by Elise Faber
Seriously the best.
Maybe he could become one of those people who medicated his feelings with food. He’d seen a study recently that said chocolate cured depression. He could totally do with an extra slice of pie.
He would also totally gain a spare tire.
Because he had a feeling that his emotions wouldn’t be tempered in the least with chocolate or alcohol or—
“Your usual?” Tilly asked, coming over. A petite brunette in her early twenties, she often wore a smile that was as bright as her blue eyes. She was also sweet, kind, and efficient.
“Yes. Thanks.”
Sam often came in late after working, too exhausted to go home and cook, not when the diner was only a few blocks from his clinic.
Plus, it was a place with people. A place he could sit and listen and . . . feel like he belonged for a half a second.
Sigh.
He was being so fucking dramatic.
But Haley hadn’t called or texted. She hadn’t shown up and—
She couldn’t show up anywhere, dickweed, he thought angrily. Her ankle is broken.
“Why the long face, Dr. Johnson?”
Sam’s eyes flashed up at the same moment a stone dropped in his gut.
Esther.
AKA trouble.
“Hi, Esther. How’s the kitten?”
She waved a hand. “Don’t try to distract me by talking about Snuggles.” But she pulled out her phone and extended it in his direction. “Adorable, as you can see.” He barely had time to nod before she continued, “Anyway, I was just over there and saw you were by yourself. I thought Haley—ah . . .”
He’d made a rookie mistake.
He’d reacted.
And Esther was maybe more of an intensive investigator than Rob and all of the sheriff’s office combined. Nothing slipped past her, especially nothing so obvious as a wince.
“Oh, so there is trouble in paradise?” She pulled up the note function on her phone. “Tell me all the details, I’ll make it better.”
“I didn’t—”
Tilly set his plate down, took one look at Esther and her phone and all but ran off.
Traitor.
Esther tapped his hand. “How’d you screw up, Sam?”
He raised one brow. “So, it’s Sam now?”
She smiled beatifically. “My little Sam, always so smart and trusting”—he snorted—“you know I can fix things for you. I love the idea of you and Haley together.”
“Tell that to Haley,” he muttered, shoving a fry into his mouth. “Or Maggie.”
Esther stole the pickle from his plate. She knew all that happened in Darlington and that included the fact that he couldn’t stand the bastardized version of cucumbers.
Either that or she really didn’t give a shit and just did what she wanted.
Really, it could go either way.
“Well,” she said, chomping on the pickle. “You did break Maggie’s heart—”
That was enough. He shoved his plate away and stormed down the hall, stopping just shy of the bathroom to turn and drop his forehead against the wall. Esther would probably eat all his fries, and his burger would get cold just sitting there. Not that it mattered. The food, normally so filling and delicious, had tasted like sawdust.
So much for medicating with food.
He couldn’t even do that right.
But Esther thought he’d been the one to end things with Maggie, that he’d been the bad guy, when in reality—
A cough.
Sam turned enough to see Henry himself standing behind him.
“Since you’re not trying to dine and dash”—Henry jerked his head in the direction of an open door—“why don’t you come into my office and not give Esther anything else to talk about?”
Sam glanced down the hall, saw Esther, fries sticking out of her mouth like sewing pins used to stick out of his mom’s when she’d been working on a new quilting project. Esther’s phone was pointed in his direction, probably cataloging his pathetic display for the whole town to see.
How had he once thought her social media channels entertaining?
Fine. It was supremely entertaining when he wasn’t the sole focus.
He turned and followed Henry into his office.
“Hang tight,” Henry said, after indicating the chair in front of his desk. He disappeared out of the door before Sam could respond then reappeared before he could really worry, two plates in his hands. “Chocolate, right?”
Sam nodded and accepted the plate as well as a fork Henry pulled from his apron pocket.
“So, you and Haley?” Henry asked around a bite of what looked to be lemon cream.
Sam sighed. “I’d thought—” He shook his head. “It wasn’t to be.”
“Like it wasn’t to be with you and Maggie?”
“Fuck off.” Sam dropped the plate on the desk and stood.
Henry was nonplussed and took another bite of his pie. “I’m guessing you didn’t do the dumping, like all of Darlington assumes.”
Sam had been on the threshold of the door when Henry spoke again and at the words, he froze, chin dropping to his chest.
“That’s a no,” Henry said. “So, why’d she dump you?”
He whirled around, glaring at Henry. “None of your business.”
“Great,” Henry replied, shoving another bite home, his next words slightly garbled. “I hate gossip. Shut up, sit down, and eat your pie.”
Sam rolled his eyes, but he shut up, sat down, and started eating, glad when the pie started finally tasting like its usual deliciousness rather than cardboard.
“Haley’s loyal to Maggie,” Henry said when their slices were almost gone.
Sam grunted.
“She’d be hard-pressed to do anything that might hurt her sister.”
“Yeah,” he snapped. “Well, what about what Maggie and Haley did to hurt me?”
Henry set his fork down. “Now you sound like a pathetic whiner. Just talk to Haley, explain what happened. I’m sure once she understands—”
“I’m not going to spread all of Maggie’s and my gossip over town.” Sam set his own fork down. “We were finished years ago, anyway. It doesn’t matter now.”
