Page 43 of Redeeming Harmony

“Bye, Nathan.” Harper made a weird little wave without meeting his gaze and escaped the kitchen.

“Warren?” Nathan said. “Tell me the truth. How bad is this going to be?”

“It’ll be okay,” Warren said. “There’ll be a bit of gossip, but it’ll blow over, son. King was an old horse, and the folks in town know that.”

He smiled reassuringly at Nathan, but the coffee still burned unpleasantly in Nathan’s stomach. Shit, he had a terrible feeling about this.

Chapter 11

“Here you go, cutie-pie.” Martha, a thin, silver-haired woman with a permanently stooped back, set Lucas’s plate on the table in front of him. “One pot pie with a garden side salad. I guess you’re so slim and trim because you eat so healthy, huh?”

Nathan doubted that the chicken pot pie from Nan’s Diner could be considered “healthy”, but he kept his mouth shut as Lucas grinned at the older woman. “You know, you get more and more gorgeous every day, Martha. Is that a new pair of earrings?”

Martha blushed like a schoolgirl and touched the gaudy blue earrings dangling precariously from her thin lobes. “As a matter of fact, they are. I picked them up at the Dollar Tree the other day. Do you like them?”

“I love them. They bring out the blue in your eyes,” Lucas said.

Martha’s face beamed, and she patted Lucas’s cheek with one arthritic hand. “You’re such a sweet boy, Lucas.”

“Not as sweet as you, ma’am,” Lucas said.

She giggled and then turned toward Nathan, the smile plummeting from her face. In a voice as cold as the winter wind blowing off Harmony Falls, she said, “Dr. Henshaw. Here’s your dinner.”

She dropped the plate in front of him, tipping his bun off his burger and sending a few fries bouncing across the table toward Lucas.

“Thank you, Martha,” he said.

“Ayuh.” She glanced at his burger and his fries before she looked him up and down. “You might take a page out of Lucas’s book and eat a salad now and then. Your skin is real ashy looking.”

She sniffed, gave him another look meant to put the fear of God in him, and turned back to Lucas. “I’ll grab you some more Coca-Cola, hon.”

“Thank you, Martha,” Lucas said with a grin.

“I could use a refill too, please, Martha,” Nathan called after her.

Her back turned to him, she waved her hand irritably in the air and kept walking.

Nathan sighed and stared at his plate of food as Lucas picked up a fry from the table between them and popped it into his mouth. “Sooo… how ya doin’?”

“How do you think?” Nathan said as he replaced the bun on his burger. He stared at it, the bubbling acid in his stomach not exactly an incentive to take a bite, no matter how good it smelled. “The whole town hates me.”

“Not the whole town,” Lucas said. “I’m sure there are some holiday grinches who think you’re okay.”

“Not helping,” Nathan said.

“Sorry, man. I know right now isn’t great, what with the entire town talking about how you killed their beloved Christmas horse, but I’m sure it’ll blow over in a few years.”

“Again… not helping.”

Lucas cut open his pot pie with his fork, letting some of the steam out before he said, “Okay, sorry, no more jokes. But seriously, it will blow over. Tammy will stop beaking off to anyone who will listen about how you murdered her poor, sweet horse, or some other scandal will hit the town, and this will fade out. You’re from a small town. You know that’s how it works.”

“Do you know how much business I’ve lost in the last four days?” Nathan said. “People are cancelling appointments left and right. I expected to lose some clients once I bought the clinic, but this… we had five open spots today, Lucas. Five! On a Saturday!”

“It’s just a blip,” Lucas said. “People will realize how stupid they’re being when they remember that King was on death’s door anyway, and their common sense will kick in. Once that happens, they’ll come crawling back.”

“Will they? Warren is worried,” Nathan said. “He says he’s not worried, but he’s worried. I can see it in his face. He’s had over a dozen people call him, demanding that he take back the clinic and fire me.”

Lucas snorted laughter. “Seriously? They honestly think that’s how it works?”

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