One Hundred Promises

by Kelly Collins

  Lydia held up her hand. “I don’t need details, but I’m glad you’re getting…” What should she say? Serviced? Laid? “Sex is an important part of a healthy lifestyle, but it can put a strain on the heart if you’re not in top shape.”

  He grabbed his rounded belly. “I’m in great shape. Ain’t round a shape?”

  She chuckled. “That it is, but seriously, Ray, you need to drop a few pounds. I’d love to see you walk around the new park a few days a week. Start slow and build yourself up.”

  His brows pinched together. “How about I schedule another visit to Buttercups each week?” He heaved himself to a standing position. “This getting healthy stuff will put me into the poor farm.”

  “Go for walks, Ray. Not getting healthier will put you into a grave. I’d like to send you to Silver Springs for some tests.”

  Ray walked toward the door. He waved her off with a fleshy palm. “I ain’t no good at tests. Never was. Never will be.”

  Lydia stood in the center of the exam room and watched Ray shuffle out the door. “I don’t know what to say.” She made notes in his file to follow up on the medical tests. Explaining their importance today would only get her answers or stories she’d never get out of her head. As it was, she had a vision of Ray at Buttercups shoving dollars into the G-string of a grandma stripper.

  She filed Ray’s record and grabbed her purse. It was lunchtime, and she was starving. A familiar voice echoed down the hallway. Wes was here. Her heart raced at a giddy gallop. She wanted to run toward the store where she heard him talking to his aunt but played it cool. No matter how slow she wanted to walk, her feet skipped toward him.

  When she rounded the sunscreen display, she saw him leaning against the counter talking to Agatha and Doc Parker, who manned the cash register.

  As soon as Wes saw her, he smiled. God those lips were deadly. Whether it was a smile, a kiss, or something much sexier, the thought of his lips set her nerves alight.

  “Hey, I thought you might be hungry?” He lifted a brow. “You got quite the workout yesterday.”

  Agatha huffed. “You’re not making her sand floors or paint, are you?” She reached across the counter and grabbed his ear, pulling him closer. “She’s already got a job.” She gave his lobe an extra yank for emphasis.

  Lydia thought it cute the way the red at his neck rose to his cheeks.

  He shook his head. “No, Lydia and I—”

  “Went cliff diving,” she blurted. She wasn’t sure what he’d divulge. The men in this town didn’t seem shy about sharing their sexual encounters.

  He nodded. “Yes, cliff diving takes a lot out of a person.” That damn smile made her want to puddle at his feet. “Maisey’s is open. They have tourist hours until the fall. Care to join me?”

  Sage walked forward. “Room for one more?”

  Lydia loved her sister but working together all day was enough bonding. “Don’t you have a fiancé to bother?” She gave her a don’t-crowd-me look and hoped her sister would bow out gracefully.

  “You’re right, he said he’d meet me at home for lunch.” Sage tapped her head. “Next patient is Doc Parker. He’s got your one o’clock slot but if you need more time, I can push him back.” Sage gave Lydia a sly wink.

  “One is perfect.”

  Doc Parker groaned. “I don’t need you to look after me. I can diagnose myself.”

  Lydia walked ahead. “See you later, Doc. Don’t be late.” She looked over her shoulder to Wes. “You coming?”

  From May through October the diner stayed busy but Maisey always reserved a table or two for the locals. She sat them in the corner booth. Today she delivered two iced teas without asking. Lydia had to admit it felt nice to have someone know her well enough to guess.

  “How’s your day going?” Wes asked.

  “Oh you know, typical. One case of chicken pox that’s sure to spread through the entire town, a splinter the size of a log, common cold and obesity. How about yours?”

  He sipped his tea and stared at her. Never had a man looked at her the way he did. She’d been too tired to put makeup on this morning. Barely got her hair pulled back into a ponytail but he made her feel beautiful.

  “Typical, woke up to a hot-as-hell doctor. Went to work but got little accomplished because I keep thinking about that doctor.”

