h this woman. He walked back around to his desk and sat down. The last thing he wanted was to send the wrong message. He had a reputation to protect and comforting women in his office with the door closed, was possibly not the greatest idea. Even if it’s the woman who got away. “Right. Kori is fine. More than fine, really. It’s my medical opinion that she’s faking it.”
“And where did you get your degree?”
“Stanford.” He chanced a look at her. He continued with their plan, without her, and hated every single minute of it. Nothing had gone as planned. He changed his major three times before deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps. The plan was never for him to come back to Gray and take over the practice, but his father made him an enticing offer he couldn’t pass up. He agreed, the second Dr. Weatherly retired, and the third took over.
She grimaced. “She’s faking it?”
He wanted her to ask about California, ask if she took the train to San Francisco like they had planned, but he knew she never made it there. When he arrived, he sought her out, searched everywhere, bribed unsuspecting women in the administration office for her dorm room. He wanted to tell her, that he didn’t take the train, at least, not at first. It took him three years before he finally agreed and hated every minute of it because she wasn’t with him. “Yeah, she’s very healthy. Medically, there isn’t anything wrong with her, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have an upset stomach. Those are just common with life.”
“Okay.” She stood and opened the door. She turned and looked at him. “Thank you.”
She was gone in an instant, leaving Danny to tend to his other patients. As soon as he was done, he was back in his office and dialing a phone number, a number he never thought he would ever dial again.
“Hudson residence.”
“Hi Carolyn, this is Dr. Weatherly, may I speak with your mom, please?”
“Mom, Dr. Weatherly is on the phone.” Carolyn pronounced the th in his name as d. “Hello, Dr. Weatherly is everything okay?”
“Hey, Melody.” He called her by her first name, something he hasn’t done since they were in high school. When he and Kelly ended, so did his friendship with Melody and her then boyfriend, Chad. Like with any breakup, people took sides. Most everyone took his, except these two. When he returned, he kept his distance expect on a professional level.
“Danny.” Clipped was the only way to describe her tone. “What do you want?”
“Look, I know you don’t owe me any favors, but I’m going to ask anyway. Our reunion is coming up, I want you to make sure Kelly is there.”
“And why would I do this for you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, because you believe in second chances?”
“Danny Weatherly are you still in love with Kelly Taft?” She chuckled.
He didn’t want to admit it, but yeah, he was. “Redemption, Mel. I’m going to make sure everyone apologizes for what they did to her.”
“Are you going to apologize?”
“I’m going to grovel.”
She sighed. “It’s a long shot, but I’ll try. Answer me this, Danny, are you going to hurt her?”
“Not in a million years. I’m going to win her back.” He hung up, leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up. He had no idea how he was going to do it or if he even stood a chance, but he was going to find a way to make Taffy fall in love with him again.
9
Kelly
Kelly sat on her terrace, watching the ocean. The view alone made the purchase of the Java Hut worth it even though she was second-guessing everything. Breaking down in front of Danny was not her idea of a good time, and only added more fuel to the humiliation she felt when he was around. She couldn’t wait for this day to be over, however she wasn’t exactly looking forward to tomorrow either. Her therapist in New York had always says, “tomorrow’s are yesterday’s memories,” and while she wanted to embrace this thought fully, the memories from today were going to stay with her.
She wasn’t prepared to see Danny today, nor was she prepared for him to tell her he went to Stanford. She should’ve known he’d stay on the path they had laid out, but part of her thought he’d change his mind. They were young, fell in love too fast, and thought they could conquer the world together. They only thing they conquered was heartache.
She perked up when she saw Melody’s car pull in across the street. It was somewhat foolish of her to think Mel would be at her beck and call. They were, however, best friends and when she needed Melody, she was there.
Melody waved what looked like a bottle of wine, in the air and yelled for Kelly to open her door. With a smile, she went back into the house, checked on a resting Kori and made her way to through the kitchen to make sure the door was open for her friend.
“Chicken soup for Kori,” she said as she walked in. “Wine for us.”
“How’d you know Kori didn’t feel well?”
Melody deadpanned. She looked at her friend with wide eyes and cocked her head. “He called you?” Kelly blurted out. “Isn’t there some patient/doctor privilege or something?”