CHAPTER EIGHT
Mason
“What the fuck, Ally?” I yank Ally by the same arm Nate had in his grip moments earlier, tugging her into one of the tiny washrooms at the back of the pub. The toilet and the sink take up most of the space, not leaving much room for the two of us together. The door snaps shut behind us, and I take a moment to make sure it’s locked.
Ally has already made a scene by roping me into this scheme of hers in front of everyone; I’m not about to make it worse by staging a fake public break-up, too. I won’t hear the end of this as soon as word gets out around town.
Winnie is always trying to set me up, and she’ll be all over this. She never misses an opportunity to mention how worried she is about how much time I invest in the clinic rather than making a ‘real life’ for myself. Her definition of a real life involves finding a woman and settling down. But this is my life. I grew up knowing that I aspired to be a doctor, like my father. Sure, this isn’t exactly what I had imagined for myself, but sometimes you get dealt a shitty hand, and I am determined to make my dad proud. That can’t happen if I’m not at the clinic keeping things running and making sure patients get seen.
I only hope I can convince Winnie and the others at our table to keep their mouths shut until I figure out what to do. If anyone else saw how Ally batted her eyelashes at me while she wrapped her fingers through mine, that would be it. Not only will it be an unwelcome distraction from all the work I have cut out for me, but I’ll also lose my credibility as a doctor. I won’t be the doctor dating sweet and lovely Ally, as everyone likes to think of her. I’ll be the doctor who finally gave in to hiring a nurse, and then slept with her during her first week in the clinic.
Thankfully, everyone else in the bar seemed too invested in their trivia to notice when Nate stormed out. All I can do now is hope they won’t think twice about how I was ready to fight him. It’s not that I wanted to come to Ally’s defence for her sake. Something about this Nate character made me want to crawl out of my skin. Maybe it was the vest he wore that screamed finance bro , or maybe it was the way he talked to Ally like she was his property.
I shut my eyes tight and pinch the bridge of my nose, considering the words I need to say to Ally. Gearing myself up, I mentally formulate the arguments for why this absolutely cannot happen. Number one, we are colleagues and nothing more. Number two, I do not have time for this type of childish bullshit. And number three, my eyes are lingering too long on Ally’s soft, plump lips as she presses them together in a straight line.
She’s standing so close that the soft puff of air she releases from her nose warms the space between us as she readies herself to fight back. She looks like a bull getting ready to charge.
“Do you realize what you just did?” I snap.
Something in Ally’s expression changes, and she softens, her shoulders slumping like she’s already tired when the fight hasn’t even begun.
“Thanks for going along with it,” is all she says in response. I’ve been preparing myself for more of an argument, so it takes a minute for me to rearrange my thoughts. What was the shift that I just saw in her? One minute, she was practically pawing at the ground like she was getting ready to charge, and the next, she looked defeated.
“Everyone in the bar wanted him to leave as much as you did, Honeybee.” The nickname rolls off my tongue with less bite to it than it had before. Something about the way Nate knocked the wind right out of Ally’s sails makes me want to be a little gentler with her.
Heat radiates between us. I can only assume it’s my anger, coming to a simmer rather than the boil it had been earlier, but I’m still steaming, and I want answers.
“Who is that guy, anyway?”
Ally’s eyes don’t meet mine; instead, she looks off to the side over my shoulder, as if checking to make sure no one has walked through the door. As if she’s afraid of who it might be. Again, I watch her shoulders slump as she comes up short of an explanation that’s anything other than the truth.
“Nate,” is all she offers.
“Yeah, so you mentioned earlier. You’re going to give me more than that if I’m now supposed to start beating guys off you with a stick.”
“I’m not asking you to do that, Mason. I panicked. I couldn’t think of what else to do.” Ally’s voice has a hint of despair in it now. “I am not the most intimidating person, and Nate isn’t easy to convince on the best of days.”
“You never answered my question.”
Ally sighs. The way her chest heaves so close to mine makes my cock twitch. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes trained on her face.
