Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92899 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 464(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
The question seemed simple enough, but something in her tone suggested it wasn’t. I thought back to those hours at the accident scene, the controlled chaos of the rescue, the way Tommy had moved through it all with absolute certainty.
“I saw someone who was exactly where he belonged,” I said, making my point easily. “Someone who was made for that kind of work. Tommy was in his element. He threw his whole self into getting Hazel out of that car and making sure she didn’t…” I stopped before saying bleed out.
Tilly studied me for a moment and then shook her head, reaching into her shirt for my keys. “Maybe you’re right, Muscles. But if you are, then I must have gotten the story mixed up. Because the way I heard it…” She met my eyes with laser directness as she dropped the keys into my palm. “There wasn’t a damned emergency room within a hundred miles of him when he was supposedly ‘in his element.’”
I stared at her, both frustrated at not getting my point across and also feeling like she’d somehow judged and found me lacking.
She banged her fist on the bar to get Alex’s attention. “Barkeep, put it on my tab. Tilly out.”
She stopped to give Chickie a quick pat on the head, and then I watched her saunter away, arms swinging past her designer puffer vest with a shh-shh sound.
The woman was a force of nature. Her interference and meddling were enough to make my mother’s matchmaking look like child’s play by comparison.
I dropped enough cash on the bar to make up for all of our drinks before waving my thanks to Alex and heading out. Once in the truck, I couldn’t get Tilly’s words out of my head.
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.