One Hundred Promises

by Kelly Collins

  The door opened behind him and in walked a beautiful brunette, who scanned the room like she was walking into a den of lions.

  She turned to Wes, “I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting. I’ll only be a moment.” She slapped a flash drive on the desk in front of him. “I thought you’d like to see this. Your father was fascinated. He said to come by the house tonight.”

  Craig gripped his wife’s wrist so hard her hand turned purple. Wes stood ready to intervene when she flipped Craig’s wrist and took control. She bent it back until he growled. If this was their foreplay, Wes didn’t want to witness the act.

  “I should be going. If you just sign the permit, we can get started. Aspen Cove needs a fire station.”

  Mrs. Caswell let go of his hand and gave Craig a forceful jab to the ribs. It wasn’t like the pinch from Lydia that eventually led to a kiss and then bed. This woman had something to prove or something to say. “Sign the form, Craig. Isn’t it time you stopped holding people hostage?” She pressed the pen into his hand and walked away.

  Craig Caswell did the unthinkable. He signed the permit, then shoved it across the desk.

  Wes didn’t wait for him to change his mind. He swiped the page into his hand and bolted from the office before Craig could change his mind. Wes made a promise to himself that if he ever ran into Mrs. Caswell again, he’d give her a hug.

  An hour later he was home with a pizza and a bottle of champagne—an odd combination for a celebration, but having the permits signed for the firehouse deserved something special. He found Lydia in front of her computer no doubt looking at employment sites.

  In his right hand he held the pizza box, in the left was a bottle of high-end bubbly.

  “Pizza and champagne.” She closed her computer and pushed it aside. While Wes uncorked the bottle, Lydia served the pizza. They took their plates to the pergola and watched the sun set while he told her about his day.

  “That’s awesome. Maybe after the fire station, the town will get a real medical clinic.”

  That comment interested Wes. “We have a clinic. What’s it missing?”

  “You want a list?”

  He leaned forward. “Yes, I do. What would make the clinic perfect for you?”

  She took a bite of the crust. While she chewed, Wes could see the gears in her brain working. Her head moved from side to side as if she were walking the space for real.

  “First, I’d separate the pharmacy from the clinic. You can’t really call a place that sells over-the-counter drugs a pharmacy and not laugh. I’d create a real waiting room with comfy chairs. There would definitely be more than one exam room. Having only one room is inefficient. There should be more than a closet dedicated to radiology.” She sipped her champagne.

  “There’s a radiology closet?”

  She nodded. “Shocking to me too. I thought we had to send all potential broken bones to Copper Creek but Doc has an X-ray machine. A decent one at that.” She picked a piece of pepperoni off her pizza.

  “So what is our clinic lacking?”

  Her jaw tensed then relaxed. Her eyes squinted then softened.

  “Nothing really. It has everything it needs, but it’s put together wrong. I mean there’s only a corner for infection control. He’s got a small autoclave for sterilizing instruments. That should really be in a contained space.”

  “So what you’re saying is Doc has everything a competent doctor needs. The problem for you is it’s not put together in a way that makes sense.”

  She gathered the empty plates and set them in the center of the table. “It’s not about what I like, it’s about efficiency.”

  “Having everything in one room doesn’t make it efficient?”

  “No, it makes it crowded. Who wants to trip over a patient to toss contaminated instruments into a holding bin?”

  “What you’re requesting is a remodel. It wouldn’t take building a new clinic to get what you want.”

  “It doesn’t matter anyway because what I’d want is irrelevant. It’s Doc Parker’s clinic.” She emptied her glass and stood. “Let’s plan who we’ll vandalize next.” She skipped all the way to the back door with Sarge following behind hoping for a chance at leftovers.

  When Wes entered the house, Lydia was at the kitchen table with a pencil and paper. At the top was the word hostage. He knew he was in trouble. Lydia was upping her prankster games.

  “I’m not kidnapping anyone.”

