Sweet on Sophie ( (A Red Maple Falls Novel, #11)

by Theresa Paolo

  Once upon a time Drake Stevens had ruined her fairytale, and despite knowing better, she let him steal her heart, only for him to crush it in the end.

  “You can stay if you want. We can get drunk, watch romcoms and yell at the girl for being so stupid.”

  “Have I ever told you, you’re the best sister?”

  Ellie hugged her close. “You have, but I never get sick of hearing it.”

  Sophie cuddled into her sister and tried to forget Drake Stevens. At least for tonight.

  Chapter 22

  Drake met with his patients, paying extra attention to their charts, and ignoring their praise for saving Walt’s life. If he had one more patient shake his hand like he was some savior, he was going to scream. He didn’t deserve the praise, and he damn well didn’t want it. It had been two weeks. Surely there was something new on the gossip mill by now.

  Every arm pat and kind words grated on him and pretty soon he was going to be raw. It was bad enough that he couldn’t get his disaster of a conversation with Sophie out of his mind. He thought getting his focus back on his job and Charlotte was the right thing to do, but if he was honest with himself, he was miserable. And even though they were not together, she was still at the forefront of his mind. Maybe in time, she would fade, but this was a small town, and just seeing her would send him spiraling again.

  He squeezed the bridge of his nose, hoping that would ward off the massive migraine he felt brewing.

  “Where is he?” the familiar voice boomed through the building, and Drake let out a loud breath. The last thing he needed today was another confrontation with Terry. He respected the woman and held her at the highest esteem, so her words were like a knife to the gut. He let her down, and he didn’t want to face her again. Didn’t want to see the anger and disappointment radiating in her once kind eyes.

  He thought about slipping out the back, but he wasn’t a child. He was a man, a doctor, a man of the people. It was his mess, and he couldn’t hide from it.

  “Don’t tell me I need an appointment. Do you like my turkey burgers?” Terry asked.

  “You know they’re my favorite,” Kristen said.

  “Then either you get Drake out here, or you can kiss your turkey burgers goodbye.”

  “Terry, you wouldn’t.”

  “Don’t try me.”

  “Nobody is getting their turkey burgers taken away,” Drake said as he walked over to Kristen. “How can I help you, Terry?”

  “You can help me by giving me a minute of your time.”

  “Of course. How is Walt?” He already knew. He’d been calling the hospital and getting regular updates. His vitals were good, and he was making improvements every day. He would be back on his feet in no time.

  “He’s doing well, which is why I’m here.”

  “Come around. We can talk in my office.” Drake met Terry at the waiting room door and walked with her to his office. She took a seat across from him and rested her leopard print bag on her lap. He braced for her to start berating him again, but there was nothing she could say that he hadn’t already thought of himself.

  “I would have come sooner, but with Walt in the hospital, I’ve been running back and forth like a chicken with its head cut off. I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks.”

  It had felt like a lifetime to Drake. It was the last time he held Sophie in his arms, the last time he kissed her, smelled her fresh spring scent.

  “Anyway, Walt started physical therapy today, and I had time.” She straightened, her lips pursing. “I owe you an apology.”

  That definitely was not what Drake had been expecting. “An apology for what?”

  “For those ugly things I said to you. I was upset, and scared, and afraid I’d lose the man who I have loved for most of my life. I needed someone to blame, and you were right there.”

  “You weren’t wrong though, Terry. I should have known. I should have seen the signs. I could have prevented it from happening by getting a scheduled surgery instead of an emergency one.”

  “Nonsense!” Terry barked. “I had no idea that nitwit had cancelled his last three appointments with you. He never told me. He hasn’t had bloodwork in over a year, he eats like he has the metabolism of a sixteen-year-old, and let me tell you he absolutely does not, and trying to get the man to do any sort of exercising… well let’s just say I’d rather take my chances playing with a moose.” Terry sighed. “You can only do your job if your patients do theirs, and Walt didn’t do his. You have always gone above and beyond your doctor duties in this town.” Tears filled her eyes, and she looked up as if trying to stop them from falling. “And the truth is, you saved his life.” Tears fell now, and she swiped them away.

  Drake grabbed a bunch of tissues and held them across his desk to her. She accepted them with a smile and dabbed at the black lines running down her cheeks.

  “That stubborn ass nearly died right there in front of me, but he didn’t. He got to breathe his next breath, and live to see another day, because of you.”

  “I was just doing my job.”

  Terry shook her head. “No, you were just being you. Taking care of people is what you do, and that’s why you are going to be an amazing parent to Charlotte, and an amazing husband to Sophie one day.”

  He yanked at his collar at the mention of Sophie. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Sophie and I are going to have a future after all.”

  Terry flung back in her chair, her eyes wide. “And why the hell not? I have a hundred bucks on you two. I thought you were a shoo-in.”

  “After Walt’s heart attack, I realized I didn’t have the time to dedicate to my patients and be Charlotte’s guardian and have a relationship with Sophie.”

