Page 9 of Spilling the Tea

Cate nearly knocked him out of the way when she reached them. “Miss, are you alright?”

“I felt lightheaded for a second.”

Cate nodded and said, “I’ll get you a glass of sweet tea.” And then she was gone, rushing into the kitchen.

Chance watched Dr. Pritchard and saw how she continued to look around the room as if in a daze. What in the world was wrong with her? He was about to ask when Cate reappeared with the glass of tea and handed it to her. The woman took a large sip, smiled up at Cate and then said in a soft voice, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Miss…” Cate gazed at Chance for a name. He shrugged and said, “She’s Dr. Pritchard.”

“Oh,” his housekeeper said. Turning back to Zoey, Cate said. “You’re welcome, Doctor Pritchard. That sweet tea should relieve the dizziness. I know it happens sometimes.”

Chance rolled his eyes as Cate left the room. Knowing Ms. Cate, she probably assumed the woman was a veterinarian. There was no other reason for a doctor to make house calls in the area. And she probably thought the woman had gotten dizzy because of him. Cate would often tease him and his male cousins and say that a Madaris man was known to make women swoon since the beginning of time.

Chance eased down in the chair across from her. He figured it would be rude at this point to let her know she didn’t haveany more minutes left. Due to what just happened, he would display some degree of empathy.

After she’d taken another sip of her tea and after giving her another few minutes to pull herself together, he felt she had been in his home long enough. “What was it that you wanted to explain, Doctor Pritchard?”

***

Zoey took another sip of her tea and studied the man who had yet to introduce himself. However, she did recall the lady who’d come into the room had called him Chancellor.

“That was kind of her to bring me a glass of sweet tea.”

He said nothing as he extended his long legs out before him without responding to what she’d said. When the silence stretched between them, she then said, “She called you Chancellor.”

“That’s my name.” He’d said the words through clenched teeth. It didn’t take much to get him testy, she thought.

She was about to give him a smart comeback and inquire if he didn’t have a last name as well when he said, “Doctor Pritchard, I don’t have the time to—”

“Zoey,” she interrupted. “Please call me Zoey, and I hope I can call you Chancellor.”

He didn’t say if she could or not. Instead, he said, “I am busy and don’t have much time. You were going to explain why you are here.”

Yes, she was. He had let her inside his home, and she’d almost fainted in the middle of the floor, so she owed him that much. Besides, she needed to be honest if she wanted to see more of the house and land. The moment she’d entered his home and looked around, she knew. She wasn’t sure how long he’d lived here, but he had retained some of the original furniture. She could see why. The oak furnishings added warmth to the huge living room.

Drawing in a deep breath, Zoey said, “It’s about this house. I might have spent a lot of time here growing up.”

“Don’t you know if you did?” he asked, frowning.

She shook her head. “I don’t. I have very little memory of my life before I was eight.” What she should have said was that she had no memory of it.

Now he appeared perplexed, so she quickly added, “I think I need to start from the beginning.”

She began telling him her story, starting with the accident that killed her parents, with her being the lone survivor and the loss of her memory. She watched his eyes go from disbelief to amazement and then to acceptance that she was telling the truth. She felt relief when she’d detected the latter.

“To this day, the doctors don’t know how I survived with so many broken bones.” She paused, remembering that time. At least her aunt Paulina had made sure she got the best medical care. She’d always been grateful for that.

“For almost a year after the accident, I couldn’t walk and I wore braces on both my legs until I was eleven.” She paused a minute and then added, “The physical therapy I endured to learn to walk again was painful.”

He nodded as if he understood. There was no way that he could. Someone who’d never experienced anything like it really couldn’t. That was the only part of her childhood she remembered. Specifically, what she’d gone through medically to have as much of a normal life as she could.

“Is that why you chose to become an orthopedic surgeon? To help others the way your doctors helped you?” he asked her. She’d noticed his tone had lost some of its frostiness.

“That’s part of the reason. The main reason was that both my parents had been orthopedic surgeons. They worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and I wanted to follow in their footsteps.”

“You remember them working there?”

Zoey shook her head. “No. I have no memory of my childhood before that accident.”

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