  She bumped his shoulder and leaned into him. “No silly, we’ll hold items hostage for ransom.” She jotted down her sister’s name first and next to it she wrote carved bear.

  “That’s got to be illegal.”

  “Yes, it’s stealing, but this is stealing for the greater good. For example, if we steal the welcome bear from the bed and breakfast and hold it hostage until let’s say Sage and Cannon sponsor the softball team, then lots of people win. People will figure out that losing something means someone else wins.”

  “So you want to do something bad to get something good?”

  “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

  “You’re diabolical. What else do people do to prank others?”

  “It’s limitless. You can toothpick or fork a yard. That’s where you stick thousands in the grass. I’ve filled cars full of foam peanuts.”

  “You’re mean.” He pushed the list away and pulled her into his lap.

  “I’ve got a streak, but you can also do pranks because you love someone. My college roommate opened our dorm room door once and found a curtain of Sour Patch Kids because they were her guilty pleasure. My favorite, and so romantic, is the story of the guy who covered his girlfriend’s car in Post-it Notes filled with all the reasons he loved her. It took five thousand notes to cover her Civic. That’s love.”

  “That’s crazy?”

  “That’s commitment,” she sighed.

  “Or requires commitment…to a loony bin. Five thousand Post-its?”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Lydia raced up the stairs with another hostage. She put the pink flamingos next to the garden gnome who shared space with the welcome bear. The spare room was full of items borrowed in exchange for silly demands like mowing an elderly neighbor’s yard. The adult and children’s softball teams had uniforms and Doc had sponsored mammograms at a clinic in Silver Springs.

  Over the past three weeks. Lydia and Wes had donned their dark clothes and snuck around in the black of the night. They exchanged a letter typed on pink stationary that stated demands for the return of the hostage.

  The talk around town was Bea Bennett’s ghost had come back to Aspen Cove. Lydia loved how they could perpetuate one woman’s gift into a symbol of caring for a small community whose motto was “Aspen Cove takes care of its own.”

  When Bea died, she’d gifted her estate on pink stationary. Not everyone got a gift. Most got a request to help a neighbor out. A few got life-changing presents. It was how Sage ended up in Aspen Cove. She’d cared for Bea during her final days and Bea gifted her the bed and breakfast telling her Aspen Cove needed someone like her. Katie got the bakery because of her connection to Bea’s daughter Brandy.

  No one cared anymore if their silly yard art was missing. It became a sense of pride to come out and find a pink envelope taped their door. It meant the resident had something to offer the community.

  “Our house is being taken over.” Wes walked in and wrapped his arms around her waist.

  She liked the way he referred to his home as theirs. They’d adapted to a routine of sorts. On the days she worked he cooked. The other weekdays she made dinner. Weekends were spent eating out, stealing from their neighbors, and making love.

  Wes took her rappelling on Mount Meeker. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest when she backed off the cliff. He seemed to get her as a person, and as a woman.

  Each day she opened her email praying that a job offer would be there yet hoping that one wouldn’t.

  On one hand she wanted to be wanted, to be sought as a val
uable team member. With Wes she felt she was needed. Like somehow, if she disappeared, his life would be less. She was torn between want and need.

  “Speaking of home,” Lydia said. “Katie called and told me my apartment was ready.”

  Wes put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. His lips stretched into a thin line before he spoke.

  “Do you want to move back to the apartment above the bakery?”

  No! “I don’t want to be a burden to you or overstay my welcome.” She looked down at the dog, who leaned into her side as if not touching her would kill him. “If I stay much longer, Sarge will no longer be yours.”

  Wes laced his fingers through hers and led her to their bedroom. Little by little her stuff had moved from the room next door to his. Their clothes intermingled in the closet. Their socks shared a drawer.

  He lay on the bed and pulled her to his side to face him. “Let’s clear a few things up. You’re not a burden. I didn’t know what to expect that first day because, well…we didn’t get off to a great start, but honestly, it’s been great. Spending every night curled up next to your body is amazing.” He tapped her nose with his finger. “If you want to move back to the apartment I’ll support that. Don’t get that confused with liking it.”

