and came with its own set of complications.
“Yes, you have the right to think about it. As long as you’re not obsessing over that dirtbag.”
“I know that his cheating was his problem, not mine. It wasn’t my fault.” She’d been drilling it into my head since it happened, and somewhere along the way, the reality that it had been Bret’s fault and not mine had sunk in and I’d finally begun to believe it.
“I’m glad to hear it. Now, when are you off again?”
I’d picked up a few shifts. “I’m honestly not sure. Let me check and I’ll text you. Girls’ night?”
“Hell, yes.”
We hung up as I pulled into the driveway of my new cottage.
When I moved out of Bret’s, I’d moved back in with Dad in his place behind the auto shop for a little while, but then decided I wanted some time to myself.
I’d gone from Dad’s to the dorm room, where I roomed with Kaylee.
Not that I regretted that, she’d become a lifelong friend.
After the dorm, I’d moved in with Bret, then when that went to hell, back to Dad’s.
For the last six months, I’d lived in my cottage, alone.
And it was wonderful. If I wanted to eat ice cream in bed, naked, I did. If I wanted to dance off the ice cream I’d eaten in bed, I did that, too. I watched TV if I wanted to, cleaned when I wanted to and had my girly face products and lingerie spread out all over the house.
The only thing that sucked was eating. Cooking for one was a major bummer.
I avoided it, generally, eating at the hospital or Dad’s whenever I could.
Eating out so much meant that I danced more than I used to, but that was okay, too.
There was nothing wrong with streaming exercise videos to earn the large fries instead of small.
After a shower, I made the bed and curled up in it, throwing my robe at the end and enjoying the feel of the clean sheets on my naked, damp body.
I considered myself, trying to be as self-aware as I could. I wasn’t ugly, though I also wouldn’t have said I was the hottest person in Bluewater. Sometimes I was funny, and I was loyal for sure. I didn’t steal or anything. Dad had installed a pretty decent moral compass.
My teeth were always clean, and I’d never suffered from acne. In short, I was decent.
So why did men seem repulsed by me? Bret was the only man that had ever shown me any attention, and I’d fallen for him hook, line, and sinker. He’d kept me at home as his steady, boring wife-to-be while he’d snuck around with all the exciting women he’d wanted to.
The only other man I’d ever had any sort of relationship with sprang to mind. Anthony Mason. He’d been my best friend all through my childhood and half of high school. He’d kissed me one time, then disappeared, saying his family had gotten him into some prestigious school in England.
Except that he’d never sent so much as an email. He’d said we would video chat or text, and though I’d sent a few messages, I’d quickly given up when there was no reply.
That hadn’t stopped me from stalking his social media.
When he left, social media was just getting a real foothold and we’d both just made accounts on the two biggest platforms. He’d never unfriended me, but I was always very careful about how much I let him see and I never, ever liked, commented, or reacted to any of his posts.
It was petty, but it was life. And he seemed to be living his best life, by the looks of his accounts.
He’d left me as if I’d never mattered to him in the least. No way would I let him know I stalked him occasionally online.
I fell asleep thinking about him, and when my alarm went off the next morning, I woke with a dream slipping away so fast I had no idea what it had been about, but somehow, I knew, just knew it was the recurring dream I had where Anthony kissed me and as soon as our lips touched, he jerked back and looked down at me as if I repulsed him.
As soon as I walked into the primary care clinic, the receptionist, Cam, skittered across the office. “Come on,” she said. “You’re late.” Her layers of bracelets clacked as she moved.
“Sorry, I stopped for coffee. I was out.” I held up my large to-go cup as proof.
“That’s all well and good, but we’re meeting the new doctor. He’s replacing Dr. White for the foreseeable future.”
She grabbed my arm as soon as I stashed my purse and jacket in the back room. “Hurry,” Camilla urged.
We walked into the staff room, the last ones to enter. They’d left the chairs closest to the door open around the big conference table. We sat and looked at the head of the table to find the hospital CEO standing with the new doctor.
“Thanks everyone for taking the time to have this little introductory meeting,” he said.
I looked at the new doctor standing beside him for the first time to discover his gaze was glued to me.
My jaw dropped as I tried not to shit a brick.
It was Anthony fucking Mason.