  “Then get some freaking help and stop trying to be Superman all the time. You’ve been in this town for five years, and I don’t think you’ve ever taken a vacation. Even when your sister was sick, you would work extra hours to accommodate everyone else, so you could still get to Boston and take her to appointments without missing any of yours. You have never put yourself first and that needs to stop, or you’re going to wind up like my husband, collapsing when you least expect it. Except there might not be someone like you around to save you.” She stood up, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “Now, what are you going to do?”

  Still stunned by her words, he stared at her, processing the dose of reality. Terry was right, and it was time he stopped hiding from what he’d known for a while now.

  “I’m going to make a phone call,” he said.

  Chapter 23

  Sophie waited outside with her students at the end of the day, watching each one off. Charlotte was one of the last and her heart skipped a beat, knowing she would see Drake for the first time since he ended things. She’d been purposely avoiding the pickup line for two weeks now, having Bev and Joan take her kids while she pretended to be swamped with carnival prep.

  Unfortunately, neither could take her place today, or they just caught on.

  Sophie sat down beside Charlotte, who was coloring in her notebook. “What are you drawing?” she asked.

  Charlotte turned the notebook to her, and Sophie swallowed back the unexpected kick of emotion that clogged her throat. “A unicorn and a mermaid,” she said. “You did a really good job.”

  “Ready to go kiddo?” Sophie knew the voice, but it wasn’t the voice she expected, and she hated how her heart deflated.

  “Jax,” she said and pushed up from the bench.

  “I’ve never heard so much disappointment spoken in my name before.”

  Damn it. She thought she covered it up better. “I’m sorry. How are you?”

  “Better than you I assume.”

  She nodded, pressing her lips together, afraid if she spoke, she might start crying, and there was no way she was going to cry over a guy on school property. Especially a guy who hadn’t cared to call.

  “Drake and I kind of had a bet going after he was late to pick Charlotte up once. He told me h
e’d never be late again, and he hadn’t been.” She’d been secretly watching from her classroom window. “But now he’s not even here.”

  “He had a meeting that ran over, and Kristen asked if I could grab Charlotte.”

  “A meeting? About what?”

  “Something about a new doctor taking over.”

  Sophie kept the gasp to herself. Was Drake going to give up his practice?

  She knew he was upset about Walt, but Walt was okay. Drake had saved his life, and he lived to see another day. That surely wasn’t reason enough for Drake to give up everything he had worked so hard to build.

  “Where is this meeting? At his office?”

  “As far as I know. He cleared his afternoon and told Kristen she can head home. I’m going to meet her now.”

  “I won’t hold you any longer, then. I’m sure Kristen is waiting for you.” Sophie waved to Charlotte and spun around, running toward the school.

  “Oh good!” Bev and Joan walked in front of her, and Sophie came to a skidding halt.

  “Ladies, hello,” she said. “I’m actually in a rush, can we talk later?”

  “We just wanted to check in and see how the planning was going.”

  “It’s going great. We are scheduled for the second weekend in November and I have a meeting setup next week to discuss all the details.”

  “We wanted to go over a few things with you now.”

  “Like I said, I don’t have time right now.”

  “We were just hoping.” Bev looked at Joan who waved her on. “Well, we were hoping that we could help.”

  “Help? You dropped this entire thing in my lap. You said it was time to pass it down to me and you’d been doing it for so many years.”

  “We know what we said,” Joan said. “But we miss it.”

  “Truth is,” Bev said. “Both our husbands are retired and having extra time to be home. Well… we’re either going to be divorced or in jail if we don’t get away from them. I love my Neil, but if I have to see him with his bare feet on my coffee table at three in the afternoon one more time, eating Cheetos on my couch, and wiping his hands on his pants, I’m going to scream. I don’t want to scream. I don’t like to scream.”

  “And my husband decided to take up a new hobby.”

  “Hobbies are nice,” Sophie said as she eyed her watch.

  “Not when that hobby is beer making, and he’s making a mess of my kitchen and stinking my house out. I could blame that Mason Hayes for starting a Home Brewers Association. Now Charlie thinks he can be the next Five Leaf Brewery. I’m going to give him five of something all right.” She held up her fist.

  Sophie looked back and forth between the two women. She knew they loved their husbands dearly and as crazy as it was; she wanted someone to get annoyed at in her old age. “Ladies, I would love your help. Tell you what. We can meet Thursday after school and before the kickoff meeting next week and I’ll tell you all my plans and we can break all the tasks down.” Maybe she could convince them to get their husbands to dress up as clowns.

  Bev and Joan high fived and Sophie gave them a smile. “Now if you’ll excuse me. I really have to run.”

  “Where do you have to be in such a rush?” Bev asked.

  “I have a meeting to stop.”

  Chapter 24

  Sophie ignored the nagging thoughts in the back of her head, telling her he wasn’t her problem, and ran through Drake’s building, right through his waiting room. It didn’t matter that they weren’t together, she wasn’t about to sit back and let him make the biggest mistake of his life. One that he would surely regret.

  She threw the door open that led to his office and hurried down the hallway. She heard murmuring and turned toward the doorway catching an unfamiliar man in a suit stand then reach out his hand to Drake.

  “You got yourself a —”

  “No!” Sophie exclaimed, storming into the office.

  Drake’s eye’s shot up, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. “Sophie! What are you doing here?”

