by Lexi Blake
“Yes, apparently the doctor I bought the clinic from didn’t bother to inform the general population that it was happening,” she explained.
“She’ll settle in,” Mabel replied.
Miranda glanced around the clinic as though sizing it up for sale. “I could, of course, help you out. I could let people know that I think you’re a good fit here if I thought you were hardworking and willing to be an asset to the community.”
“I would appreciate that.” She would take all the help she could get.
“I talk to a lot of people and I’ll make sure they know it’s safe to come here. Doc was a pillar of the community,” Miranda continued.
“If a pillar can be held up with Scotch and laziness, then yes he was,” Mabel shot back. She quickly looked to Lila. “Not that I didn’t love that old man. I’m a very tolerant person.”
They had two different definitions of that word, but she was quickly coming to realize that happened a lot here. And Miranda wasn’t offering to help her out of the kindness of her heart. “Why do I get the feeling you’re going to want something in return?”
Miranda seemed to consider how to proceed. Or she knew how to draw out a moment for maximum drama. “I’m offering to help you so everything goes smoothly during your transition. I think you should understand that there are certain relationships already in place.”
“I would assume so.” She was definitely missing something.
“Then there are relationships that are only in one part of the couple’s head.” Mabel had a hand on her hip, staring down Miranda.
Were those two in some kind of fight?
“Oh, it’s real and it’s happening, Mabel. You should stay out of this,” Miranda replied before turning back to Lila. “Look, it’s obvious I’m going to have to be up-front with you. I would like to handle this like ladies. I’m in a relationship with the sheriff and I didn’t take kindly to you inviting him to stay at your place last night.”
Whoa. Mabel and Miranda weren’t in the fight. She was. How had she managed to get into a fight with some woman she’d never met before? “I didn’t invite him. I called 911 and he showed up.”
The first expression that crossed Miranda’s face was one of surprise. Like she’d never thought to do that and what a great idea. The second was a smug grin that came from pure self-satisfaction. “I suspected as much. Armie is very careful about who he’s seen with and how he conducts himself. He’s got a daughter. I’ll let everyone know it was a purely professional visit and they got it all wrong. I’m sorry about that confusion. It’s a small town and you would do well to remember that people talk.”
She honestly didn’t care what people had to say. It was odd but she was remembering more and more shitty things about her childhood, and she wasn’t reacting the way she had before. Back in Dallas, she would have thoughtfully gone over what to say and how to smooth over the situation because relationships were important and how the people around her viewed her had been important, too. Now she wondered why she cared. She was smart and worked hard and she wasn’t mean. That should be enough. She shouldn’t have to spend her whole life being worried about how every single person was going to interpret her actions.
Dallas? It hadn’t been Dallas. It had been that night. It had been that night when she’d watched her friend die. It had been the knowledge that Maryanne had done everything she could, everything right, and she’d still died.
“I didn’t sleep with the sheriff but I did kiss him, and I’m probably going to do it again. I don’t know. He was a great kisser and I’m still considering it this morning, but I think he might be clingy. I might like him being clingy, but am I ready for that? If you’re in a relationship with him, you should rethink because he is looking to cheat on you. He asked me out a bunch of times. Wore me down, to tell you the truth. If people are going to talk, they should talk about that.”
Miranda gasped, an offended sound. “I never . . .”
“You certainly didn’t with Armie,” Lila pointed out because it didn’t matter. They were already gossiping. They might as well know the facts and gossip properly. “According to him he’s hit a dry spell.”
Miranda put a hand on her chest like she was looking for pearls to clutch. “I never said I slept with him. We have a platonic relationship, and I know he’s merely waiting for his daughter to graduate and then we can be together.”
“His daughter is sixteen. She’s not a kid who doesn’t know her father probably wants to date and do all the other things that go with dating.” Remy wouldn’t have pointed her in Armie’s direction if Armie had a girlfriend. Honestly, she didn’t think Armie was the type who would cheat on a girlfriend. He seemed . . . honorable. He certainly didn’t seem like the type who would be platonic around a woman he wanted. He would be frustrating. Demanding. But the way he’d touched her the night before had told her the man would likely be very enthusiastic in bed. “I know this is the country, but it’s not Victorian England. Adults can sleep together without a bunch of societal consequences.”
“Except gossip,” Mabel pointed out. “And babies, if they don’t protect themselves. Ask Seraphina Guidry about that one.”
“Except gossip and babies and potential STIs.” She’d come here to live a nice, quiet life, but apparently she was going to have to make a little noise. And she was serious about a community discussion of STIs. They were completely avoidable, and she would be the one who would have to deal with all the nasty things that came with curing them. “If you have a problem with Armie, I suggest you take it up with him. If you think to punish me in some way for being attracted to a man you have no real claim on, then we should talk about that. Well, we shouldn’t because I’m not licensed to practice psychology. But I can refer you to a couple of great therapists.”
“I came here to be nice,” Miranda said.
