Page 3 of The Last One You Loved
I had to get my head on straight, put on my white jacket, and head to the ER—to the real dream I was mere months away from finalizing.
Once my residency was over, I’d be one-hundred-percent official. I’d not only be a doctor, but I’d also be able to call the shots. Goosebumps covered my arms. Ten-year-old me would hardly be able to believe it. That I’d actually escaped and made it happen.
“Get dressed. Your birthday breakfast awaits,” Sally said and basically pushed me out of the bed. I stumbled, barely catching myself on the dresser.
“Geez, if this is how you treat a friend on her birthday, I don’t want to see how you treat your enemies,” I teased.
She headed for the door. “If you’re not out in five minutes, I’m going to shove your pancakes—whipped cream and all—in your face. Dickwad Gregory is in charge today, so neither of us can afford to be late.”
My stomach knotted thinking of the head of the ER department. He was obnoxious, and egotistical, and thought everyone should swoon over his fifty-year-old, married self. Worse, some people did. Made me pukey even thinking about it.
“McK, I’m not kidding. Five minutes,” Sally said, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Okay, okay.”
I slipped into the bathroom, washed up, and pulled on my scrubs. As I fought to drag my messy hair into a high ponytail, the shadows under my hazel eyes caught my attention. They’d pretty much become a permanent feature since starting my residency and were almost as black as my heavy brows. My hand stalled as it hit me suddenly?I looked like Mama.
That scared me. My tired expression wasn’t from drugs and alcohol, but it was from running fast and furious for too many years.
“McK!” Sally hollered.
I shoved my phone, water bottle, and keys into a small backpack and hurried out of the room before coming to a complete stop, mouth dropping open.
The entire apartment was full of balloons and streamers.
I bit my cheek hard, tasting blood, and blinked rapidly to hold back the waterworks. Sally was all but dancing around me, excitement on her face from the pure joy of doing this for me.
I didn’t care about my birthday. But I thanked the universe for the day Sally had found me on the bench outside the hospital, in a rare fit of tears, and befriended me. It was almost as important as the day Maddox Hatley had found me cowering in a shed behind his uncle’s bar when I was eight.
Too bad I didn’t have Maddox anymore.
It made this, what I had with Sally, that much more important. So, I’d celebrate today because she wanted me to. Because she was literally the only soul left on this planet who would care if I disappeared tomorrow.
CHAPTERTWO
MADDOX
SLOW BURN
“It’s a song, it’s a face, it’s a time,
It’s a place in your life that belongs to her.
Sometimes a memory like that is a slow burn.”
Performed by Zac Brown Band
Written by Hayslip / Simonetti / Brown
I pulled back justin time, letting the fist barely graze my chin. The movement was enough to send my Stetson flying, landing amongst the straw where it was going to get trampled. It was the sight of my hat on the ground that pissed me off more than the fist or Willy Tate’s drunken, angry snarl as he lunged for me again.
I ducked the second shot and shoved my shoulder into his gut, taking him down to the ground with me. The music had stopped, the customers in the bar quiet as they watched two burly men wrestle. Several chairs were tipped over, tables were bumped, and drinks were spilled as we rolled around. It took me one too many moves before I finally had him pinned facedown with his hands behind his back and my knee holding him in place.
“Damn it, Willy, you owe me a new hat!” I growled.
Clapping filled the air along with hoots and hollers that made my eyes roll.
“Thanks for the show!” someone in the back yelled as someone else shouted out, “Brings me back to my sheep-tying days!”