  She tilted her head. “I’d rather stay here.”

  “I want you here. You belong with me.”

  Lydia’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t say she belonged to him, but it was close and she liked it. It wasn’t like she was going anywhere else. Her options were still limited, but what she had was pretty damn good.

  “Thank you.” She pressed her lips to his for a soft kiss.

  Sarge walked into the room and crawled into his dog bed. While he could sleep with Lydia in her bed, there wasn’t enough room for the three of them in Wes’s, so he was banished to a dog bed in the corner. He showed his discontentment with a loud huff.

  “You’re wrong if you think he belongs to me. He became yours the day you let him in your bed.”

  Lydia snuggled into Wes’s side. “I became yours the day you let me into yours.”

  “Watch out, Lydia, you’re sounding like you may stay.”

  “Watch out, Wes, I might.”

  When Lydia arrived at the clinic, she expected to see Ray in the first chair. He’d been her Monday morning patient since she started but he wasn’t there.

  Sage’s face looked grim, which could only mean two things. She hadn’t had enough coffee or something was wrong. Since she had her “Nurses do it all night” coffee mug in hand, Lydia knew something serious had occurred.

  They entered the exam room alone and shut the door.

  “What’s up?”

  Sage leaned against the counter nearly knocking the liquid sterilizer container to the ground. “It’s Ray.”

  “I’m not doing a house call.” Last Sunday night Lydia answered the door to find Ray there stating he had an emergency. She rushed for her first aid kit only to find his emergency was 60 Minutes was on and his cable was out. He sat there for the whole hour watching Wes’s television eating Jiffy Pop and drinking root beer.

  “You won’t need to. He died last night.”

  Lydia stumbled back. “How?” Be a doctor long enough and lots of patients will die, but Lydia had only been in Aspen Cove for a month and one of her regulars was already gone.

  The door opened and Doc Parker slipped in. “Has Sage told you about Ray?”

  Lydia was speechless. This was her fault. He’d shown all the signs of heart failure—exhaustion, shortness of breath and chest pain.

  Doc moved to the corner chair and took a seat. “It’s not your fault.”

  Lydia hopped onto the exam table for support. “But I knew he was struggling.”

  “Did you tell him to lose weight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you tell him to exercise?”

  “Well, I told him to walk around the park. I was worried about anything more strenuous.”

  “Did you tell him to get an EKG in Copper Creek?”

  “Yes, I even made the appointments and called to remind him. I offered to drive him.”

  Doc stood and came over to Lydia. He turned to Sage. “Hand me a stethoscope.”

  Sage grabbed one for the Doc. He rubbed the metal end against his palm.

  She leaned back. “What are you doing?”

  “Proving something.” He placed the ear tips in her ears and set the drum against her chest. She heard the thump, thump, thump of her heart. “Hear that?”

  She nodded and pulled the ear tips from her ears.

  “That’s the sound of compassion. I see it in everything you do. You have a big heart and it’s bound to hurt when you lose a patient.” He tapped against his chest and coughed. “I’ve told him a hundred times to lose weight, to give up bacon, whiskey and cigarettes. You know what he said?”

  “If you take all the good things away, I might as well die,” Sage and Lydia said together.

  “And he did.”

  “Was he alone?” Lydia wasn’t certain of Ray’s home life, but she imagined he lived alone.

  Doc chuckled, then masked his smile. “He was at Buttercups. Poor Betty sent him on his way with a smile. I’d say if you have to go…he went well.”

  Sage gasped. “That poor woman.” She covered her mouth.

  Lydia wasn’t certain if her sister was laughing or appalled.

  Doc shook his head. “Word has it she’s unhappy she didn’t get her tip.”