  She swore she heard a slight tinge of excitement, but that was just her getting her hopes up. She ignored the flutter of her heart and focused. “You can’t do this,” she said, looking at the man in the suit who was probably only a couple years older than Drake with short blonde hair and brown eyes.

  “It’s too late,” Drake said. “It’s done.”

  “No! You love being a doctor and you love this practice. What happened with Walt is not your fault. You can’t blame yourself for people getting sick or having heart attacks. Shit happens.”

  A smirk played at the corner of Drake’s mouth and she flung her head back. “Why are you laughing?”

  “What exactly do you think is going on here?”

  “You’re selling your practice, and I’m not going to let you do that.” She looked between Drake and the man in the suit. “Aren’t you?”

  “No,” Drake said.

  “You’re not?”

  “If you would have let me finish,” Drake stepped around Sophie and held his hand out to the man. “Grayson, you got yourself a partner.”

  Grayson shook Drake’s hand. “I’m looking forward to it.” He patted Drake’s shoulder and glanced at Sophie. “We’ll celebrate another time.”

  “Definitely.”

  Grayson smiled at Sophie as he walked out of the office, and Sophie wanted to melt into an embarrassed pile of limbs.

  “I am so sorry,” she said. “When you didn’t pick up Charlotte and Jax said you were having a meeting with a new doctor, I just assumed.”

  “Did you really think I could give this place up?”

  “I didn’t know what to think. You dumped me, and I haven’t heard from you since.”

  He moved toward her, and she didn’t want to get her hopes up, but with the determined look in his eyes and the way he cupped her cheek, her brain and heart battled for dominance.

  “I messed up,” he said, and relief spread through her body in a welcomed wave. “I blamed myself for what happened to Walt, and while I still feel like I should have done something sooner, I know that outside of the office, Walt’s choices, are not my responsibility.”

  Sophie threw her hands in the air and spun away. “That’s what I was trying to tell you!”

  “I know, but I was too lost in my own grief to hear you.”

  “What changed then? What broke through that thick skull of yours?”

  “Terry.” He laughed, and Sophie should have guessed. “She ripped me apart the day of the heart attack, but then after things calmed down, and Walt was on the mend, she came by and apologized.”

  “Oh.”

  “Her love for Walt. Her devotion. It’s something I admire and something I never thought I wanted…until I met you.”

  Sophie sucked in a surprised breath.

  “I tried to imagine my life without you, and I can’t. The last couple of weeks without you have felt off like something was missing. I knew I could live without you if I had to, but I don’t want to. Which is why I called Grayson. I can’t do this on my own anymore. Not when I have Charlotte and you. My family deserves more of my time and I want to give it to them.”

  “Family?” she asked.

  “I know it’s soon, but that’s what it had felt like. We were a family, me, you and Charlotte, and I’m ready to grow old with you. Watch Charlotte grow up and maybe give her a little brother or sister one day. Be the fairy tale you’ve always wanted. I love you, Sophie, and I want it all. If you’ll have us.”

  Sophie choked on a sob and nodded. “I love you both.” She tossed her arms around him, and he crushed his lips to hers. He pulled her closer, their lips syncing as if they were meant to move together, two imperfect magnets somehow perfect for each other.

  She pressed a hand to his chest. “What took you so long?”

  “I wanted to make sure I had everything in order first before promising you anything.”

  “That was risky.”

  “It was a risk I had t
o take.” He arched an eyebrow as he gazed down at her. “You’re not going to change your mind now on loving me, are you?” he asked.

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  “You.”

  Confusion wrinkled the skin on the bridge of his nose.

  “If we’re to be a family, then that means we’re a team. We don’t leave one behind, you got that? Whatever life throws at us, we weather it together.”

  He closed his eyes as if processing the words and etching them into his mind. “I’m all in, Soph. All in.”

  “Good,” she said and pressed up on her toes to kiss him. “Now what do you say we go get our girl and make our team complete?”

  “You read my mind.”

  She sucked in an excited breath. “Maybe I can be a fortune teller at the carnival.”

  “Okay, oh wise one. What can you tell me about my future?”

  “That’s easy.”

  “Is it?”

  She nodded and looked up at his handsome face. “You live happily ever after, of course.”

  Epilogue

  After two months of planning, Sophie stood in the school gymnasium and smiled. Somehow she managed—with the help of volunteers—to completely transform the space into a carnival. Red and white stripes donned the booths, and yellow words indicated what each booth represented. They had everything from a game section with a ring toss, hook a duck, balloon dart, and a snack section with a popcorn machine, cotton candy maker to a cupcake booth with a special carnival themed cupcake Shay made specifically for the event: an animal cookie on top and a white and red damask cup.

  With the help of the fire department, the ceiling was draped in red and white cloth, making it appear as if they were beneath a big tent. Outside the ticket booth was ready to handout entry tickets and ring master Bev was ready to guide everyone inside.

  Sophie took a minute to take it all in. It was so easy to get lost in the setup and never truly appreciate all that she had accomplished. She wanted this moment to look around and pat herself on the back. She had thought it was impossible, but Drake had been right. She figured it out and got it done.