Page 86 of Dr. Off Limits

The roaddown to the quayside was only wide enough for a single car and had no footpath. The village had been established a thousand years ago and wasn’t built for two SUVs coming in opposite directions. It was all part of the charm that kept the place feeling a world away from London. Being here was exactly what I needed.

“You know I’m not good at the whole talking thing,” Zach said, “but I’m not the worst listener.”

“Said who?” I asked. “I’m pretty sure you’d score pretty low as a listener if we surveyed the family.”

Zach half smiled, which was the equivalent of a roaring laugh from him. “Maybe.”

Despite wanting to be on my own, and despite me not wanting to talk about Sutton, I relayed what had happened between us. I started from Beau’s initial favor, to the pact to keep away from each other, to breaking that pact, to breaking up in an Ikea carpark.

“Why Ikea?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe because it’s easy to find?”

“I’m not sure it matters,” he said.

“I’m sure it doesn’t matter.”

When we arrived at the quayside, we turned left onto the coastal path, the opposite of the direction Sutton and I had gone. This way we were quicker to lose the people around us. Soon we were alone as far as the eye could see.

“So, now you’re just miserable,” Zach said.

“Thanks for reminding me.”

“Well if you’d forgotten already, I’m not sure why I’ve driven up from London.”

“Did you just make a joke, Zachary?” Zach was the most reserved of all of us. The most careful. The most considered. Perfect. He was uber-focused—the kid who just sat there taking everything in. Like the sober friend at a stag party who could relay all your worst decisions the morning after. He was infuriating but useful.

He didn’t respond. “So what’s the solution? You get back together and—”

“No, we can’t get back together. I’ve told you why not. It’s impossible.”

“Okay, so you spend the rest of your life miserable. You’ll get used to it.”

I groaned. “Thanks.”

“Maybe you’ll look back on your life and say to yourself that you had a shot with the woman you were meant to be with forever and you messed up. I suppose at least you had a couple of months, right?”

“You’re being annoying.”

“Well, is she the woman you’re supposed to be with?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said.

“It very definitely matters,” he replied. “We’re not talking about an Ikea carpark. If she’s the woman you’re meant to be with for the rest of your life, you don’t want to fuck it up.”

“How am I fucking things up? Even if I said I don’t care about the promotion, I don’t care about tainting the Cove legacy by sleeping around, I don’t care about establishing myself as a doctor in my own right rather than just my parents’ son, she doesn’t want to go public with me either.”

Zach stopped and shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head. “You really are an idiot.”

I stopped and patted him on the shoulder. “Great talk, mate. We should do this more often.”

I started walking again and he joined me.

“I can guarantee Beau doesn’t concern himself with the Cove name and legacy when he makes choices. He’s certainly not going to give a shit about establishing his own legacy.”

“So you’re saying our brother is going to destroy the Cove name whatever we do, so we might as well give up?” For the first time in days, I cracked a smile.

“What if you let go?”

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