Chapter 9

Alex

It was almost more than I could bear to be apart from her, knowing how close she was to me. We didn’t talk after that night at the bar and as much as I knew that what happened needed to happen—that motherfucker Billy had needed a good beating for as long as I had known him and I was glad I had done it—I had some regrets because the woman I wanted more than anything else in the world now wouldn’t have anything to do with me.

No one else had seen a problem with what had happened in the bar. No one called the cops and Billy never pressed charges, probably because he knew who I was related to and figured that we had some kind of arrangement with law enforcement. It wasn’t true as far as I knew, although some people probably held my father’s name in higher regard than others around town. So there had been no legal ramifications, but losing Maddy was the worst.

Months had passed. We saw each other when we had to and were civil, but neither of us ever brought up the night at my house. The conversation at the lake might as well have never happened. No matter what I wanted to come out of this, it was all gone now. Any future I thought we had together was toast because of my actions that night at the bar, and her reluctance to get into a relationship with someone she thought didn’t have all of their shit one hundred percent together.

Never mind the house I had built or the life I had. Things were going well for me, but all that Maddy could see was the surface. But something about it didn’t make sense to me. There had to be something else going on, and I was bound and determined to find out.

I waited until one afternoon when I knew that Maddy was scheduled to be at our ranch for a few hours and then I went into town to find Lorna at the clinic. She was busy working on some files when I entered the office.

“What are you doing here?” She asked crossly. I could tell she was still a little upset and I didn’t blame her for that.

“I need to talk to you about some things. But first is Billy like that at home?”

Lorna frowned. “It doesn’t matter. We broke up. He didn’t want to have anything to do with me since I’m best friends with the girlfriend of an asshole.”

“Did you tell him that your best friend and the asshole aren’t together anymore?”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. He moved on.”

I kept my thoughts to myself but knew that Lorna was better without the guy. He was nothing but trouble, the same as he had been when we were in school together, and she would thank herself down the road when she had been away from him longer.

“Why are you here, Alex?” Her tone was short.

“I am here to ask you why Maddy is really back in town.”

Lorna looked down at the paperwork in front of her. “You know why. Doc Halloran was leaving the practice and looking for someone to take over. She heard about it and jumped at the chance to have it.”

I shook my head, not believing her. “You know that’s not true. We both know who she is. She didn’t want to stick around here. She left here, and she had plans to do something else. I understand that becoming a vet was all about helping her father, but I want you to tell me what’s going on with the old man because I know that’s part of it. Tell me what it is.”

Lorna looked up to face me and chewed on her lip before finally speaking.

“She’ll skin me alive if she finds out I told you. You are literally the last person she wants to know this.”

“Lorna,” I pleaded. “I’m not trying to do anything malicious with this information. If anything I want to help her and I don’t know how to do that if I can’t figure out what is going on behind the scenes here. Tell me what it is, and maybe I can do something to help her. She’s your friend, and she’s mine too. I know I’ve wished that it was more, but I’m basically settled into the reality that it isn’t ever going to happen between us. If there is something I can do to fix the situation she’s in though—somehow make things easier for her…I want to do it. Help me help Maddy. Please.”

Maddy’s best friend was hesitant, but eventually, she decided it was worth it to tell me.

“It’s her dad. He’s sick.”

“How sick?” I asked.

“He’s sick like…there’s nothing they can really do for him. It’s not like they have given him an expected amount of time he has left. But basically, they’ve told him he has to take it easy. Nothing crazy going on. It’s his heart. It’s done. There was too much damage from several heart attacks, and now they are waiting for another one. The doctors have told him that one will come eventually and that will be the one that kills him.”

I stood there, not exactly in shock, but absorbing the information. Her father was an older man, and it wasn’t a surprise that he had heart trouble. The fact that he was essentially sitting in his house waiting to die though. That was too much.

“And Maddy is back here to be close to him and help him out financially, correct?”

Lorna nodded. “That was the idea. She didn’t know how long she would stick around, but she wanted something solid and secure enough so that she could stay as long as her father is here and needs her. Lucy is busy and really couldn’t be the one to step up to the plate. So Maddy is here, doing the sort of thing that Maddy does—taking care of everyone else before she considers herself. Alex, she’s not thinking about her happiness. It’s her father she’s putting first. I think…” she stopped speaking and shook her head. “Seriously, she will kill me if she knows I said this to you, but I think she loves you. I don’t think it ever stopped. I think the circumstances brought things to a halt. Now she thinks if she brings you back into her life that you are going to turn it upside down and cause problems when all she is trying to do is make her father comfortable in his last days.”

I took a deep breath and thanked Lorna before I left the clinic, stepping out into the early spring sunshine. I knew what I had to do.