“Uhhh.” Chad clearly had the wrong genitalia to be on the winning side of this conversation. He looked to Corinne for some help, but other than the faintest of twitching at the corners of her mouth, she said nothing.
“Finn.” The blonde’s tone was somewhere between placating and a warning.
“Not all men. Not all men, I know. Because look at Judd. That’s her ex,” Finn added, with a pointed look at Chad. “He doesn’t have any problem with commitment at all. Two years as a committed boyfriend to Mary Alice here. All the while he’s, what, twenty years committed best friend—” She made air quotes. “—to Miss Autumn Buchanan. But nothing going on there. Noooo. Nothing but getting freaking married six weeks after breaking up with you. The bastard.”
Six weeks? Talk about ouch.
Color stained Mary Alice’s fair cheeks. “Okay, Finn. Let the doctor do his job now.”
“You know what I don’t understand?” she continued. “Why you’re not mad. That’s not normal. You’re s’posed to be mad. I mean, they’re, like, everywhere around town, looking disgustingly happy. A constant reminder.”
A flicker of something moved over Mary Alice’s face. “I’m more sad than angry. Seeing them together is kind of a slap in the face. Like, that should have been me. But it was so obvious, once they finally admitted how they felt about each other, that it could never have been me. He was never mine the way he should have been. And yeah, that sucks, but I don’t see the sense in wasting time and energy being angry over the truth. It’s not going to turn him into the guy I deserved.”
Chad stared at her, feeling such an unexpected sense of kinship, he hardly knew what to do with it.
Finn scoffed. “You’re obnoxiously well-adjusted.”
Because Mary Alice looked excruciatingly uncomfortable, Chad stepped into the conversational breech. “Well, Ms. Watson, I’m not going to go ‘Not all men’ on you, but—”
“There’s always a but.”
“But, I had a breakup like that myself back in college. Same kind of deal. And yeah, it sucked to realize she couldn’t feel the same about me as I felt about her, but she’d tried for three years. In the end, I realized it would never have worked and was grateful she cut me loose. Although it would’ve been nice if she’d done it more than a couple months before the wedding.”
The patient shoved herself up straight, eyes peeling wide in that way women had with an object of pity. “Oh! Oh, that’s terrible. Isn’t that terrible, Mary Alice? And you’re so pretty.”
Chad choked a little. But the spotlight was off Mary Alice, so mission accomplished. She covered her mouth, no doubt to hide the smile he could still see in her pretty blue eyes. It was the sparkle that did it. He snapped his fingers and pointed at her. “Field trip.”
Mary Alice dropped her hand. “Sorry?”
“That’s where I’ve seen you before. You were here with your class on a field trip a month or so ago. Elementary school, right?”
“Third grade.”
“You’re a brave woman.”
“Afraid of kids?”
“Only when they run in packs. I can’t fathom managing that many of them at one time. Yours were really well behaved.”
“Bribery with a pizza party will take you far,” she intoned.
He grinned. “It’s a classic for a reason.”
A throat cleared at the door to the room. “Dr. Phillips, you have a probable broken leg in room two.”
“Thanks, Corinne.” He rose. “Duty calls. I should be back through to check on you before you leave, but I think it’s safe to say it’s the alcohol at this point. Once she’s done with those fluids, you’re free to go, but someone needs to stay with Finn tonight and watch for additional signs of concussion.”
“I’m taking her home with me.”
“We’ll get you a list of what to watch for. Anything else comes up, bring her back.”
Mary Alice saluted. “Yes, sir. Thanks, Dr. Phillips.”
“You’ve heard about my ex. I think you could call me Chad.”
Her lips curved in a smile. “Thanks, Chad.”
By the time he’d dealt with the leg—a spiral fracture that was gonna require a rod and pins, once the guy saw an orthopedist—the room where he’d left Mary Alice and Finn was empty.