“Though we do enjoy a good bundt cake!” His husband followed at a stroll, both hands thrust into his back pockets and a good-natured smile on his face.
I threw both hands in the air. “Are you kidding?” I demanded of Kev. “How many more people are hiding around here?” I lifted the throw pillow on the sofa and peered under the end table. “Anyone else come to kick a man when he’s down?”
“Funny you should ask, but Ava really wanted to come,” Dunn said as he and Tucker seated themselves on the couch opposite me. “She said to give you her love and tell you she’s there if you need a listening ear.”
Hmph. Way to take the wind out of a man’s sails. How could I be outraged at the nosiness of people when they went and said sweet things?
“And no one came to kick you,” Tucker said reasonably. “We came because we love you and we’re concerned that you’re hiding out here—”
“I am not—”
“During the rare moments when you’re not working overnights, then seeing patients for appointments, all while trying to fast-track a new portable cath lab program for the Rogers Family Foundation,” Grandfather added.
“We’re short-staffed since Cordelia—”
“And that by refusing to talk to anyone, you’re missing the truth of the situation, which is plain as day,” Kev interjected.
“I’m missing nothing! I simply choose not to talk about my personal—”
“’Cause some of us are just a leeeettle bit more foolish than others and need some extra prompting to see what’s right before our eyes.” Dunn winked, clearly remembering last spring when he’d been an absolute dumbass over Tucker and I’d set him right.
I deflated. “Look, I appreciate your concern. I do. But I promise you, this isn’t like the situation with you two.” I waved a hand between Dunn and Tucker. “You loved each other forever, and you just needed help seeing it. Riggs and I, we… Ugh. We had a thing. A brief, temporary thing.”
“An affair,” Tucker surmised.
“A liaison,” Grandfather corrected.
“A fling.” Kev nodded knowingly.
“He slayed your dragon.” Dunn wiggled his eyebrows. “He made your wild ox moan. He was shakin’ your bacon. He plowed your fallow field until—”
“Yes!” Tucker laid a hand on Dunn’s knee. “Yes, baby. It’s… it’s crystal clear now. Thank you.”
“The point is, I caught feels for the man. Okay? Fine. I admit it. I stupidly, ridiculously, improbably but very really caught feels for my bodyguard. I’m like… Whitney Houston but less pretty.” I leaned my head back on the sofa as tears threatened. “He’s just so… good, I couldn’t help it. He’s, like, genuine hero material. And I don’t mean his muscles or his gun. I mean… I mean, he was selfless and competent and kind.” Everything I never knew I wanted in a man. “When there was danger, he stepped in front of me. When he knew I was scared, he gave me his knife—our only weapon—just because he knew I’d feel better carrying it, even if I never planned to use it.” I sucked in a breath, remembering him saying those exact words when he’d come to ask me about the case, and my chest constricted. How had he gotten to know me so well? “When I needed to be talked down ’cause I was freaking out—”
“You were freaking out?” Kev asked skeptically. “For reals?”
“For very reals,” I said with a watery chuckle. “I couldn’t control anything that was happening after we were taken hostage, and I lost my mind a little bit. More than once. But Riggs talked me through it. He told me stupid stories. He teased me. He made me believe things would be okay.” I cleared my throat. “So my brain was like, ‘Oh, he cares about me. I’m special.’ But that’s like… like a patient giving you heart-eyes because you save their life, you know? It wasn’t romantic to him. It was a job. He was paid to keep me calm. And the feelings—I mean, the romantic feelings—were all coming from me. Which is pretty ironic since Tuck once told me I’m not the settling-down type.”
Tucker tilted his head to the side and peered at me curiously. “I never said that, Carter. I said I didn’t think you were the type to settle down in a place like Licking Thicket, which was where I knew I wanted to end up, since you were all about going out in the world and saving lives on a global scale.” He shrugged. “But clearly I was wrong, since you’re the most beloved doctor in Great Nuthatch, and that’s almost the same as the Thicket.”
“You’ve changed and matured,” Grandfather said. “I told you so the night of the gala. I can’t tell you the number of people who came up to me and told me how profoundly grateful they were to have you living here. You’ve made a difference in the lives of a lot of people, Carter.” He sniffed just a little and cleared his throat. “Your parents would be so proud.”