  “She’s that hot, huh?”

  “On fire.”

  Maisey delivered their blue-plate specials of fried chicken and mashed potatoes.

  “What are you doing tonight?” Lydia held her breath, hoping he’d say he was doing her. Lord knew her body was aching and sore, but it also knew Wes was temporary and that meant she had to get her fill while she could.

  “I thought I could fix you dinner and we could watch that movie you never got to finish.”

  “Not really in the mood for frozen pizza so how about I make dinner and we pick another movie? I’ve seen that one a million times so missing the end is no big deal.”

  “I’ve got skills beyond frozen pizza.”

  She licked her lips. “I know you do, but we can’t sustain ourselves on those skills.”

  “Speak for yourself. I’m sure I could live devouring you.”

  Lydia looked around the diner. “Someone will hear you.”

  “So what. You want to keep me a secret? Well, then, you’ll have to tattoo me to your ass.”

  “You’re never going to let it go, are you?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Fine, I’ll tell you while you’re baking our frozen pizza, but it’s not a great story, just an embarrassing one.”

  “No frozen pizza, and I can’t wait for the story.”

  They finished their lunch and Lydia added pie. When they left, Wes walked her to the back entrance of the pharmacy so he could kiss her. She entered the clinic with a canyon-wide smile.

  Doc was waiting for her in the examination room. Agatha sat on the chair in the corner.

  Lydia listened to his lungs and prayed they were healing. They discussed his oxygen levels and agreed to cut it back and see how he responded.

  Before they walked out, Agatha said, “My nephew is a good man.”

  Lydia wondered if her attraction to Wes was written on her face. “Seems to be. He’s a nice guy.” Best to keep it simple.

  “He’s a good catch.”

  Lydia walked Agatha to the door. “I’m not fishing.”

  “The best catch is when you throw out an empty hook and get a big one.” She wrapped her arm through Doc’s and led him back to the register.

  The afternoon was filled with rashes, diarrhea, and one broken bone. She was about to send the patient to Silver Springs for an X-ray when Sage opened a closet that wasn’t actually a closet but an X-ray machine. Maybe the clinic wasn’t archaic after all.

  At the close of business, Lydia drove home. It was odd to call a temporary place home, but it felt like it to her.

  When she opened the door, she braced herself for Sarge, who raced down the hallway and skidded to a halt at her feet.

  “Hey, boy. Did you miss me?” She ruffled her hand across his fur and followed the smell of barbecue to the kitchen. The room was vacant so she followed her nose to the back door and found Wes standing in front of a barbecue by the pergola.

  Lydia opened the door and Sarge raced out.

  Wes sidestepped the fur ball. “Welcome home.” He pointed his beer toward a small cooler at his feet. “You want one?”

  “Let me change, and I’ll be right there.” She raced inside and put on jeans and a T-shirt. It was May, which meant when the sun went down so did the temperature. It wasn’t unusual for the nights to hit near freezing. When she returned to the backyard, he was sitting in the pergola. He’d set up a table with candles and flowers.

  “Is this a date or are you trying to get lucky?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s a date and I hope I get lucky. Now tell me about that tattoo.”

  Cha
pter Twenty

  Wes handed Lydia an open beer and rose to check on the steaks. He’d run to Copper Creek to check on permits and stopped by the store to pick up a few necessities like beer, coffee and condoms. Somehow two T-bones had ended up in his cart along with corn on the cob and potatoes.

  He loved that Lydia had a big appetite. There’d be no going out and throwing half of her food away. Hell, she’d probably clean her plate and eat half of his before she moved on to dessert.

  “How do you like your steak?”

  “Make sure it doesn’t moo when I cut into it. I like it medium to medium well.”

  “You got it.” He flipped the meat and came back to the table.

  Lydia played with the flowers he put in the center. “Where did you learn how to barbecue?”

