by Kait Nolan
Chapter 3
On Wednesday morning, Tucker slipped in to Dinner Belles to tell Mama Pearl about the orientation meeting for the competition. Norah had pulled off her usual organizational miracle. Not that he was surprised. As he wasn’t due in court until eleven, he had ample time for a hot breakfast. And he wasn’t above admitting—to himself, at least—he hoped to run into Corinne.
Having Mama Pearl agree to be his partner wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he’d approached her. But maybe she thought Corinne wasn’t ready. Or that he wasn’t right for her. Or, hell, maybe that Corinne just flat wasn’t interested—in him or the competition. Tucker wasn’t about to fault the older woman for watching out for her employee. Corinne had few enough allies in her corner. But he’d hoped for the chance to be one of them.
Luck was with him. Moments after he slid into a booth, Corinne was at his elbow filling his coffee cup.
“God bless you,” he murmured with feeling, already reaching for the sugar. “There’s extra in it for you if you can apply your new nursing knowledge to giving me coffee in an IV drip.”
Her lips quirked until the dimple he used to fantasize about in homeroom fluttered in her cheek. “I keep telling Mama Pearl there’s a market, but she says we’d have a traffic jam of all the IV poles.”
“Oh, I don’t know. You could mount them to the sides of the booth right here. Like a coat rack.”
Corinne laid a finger over her lips in a considering gesture. “You may be on to something.”
“It makes sense,” he drawled. “Got a nurse on staff and everything.”
“Not a nurse quite yet.”
“Pretty damn close. Congrats on finishing school, by the way.”
“Thanks.”
“What’s next? The NCLEX?”
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“I remember from when Piper went through,” he explained.
“Oh right. Yeah, I’ll be taking it in a few weeks. I’m waiting on the school to send my transcripts to the testing center so I can register. Studying like a maniac in the meantime. After that, who knows?” She shrugged. Beneath the feigned nonchalance, he could see the worry it would all be for naught.
“You’ll do great. Anybody who can juggle everything you have the last year can pass that test with flying colors.”
Her cheeks flushed a pleased pink at the compliment. “From your mouth to God’s ear. Or the testing board, anyway. What’ll it be this morning?”
Tucker didn’t need to check the menu. “Biscuits and gravy.”
“Anything else? Grits?”
“Pass. I’d be in a food coma in front of Judge Carpenter, and I need to be on my toes.”
“Biscuits and gravy it is. I’ll just get this in for you.”
“Thanks. Oh, and can you let Mama Pearl know I need to talk to her?”
“Sure thing.”
The bell over the front door rang and a female voice called out, “Corinne, girl, it’s up!”
Corinne’s head whipped toward the newcomer. “Already? But it’s at least two weeks early!”
“Rosemary said we should be at the head of the line to apply. They’ll be taking applications for a couple of weeks, but she said they’ll start looking at the applicants right away. You need to find time to sneak away this morning.” The slightly out of breath woman glanced his way and flashed a smile. “Hi.”
“Hey there. What do you need to apply for?” Tucker asked.
“A job at the hospital,” Corinne said.
“Yeah? That’s great,” he said.
“Would be if I could get there to apply for it. I don’t know if I can get away until tomorrow. Mom flaked on me, and I’ve got Kurt in the kitchen.” She bit her lip. “Maybe Mama Pearl can watch him for half an hour after the breakfast rush is over.”
“I’ll wait on you. Get some breakfast since I’m here,” said the other woman.
“There’s room at the counter. Grab a stool, and I’ll get your order in a minute. Tucker, are you good on your coffee?”
“Just fine.”
She spun away, clearly in go mode. She stopped by another table on the way to the kitchen.
“About time.”
Tucker recognized the voice as the opposing counsel he’d be facing later that morning. Jefferson Barksdale was a boatload of asshole. Had been since junior high. His disposition hadn’t improved any since he’d finished law school and joined his father’s firm. If anything, he’d become an even bigger douchebag.
