Page 9 of Just For Her

“Aw, don’t tell me you’re hankering for Portland again!”

“Says the man who has never really been there.”

“That’s not true. I got to see the OHSU area quite a bit when I had my surgery.”

Chrissy felt the need to explain that to her friend. “Nothing serious, but he likes to make us think that it’s so serious.”

“What can I say? The doctor here had never seen a man with such clogged arteries that hadn’t knocked him down yet. Turns out he was looking at some other guy’s test results! I had to go all the way up to OHSU to find that out…”

“Nevertheless, we now take our health more seriously, don’t we, Hu-Hu?”

Hu-Hu?Kayla almost dropped her wine to hear such a pet name. Yet Huey was nothing but blushing grins to hear it.Maybe they are in love, after all…She didn’t question Huey’s love for Chrissy, because not everything had to be superficial, but Chrissy? As much as Kayla hated to admit it, she still attempted to understand what she might be signing up for in a future marriage as a gold digger.

Would she have to call someone like Thomas Fredriksson “Tom-Tom?”

“Anyway, who did you meet?” Huey attempted to crane his head, but he couldn’t see around the corner separating the bar from the main dining area. “I don’t claim to know everyone in town, but unlike my acquaintances who couldn’t make it tonight, I make an effort to get out and meet people.”

“Actually…” Kayla popped open her purse and provided the black card to Huey. His eyes instantly grew twice their usual size when he recognized the gold lettering. “I’ve been informed that I struck veritable gold my first full day in Bend. I met not one, butthreedifferent Fredrikssons yesterday.”

“So I see! Tove, huh?” He said her name with one syllable, rhyming with “strove.” Kayla did not correct him. She barely remembered that it was pronounced like “toe-vah.”

“You remember that guy who barely tapped her with his car?” Chrissy cut in. “Thomas. Fredriksson.” She caught the look on Kayla’s face and said, “I assumed it was fine to tell him…”

“Thomas! The wild child?”

Kayla nodded. “So I hear. He hit me with his car, took me to his cousin Tove’s, and the next thing I know I’m being looked over by Dr. Oskar to make sure I don’t need to go to the hospital. I told you it was a crazy day.”

“Doctor, huh?” Huey chuckled, handing back the card to Kayla. “I don’t know many of that family personally, but I hear plenty at the country club out in Frederik. It’s their club, you know. They let us outsiders play there to help pay for upkeep.”

“She’s got the gist, Hu.”

“Oskar, though… heusedto be a doctor, but he’s not anymore.”

“Oh?” Kayla asked.

Huey nodded. “Lost his license when he got somebody killed. Or something like that. Apparently, that was the worst that happened to him. Much like Thomas never went to jail even though he had two DUIs in a year and a rockier track record. You sure he wasn’t a bit…” Huey mimicked drinking his beer.

“He was sober.”

“That’s good. I’d hate to hear he’d fallen off the wagon with that divorce.”

Chrissy’s curly hair bobbed when she placed her elbows on the table and perched her bright pink nails beneath her chin. “Kayla says he was quite the charming gentleman. Didn’t he give you his card, too?”

“I’ve got a nice assortment of business cards already.”

“He’ll be very single soon,” Chrissy continued. “I mean, he’s technically single right now. The man also won’t be hurting for dates once he puts himself back on the market.”

That was directed at Kayla, who immediately took the hint. Yet it was Huey who spoke next. “The boy’s a mess, girls.” Was that a scoff undercutting his words? “I get that he’s young and handsome, but if you knew half the stories about him thatIhave…”

Although both women patiently waited for him to continue, Huey did not. Or, at least, not about Thomas, the problem child of the Fredriksson family.

“That Tove, though… if you’re looking for someone eligible in this town, phew, Lord knows that before I met my Chrissy I looked her way more than once!”

Chrissy gasped. “This is the first I’m hearing of it!”

“Trust me, Chris, I made a righteous fool of myself when introducing yours truly to her in this very bar when I first came to town. Turns out she doesn’t bat for my team.” He leaned in toward Kayla and whispered, “That means she’s a homo.”

While Kayla laughed, Chrissy rolled her eyes. “You can say that out loud now, you know. Or maybe don’t call her a homo. People are gay, Hu.”

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