  If she thought she was getting out of telling him her story by deflecting, she was wrong. “The Bishops barbecue on the beach all the time. Hell, even in a snowstorm. Katie told me how to prep the corn by buttering it, adding salt and pepper and a few basil leaves, then wrapping it in foil.” He got up and took the seat next to hers. “Where’d you get your tattoo?”

  She cracked her neck the way a boxer would before a fight. Wes looked at her hands to make sure they weren’t fisted. She was peeling the label off her beer.

  “I’m a sure thing whether or not you get it off in one piece. Now tell me.”

  “You’re relentless.”

  “Some would call that an attribute.”

  “Or annoying. But fine, you want a story. I’ll tell you a story. My first year of residency I worked with a nurse, and I kid you not, her name was Sally Slaughter.” She laughed. “Yep, you heard me right, Nurse Slaughter. She was somewhere between fifty and dead. One foot planted in the ER while the other looked for an ass to kick. She was one mean, crotchety old lady.”

  “So you liked her.”

  “More than I like you right now.” She got the label off and handed it to him like it was a gift certificate she intended to redeem. “I decided early on that it was my mission to change her from foe to a friend.”

  “Continue.” He rose and checked the steaks and turned the corn. The potatoes he’d microwaved earlier and kept warm at the back of the grill.

  “She hated me. I don’t know if it was because I was sleeping with the boss or what, but she rode my ass the entire first year.” Lydia drank her beer and sat forward. A sparkle of mischief danced across her eyes. “I called her the SS because she ran the ER like a Nazi, and those were her initials. She was the first to call me Satan because she said my presence made her job feel like hell.”

  “Okay so you had a pissing fight with her. And?”

  “I’m getting there. Don’t rush me.”

  He plated the steaks, which might have been a mistake because if Lydia was eating she wasn’t talking.

  The sun began to set so Wes plugged in the lights that twinkled around the pergola. To see the amazement and appreciation in Lydia’s eyes was worth the hour spent hanging them.

  “These weren’t here yesterday. Did you hang them for our date?”

  “I did.”

  “Why are you treating me so well?”

  He walked to her and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Because someone needs to show you how you should be treated. Set the bar high, Lydia, and settle for nothing less.” He took his seat and watched her soak in his words.

  “I am. That’s why I want to work in a big hospital. What does working here say about me?”

  He wanted to beat his head against the beam at his back. That was not the message he tried to convey. Sure, he wanted her to be happy with her work. If that meant long hours and little appreciation, he’d support her decision, but he recognized himself in her. The light in her eyes died when the subject of where she’d work came up. It returned when she talked about the work. The problem was Lydia didn’t know herself well enough to see it was the work that mattered, not the location.

  “Working here says you’re a good sister and a good friend. The lives you save here are no less important than the lives you’d save at a big hospital. But that’s not what I’m getting at. While you’re here, I want you to know what it feels like to matter to a man. You matter to me.”

  She swallowed hard twice and looked the other way. “Back to my story.”

  It was obvious Lydia didn’t deal with emotions well. Wes imagined losing her parents at sixteen was a factor. There was so much he wanted to know about her, but he didn’t want to push. “Yes, finish your story.”

  “SS never smiled. So I made a bet with a fellow intern named Taya. If I got Sally to smile by the end of our first year, then Taya had to get a tattoo of my choosing.”

  “I see where this is going. What would you have put on Taya’s ass?”

  “A skull and crossbones so she would never forget Sally Slaughter, but I lost and so Taya insisted I put the smile I could never get from Sally on my right cheek.”

  “What shocks me is you did it.”

  “I’m a woman of my word.” She took a bite of her steak and hummed. “You want to hear the worst part of the story?”

  “Worse than having a permanent emoji on your ass?”

  “Turns out Nurse Slaughter was in on the ruse. She made sure to never crack a smile while I was around. She said every time I looked in the mirror and saw that tattoo I could imagine her laughing at my stubborn ass. After I found out, I dropped my pants in front of her and told her to kiss my happy ass. From that point forward, I had a passion for all things smiley. And guess what?”

  “I can’t imagine.”