“Maybe you don’t realize the rest of the world doesn’t operate on the Homecoming Queen’s time table, but some of us have places to be. This isn’t high school anymore and the world doesn’t revolve around you and your social schedule. I need my check.”
The Corinne he’d known in high school would’ve eviscerated him on the spot, customer be damned. Instead, the faint glow of accomplishment that’d lit her face faded and she seemed to shrink in on herself, as if diminished by the contact. “I apologize for the wait. Would you like a to-go cup for the rest of your coffee?”
“Just the check.”
“Right away, Mr. Barksdale.” Shoulders slumped, she headed straight for the register.
Mr. Barksdale. As if he hadn’t been one of the many guys fawning over her back in the day. As if he was better than she was.
Fists clenched, Tucker seethed. No one had a right to be an asshole to servers. He was still trying to decide whether to say anything when Corinne brought Jeff’s bill back to the table.
The smug bastard had the nerve to look down his nose and check her out as he took the check. A long, slow perusal of her body that made Tucker want to jam a knee into Jeff’s balls.
Corinne didn’t flinch. “I’m happy to run your card now.” The better to get your ass out of my diner was implied.
“No need. I’m paying in cash.”
“You have a nice day then,” she said in the precise, sugared tone of fuck you that only a true Southern belle could manage.
As soon as she’d disappeared into the kitchen, Tucker was out of his seat, blocking Jeff from getting out of his. “That was uncalled for, Barksdale.”
“Excuse me?” Jeff’s eyes narrowed.
“I realize you’re justifiably scared shitless of me decimating you in court this morning, and therefore, want more time to prepare, but that’s no excuse for being a dick.”
“I’m not at all worried about facing you in court, McGee. As to the rest, it’s nothing less than she deserves after how she treated everyone in high school.”
“So you’re going to be an asswipe to a hard-working single mom just because she turned you down back then? Classy.” Absolutely nobody deserved be punished forever for the mistakes they’d made in high school. Especially not when she was making every effort to be a better person.
“What do you even care? Your crowd didn’t like her either.” His gaze turned speculative as he pushed back from the table and stood. “Or maybe she’s working hard some other way to make ends meet.”
Tucker was a nanosecond away from planting his fist in the other man’s face when a massive crash sounded from the kitchen. In the instant his attention was dragged away, Jeff shoved past him and the moment for an easy sucker punch was past. Probably just as well. Brawling in the diner wouldn’t accomplish anything. He’d take his pound of flesh in the courtroom.
“Mama, don’t move.”
The sound of Omar’s distressed voice had Tucker skirting the counter, shoving through the swinging door.
Mama Pearl lay prostrate, half in, half out of the storeroom. Broken crockery littered the floor around her. She was fighting both her son and Corinne to get up. “I’m fine, damn it. I slipped, is all.”
“Be still,” Corinne snapped. “You’re not moving until I look you over. And let us get this glass up before you cut yourself. Kurt stay back, baby.”
A dark-haired half-pint stood off to the side, worrying his lip exactly the way his mother did.
T
ucker automatically moved forward, grabbing a nearby trash can and kneeling to pick up the biggest shards of what had evidently been a stack of plates.
“You know you can’t reach the top shelf. Why didn’t you ask me to get these down?” Omar demanded as he knelt to do the same.
“I been running this diner since well before you were born, Omar Buckley. I don’t need to pull you off the grill every time I need something off the damned shelf.” Arms folded in irritation, Mama Pearl glowered at the lot of them as they cleaned up the broken plates.
“Does anything hurt?” Corinne asked. “Did you put your hand out when you fell? Catch yourself with your wrist?”
“I caught myself with my behind, thank you very much. The only thing bruised is my pride.”
“Let us help you up there, Mama Pearl.” By tacit agreement, Tucker and Omar each took an arm and raised her to her feet.
She immediately sagged onto Tucker as her ankle gave out.
