Chapter One
“MEN ARE WEASELS. AM I right or am I right?”
Mary Alice Reed winced as her cousin, Finn, lifted her Jack and Coke in a toast, and drained half the glass, seeming to take it for granted that everyone agreed. Mary Alice leaned toward their friend Presley and asked, “How much did she have to drink before you got her here?”
“It’s possible she might have downed a half a fifth of Bailey’s. She told me she was having Irish coffee. I didn’t realize she’d left the actual coffee out of her mug until she’d drunk most of it.”
Mary Alice plucked the glass from Finn’s hand.
“Heeeeeey.”
“Drink some water so we’re not scraping you off the floor in the morning.” Mary Alice shoved a full glass in Finn’s direction. “And why don’t you have some more fries to soak up some of the booze?”
Finn eyed the basket of shoestring fries with a mixture of longing and regret. “They’ll go straight to my ass.” She sucked the water down by an inch and shrugged. “What the hell? He’s not here to care about my ass anymore, is he?”
Mary Alice exchanged a look with Presley. “This is not the night for Margot to be late. Finn’s already two-and-a-half sheets to the wind, and we haven’t even started The Three Furies.”
“Maybe we should reschedule.”
“No! We came here tonight to bash my asshole ex and tha’s what we’re gonna do.” Finn punctuated each word with a wild gesticulation of the fry.
Mary Alice wiped a splatter of ketchup off the sleeve of her jacket and nudged the water glass. “Drink some more water, sugar.”
She scanned the room. The Mudcat Tavern was packed, as it usually was on a Friday night, which meant plenty of witnesses. The Three Furies was Wishful’s favorite ritual for the woman scorned. Three shots of booze, three darts, and one unfortunate effigy were supposed to have the cleansing power to put the bastard ex behind you and move on. Mary Alice couldn’t understand the appeal of doing such a thing in public. Wishful was a small town, with little better to do than gossip. Why add fuel to the fire?
“I’m so sorry I’m late!” Margot breathed in a rush. “The event ran over and my second in command is out with the flu.” The fourth member of their quartet peeled off her winter coat and slid onto a chair, taking a good, hard look at Finn. “Someone got started without me.”
“Hail, hail, the gang’s all here!” Finn announced cheerfully. She’d grabbed the Jack and Coke, when Mary Alice’s back was turned, and drained the glass before they could do anything about it. She slammed it down with a crack. “Let’s get this party started.”
Finn slid off her seat and nearly continued to the floor. Presley caught her, lifting her up with the same wiry strength she used to wrestle recalcitrant dogs at her veterinary practice.
“I’m okay!”
“Are you really? Seriously, Finn, if you can’t actually walk to the bar on your own, I’m not letting you do this tonight,” Mary Alice warned.
“I’m fiiine,” she insisted, pulling away from Presley and turning too quickly, latching onto Mary Alice’s sleeve to steady herself. “You should be doing this with me.” Finn punctuated her statement with a jerk of her arm.
Mary Alice didn’t know what the statute of limitations was for completing The Three Furies after a breakup, but three months was probably long past time. Plus, the town loved Judd. He was a damned hero. Coming out in public to complain about how he didn’t want her was just going to make her look pathetic. “Thanks, but I’m good.”
Finn scowled at her. “No, you’re not. If you were good, you’d have moved on by now.”
“Just because I didn’t run out and try to replace Judd with some other guy doesn’t mean I’m not over him.”
“How are you not angry?” In her current state, Finn wouldn’t understand any woman who didn’t want to castrate the offending ex and set him on fire.
“Anger isn’t the only way to respond to things.”
“You know what your problem is?”
“I have a feeling you’re going to tell me.”
“You’re too damned nice. It’s all that time as a teacher. You’re all Little Mary Sunshine with your third graders, and it spills over into unhealthy levels of niceness everywhere else.”
“It’s only unhealthy if it involves denial.” And she was done with denial. She’d turned over a new, denial-free leaf. “Enough about me. Tonight is about you exorcising your demons.”
“Damn straight.” Finn marched toward the bar.
Mary Alice and Margot flanked her, while Presley went on ahead to have a few words with the bartender. A moment later, Adele handed over Bob the Bastard and began pouring the requisite three shots. Presley marched across the bar to the dartboard and fastened Bob to it spread-eagled, as the ritual dictated, for Finn’s skewering pleasure. The bar patrons began to cheer and then quieted down for the show.
“Here hangs Seth Turner, Asshole Ex of the First Degree,” Presley announced. “Administering his sentence is Finn Watson, the Supremely Wronged Party.”
A few women, who were probably veterans of the ritual, booed Seth and called out encouragement to Finn like, “Get the bastard!” and “You go, girl!”