  “Nurse Slaughter never stopped smiling at me from that point forward. It was more of a laugh than anything else. By the end of my third year, she’d become a friend. Since I’d set out with that goal in mind, I came out a winner and got a free tattoo.”

  “Personally, I love that tattoo. It makes me feel lucky to know you’re smiling when you arrive and you’re smiling when you leave.”

  “What about you? What’s the silliest thing you ever did?”

  It didn’t take him long to answer. “Marry Courtney.”

  “I said silly, not stupid.”

  While Lydia emptied her plate, he thought about silliness. It wasn’t allowed in his family. “I guess I don’t do silly. In my family it was never allowed. I was a Covington. Covingtons were taken seriously.” He lowered his voice to mimic his father’s.

  “Nothing silly? You never even TP’d a house?”

  He shook his head. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but no.”

  “Eat up, mister, we’ve got mischief to make.”

  After the dishes were done, Lydia gathered every roll of toilet paper in the house. She donned black clothes and convinced Wes to do the same. He couldn’t believe she’d talked him into vandalizing property.

  “How about Sheriff Cooper’s house?”

  “Are you crazy? If we get caught, we’ll end up in a cell.”

  She lifted onto her tiptoes and kissed him. “I’ve never had sex in a jail cell. If we get caught, I’ll rock your world.” She picked up the bag of toilet paper and walked toward the front door.

  Wes adjusted the bulge in his jeans. He was one sick bastard to get turned on by the thought of sex in a jail cell, but it wasn’t the cell that excited him. It was Lydia.

  They drove around town until last of the orange sunset dipped behind the peak and the cloak of night fell around them.

  “Are you sure this is his house,” she whispered. “He’s got flower pots and shit. Doesn’t come across as the guy who likes to garden.”

  “Coop has a real green thumb. You should see the vegetables he grows in his back yard. Maisey gets a lot of her produce from him for the diner.”

  “Hmm. I would have never thought he’d be a gardener.”

  Wes pulled to the end of Jasmine Road and killed the engine. “I say we sit here and make out like teenagers.”

  Lydia made a pfft sound and exited the truck. She pulled the hoodie over her blon
d hair and grabbed the bag of toilet paper from the back.

  Wes joined her.

  “Are you scared?” she teased. She placed her hand over his pounding heart. There was no doubt it beat faster and harder than normal. Part from the fear of getting caught, the other part from knowing Lydia was near. And although it was almost pitch black outside, he knew if he could see her eyes they’d be dancing with delight. While he fed his adrenaline junkie, she taught him to let go.

  “What do we do?”

  “Not get caught.” She hunched over and slipped through the night like a ninja. Being six-foot-two, hunching made Wes normal height. “When we get there, we’ll each take a roll and toss it over the branches of his big oak tree.” She rubbed her hands together like a mad scientist. “We’ve only got ten rolls so we have to make them count. Go for the lower branches so we have more visual impact.”

  “There’s an art to this?”

  She stopped at the vacant house next door. “Yes, if we didn’t like the sheriff, we’d aim for the highest branches. It would be a bigger hassle for him to clean up. If we hated him, we would have waited for the forecast of rain or egged his house. You’re just a beginner so we have to start small and work our way up.”

  “There are levels?”

  She stifled a laugh. “I have so much to teach you.”

  They quietly tossed rolls over the lower branches until the sheriff’s big oak resembled an over-tinseled tree. As soon as they finished, the front porch light turned on and Wes was certain they’d been caught. While he stood like a deer caught in the headlights. Lydia ran down the block.

  When he reached her, she jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Ever made love in public?” she asked. Her lips crashed against his. While he held her bottom, she grabbed the edge of his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. They stumbled to the truck and climbed into the back to make a bed from their discarded clothes.

  Lydia was trouble. Not only had she stolen his good sense but also his heart. How could he deny her when she asked for so little? In that moment, all she wanted was him.

  He made love to her under a million stars without a care in the world. And when they were satisfied and spent, he pulled her body over his and stared toward the cloudless sky.