“Fine. Nate and I were together back in the city. We met on a dating show. I dumped him in a catastrophic and very public way. He’s not a compassionate person, Mason. Why I was ever with him in the first place is a mystery to me, too. All I know is that I can’t be with him now.”
“Ah. That explains the panic on your face when Grady read the question about Stolen Love. ” I say, putting two and two together. Ally nods. Nate is the epitome of a guy I can picture going on a dating show. But was he ever invested in Ally? He sure seems to be invested in their relationship now, and something about that makes me see red. I’m not Ally’s number one fan by any stretch, but anyone with half a brain could see that Ally deserves better than that sleazeball.
“And rather than tell him the truth, you come up with this excuse to get rid of him,” I continue. It comes out like a question, but it’s not. That’s precisely what Ally is doing. Just like she can’t bring herself to fight with me, she can’t bring herself to fight with Nate. I would guess Ally isn’t one to put up a fight with anyone.
“It was the best I could do.” Ally shrugs. God, why does Ally have to be so cute when everything she does infuriates me? “Don’t worry, Mason. He’ll be gone soon, and you don’t have to pretend to be my boyfriend all the time.”
“Oh, I won’t be pretending to be your boyfriend all the time. You’ve never lived in a small town like Heartwood. Everyone always knows everybody’s business.” And this kind of gossip would spread like wildfire. “I have enough problems right now trying to keep the clinic afloat and make sure nobody dies, Ally. The last thing I need is the rumour mill pumping out stories of how I’m now dating the hot new nurse.” I catch the words as they come out of my mouth, and Ally looks up at me like a baby deer in headlights, her eyes wide. Her face shifts into a playful, shit-eating grin.
“You think I’m hot .” She nudges my arm. “Here I assumed that Dr. Mason Landry had a heart of steel, unfeeling and cold. But you think I’m hot. ”
“Don’t be twisting my words,” I stammer.
“I’m not. Those were your exact words. I’m the hot new nurse.”
“There is and never will be anything between us, Ally. There can’t be. I need to have all my attention on the clinic.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Mason. I don’t want anything from you. You’re not my type.” Ally winks at me, and even though I was the first to shut things down, whatever this is, the words sting. What is Ally’s type? Nate?
“So, a doctor isn’t enough for the uppity, Ally Wells.” The words are harsher than I anticipated.
“No, just pompous assholes who go through life thinking they’re better than everyone else.” Ally pushes past me and puts a hand on the door, turning back to face me before she turns the lock. “I’m sorry. I need you to help me get rid of Nate. Can you do that for me?” This is the third time tonight that Ally has apologized for something she does not need to apologize for. Her need to smooth things over overtaking her clear disdain for me. She looks back at me with her big doe eyes, and I can’t help but melt a little.
“Fine.” Something about her makes me weak. “A week. That’s all you get, and then what’s-his-nuts better be gone.”
Based on the way I’m feeling towards Ally at this moment, I’m hoping she will go with him. The thoughts I’m having about her now are not ones I should be thinking, and I’m worried they might morph into something irresistible if she stays.
After our conversation in the bathroom, I need to get outside. I need some air, and most of all, I need to get far away from Ally. It doesn’t matter if I’m not coming back to finish the trivia game; Nate already screwed over our team when he showed up. They got distracted and missed about five questions. Fucking dick. I’m not the type of person to pass judgment on people I’m never going to see again, but something about Nate makes my blood boil. The smug look on his face was downright punchable, and even though as a doctor I’ve sworn an oath to do no harm, I sure want to harm Nate. The way he talked down to Ally, I can’t stand for it. My father always taught me to be a gentleman, to stand up for people. Although I might have thought twice about my act of chivalry if I had known Ally was going to rope me into being her boyfriend.
I push through the crowded bar, not stopping to explain my unexpected departure to my brothers and my friends. For all they know, I got called to a clinic emergency or something. I make my way out to the street and take a deep breath of the cool night air. The quiet street is a welcome reprieve where I can hear my own thoughts. What a fucking disaster.