  “Oh Lord.” Lydia hopped off the table. “I’m sorry you’ve lost a patient, Doc Parker. It hurts my heart because Ray was a good guy. Seems to me there are worse sins than bacon, booze, and babes.”

  Doc walked to the door. “The babes will do it to you every time.” He turned to look at the sisters. “It was hard for me to let the clinic go but you girls run a tight ship. Hell, we’re so busy I’m going to open another day to keep up with demand. Hope you’re not going anywhere, Lydia. At my best I can do two days a week. No way I’d be able to work full time.”

  Lydia rolled her eyes. “What’s wrong with this town? Three days doesn’t make a full-time job.”

  “Tell me that when you get to your seventies. Stick around, you’re needed here.”

  “It’s not like anyone else is knocking down my door to hire me.”

  “Idiots,” Doc said as he walked away.

  Lydia turned to her sister. “Who’s first?” While she would have liked to take time to mourn the loss of Ray, a peek into the waiting hallway showed the chairs full. All women.

  By the end of the day, Lydia had seen more vaginas than most men. Turns out the women of Aspen Cove had put off their annual female exams because Doc was like a father and no one wanted to show their goodies to their dad. Aspen Cove needed her. Not because she was a good doctor but because she was a woman doctor.

  At closing she packed up her things and walked to the front, where Agatha held a stack of cheesy casseroles.

  “Please tell me one of these is tamale pie.” Lydia didn’t know who brought the tamale pie but it was her favorite.

  “It’s on top.” She followed Lydia to the door. “How are you and Wes?”

  “We’re good. He’s a good man.” It was funny for Lydia to consider her and Wes a thing. It didn’t start out that way, but she couldn’t imagine them not together. He’d become a necessity in her life.

  “Yes, he is. I’d say he’s more Guild than Covington. The Guilds always put people first while the Covingtons…well let’s just say Wes’s father isn’t a Guild.”

  “So glad he took after his Aunt Agatha.”

  “Are you sure you’re not a Guild?” the older woman said.

  “Nope, I’m a Nichols through and through, but I imagine you and I aren’t that different.”

  “I’m smarter by about forty years.” She patted her shoulder as she pushed her out the door. “We’re also humble.” Agatha’s laughter halted as soon as the door closed.

  Lydia
walked to her car and thought about her parents. She was raised to value people more than money, possessions or power. A lump lodged in her throat. Somewhere along the way she’d forgotten who she was. When had she decided she needed a title more than she needed love? When did the value of working in a big hospital outweigh the value of working in a community? Aspen Cove needed her, and if she was honest with herself, she needed Aspen Cove.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Despite only a few hours of sleep, Lydia looked stunning in her little black dress and heels.

  “You ready?” They were off to attend Ray’s funeral.

  After an hour of deliberation last night, they gave Ray credit for the hostage taking not because they were placing false blame but because the act was the talk of the town. People loved the idea of doing something bad for good. Lydia wanted people talking about Ray for his good nature as opposed to the way he died.

  As a man, Wes argued that dying with a pair of breasts in his face wouldn’t be a bad way to go.

  Lydia won out, which meant they snuck all the hostages to the cemetery. In Aspen Cove, everyone turned out for weddings, funerals and park openings.

  He helped her into the truck and gave her a kiss. “You okay?”

  “Yes, I feel bad I couldn’t do more to save him.”

  Wes shut the door and rounded the truck. When he climbed inside, he turned to Lydia. “When I told you that Doc’s daughter blamed him for not saving her mother, you said you can’t save everyone. Are you exempt from that equation?”

  She buckled up and stared out the window. “No, but knowing doesn’t make the loss easier. He was a nice enough man.”

  When they arrived at the cemetery, at least two dozen residents hugging their lost treasures greeted them. Hearing several people mention it was nice to know Ray had such a big heart confirmed that their decision to give him star status was a good one.

  As with any get together in the small town, when the funeral was over, they headed to the bar, where the Bishops donated beer and the town folk brought the food.