“Whoa there.” Tucker readjusted his grip to take more of her weight, and they shuffled her over to a chair in the office.
“Mama Pearl, are you okay?” asked a tiny voice.
“I’m fine, Kurt. Everybody’s fussin’ for nothin’.”
As soon as she was seated, Corinne nudged them both out of the way and reached for Mama Pearl’s foot. “Tell me if this hurts.” With great care, she probed the ankle.
Mama Pearl hissed. “It’s a mite sore,” she admitted through gritted teeth.
Corinne carefully rotated the joint, stopping as soon as her boss winced again. “Omar, go make your mother an ice pack. Tucker grab me that chair, please.”
Once Mama Pearl’s foot was elevated and draped in an ice pack, Corinne crossed her own arms and scowled. “What else hurts?”
“Nothing.”
“You said you landed on your backside. You could’ve damaged your tailbone. Does it hurt to sit?”
“Not as much as your fussing does.”
“Deal with it,” Corinne retorted. “I want you to go see a doctor.”
“It’s just a sprain. It’ll be fine tomorrow.”
“Which one of us is one step away from a nursing license? You can’t dance in this competition on that ankle.”
“Um, I’m guessing this is a bad time to mention the orientation meeting is tomorrow night,” Tucker added.
Mama Pearl’s face turned mutinous.
“Don’t even think about arguing with me. No publicity stunt is worth hurting yourself. You need to see a doctor,” Corinne repeated.
“Fine,” Mama Pearl gritted out. “I’ll go to the doctor, and you go dance.”
The expression of absolute control slipped from Corinne’s face. “Excuse me?”
“I’ve already paid the sponsorship fees. Somebody’s gotta do it. If you’re benching me, that leaves you.”
“What about Darlene? Or Cindy?”
“Darlene has the rhythm of a fence post, and Cindy doesn’t have the flexibility. You do.”
“But—”
“That’s the deal, sugar. You want me to take the time to go have this total waste of time appointment at the doctor, you dance.”
Tucker very deliberately didn’t look at Corinne.
After a long pause, she huffed out a breath. “Fine. We’ll have to discuss my schedule.”
“Fine,” said Mama Pearl with an ornery hrmph. “Now both of you get back to work. There are still customers.”
Corinne glowered.
“What about the job application at the hospital?” Tucker asked.
She shot him a glare. “It’ll have to wait.”
“I can watch Kurt.”
One dark brow winged up. “You’re dressed for court.”
“I don’t have to be in until eleven. Seriously, he can hang out with me for the morning. Y’all can get things sorted here with Mama Pearl, and you can go get your application filled out before everybody else. Win-win for everybody.”
She stared at him. “How is that a win for you?”
“I like kids.” Which was absolutely true. “Let me help, Corinne.”
“Don’t look a gift babysitter in the mouth,” Mama Pearl ordered. “Soon as breakfast rush is through, you get on to put in that application.”
Corinne closed her eyes as if praying for patience. “Okay. Thank you. We’ll sort out the details before you’re done with breakfast.”
Tucker waited until Corinne and Omar were done fussing and had returned to their duties before pitching his voice low enough that no one else could hear. “Oh, you’re good.”
Mama Pearl scowled at him. “Shut up and don’t screw this up.”
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Tucker said, “Yes ma’am.”
~*~
“So who is Tucker?” Malika asked in a Girl, you’d better dish tone.
Who was he indeed? Friend implied more between them than the casual acquaintance they’d resumed since Corinne started working at the diner. She hadn’t expected that from him given her history with him and his friends back in high school. But he’d been one of the few people to be unfailingly nice to her since she came back, which said a lot about the kind of man he was. The fact that he’d volunteered to watch her son so she could go apply for a job certainly went a long way past mere acquaintance.
“I’ve known him since elementary school.” Which didn’t quite answer the question, but she didn’t know what else to say. Oh, yeah, he’s also my dance partner in this lunatic fundraiser. Yeah, no, she didn’t have the brain to think about that right now.