I waste no time walking back to the clinic, replaying the past twenty minutes in my mind and trying to make sense of what happened back there. More importantly, what’s coming next? A week. I gave Ally a week of my time to get rid of her ex-fiancé. Now I have to make sure no one in town finds out about this, or it’s game over. My reputation will be trash, and everything I’ve worked so hard for will be ruined.
When I get back to the clinic, it’s dark except for the distant glow of the desk lamp I left on in my office at the end of the hall. My office has become my sanctuary at work, and is also serving as my bedroom. I’ve refused to move into the cabin like Winnie suggested; the memories in there are too painful to face every day. Not that I could now anyway, seeing how Ally had barged in and made herself right at home there.
Truthfully, I’m quite content on my cot in the office. Sure, it isn’t ideal, but I go home to my apartment every so often to do laundry and sleep in a proper bed. Those days are becoming few and far between, I must admit. After the accident, there’s been a crushing weight on my chest every time I think about going home or being too far away from the clinic. I failed in every way that mattered that day, and I am determined to never let it happen again.
The late summer heat is crushing in my office, so I slide the window open and let in the cool night air. It faces out into the field used as a helicopter pad, where an orange flag hangs limp on the still night. Crickets hum in the tall grass. I lift my shirt over my head and pull off the jeans I had on from the workday, getting ready to settle onto the cot for the night when a brown envelope on my desk catches my eye.
Winnie leaves my mail in a stack on the desk, but the familiar brown envelope almost never means anything good. I know that when I pick it up, I will see the stamp from the Ministry of Health in the upper left corner and my father’s name in the centre of the envelope. Which reminds me, I still need to update the ministry and notify them that the clinic is now under my name.
I rip open the envelope and skim over the first few sentences.
To Dr. Jack Landry,
We regret to inform you that due to budgetary constraints and recent funding cuts, the Heartwood Medical Centre will undergo evaluation to determine its value to the community. With the growing demand for healthcare resources, the Ministry of Health is shifting towards a more centralized model for resource distribution by pooling resources to improve access at larger centres. A representative from the ministry will be in touch to discuss the next steps.
My vision blurs, forcing me to sit in my chair while I steady myself. The contents of the letter hit me like a sucker punch to the gut, and I’m struggling to find air in the stifling heat of my office. I knew the situation at the clinic was less than ideal, but I had no idea it was this desperate. If the clinic doesn’t have funding from the government, there’s no way it can stay open. I don’t have the money to fund it myself, and the people of Heartwood would vehemently oppose a private clinic.
Is this the first letter of its kind? Or has this been an ongoing problem since my father had been in charge, another secret he failed to disclose on his deathbed? If this wasn’t the first, then the letter is not a serious threat, or the clinic would have been closed by now. If it was the first notification of the threat to the clinic’s funding, it would mean I am failing at more than just treating my patients. I would be responsible for the downfall of my father’s life’s work. His passion, his legacy.
I don’t even want to consider the impact this could have on the town. Now more than ever, the people rely on the clinic and having somewhere they can go in a crisis. I know this firsthand. The number of times my pager beeps in a day is an acute reminder of how needed I am around here.
I set the letter down on my desk and lay on the cot, staring at the ceiling. I toss and turn a few times. Sleep is unattainable tonight, not only because of the stifling heat, but because my mind whirs with the events of the day.
First Ally, entangling me in some fake dating scheme like I’m the one that was cast on some silly game show and she’s the host, toying with my heart. And now I’m facing the harsh reality that the government could rip the very thing I have poured my heart and soul into right out of my grasp.
I give up on the idea of sleep and consider how to fight this. I have to prove that Heartwood needs the medical centre. That they need me. There must be a way I can prove the clinic can manage the growing population and keep up with an increasing workload.
Unfortunately, the only way I can see that happening is by keeping Ally Wells around. Which means ‘playing nice,’ as Winnie and Poppy so kindly put it, and taking part in the facade of being her boyfriend. I just have to make sure that my fake feelings for Ally stay pretend and that whatever spark was between us tonight doesn’t ruin my plans.