A plunk as Henry dropped his boots onto his desk. “Except it obviously does.”
Sam sighed. Because Henry was right. It did matter and—
“Why am I talking about this with you?”
The other man was several years younger than him and while they knew each other and were on friendly terms because of the diner and Sam’s veterinary skills, it wasn’t like they were besties hanging out every weekend.
Besties?
Now he was really losing it.
“You’re discussing this with me because I’m infinitely wise and smart about all things with regards to the opposite sex.”
“Yeah?” Sam grumbled. “If that’s true, then why are you single?”
A shadow crossed Henry’s face. “Let’s just say that I’m infinitely wise at letting problems and miscommunications fester so much that they ruin a relationship from the inside out.” He picked up both plates. “Don’t let that be your fate, Sam. Not when you have a chance to work things out.”
He left the office, but not before calling over his shoulder, “Food’s on the house tonight. Word of advice, though, sneak out the back door before Esther loses patience and starts trying to find material for her next post.”
Sam beat it out the back door, trying to ignore Henry’s words.
He wasn’t a glutton for punishment. He was done being hurt.
Sam was absolutely finished with the Donovan sisters.
Seventeen
Haley
* * *
Haley knew the knock at the door wouldn’t be Sam, but her heart raced like it was anyway.
It had been a week since he’d left that night.
She missed him more than she’d thought possible.
But he hadn’t returned the messages she’d left
at the clinic checking up on him, hadn’t stopped by . . . and it was probably for the best.
They—her with a man like him—would never have worked out anyway.
Plus, her brain was probably overestimating Sam’s appeal, because she’d been cooped up with no one for company besides the occasional visit from her mom, sister, and Melissa, but even those were few and far between because the women close to her had their own lives which did not revolve around catering to her every whim.
Or extreme boredom.
Okay, so there was that too.
The knock came again, and Haley called, “Coming!” as she wheeled her way to the front door.
The knob hadn’t rattled, a sure sign of her mother on the other side trying to let herself in, so Haley hurried over, eager to see who was visiting.
She wasn’t prepared to unlock the door and see her sister’s tear-streaked face.
“Mags,” she said. “What’s—”
“Have you seen this?” her sister shrieked, shoving her phone into Haley’s line of sight.
“Uh . . .” She tried to read the headline in . . . apparently there was a Facebook group for Darlington? It was called—rather unoriginally, she thought, Darlington Drama. “What—?” She snatched the phone from Maggie’s grip, saw its administrator was Esther.
Of course, it was Esther.
Lord of the Banana Cream Pies, please give her strength.
Because the lead story was, Haley Bear Breaks Hearts Home and Abroad, the tale of her broken engagement and “Our Own Dr. Johnson’s Freshly Broken Heart.”
Thankfully, Esther didn’t really have any details about her broken engagement with Brian, but she did have a picture of Sam looking . . . well, heartbroken.
Maggie stormed by her, opening the cabinet door beneath the sink and pulling out some cleaning supplies. In seconds she was scrubbing the crap out of Haley’s kitchen counter.
Sighing, Haley shut and locked the door then turned back to her sister. “I’m sure it’s—”
“Don’t say it’s not nothing!” Maggie wailed.
Haley rolled her eyes, called on the Lord of Banana Cream again—at least the terrible innuendo tempered her irritation—and wheeled herself to the kitchen. “Mags,” she ordered, grabbing her sister’s wrist and all but wrestling the squirt bottle out of her hand. “Stop.”
Maggie froze, chest heaving.
“What the hell is going on?”
Her sister hung her head. “You’re going to hate me.”
“I couldn’t hate you.” Haley bumped her shoulder. “Then I’d have to like mom and we both know I can’t do that.”
Maggie snorted, but tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. “I was horrible,” she said. “I deserve to be hated.” A shaking exhale. “I deserve for Sam to hate me.”
Haley’s heart skipped a beat. “What happened, Mags?”
Her sister sucked in another breath then released it. “It was my fault. All of it. I just—” She wiped her face. “I respected what you were doing. So much. I hope you know that. Moving to California, going after your dream, doing something you loved, and damn all the consequences.” She blew out a breath. “I couldn’t even leave Salt Lake. Sam wanted me to go, but I couldn’t—”
“Why?”
She sniffed. “Because I’d found someone else.”
“You—” Haley sat up. “What?”
“I was young and stupid and so mad that Sam wasn’t around.” She shook her head. “He was studying and working, for God’s sake, and I—”
“You cheated on him.”
Maggie nodded.
Haley sucked in a breath. Shit. She’d . . . well, she’d really, seriously fucked up. Sam was—
Damn. Her chin dropped to her chest.
She needed to apologize, needed to hobble her ass down the street on her crutches and beg for Sam’s forgiveness. She’d put all the blame for the breakup on his shoulders and he’d been the one wronged. But . . . right at that moment, her sister needed Haley to listen more than Sam needed his apology.
