The Origins of Heartbreak: A Lesbian Medical Romance (Lakeside Hospital Book 1)

by Cara Malone

  She went over to the window and looked outside, where the street was completely blanketed in fluffy white snow. Her car had at least two inches on it and she wondered if her mother was up yet. She hadn’t expected to stay, and she hadn’t spent the night away from home since her father died. She felt a little guilty about it, especially since her mom didn’t even have a television to keep her company anymore.

  “I should go,” she said as Megan came over to join her.

  “Really?” Megan asked sadly.

  “Yeah,” Alex said. “My mom’s probably worried about me.”

  “Okay,” Megan said, but she wrapped her arms around Alex, sliding her hands beneath the layers of the blanket to connect with her. Then she asked, “What do the two of you do for Thanksgiving?”

  “I don’t know,” Alex said. “Last year we weren’t in the mood to celebrate so we just ate frozen lasagna and my mom bought a cordless vacuum that she never took out of the box.”

  Megan looked saddened by this, and Alex realized how pathetic it sounded. She laughed and tried to lighten the mood.

  “That was only a few months after my dad died,” she said. “This year we can probably do better for ourselves. I was thinking of making my dad’s favorite cookies—they’re kind of involved, so that should keep us busy for a while.”

  “Okay, I just had a crazy idea,” Megan said. “Feel free to turn it down, but why don’t you and your mom come over to my family’s house for Thanksgiving dinner instead? You could bring the cookie ingredients with you and we can all make them together.”

  “I wouldn’t want to impose,” Alex said.

  “You’re not imposing,” Megan insisted. “I don’t ever want you to leave my side again… If you and your mom are up for it, I would love to have you there.”

  “I think I can convince her,” Alex said. “Are you sure it’s not an imposition? Thanksgiving is only a couple days away and I wouldn’t want your mom to have to feed two more mouths on such short notice.”

  “Are you kidding?” Megan asked. “You don’t know my mom yet, but when you meet her you’ll see that having two more mouths to feed is going to be the best thing about her Thanksgiving holiday.”

  “Okay,” Alex said, smiling at Megan. “Let’s do it.”

  “Awesome,” Megan said with a grin. “So can you stay a little longer? I finally don’t have homework to catch up on, and I want nothing more than to keep you in my arms for as long as possible.”

  Alex broke into a wide grin and kissed her, then said, “Yeah, I can stay. I just need to text my mom to let her know I’m not dead.”

  She went over to her coat on the hook by the door and fished her phone out of her pocket, and when she was done, Megan came over and wrapped her arms around her again, kissing the crook of her neck. She said, “I think I’m going to take a quick shower.”

  “Okay,” Alex said, but when Megan unwrapped her arms, she took Alex by the hand and started to pull her down the hall. She asked, curious, “What?”

  “Come on,” Megan said with a wink. “I said I didn’t want to let you go.”

  “Okay,” Alex answered, catching on. She let Megan lead her down the hall and into the bathroom. Alex let out a happy laugh as Megan threw the blanket off Alex’s shoulders and tossed it into the hallway before she swung the bathroom door shut.

  THE END

  Want to know what’s next for Megan and Alex? Subscribe to my newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cCBjff for exclusive access to bonus chapters and deleted scenes.

  A Note from the Author

  Thanks for reading The Origins of Heartbreak, the first novel in my medical romance series – I hope you enjoyed it!

  If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads – they make a big difference in the success of a new book, and reviews help more readers find new LGBT authors like me.

  Thanks again for reading, and I hope to hear from you soon!

  With love,

  Cara

  Also by Cara Malone

  It’s Christmas at the Emerald Mountain Ski Resort, and Joy is looking for her next vacation girlfriend to keep her company through the snowy nights. Carmen seems like just the girl for the task, if not for her bah humbug attitude and Scrooge-like family. Can Joy remind them all of the spirit of the season in time to meet Carmen beneath the mistletoe?

  Visit www.caramalonebooks.com/

  for a complete list of books by Cara Malone.

  Read the first chapter of That Old Emerald Mountain Magic

  Joy Valentine could feel tears forming in the back of her throat. She was not the kind of girl who gave in to that urge to cry, though, so she swallowed hard and pressed her lips into a thin smile.

  “You’re going to make a great dad,” she said, pulling her best friend, Ross, into a tight hug.

  When she released him, he looked at her with cynicism and said, “Really? What evidence have you ever seen to support that claim?”

