Page 73 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
You need to find a way to remind Tommy what it is he really wants.
I thought back to our conversation in Hawaii, about how Tommy’s face lit up with excitement and passion when he spoke of his time practicing wilderness medicine in North Carolina. About the way he thrived here at SERA, teaching others how to help people in an emergency and improvise when needed.
Once I was on the road out of town with Chickie’s ears flapping in the wind on the seat beside me, my phone buzzed with a call from my mom. I clicked to accept.
“Hey, sorry I haven’t called you back,” I said before she could lecture me. “Things have been crazy around here.”
“I figured as much. Just wanted to hear your voice and make sure you’re alright up there.” Her warm, familiar voice washed over me. I felt my shoulders come down a little from around my ears.
“Yeah. All good. How’s it going in Majestic? Everyone okay?”
As my mom launched into her update on local gossip, I smiled to myself. Jo Blake was the social hub of our small town, and if there was news to be had, she had it. She told me about my good friends and their families, my sister’s latest achievement in her beginner pickleball classes, and the fact that the new dentist had possibly met his forever match in one of the visiting adventure racers.
“That could have been you,” she lamented. “If you’d just let me?—”
“I met someone,” I blurted, shocking myself possibly even more than my mother.
“You… what?” Her voice carried suspicion, and I could hardly blame her for it.
“Don’t get excited. It’s not a permanent thing. I just…” I blew out a breath. “I really like him, Mom. And I can’t have him.”
She was silent for a beat. It had been a long time since I’d confided my feelings for a guy to her, but there’d been a time when I’d told her everything. My dad had taken off when I was eleven, and she’d been a single mom ever since. For as busy as she was running the cafe, she’d always had time for me and Anna.
It was one of the reasons it had been my honor to stay close to home and look out for the two of them in return.
“Baby. Tell me everything. Is he one of your students?” She gasped. “Is it against the rules?”
“Not a student,” I said with a laugh. “He’s actually an instructor. And no. I don’t think Trace would have a problem with it since the woman I’m replacing married another instructor recently.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
I began to fill her in on Tommy’s move from New York to California, the fact that moving to Majestic wasn’t even an option for a doctor at his level, and the ultimate agreement we’d made to keep things limited to a summer fling.
It was unlike me to share this much with her, but after talking to Tilly, I was left feeling even worse than I’d felt before walking into Timber. Whether she’d intended to or not, Tilly had painted a picture of Tommy’s future, one that could potentially include me. If he decided to pursue wilderness medicine, he could find a job in Wyoming or Montana.
He could be closer to me.
“So what’s the problem?” Mom asked. “I still don’t get why you’re so convinced it won’t work.”
“Tommy’s spent his whole life being a good guy, doing what’s right. Trying to be perfect. He’s selfless and kind, generous and devoted. There’s no way he’s going to give up a chance to move back home to be near his parents and grandparents. And he’s not going to reject the opportunity of a lifetime if Stanford decides to give him an offer. Guys like him… they don’t say no to Stanford, Mom.”
Even if it might not make them happy.
“He sounds like a nice man,” she said carefully.
My throat was too thick to speak, so I nodded into the dark cab of the truck and made ammhmsound.
“Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?”
I shook my head, glad she couldn’t see me. “When am I ever not?” I asked, forcing a smile on my face in hopes she’d hear it.
“Wouldn’t hurt you to be a little selfish, you know. You don’t always have to be so strong.” She paused again, and just when I expected her to press, she changed the subject. “Tell me you heard about Hanson arresting the guy towing a hot tub?”
I was grateful for the opportunity to collect myself. “What? No. Why’d he bring him in? Must have been a good reason, but towing a hot tub itself isn’t illegal.”
“There were people in it at the time,” she said with a snicker. “And apparently, they’d been enjoying their party the whole way from Mammoth Hot Springs.”
I let the sound of her laughter and the remainder of her story carry me the rest of the way back to SERA, and for fifteen straight minutes, I wasn’t bombarded by thoughts of the golden boy who’d weaseled his way under my skin in such a short time.