“Did y’all date?”
“What? No.” Tucker McGee had never been part of her entourage of male admirers. “I had a very embarrassing thing for his best friend for most of high school. Why?”
“It’s just, after the asshat paid his bill and you went back to the kitchen, Tucker got up in his face about the fact that he’d been rude to you.”
“He what?”
“Dickwad insinuated some pretty ugly shit about you, and I’m pretty sure Tucker was about to knock him ass over teakettle before the big crash.”
Tucker was defending her? Why would he do that? No one defended her. She was nothing to him.
“Come on. Pretty boy in a suit is all defending your honor and playing stand in babysitter. There must be something to tell.”
Corinne pulled into a parking space in the hospital lot and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as another awful possibility occurred to her. “The only thing there is to tell is that he threatened Jefferson Barksdale, who absolutely did have a thing for me in high school and never got past the fact that I wouldn’t give him the time of day. His mother is on the hospital board.”
“Ooooh. But it was high school. Surely she’s not gonna take that out on you at a professional level.”
“Wanna bet?”
“Why should something so long ago matter so much?”
“You ever see Mean Girls?”
“Yeah.”
“I was Regina George.” The admission made Corinne want to hide under the seat.
“Shut up! You were not head bitch.”
“I really wish I were exaggerating. I was not a nice person in high school.” She sighed, thinking back to her biggest shame. “I betrayed my best friend.”
“How?”
“When we hit ninth grade, I broke her confidence and publicized some really embarrassing stuff about her. It secured my entry into the in crowd and ensured that she’d be an outcast for the rest of high school.” And then Corinne had followed the example of the popular girls above her and continually put her friend down in front of others, because being Queen Bitch had been more important to her than loyalty back then.
“I just can’t imagine you doing that.”
“I wish I couldn’t. I wish I could forget it.” She shrugged at the tension lodged in her shoulders. “Anyway, once I left town, I grew up. And once I had Kurt, I knew I had to be someone he could be proud of. But coming home…a lot of people haven’t forgotten what I u
sed to be like. And they won’t let me forget it either.”
“I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”
Corinne could’ve told her that today’s run-in with Jeff Barksdale was par for the course for her work day—at least when Mama Pearl wasn’t out front to intimidate people into behaving with the Eyebrow of Doom. But what would be the point? Whining about it wouldn’t change anything. She’d behaved badly for a long time. Had even, briefly, fallen back into that ill-fitting role on her return to Wishful before she deliberately gave up all of it. She’d long since accepted she had to pay for that on some level because of karma. “Hope you’re right.”
They climbed out of Corinne’s car and headed up to the hospital. Here, at least, Corinne knew she’d done something of value. She’d done good work during her clinicals. Hard work that had been appreciated. Staff and doctors nodded or waved in greeting as she and Malika made their way to HR. The recognition warmed her. Except for the odd person who’d come in for treatment and who knew her from back in the day, here at the hospital she got to escape the past. She wanted to make it a part of her future.
They stepped into human resources. Wilton Memorial wasn’t a huge hospital, but she still didn’t know everybody who worked there. Her time here had been spent predominantly on her feet, running from patient to patient, depending on what was needed. She’d meant to swing by and meet the HR staff but it just hadn’t happened.
The forty-something woman with ash blonde hair looked up from her computer screen. “Can I help you?”
“Yes ma’am. We’re here to fill out applications for the nursing positions posted this morning,” Corinne said, a big, confident smile in place.
“Oh, I’d be happy to—”
“Corinne Dawson.” From the back of the office, another woman emerged.
Corinne’s hard-won confidence faded. Would it be better to pretend ignorance, like she had no idea who this woman was? Or did she own that she remembered exactly who Neva Coffman—and her daughter—was?
“Mrs. Coffman,” Corinne replied. This woman was the Chief Nursing Executive on the hospital board. Acknowledgment was really the only option.
Beside her, Malika made like she was watching a tennis match, obviously wondering what the deal was.
