Chapter 3
2089 Words
Three
Kingston
I try to get up but cringe when my brain feels like scrambled eggs in my skull.
Savannah pushes me back onto the pillow. “You can’t get up.”
“But—”
“I’ll go so someone else can come in.” Colton bolts from the room as if someone screamed fire.
“I think this is wonderful. She’s a doctor. Did you hear that?” Grandma Dori says.
I say nothing. I knew she was going to medical school. Following her on i********: allowed me to know things about her that aren’t my business. Nothing on her i********: feed alluded to her being back in Alaska though.
Then what Lou said earlier clicks. “f**k!”
“What?” Savannah puts her hand on my head like a mother. “Are you okay? Do I—”
“How popular of a name is Stella?”
“Last year it was in the top fifty. When we were looking for Brinley’s name I remember seeing it, so it’s not terribly uncommon.” Savannah throws out facts only she could remember months after having her daughter.
“How about Stella’s in Anchorage who frequent Tipsy Turvy? The bar most of the hospital staff, firefighters, and police officers go to?”
Juno steps away from the bed, pulling out her phone. “I should go too, let someone else come in.” Juno heads to the curtain just as Austin walks past.
He thumbs toward the door. “I swear I just saw—”
“Yep, it’s her,” Savannah says.
“She’s a doctor,” Grandma Dori says with pride.
Austin nods at Grandma Dori as if that isn’t important right now.
“Juno,” I say, stopping her before she can escape. “Last night you held a blind speed dating thing at Tipsy Turvy, right?”
Her mouth moves in a million different directions, as do her eyes, which never land on me. “I might have.”
Juno is a horrible liar, but she’s better than I thought because she’s not nearly surprised enough at seeing Stella. How long has she known she’s back? How long has she been keeping it from me?
“I’m not sure I understand. Why are we talking about the blind date thing? What does that have to do with Stella?” Grandma Dori asks.
My gaze meets Juno’s and she slowly nods, a tear slipping from her eye. “I wanted to tell you.” She steps toward the bed. “But she asked me not to and…”
I close my eyes, trying to control my anger over the fact that she kept Stella’s return from me for who knows how long. “Did she talk to someone after the event last night?”
Lou’s compliments about the woman he met last night all fit Stella. She is beautiful. She’s wicked smart, and she is a game-changer. The one you’d change your life for.
Juno nods. “I’m sorry, King.”
“Can I have a moment?” I ask everyone.
Juno doesn’t waste a minute, rushing from the room.
“Yes, you probably need your rest. You all go, and I’ll stay with him,” Grandma Dori says, grabbing my hand.
Before they can leave, the curtain draws open and Stella stands there. Her dark hair is in smooth and pulled back, and her face only has a light layer of makeup on—some red lipstick and maybe a little mascara from what I can tell. Her deep umber skin still radiates a glow of beauty like it did the day she first walked into my fourth grade class. The white coat with her name embroidered in blue thread looks perfect on her. I always knew she’d be successful, achieve her dreams. She’s always been out of my league, but she’s way out of my league now.
“Sorry. But…” She sanitizes her hands again and sits at the computer. After scanning her ID card, she types away. “What did they bring you in for? Are you burned?”
“They think he has a concussion. The last doctor said something about an MRI,” Grandma Dori says.
She purses her lips and reads the notes on the screen. “Probably not necessary. They don’t often show anything unless it’s severe which given your state is unlikely, but let’s do one to be safe.”
“Can we please not do this?” I say in a strangled whisper.
Stella turns away from the computer, swiveling in her chair to face me, her dark eyes holding a tinge of sadness and a lot of apprehension.
“Everyone give me a moment with Stella,” I say.
Savannah and Austin have some silent conversation as if they’re my parents. Which they kind of are in a weird sort of way.
“Come on, Grandma, Brinley was just about to say your name the other day. Maybe if she sees you, today will be the day,” Savannah says.
Grandma Dori’s eyes light up and I mouth a thank you to Savannah as she leaves the room. Her great-grandkids are about the only thing that could get Grandma Dori to leave us alone. Once the room is clear, I attempt to sit up straighter.
“You can’t do that. You have to relax,” Stella says, standing from her chair but stopping before coming all the way over to the bed.
“Can we not be doctor and patient right now?”
Her tongue slides out along her bottom lip. The same move that pulled me to her like a fly to a trap when we were younger. I can’t help but be reminded of the way she tasted when I kissed her all those years ago. “I should have told you I was back.”
“Yeah, you should have,” I say. “Why didn’t you?”
She lets out a huge breath. “You know how it is, Kingston. You would have pushed, and I wouldn’t have had the energy to push back. I’m not going to get between you and Owen again.”
“To hell with Owen,” I say. My friendship with him is complicated. We’ve never truly gotten back to where we were before teenage hormones took over and we fought over the girl we both fell in love with. The girl standing in front of me right now.
“Don’t say that. The only reason I’m back here is because of my mom.” She glances toward the door. “She’s sick.”
“Selene is sick? I just saw her.”
She smiles briefly, but then her lips press together. “It’s lupus. It’s an autoimmune—”
“I know what lupus is,” I say. “How long and how bad?”