“I didn’t tell him,” Maggie said softly. “I just got swept away with the whole thing, and I didn’t tell Sam that things weren’t working out. He was studying and picking up extra shifts so we could live together in Minnesota, and I was”—her voice cracked—“I was hiding my engagement ring so that I could fuck around with Bradley.”
Haley couldn’t lie that she was relieved to hear that Tim wasn’t the man Maggie had cheated on Sam with.
That would have made Sunday dinners awkward.
“So, what happened?” she asked, guiding them back into the living room. She sank onto one half of the couch.
Maggie stayed standing but her eyes slid closed. “Affairs have a shelf life. Someone slips up or gets tired of—” She pressed her lips together. “Bradley found out I was engaged and told Sam.”
Haley touched Maggie’s cheek. “And you lost both of them.”
A nod. “Yeah.” A long slow exhale and she opened her eyes, regret swimming in the coffee depths. “Rightfully so, of course.”
“That’s why you were so devastated when you moved home,” Haley said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. “I didn’t want you to think I was a horrible person, even if I was.” Maggie sighed. “It was easier in a lot of ways to just let Sam take the fall, especially since he was hundreds of miles away.” She sat next to Haley on the couch. “But enough about me and my screwed-up ways, why didn’t you tell me about Brian? I’m assuming the cheating isn’t a new development.”
“No,” Haley murmured. “It wasn’t. But it is a big part of the reason I needed to come home. The memories in California were just too painful.” She shook her head. “No. That’s not completely it either. Yes, it was painful, but I also didn’t want to admit I failed, I guess. Your life seemed so perfect that I guess I needed to compete somehow.” She tugged Maggie’s wrist, pulling her in for a hug. “I’m sorry I assumed that you were always infallible, it wasn’t exactly fair to shove you into a box like that.”
Maggie sniffed. “I liked being infallible.”
“You like things carefully arranged and black and white.” Haley chuckled. “We all make mistakes, Mags. We all mess up sometimes.”
“It wasn’t just a mistake.” Her sister’s chest shuddered. “I—”
“Hush.” Haley gripped Maggie by the shoulders and shook her gently. “It was a shitty thing to do, we both know that.” A nod. “But I still am so sorry it happened. To both of you.”
She was sorry. That Maggie had been so miserable, she’d done something incredibly hurtful to the person she’d loved. That she’d been young and stupid and immature.
That she hadn’t felt like she could talk to Haley about it.
And also she began to wonder if perhaps Brian’s reasons for cheating had been less about her and more about whatever had been going on in his own messed-up mind.
Maybe he’d been miserable and hadn’t been able to—
Or maybe he was just an asshole.
Either. Both. Because while Sam might be mature enough to forgive Maggie, Haley thought that forgiving her ex and former friend were going to take a bit longer.
Work in progress, remember?
Her sister’s laugh was brittle as she pulled back. “I’m sorry I was such an idiot that I let one of the best men I’ve ever known go. That I wounded him so deeply he’s still alone. That he somehow managed to forgive me when I can’t seem to forgive myself.”
“Do you—” Haley cut herself off, uncertain she had the right to ask the question bouncing around her brain.
“No, ask,” Maggie said. “We’ve spent far too much of our lives not asking the hard questions, leaving things alone because we didn’t want to rock the boat.” She dropped her head to Haley’s shoulder. “I love you. So much. And, God, I’m so sorry I said those things. I didn’t mean them . . . I just—”
“Wanted to be
an ostrich for a little while longer?”
She shuddered. “You know how I feel about ostriches.”
Haley did. Which was the reason she’d brought it up. Her sis had an unreasonable fear of the large, flightless bird. Probably because Haley had watched a ton of nature documentaries as a kid and both of them had nightmares about the one that had included a scene of an ostrich disemboweling a hyena that had been trying to steal its egg.
“You know what I really want to understand?” Haley asked.
Maggie flinched but raised her chin. “What do you want to know?”
“Why in the hell didn’t our parents monitor our TV time?”
Maggie snorted and then they were laughing or crying, or maybe both. Either way, it was long minutes before they got it together.
“I’m so, so sorry, Hays. I don’t know how you or Sam could possibly forgive me.” She covered her face with her hands. “You guys should date, keep exploring things”—a sniff—“Great. Now I sound like I’m trying to play the martyr, but seriously, I think you’d be great for each other, and just because I let all of my regret from the past bubble up and—” Her shoulders dropped. “I hurt you and I hurt Sam. Again. I’m seriously the worst.”
Haley lightly punched her arm. “Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing to see that you’re not perfect.”
Maggie made an outraged noise.
“It’s a breath of fresh air to see that you’re a normal human being that makes mistakes. Ow.” Her sister swatted her back, but harder. “See? You even beat up innocent injured women.”
“You’re the worst,” Maggie muttered.
“I love you.” Haley rested her head on her sister’s shoulder.
“I love you, too.” A bump of Haley’s head. “Now, ask your question from before.”
“It’s a doozy,” Haley warned.
Maggie straightened, mimed putting on armor. “I’m ready.”
A deep, bolstering breath. “I was going to ask if you wish that you hadn’t cheated . . . that you were still with Sam.”
Maggie stilled for a long moment, considering.
