Page 96 of Rescuing Dr. Marian
Trace
You mean about him leaving?
I stared at the text, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Was there a family emergency?
Trace
Not that I know of.
Did he quit?
Trace
I think so.
Jesus fucking Christ.
Had Foster seriously left SERA in order to get away from me? He’d told me he loved me?—
Actually, no. He’d saidI’m in love with you, and I can’t fucking stand it.This had seemed incredibly romantic at the time. Now, combined with the last thing he’d said before walking away from me and my family—This is too much for me.—it felt like something else entirely.
My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly they hurt.
Howdarehe chicken out without even talking to me? Was he really that immature? I didn’t like to think so, but he was undeniably on his way to Majestic, and if it had been a previously planned thing, wouldn’t he have mentioned it?
I was pulling out of Billings before I knew it, and with each mile that passed, my anger grew more wild and feral, a volcanic eruption that could level entire cities.
I was fucking furious.
Furious enough to take Hwy 310 instead of 212 and head straight for the Wyoming border.
Like any sane person did when they wanted to commit murder.
Thankfully, it was hard to fall asleep at the wheel when you were contemplating violent death.
That motherfucker.
I thought about calling Foster, lighting him up with all of my thoughts and feelings as soon as humanly possible, but if I did that, I ran the risk of him shutting me down. Telling me not to bother coming.
I needed to see his gorgeous, awful face.
When I pulled into Majestic, I realized I recognized it from a day trip to a rodeo when I was a teenager. We’d been on our way to Yellowstone in a camper, and Mom and Dad had given in to Hazel’s insistence that we stop in Majestic to see a rodeo star named Avery Hart. Hazel had been in her mid-twenties, and Avery had been her semi-famous crush for a year already.
The two of them hadn’t actually met until two years later when the rodeo came to Legacy during another summer vacation, but now that I saw the fairgrounds on my way into town, memories flooded in. Majestic was charming. I could see why Foster took so much pride in his role as protector of this place.
Flower baskets hung from street lampposts along the main road through town. A cycle store, boutique clothing store, and ice cream and chocolate shop lined one side of the road while the other hosted a green park with a playground, flanked on either side by more businesses and restaurants. On one end of the street was a bright stone building with City Hall stamped into the polished stone above the large double doors.
I parked nearby, googled the sheriff’s office, and started walking. When I saw Foster’s SUV parked out front, my walk became a stomp.
Inside, the front desk was deserted, but I heard a man’svoice through the open doorway to the offices beyond, so I followed the sound.
“Who’s the guy you told your mom about?” the guy asked, a laugh in his voice. “Is he hot? Does he have anything to do with you acting like a complete jackass all fucking winter?”
My heart rate picked up as his words hit me.
“Because I’ve never seen you meaner and more pathetic than you were after your so-called hookup trip in Hawaii. Hell, I was on the verge of joining your mom’s matchmaking team just to see if I could get you laid. Silas and I placed bets on it.”