  “I don’t know,” Joy said, punching his shoulder. “It just seemed like something people say in situations like this.”

  “Well, I appreciate the platitude,” Ross said, “but I’m about to drive across the country to become a parent with a girl I hooked up with a few times while doing illicit drugs. I don’t know what part of that equation you think spells ‘Dad of the Year’.”

  They both laughed – there was nothing else they could do, and it seemed to help cut the tension between them. Ross was driving to Ohio tonight in his old, rusted out Jeep, and neither one of them knew what to expect beyond that vague plan. Joy had a feeling in her gut that he was leaving her forever, and she’d been doing her best to ignore it for the past few weeks ever since he told her about the plan. Ross had been her best friend since elementary school, and he was one of the few people who stuck around Emerald Hill after graduation, and now there was a very real possibility that he was leaving her forever.

  He picked up the oversized duffel bag that had been laying at his feet in the middle of their living room, and Joy thought fleetingly that at least the majority of his stuff was still strewn about their shared apartment. If he stayed in Ohio to be with the baby, at least he’d have to come back one last time and pack up his stuff.

  Joy let out a shaky breath, steeling herself for the quickly approaching moment when she’d have to watch him drive away, and Ross caught her apprehensive look.

  “I’ll be back in a couple of weeks,” he said.

  “Yeah, right,” Joy responded.

  Ross slung the duffel bag over his shoulder and she followed him outside, watching as he heaved it into the back of the Jeep and then came back around to the driver’s door where she stood waiting for him. He asked, “You’re going to keep me posted on the Emerald Hill gossip, right?”

  “Totally,” Joy said. “All the ridiculous room service requests and rich people temper tantrums you could want.”

  This season at the ski resort wouldn’t be the same without him, and even if he really did come back in a few weeks, Joy would have to get through the Christmas rush without Ross. It was already December sixteenth, and Allison hadn’t even gone into labor yet. With any luck, Ross would end up with a Christmas baby.

  “Don’t forget about the single-serving girlfriend,” Ross reminded her. “I want all those juicy details, too.”

  Joy rolled her eyes, wondering if she’d have the energy for a holiday fling this year. The single-serving lover had been a tradition that she and Ross began years ago, when they first started working at the resort together after high school, and once upon a time, Allison herself had been the flavor of the month. Now she was carrying Ross’s child and ready to pop at any moment, so clearly that hadn’t turned out as intended.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe I’ll take a powder this year and just focus on work. Johnson says I’ve got management potential if I buckle down.”

  “Who wants that?” Ross asked incredulously. “Get out there and find the hottest girl on the slopes to spend
the holiday with, and then let me live vicariously through you. I’m probably going to be up to my elbows in dirty diapers while you’re out here, so don’t squander the opportunity.”

  “Yes, sir,” Joy said, still not fully convinced. Ross climbed into the Jeep and she said, “Let me know when you get there, and send me pictures when the baby comes.”

  “Will do,” he said, and then he threw the truck into reverse and pulled out onto the snowy road that would take him to meet his child. Joy stood in the parking lot in front of their apartment building for a few minutes, watching the Jeep recede into the distance and clenching her hands into fists to keep herself from crying.

  Carmen Crane was sitting in one corner of a big, velvet-lined booth at The Palms. It was a rare Saturday night that didn’t find her there with her friends, and an early-morning flight to Colorado certainly wouldn’t stop her from joining them.

  “Why Colorado?” Carmen’s best friend, Brigid, asked, her upper lip curling in disgust as she said the name of her destination. She couldn’t believe that anyone would actually choose snow at Christmas, and neither could Carmen. Brigid asked plaintively, “What’s wrong with Cancun?”

  Carmen sighed and took a liberal sip from her martini glass. She’d had to send one of the guys over to the bar to get it for her, and it was irritating that she was still several years away from being able to order her own drinks. They spent enough time at The Palms and rang up big enough tabs, so she thought the bartenders should look the other way and stamp her hand.

  “Not a damned thing,” she said. Colorado had been her father’s idea, some half-baked idea to take a trip down memory lane or something like that, even though the closest the Cranes had ever gotten to a ski vacation in Carmen’s childhood was sledding down the icy hills in her run-down hometown in Massachusetts.

  This year, Carmen and her family were at the mercy of her father, doomed to freeze their buns off on a mountainside all in the name of Christmas cheer, or something stupid like that. Meanwhile, all of Carmen’s friends would be sunning themselves on the beach and day-drinking themselves into oblivion like they did every year. She knew it was too late to get out of the trip, but she could at least enjoy one last night with her friends before they all left for their objectively superior vacation.