“She was diagnosed two years ago, and it’s been okay so far. But I talked to her doctor and you know how she is… she only wants holistic medicine, so I’m trying to push her into taking this other drug that might help her more. Her being ill just reminded me that I couldn’t stay away forever.”
A part of me always knew when she returned, it would be because of her mom. It shouldn’t hurt that I’ve never been enough to keep her here, but it does.
“Then why not come to me and tell me?” I ask.
She dodges eye contact with me. It’s clear why she didn’t. I have no part in her future. I’m only part of her past.
“Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
“But—”
I shake my head, not ready to hear her say it. I can play this two ways. Do what I did to drive her away in the first place and never have her in my life or have her in my life in a different capacity. The way she was before I fell head over heels in love with her. “It’s fine. Honestly. But I’d like to at least be friends.”
“Friends?” Her tone is one of surprise and disgust mixed together.
“Yeah, remember that’s how we started off? I work at the fire department, so we’re going to see each other a lot. I don’t want it to be awkward.”
She nods a few times, her eyes meeting mine. “Are you sure?”
I chuckle although it’s fake. “Yeah, I’m positive. If you need any help with your mom, let me know. Or is it a secret?”
She shakes her head as though she wasn’t expecting this reaction from me. But she made her decision about us as soon as she snuck back into town. I wasn’t important enough to tell, and although it hurts, I can’t keep torturing myself. She obviously doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about her.
“You know how prideful she is,” Stella says.
I do. Selene is a tough-ass woman, and she raised her daughter to be just as tough. “Then I won’t say anything.”
The door nudges open and Allie pops her head in. She smiles at me first then looks at Stella. “Dr. Harrison, the patient in room five’s labs have returned and I need your authorization to contact the surgeon.”
“Thanks, Allie. I’ll be right there.”
“You hanging in there, Romeo?” Allie asks. “I’ll go check on your MRI. We told them stat.”
I wink. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
The door shuts and Stella’s head tilts, giving me a glimpse of one side of her long neck. The same neck I used to always wish I could put my lips on. “Romeo?”
“It’s a nickname at the station. I didn’t earn it the way you think I did.” Although I’m not going to tell her the details.
“Well, they sure like you around here. I heard all about you before I realized you were Romeo.”
I smile wide. The nurses flirt and a few have insinuated they’d like to do more than that, but I work with these people. I’m not going to ruin our working relationship just for some ass I can get somewhere else. “What do they say?”
“I’m not telling.” She smiles, and it lights up her face for the first time.
“I hope it’s positive?” I say.
“I’m sure you do.” Our eyes lock briefly, and her hands grip the railing at the bottom of my bed. My mouth opens to say something else, but she speaks before I can. “I should go and check on my other patients. I’m sure Allie is on top of your MRI, but I’ll be back.”
“Thanks,” I say.
She smiles softly and turns to leave.
“Stella?” I stop her before she can escape.
She glances over her shoulder at me.
“You look really good.”
“So do you, King.” She pushes the curtain back and slides out of my view.
My fingers grip the sheets on either side of my hips.
Friends. I must be delusional to offer that option. Look how that ended up the first time. The worst part is, she doesn’t even know that she’s talking to one of my good friends. The person who has been essentially my best friend since I joined the department. And I’m the jackass who didn’t tell her that dating the guy she met last night puts us right back to where we were when she left Lake Starlight eight years ago.
Austin walks through the curtain a couple of minutes later. My oldest brother is the one who tried to guide me through the tangled vines of Stella and Owen and mine’s friendship. He’s seen me at my worst, yet he never throws it in my face.
“So what’s going on?” He takes the chair to my left. “Did you talk to her?”
I nod. “We agreed to be friends.”
“Friends?” His voice sounds just like hers did.
“We were friends once.”
He runs his hand through his hair. “King, you were friends when you were adolescents, before puberty hit and feelings developed. She’s the girl you’ve always loved. How can you possibly just be friends with her?”
Obviously, Juno kept the fact that she knows Stella is talking to Lou to herself. “Last night at Tipsy Turvy, she met Lou and they exchanged numbers.”
Austin’s jaw drops, but he recovers before he thinks I’ve seen his reaction. “You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s all happening again?”
I nod, unable to really process that I lost her before I even knew she was back. Then again, she decided to keep her return a secret. She went to a blind dating event to meet someone new, knowing I was a short drive down the highway. I’ll be damned if I look like the lovesick puppy dog following after her with my tongue hanging out—again.
“No, it’s not happening again. Because I’m gonna move on with my life.” I grab my phone and click on i********:, unfollowing her with the tap of my thumb. “It’s time I move forward in my life without the name Stella Harrison haunting me.”
“What do you mean?” Austin leans back in the chair.
“I’m going to start looking ahead to my future.”
“I’m proud of you. It takes guts to do that.” He smiles, happy because he believes, like the rest of my family does, that I don’t care about the future or value my life all that much.
Maybe I’m just the last one to know that Stella Harrison and Kingston Bailey aren’t meant to walk away into the sunset and live happily ever after.
- Writer