Adele nudged the salt-rimmed shot of tequila toward Finn. “Go on and start forgetting, sugar.”
Finn tossed back the shot. Her breath burst out in a wheeze as soon as she managed to swallow. “Holy shit, that’s nasty.”
Margot handed her the first dart. “List his crimes, sweetheart.”
Mary Alice was grateful she hadn’t been talked into doing this. Oh, she’d thought about it, during those first few days after the breakup, when she was really angry and hurt. And okay, a few more times as she watched how quickly—and enthusiastically—Judd had moved on. But what would she list as his crimes? Being too dedicated to protecting others? Being meant to be with someone else? Fooling himself? And if he’d been guilty of that one, so had she.
Anyway, it wasn’t in her nature to bad-mouth anybody, least of all the man she’d loved. He wasn’t a bad guy. He just…hadn’t been her guy in the end.
Finn stepped up to the line, having no such reservations about trashing Seth. Narrowing her eyes at the board, she snarled, “For lying to me, you gutless coward.” She let the dart fly. The toss went a little wide, pinning Bob through his left arm and earning a smattering of cheers and applause.
Striding back to the bar, Finn picked up the second shot. Whiskey this time. She threw it back without even blinking.
Mary Alice handed over the second dart. “Cheezits, Mary, and Joseph, woman. I’d be on the floor after all that.”
“That’s ’cause you’re a lightweight.”
Because Finn was weaving a little as she went back to the line, Mary Alice stepped back. Current circumstances aside, Finn wasn’t a heavyweight in the drinking department herself. She was going to regret this. Mary Alice just knew it.
“For being a selfish asshat.” The shot nailed Bob through one eye, to the collective cheers of the Mudcat’s other patrons.
Mary Alice felt a twinge of sympathy for Seth. She didn’t know the full story of what had happened between him and her cousin—Finn wasn’t ready to talk about the specifics yet—but she’d known and liked him all her life. This whole public spectacle just seemed mean.
Back at the bar, Presley handed Finn the final shot of Jaeger.
“Bottoms up.” Finn tossed it back and took the third dart, returning to the line and squinting at Bob. “For being able to walk away.” The words were quiet, but the throw was true. She swayed for a long moment, staring at the dart that was still quivering in Bob’s heartless chest as the crowd roared its approval.
Mary Alice’s heart twisted as she saw the narrow tracks of tears on her cousin’s face. All the fight seemed to have left Finn. She stood at the line, shoulders slumped, face pale and drawn. Yeah, Mary Alice remembered that part. She wasn’t too far past it herself. She didn’t think this was going to be the cleansing ritual Finn had hoped for. Grief took time, and dulling it didn’t speed up the process.
Time to get out of here.
Mary Alice reached out, intending to put an arm around her shoulders.
“Oh God.” Clapping a hand over her mouth, Finn made a staggering run for the bathroom. People scattered, leaving a clear path for Mary Alice to chase after. She banged her own elbow on the doorframe as she barreled through just in time to see Finn tripping over her own feet and into a stall. Her head cracked sharply against the toilet, as she hit the floor.
* * *
“God, it’s qui—”
A hand slapped over Chad Phillips’ mouth. “Don’t you dare say the Q word. That’s the kiss of death, and you know it.”
Chad just quirked a brow at Corinne, the nurse who was filling in for his usual partner in crime in the emergency room of Wilton Memorial Hospital. “Are you seriously not bored out of your mind?” So far, the most serious thing they’d dealt with was a septuagenarian with a shellfish allergy, who’d been in three times in as many months because he didn’t understand that removing the crawfish from their shells didn’t make them safe to eat. Mr. Spurling’s swelling was under control, but Chad wanted to keep him through his antihistamine nap to talk to him again about what was and was not appropriate for him to eat.
“I’m caught up on charting for the first time in two weeks,” Corinne continued. “I’m not gonna look that gift horse in the mouth. Besides, as long as things stay as they are, I can get out of here at a reasonable hour and maybe actually talk to my fiancé before he goes to bed.”
Chad felt a spurt of envy that she had someone to go home to. Two someones, as she and her young son had recently moved in with her fiancé. “Is Tucker keeping Kurt tonight?”
“They’re taking advantage of my absence for a Star Wars marathon.”
“Original trilogy?”
“Of course. We’re raising him right.”
“How are wedding plans going?”
Corinne gave him the side eye. “You must be bored if you’re asking about wedding plans.”
Chad used a couple of pencils as drumsticks to beat a tattoo against the counter. “It’s either that, or I’m running down to my office to grab my Nerf basketball set to keep myself awake for the back end of this double shift.”
She laughed. “Poor Dr. Phillips. Nights like this make you miss working in metro Atlanta, don’t they?”
