Chapter Twenty-Three
KELLY MADE ANNIE chicken soup from their grandmother’s recipe. They bundled up on Kelly’s couch with their bowls, surrounded by pillows and blankets as if in a nest, and watched Bridget Jones’s Baby.
The one-bedroom condo was a showplace. Kelly’s house had had to be sold to pay for the divorce, the leftovers split with Ricky, her cheating-ass ex. Kelly had rallied by buying this condo, doing a full renovation almost all by herself, and making it so resplendent, home magazines should be standing in line to feature the place.
Serene, pale-taupe shades dominated the color scheme, accented by lots of French linen, bouquets of live lavender, and on the walls, black-and-white art photos of Paris, London, and Budapest.
Annie sank into the calm, sophisticated energy of the place as the TV flashed image after image of the delectable Darcy.
They’d both seen the movie before, so they talked about Cole over Hollywood dialogue.
“You’re falling in love with him?” Kelly wanted confirmation.
“We can’t have a relationship.”
“Is he married?”
“No. He is a patient.”
“And there is no way around that? You said he was quitting.”
Annie sagged against the back of the couch. “I don’t know. We only had an intro session. But I’m at Hope Hill as a therapist, and he was there as a patient. I crossed the line already. It’s a huge breach of ethics.”
She wanted to turn back time. “I should have stopped him right when he first kissed me.”
“Exactly.” Kelly jumped to her defense. “It’s all his fault. He started it. Want me to make a house collapse on top of him?”
“I can’t believe you’re talking to me about collapsing houses.”
“Too soon?”
Annie groaned.
Kelly finished her soup and put the empty bowl on the side table. “If you want to hate him, then I’ll hate him too. Want to talk trash about him? Who needs giant muscles anyway, right? Or a chest that wide. You’d probably spend the rest of your life trying to find him shirts that fit. Nobody needs that kind of grief.”
She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, her face tilted toward Annie. “And, seriously, if his thing is as big as the rest of him . . . wouldn’t that hurt? Would you really want to limp around day after day?”
Annie squeezed her eyes shut, but she couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in her throat. “Stop. Too much. Could we please not talk about his penis?”
“Have you seen it?”
“Kelly!”
“What? I’ve been divorced for ten months. Ten. Months. Throw the poor divorced woman a bone. Pun intended.”
Annie had to set her soup down so she wouldn’t spill it as her body shook. “Get your own boyfriend.”
“It could happen.” Kelly’s tone turned sly.
“Who?”
“David Durenne. The producer from the TV station. I think he likes me.”
Annie snorted. “You think? He carried you out of my collapsing house in his arms.”
“I thought we weren’t talking about collapsing houses.”
“My bad. What’s happening with David?”
“He keeps sending me clients.”
Annie said, “He came over to the house to help a couple of times after the incident that shall not be named.”
“Maybe he thinks of us as charity cases? Helpless spinsters?”
“Or maybe he’s a nice guy. The whole time he was at my place, he kept asking about you.”
Kelly’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
“He has a son. Tyler.”
“I know. He told me over lunch the other day.”
“You had a date?”
“Ran into him at the diner. He came over and asked if I minded if he sat with me.”
“He’s not a doctor or a lawyer.”
Kelly let her head drop to her knees. “When I said that, did it sound as incredibly shallow as I think I did?”
“You were pretty focused on marrying one or the other.”
Kelly lifted her head, frowning. “What I really meant was, I’d like a man who knows how to work hard and has initiative. A man who sticks with things. I can’t afford another deadbeat husband like Ricky. I need someone self-supportive. An adult.”
“How long do you have to pay alimony?”
“Three more years.” The words floated on a pool of misery. “But I’m off the hook if he gets married again.”
“Are we rooting for the hairdresser?”
“I guess. But we’re still wishing that she pokes her own eyes out with her giant fake fingernails.”
“Are we mean girls now?”
“We’re wishing for immediate injury. Any wounds she suffers will heal by the wedding. No ruined wedding pictures.”
Annie stirred her soup and deadpanned, “We are two classy ladies.”