Mabel shook her head and wagged a finger Miranda’s way. “You did not. You think I don’t know your tricks? Those are your chocolate chip cookies. They are your second-best cookies. Everyone in town knows when you want to impress someone or be nice to them you bake lemon meltaways. Everyone knows you consider chocolate chip to be for children and people with no taste buds.”
“I like chocolate chip.” The cookies hadn’t offended her. And she was hungry. Since she’d gotten to Papillon, she’d been hungrier than usual, the likely result of having nothing else to do. Usually she was so busy she forgot to eat. Now those cookies looked pretty good. Cookies couldn’t be full of malice. Poison, maybe, but she was willing to take the chance.
Miranda grabbed her tray with a shake of her head. “Well, I can see you are not going to be reasonable.”
She was. She was being entirely reasonable. She would entirely reasonably ask Armie about it later. If this woman thought she could make her run away and hide or something, Miranda would soon learn that there wasn’t a lot of drama she couldn’t handle. “Guess not. But remember about the gossip thing. Didn’t sleep with him. Yet.”
Miranda strode away, banging out of the clinic with a whole lot of fussy sounds.
Mabel turned to her. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for someone to take that queen bee down?”
“If I’d been really smart I could have kept the cookies.” It struck her that Mabel knew a lot about the town. “Should I expect other visits from women who think Armie will finally be theirs once his tender innocent daughter is pawned off on a man? Are they waiting for her marriage or just for her to leave home?”
“You trust him that much? You didn’t even think twice about it. How do you know he doesn’t have a whole bunch of women on his string?”
“My sister likes him and she’s a good judge of character. My brother-in-law likes him, too. And I know self-delusion when I see it.” She’d seen it in the mirror for years.
The door swooshed open and Noelle wheeled herself in, followed by the man him
self. No wonder Miranda had come to protect her turf. That man was fine. He walked beside his daughter, and the man rocked the khakis.
He turned and looked out into the empty parking lot. “Was there something wrong with Miranda?” He glanced back her way. “Hey, did you ask her about what’s up with the wiring in that house she sold you? I want to know if she’s paying off the inspector.”
Even his suspicion was sexy. And great minds and all that. “I did ask her about that and she avoided the question. She did not come here for business purposes. She’s angry because I stole her man.”
He winced. “Roxie might have mentioned that could happen today. Lila, I’ve never given her any reason to think we’re together.”
“You should look out for Annie Dubois, too,” Noelle offered with a cheery smile. She didn’t seem to mind that Peanut was sniffing all around her. She simply reached a hand out and gave the dog a pet. “Just like Miranda, she’s been after Dad since high school, according to the gossip.”
“She helped me out in math,” Armie said with a shake of his head.
Yep, he was cute when he was confused. It was exactly what she’d thought it was. He was a guy and many, many times men didn’t pick up on the subtleties of female desire.
“So I’m not wrecking your future home?” she asked.
The slightest smile curled up his lips. “I am a perfectly single man. I cannot help it if a number of women around town find me attractive. I can assure you I’ve done nothing to make them desire me. In fact, I gave Miranda a ticket for parking violations a couple of months back.” He glanced over at Mabel. “You think she’s going to cause trouble? Should I talk to her?”
Mabel shrugged. “She’ll try to cause trouble. I don’t think Lila is going to be intimidated, though.”
She wasn’t, though she was still sad about the cookies. She should have known once she blew her tight control on the amount of carbs she allowed herself that her diet would go all to hell. “You should be on the lookout for women around town calling 911 in an attempt to get you to pay attention to them.”
After all, it had worked once.
“This is going to be fun.” Noelle looked far more enthusiastic than her father.
“It could cause trouble for the clinic,” Mabel pointed out.
Lila didn’t see how. “No one’s coming in anyway. I don’t think she can make it worse. Noelle, why don’t you come back to the exam room? I want to take another look at that wound.”
Noelle nodded up at her. “Sure thing. I need to talk to you about some weird stuff with my period, too.”
Gyno. She could handle that. “All right.”
Armie shrank back. “I’ll wait out here. Lila, I need to talk to you when you’re done with Noelle. I made a trip out to visit Carrie Petrie earlier today.”
He’d gone to talk to her? He hadn’t believed her suspicions, but he’d checked into it? From the grave look on his face he was either worried he was going to piss her off by saying everything was fine or he’d found out it wasn’t. Either way, she appreciated him taking her seriously.
“Thank you.”
Noelle made her way back, Peanut following and generally proving why dogs shouldn’t be allowed in a medical setting.
“I was going to avoid you until Friday, but I thought you should get an update,” Armie admitted.
That made her grin because she could guess why. “I was probably going to cancel out of sheer cowardice, but then your real fake girlfriend showed up and pissed me off, so now there’s zero chance of me not showing up.”
Even though real-real dating Armie was probably going to make the situation with Miranda worse, she wasn’t about to back down.
And that felt good. That made her feel better than she had in a long time.