“True story.” He was twitchy with the need to do something. He wasn’t asking for a big something. No shootings or stabbings. Maybe just some stitches or a broken bone.
“Why did you pick such a small hospital? Everybody’s heard of your hot-shot reputation. You could’ve gone almost anywhere.”
“I wanted a placement that would give me time for a life outside the hospital. Atlanta was a constant challenge, and I loved that, but it wasn’t worth the trade-off of hours.”
“Good for you. Work-life balance is important.”
“I wouldn’t mind a bit more work to balance out the lack of life side right now.”
“The search for Miss Right isn’t going well?”
“Eh.” Chad shrugged. “I’ve seen more casseroles and pie than I can shake a stick at. Does that count?”
“I suppose that depends on whether the way to your heart is through your stomach.”
Before he could reply, the automatic doors slid open and a gaggle of girls came inside. Not girls, he realized. Women. He recognized a couple of them in that way lots of faces in this small town were familiar, but he didn’t actually know any of them, except for Margot Thayer. He’d met the events coordinator of The Babylon Hotel and Spa several months back during his blessedly brief stint on Dancing With Wishful, a fundraiser for the local women’s shelter. She brought up the rear of the party, as two other women supported a petite brunette between them, who didn’t seem to be ambulatory on her own.
He could see the knot on her head before he even crossed the room. “What have we got?”
The usually unflappable Margot stumbled over words in her panic. “We shouldn’t have let her do it. She’d already been drinking.”
The blonde interrupted. “She’s completely hammered and fell. Cracked her head on a toilet in the women’s room at The Mudcat. We were worried about a concussion.” Something in her no-nonsense demeanor seemed vaguely familiar, but he filed that away for later.
The brunette groaned.
“What is it you shouldn’t have let her do?” Chad lifted the woman’s head with both hands, checking her pulse, even as he looked into unfocused brown eyes. Pupils appeared to be the same size. Her skin was pale and waxy, and she felt clammy to the touch.
“The Three Furies.”
“The what now?”
“Series of three shots,” the other woman supplied. “Tequila, whiskey, Jaegermeister.”
Apparently, there was some kind of a story there, but Chad was more concerned with getting this woman some fluids and doing a more thorough exam. “Let’s get her to the back.”
Corinne brought a wheelchair.
“Did she lose consciousness at any point?” Chad asked.
The blonde answered again. “No. She was swearing a blue streak almost from the moment she landed.”
Chad hunkered down in front of his patient. “What’s your name?”
Speaking seemed to take a great deal of effort. “Finn Wasson.”
“Watson,” the blonde corrected.
Okay, slurred speech.
“Okay then. Finn, I’m Dr. Phillips. We’re gonna get you taken care of.”
Miserable brown eyes met his, and Finn promptly vomited on his shoes. Well, he’d wanted something to deal with.
“Has she been vomiting before now?”
Margot knit her hands. “After the Jaeger and once in the car on the way over.”
“Can any of you give her medical history?”
“I’m her cousin,” the blonde said. “I’ve probably got the best shot.”
“Come with us, then.”
The cousin fell into step beside him as he wheeled Finn through the double doors and into the treatment area. As soon as he got the patient settled, he checked the reactivity of her pupils.
“Finn, can you look at me, please? How many fingers am I holding up?” He waved three slowly in front of her face.
She watched for a second, then turned vaguely green and slammed her eyes shut. “Three.”
Chad adjusted the bed so she was sitting up and gave her a basin, in case she needed to vomit again. “Corinne, let’s get her a liter bolus of normal saline.”
The blonde looked up from the clipboard of paperwork she was filling out and bit her lip. “Is she gonna be okay?”
“She’ll be fine. A lot of her symptoms could be either concussion or early stages of alcohol poisoning. Getting her rehydrated will help us sort out which. Right now, I’m leaning toward the alcohol poisoning. How much did she drink?”
“The three shots, at least one Jack and Coke, and we think about half a fifth of Bailey’s before Presley picked her up. Not sure about anything else.”
“Definitely leaning toward the alcohol poisoning.”
“I’m just trying to go out with my girls and get over it.” Finn’s eyes slitted toward her cousin. “She totally should have done this with me. That guy did her wrong. Men are bastards. All men are bastards.”
Ooookay. “I gather The Three Furies has something to do with women scorned?”
The blonde nodded, her pale hair shining in the fluorescent lights. Why did she look so familiar?
“It’s supposed to be a cathartic experience,” she explained.
“Didn’t work,” Finn announced. “I just wanted to move on, and he’s still messing with me. And I’m in the damned hospital!”
Corinne came back with the saline and started the IV.
“At least he didn’t up and marry someone else six weeks after we broke up like your asshole ex,” Finn reflected. “But hell, I don’t know. Maybe he did. Maybe he’s married now. D’you think he’s married now?”
