Page 6 of My eX-MAS Emergency

“You’re a terrible liar.”

Stella’s mouth opened in dispute, but nothing came out.

“When you’re ready to tell me the truth, I’m here for you.”

“Please, just be there for Quinn,” she begged.

I tilted my head. “Stella, Quinn needs you. I know you’re hurting too, but she’s your daughter. Do something fun with her today. Just the two of you.”

Stella shook her head. “I can’t. I need to meet with our lawyers to move everything into my name. At least Jonathon was good enough to leave us financially stable,” she snipped. “Besides, Tristan is taking Quinn for the day. I think they’re going horseback riding or something.”

Funny how Quinn failed to mention that. That gorgeous rascal was cooking something up. I could smell the trouble from miles away. “How nice,” I gritted through my teeth.

Stella narrowed her eyes at me. “Are you ever going to tell me why you two broke up?”

“No.” That information was going to stay between me and the nonexistent entity. Telling people would only imply that I cared about what he thought. And I didn’t. At least not anymore. Thirteen years ago, I very much cared, and it almost crushed me when he told me I was just a bad habit. Like I was an ugly drug addiction. No one had ever said anything so humiliating to me. Yes, I knew I could be a bit much for some people, and maybe I even went overboard at times trying to do the right thing. Or even to tick people off, like wearing an elf costume at a funeral. But I’d thought he loved me for who I was. I’d thought we were a forever kind of thing. Never had I been so wrong. That, more than anything, had floored me and had me keeping my mouth shut. He would never have that kind of power over me again.

“Maybe someday we’ll both tell each other the truth.” She snuggled back down into the blankets without another word.

I stood there, not knowing what to say. It was a rare day when I had no snappy comeback. Perhaps, though, I had no words because deep down, Stella and I both knew how vulnerable the truth could make a person. Right now, I had no time for vulnerability. I was about to face a town that was rooting for me to fail and prove to them I was just a trashy wild child from the wrong side of the lake. Just like they always thought I was. Worse, I was going to have to be in the presence of the man who almost, for a moment, made me think the town was right about me.

I had no time for vulnerability.

They were all going to see just how wrong they were.

CALISTA

I KNOCKED ON DEIDRA’S OFFICE door and waited. She wanted to talk to me before I started my shift, I assumed to wish me luck. She didn’t need to do that, considering she was the CMO and kept business hours. None of these seven in the morning to seven at night shifts. But I appreciated it all the same. Especially since I was nervous. Few things rattled me, but it was daunting to start a new job in a town where everyone was probably taking bets on how long I would last. Or on whether I’d actually graduated from med school. While I appeared to be a hear-me-roar kind of girl most of the time, I was still human. Even if I didn’t like to admit it.

“Come in,” Deidra called.

I opened the door to find her sitting prim and proper behind the modern glass desk in her pristine corner office. The wall of windows behind her provided a beautiful view of the courtyard. Well, when it was light outside, it did. Though she was close to sixty years old, you would never know except for her long curly gray hair. Her beautiful brown skin, a gift from her Pacific Islander father, had hardly a wrinkle in it.

“Good morning,” Deidra said, professionally.

I tilted my head, taken aback by her tone. As my godmother and my mom’s best friend dating back to their junior high school days, she usually spoke to me in a sweet, motherly fashion. “Good morning,” I responded warily. “Is everything okay?”

She pointed behind me. “Shut the door.”

That didn’t give me any warm, fuzzy feelings. But I did as she asked and leaned against the door. “What’s going on?” I inquired with some trepidation.

She pressed her lips together, formulating her response. “You know I love you like you were my own …”

Deidra could never have children. She’d married later in life, and she and Max had Great Danes they treated like children. The dogs even had their own room and beds.

“But?” I questioned.

“No buts; just a warning.”

My stomach twisted, knowing my reputation preceded me, but I’d thought she’d already properly warned me to be on my best behavior.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she pleaded.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re bracing yourself for me to hurt you. You know I would never.”

I knew that. Deidra was my mentor and second mother. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be a doctor. After the nonexistent entity tore out my heart, she was the person I ran to. She was the one who made me think about becoming a doctor. She’d said if I really wanted to help people for the rest of my life, I should consider medical school. It seemed like an impossible dream for a young woman with very little means and nothing to her name except for her dad’s old run-down truck and the tiny cottage I grew up in which had very little equity in it.

---