She followed his daughter, and hoped he enjoyed the view.
* * *
• • •
“You are a perfectly healthy young woman,” Lila said twenty minutes later.
“With the exception of the fact that I can’t move my legs?”
“Let’s just call you healthy.” She didn’t have any pressure sores or ulcers. Her weight was in a healthy range. It could be hard for wheelchair-bound patients to get enough exercise. Noelle’s injury was at L-3, low on her spine. As injuries go, it could have been much worse. And honestly it surprised her that Noelle was completely confined to that chair. “Do you have any feeling in your legs?”
“Some,” she admitted. “I can move my toes a little, but I’ve lost all coordination. It’s cool. I’m okay with it. Doc told me about it a long time ago. He said if I was going to walk it would have been in the first few months.”
But only with proper PT. Her records showed that she’d gone to a local therapist for a couple of months and then she’d stopped trying to get on her feet. Now her therapy was about keeping her muscles from atrophying and building her upper-body strength. If she had some feeling in her legs and could move her toes even the tiniest bit, then the injury was incomplete. Messages from the brain were still able to get to her legs. She should have more function than she did. “I want you to think about upping your physical therapy. I think you gave up too soon, and I’m not sure these orders the doctor gave you are the best course of action. Given where your injury is, you should be able to stand and perhaps walk with braces.”
She shook her head. “Nope. Can’t do any of that. I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
She was surprised that Noelle wouldn’t consider it, but then, she didn’t know the case well. She needed to study the records before she pushed harder. “All right. What did you want to talk about?”
The young woman seemed to steel herself. “I want to know how normal you think I can be.”
“Pretty normal. Are you having trouble getting around? I’ve noticed almost every business in town has a ramp of some kind.” She’d been surprised at how well equipped the town was.
Noelle pushed her glasses up her nose and shook her head. “I don’t mean that. When I came to live with my dad, everyone was great. They tried to make it easy for me. I was talking about being able to do things other women do.”
There was something about the way her fair skin had gone slightly rosy that made Lila think she was talking about something beyond braiding her hair or singing karaoke. She’d mentioned her period. “Are you talking about having kids? There’s nothing at all in your records that makes me think you would have a problem. Even with a complete spinal cord injury, most women can still have children. Yours is much less severe. It didn’t harm your internal organs. Is your period regular?”
She waved that off. “Yeah, it’s fine. I didn’t want my dad to think he could come back here. He’s nosy about the medical stuff. I get some privacy if I mention the girl parts. But honestly, I did want to talk to you about my girl parts. Will they work? Not my ovaries.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t expected that. “Are you talking about your clitoris?”
She nodded. “If I fall in love with a boy, a man, can I have sex?”
Ah, now she understood why Noelle had been desperate to not have her father in here. She was sixteen. Lila was surprised this hadn’t come up. “Have you tried?”
“Having sex with a boy? No. My dad pretty much watches me twenty-four-seven, and when he’s not someone else is. And it’s not like there’s a boy I would want to do that with. I don’t know yet. I’m asking because I might want to someday, but what if I can’t? There’s this guy in my physical therapy group. He asked me out. I said no, of course. It’s too soon. I’m not looking to have sex with him.” She struggled for words.
Lila understood, and she was a woman who planned ahead. “But you want to know if it’s possible for the future because you don’t want to get into something that can’t possibly work.”
She nodded. “I know that sounds dumb.”
“That is the smartest thing I’ve heard all day. The short answer is you can absolutely have sex, but depending on what’s going on down there, you might have to make some adjustments. How do you feel when you masturbate?”
She went still.
“Sweetie, have you ever masturbated?”
“I’ve tried.” Noelle had gone a bright pink, but she soldiered on. “It’s hard for me to touch it. It. I mean my clitoris. I can’t arch my hips. I can move side to side, but not up. And my arms are freakishly short. It’s hard. I feel warm down there sometimes.”
“That’s normal when you see something that arouses you. Or you think about it. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Noelle. This is a normal part of life. Sex and intimacy are a necessary part of the human experience. It’s good that you have those feelings, because they’re normal.”
“But I’m not normal. What if I can feel arousal, but not all the other parts? I don’t have a lot of friends here. My best friend doesn’t know much more about it than I do. Her dad is the pastor and her mom said she wouldn’t talk to her about it until she’s ready to get married. I would talk to the other girls my age, but it’s embarrassing that I don’t know much. I had my period before the accident, and I think Dad thought Mom had covered the sex stuff. She did. I know how it works, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Or what to do because I can’t quite touch myself to see if . . . you know.”
“If it works.” It wasn’t surprising that Noelle hadn’t wanted to talk to her predecessor about this. It could be difficult to talk to anyone about sexuality, but an older man might be a young woman’s worst nightmare. Or her dad. “Okay, we can deal with this.”
Luckily, she had some practice with this and she knew exactly what to do.
chapter seven
Armie was well aware that everyone in the diner was looking at them. “Maybe we should have gone to Guidry’s.”