  “Honestly,” said one of the guys, Bentley, as he crashed into the booth beside them and squished Brigid into Carmen, nearly causing her to spill her drink all over her lap. She hissed at him – Watch it! – but he paid her no attention as he just kept talking. “Everyone knows you’re not an outdoor kind of girl. What the hell are you going to do for ten days at a ski resort?”

  “Yeah,” Brigid said, tittering and batting her eyelashes transparently at Bentley in a way that never failed to make Carmen’s stomach turn over. They’d hooked up so many times, ever since sophomore year of high school, and yet it didn’t seem like Brigid was ever going to realize he was using her. She sure as hell was going to keep trying to impress him, though. Carmen rolled her eyes as Brigid added to his quip, “She’s probably going to go all Jack Torrence in The Shining after the first day.”

  “Heeeere’s Johnny!” Bentley screeched, and Carmen had a nearly uncontrollable urge to kick him in the face with her five-inch Louboutins.

  Rather than allowing herself the space to wonder why exactly she called these people her friends, she tipped her glass back and emptied it, then shot back her reply. “Bentley, you don’t know anything about me. I’m going to dominate those ski hills.”

  “I think they’re called slopes,” he said, smirking while Brigid laughed and fell exaggeratedly onto him in her hysterics. She really wasn’t a bad friend when Bentley wasn’t around, but those moments had become fewer and far between in the last few years until it seemed like Carmen couldn’t get a moment alone with her best friend, and Brigid had slowly turned into some unrecognizable, giggling and vapid shell of herself.

  “Yeah, slopes. Whatever,” Carmen said. “While you’re in Cancun, getting smashed and taking the same bare-chested glamor selfies you always take, I’m going to be having an actual unique vacation experience.”

  “Sure, if you want to call sitting in your room, looking at my Cancun photos on Instagram unique,” Bentley said. “I bet that’ll be a vacation like no other.”

  Brigid laughed again, and it was starting to really get on Carmen’s nerves. When the hell had this cocky jerk wormed his way into their social group so completely that it would require a surgeon to extract Brigid from his ass? She leaned over the back of the booth, waving one of their friends off the dance floor and calling to him, “Hey, Dawson, could you be a pal and get me another martini? Dirty, with three – no, four – olives.”

  It was going to take more than that to make watching Brigid and Bentley suck face for the rest of the night tolerable, and Carmen could already tell that was the direction they were heading. While Dawson went over to the bar on her behalf, she flopped back down in the booth and said, “How about a little wager?”

  “What do you have in mind?” Bentley asked, perking up immediately. He was always a sucker for bets, and this time Carmen was only too happy to play into this vice if it meant getting him off her back for a little while.

  “I’ll take a selfie on the mountain, in my skis, having a way better time than you,” she said. “And in exchange, you’ll leave me and Brigid alone for the entire month of January and find your own crew to hang out with.”

  “But-” Brigid began to object, but Bentley was too involved in the bet to allow her to finish her thought.

  “And if you chicken out and never leave the lodge?” he asked.

  “Then I’ll leave you to suck each other’s faces off in this booth by yourselves for the entire year,” Carmen said. Maybe it was the martinis talking – she was already on her fourth, and saw her fifth one making its way to her across the crowded room – but she really didn’t think skiing would be all that hard. At the very least, she could pay a ski instructor to take her to the top of the mountain and hold the camera while she faked a few sick moves, enough to get Bentley out of her life for a little while.

  “Deal,” he said, reaching across Brigid’s lap to shake Carmen’s hand. “But I’m pretty sure if you try it you’re going to be coming back to New York in traction.”

  “We’ll see,” Carmen said, letting go of his hand and conspicuously wiping the moisture from his palm onto the booth.

  Then she got up and squeezed past them, meeting Dawson on the edge of the dance floor and taking the martini from him. There were only six more hours before her flight to Emerald Hill and she knew that the responsible thing would be to stop drinking and go home and get a little sleep. But Carmen hadn’t done anything intentionally responsible in at least a dozen years, and she didn’t intend to start now. She downed the martini in a few quick gulps, set down the empty glass, and then joined Dawson on the dance floor.

  She’d be hung over and regretting this decision later, when her mother was keeping the flight attendants busy and her twin sisters, Spencer and Sidney, were screeching and playing whatever stupid video game was trending in the seats behind her, but for now, there was dancing to be done.

  Continue reading…