Kelly looked away.
Annie lowered her bowl to her lap. “Aren’t we?”
Long silence. Then Kelly said quietly, “I had a breakdown at the grocery store the other night.” She pressed her lips together.
Annie waited her out.
In a couple of seconds, Kelly gave a big sigh and made a face. “I was getting chicken breast and looked at the steaks. You know how Ricky always liked a good steak. No matter how I was scrambling to pay off the mortgage early, he liked his food, and he liked his cars. I used to beg him to cut back on spending, at least while he was out of work.”
Annie didn’t know much about all that. Kelly was divorced by the time Annie had returned to Broslin. But Ricky sounded like a jerk, so she nodded.
“Anyway, I had a hard day. I was tired. It was the day the alimony gets deducted from my account, and I was thinking how I was still paying for his steak dinners. So there I was, standing at the meat counter, and I broke down in tears.” She covered her face.
Annie put an arm around her.
Kelly looked up. “So then Loretta Bailer stops next to me, and, of course, she thought I was crying because I was missing Ricky. So she says, ‘He ain’t worth cryin’ over, honey. Hell, he messed around with me long before the hairdresser floozy. With other women too. He was always a dog, Kelly. You were just too busy with work to notice.’”
Annie’s jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me?”
“I wish.” Kelly groaned. “She thought she was consoling me! Like she was doing me a favor by telling me Ricky had slept with her, so I could stop crying over Ricky.”
Annie couldn’t find the words, so she made what she hoped was a suitably horrified expression.
“That’s not the worst,” Kelly said.
“It has to be the worst.”
“I threw a lamb chop at her.”
Kelly’s flinch said she was embarrassed beyond words. She always tried to remain professional and upbeat. She had clients she needed to think of. Everybody knew her in town. She’d helped half the people with their houses. She had to protect her reputation.
She was not the type of woman to lose it in public.
Annie understood all that, but the image of a lamb chop in Loretta’s face was too much. She broke out laughing.
Kelly threw a pillow at her. “Not funny.”
Except, a second later, she was laughing too. They were laughing so hard, they collapsed against each other.
“Who do we know on the grocery-store security team?” Annie asked when she could breathe and speak. “I want to see the security video. I’m willing to pay for it.”
Kelly shot her a dark look. “Keep it up and you get no dessert.”
Then they were both distracted by Darcy getting frisky with Bridget.
Once that tragically short bit of cinematic brilliance ended, Kelly said, “I’ve known for a long time that Ricky wasn’t right for me. I married him back when I thought the cutest guy was the right guy. But I’ve realized that the right guy is the one who goes and feeds your skunks at midnight.”
“I have no idea what you’re hinting.”
Kelly nudged her. “I think Cole is the right guy for you. From the moment he met you, he’s been there for you at every turn. And you light up when you talk about him. Even when you’re mad at him.”
Annie pulled back into the corner of the couch. “That’s the problem. I’m a therapist. He’s a patient. I’m the one who’s supposed to be there for him.”
“You should have seen him at the hospital after the accident. He’s mad about you, Annie. He looks at you like Darcy looks at Bridget.
Annie’s heart clenched.
“Do you think you’re falling in love?” Kelly asked.
“Yes.” The single word nearly made Annie hyperventilate.
I’m falling in love with Cole Makani Hunter.
Scary, scary thought. She didn’t know what to do with the realization. She couldn’t possibly follow up on her feelings, could she?
“There are plenty of people in this world who never find true love.” A shadow crossed Kelly’s face. “Those who do have the responsibility to make it work.”
“You’ll find your true love.”
“If I do, you can be sure I’m not going to waste it. And don’t tell me to mind my own business. We’re cousins. It’s my job to stick my nose into your business. It’s in the cousin handbook of rules.”
Annie bit back a grin. “I’m glad we’re cousins. I’m glad I came back to Broslin. It’s nice to have family.”
And it was nice to have love too—both the love of family, and the love Annie felt for Cole.
Cole Makani Hunter was worth fighting for, she decided.