“I doubt he’s married, Finn,” her cousin said.
“Noooo, you’re right. Because that would involve commitment! And we know that’s an issue. What is it with men and commitment, Doc? Tell us. As a man.”
“Uhhh.” Chad clearly had the wrong genitalia to be on the winning side of this conversation. He looked to Corinne for some help, but other than the faintest of twitching at the corners of her mouth, she said nothing.
“Finn.” The blonde’s tone was somewhere between placating and a warning.
“Not all men. Not all men, I know. Because look at Judd. That’s her ex,” Finn added, with a pointed look at Chad. “He doesn’t have any problem with commitment at all. Two years as a committed boyfriend to Mary Alice here. All the while he’s, what, twenty years committed best friend—” She made air quotes. “—to Miss Autumn Buchanan. But nothing going on there. Noooo. Nothing but getting freaking married six weeks after breaking up with you. The bastard.”
Six weeks? Talk about ouch.
Color stained Mary Alice’s fair cheeks. “Okay, Finn. Let the doctor do his job now.”
“You know what I don’t understand?” she continued. “Why you’re not mad. That’s not normal. You’re s’posed to be mad. I mean, they’re, like, everywhere around town, looking disgustingly happy. A constant reminder.”
A flicker of something moved over Mary Alice’s face. “I’m more sad than angry. Seeing them together is kind of a slap in the face. Like, that should have been me. But it was so obvious, once they finally admitted how they felt about each other, that it could never have been me. He was never mine the way he should have been. And yeah, that sucks, but I don’t see the sense in wasting time and energy being angry over the truth. It’s not going to turn him into the guy I deserved.”
Chad stared at her, feeling such an unexpected sense of kinship, he hardly knew what to do with it.
Finn scoffed. “You’re obnoxiously well-adjusted.”
Because Mary Alice looked excruciatingly uncomfortable, Chad stepped into the conversational breech. “Well, Ms. Watson, I’m not going to go ‘Not all men’ on you, but—”
“There’s always a but.”
“But, I had a breakup like that myself back in college. Same kind of deal. And yeah, it sucked to realize she couldn’t feel the same about me as I felt about her, but she’d tried for three years. In the end, I realized it would never have worked and was grateful she cut me loose. Although it would’ve been nice if she’d done it more than a couple months before the wedding.”
The patient shoved herself up straight, eyes peeling wide in that way women had with an object of pity. “Oh! Oh, that’s terrible. Isn’t that terrible, Mary Alice? And you’re so pretty.”
Chad choked a little. But the spotlight was off Mary Alice, so mission accomplished. She covered her mouth, no doubt to hide the smile he could still see in her pretty blue eyes. It was the sparkle that did it. He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Field trip.”
Mary Alice dropped her hand. “Sorry?”
“That’s where I’ve seen you before. You were here with your class on a field trip a month or so ago. Elementary school, right?”
“Third grade.”
“You’re a brave woman.”
“Afraid of kids?”
“Only when they run in packs. I can’t fathom managing that many of them at one time. Yours were really well behaved.”
“Bribery with a pizza party will take you far,” she intoned.
He grinned. “It’s a classic for a reason.”
A throat cleared at the door to the room. “Dr. Phillips, you have a probable broken leg in room two.”
“Thanks, Corinne.” He rose. “Duty calls. I should be back through to check on you before you leave, but I think it’s safe to say it’s the alcohol at this point. Once she’s done with those fluids, you’re free to go, but someone needs to stay with Finn tonight and watch for additional signs of concussion.”
“I’m taking her home with me.”
“We’ll get you a list of what to watch for. Anything else comes up, bring her back.”
Mary Alice saluted. “Yes, sir. Thanks, Dr. Phillips.”
“You’ve heard about my ex. I think you could call me Chad.”
Her lips curved in a smile. “Thanks, Chad.”
By the time he’d dealt with the leg—a spiral fracture that was gonna require a rod and pins, once the guy saw an orthopedist—the room where he’d left Mary Alice and Finn was empty.
“They left about half an hour ago,” Corinne told him.
Chad quashed his disappointment. There was no reason for them to hang out in the hospital just because he’d enjoyed talking to Mary Alice. Her cousin was better off resting in a bed at home. “Did Finn look okay when she left?”
“Certainly, better than when she came in. Moving under her own steam to the car.”
“Good.” He moved to update some notes on the spiral fracture patient.
“Mary Alice left her scarf,” Corinne said, with a significant look.
“Keep it at the desk here, in case she comes back to get it.” No doubt it was the last thing she was concerned about after tonight.
“And if she doesn’t realize it’s missing?”
He held in the grin she was trying to provoke. “I expect somebody can see that it finds its way back to her.”
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Copyright © 2024 All Rights Reserved
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
