by Unknown
Brijette gripped the wheel tightly. “What do you mean?”
“I’m thinking you and him together might be a good thing. Rumor has it you two were an item at one time.”
Brijette grabbed the throttle, giving it a shove. Alicia gripped the seat harder as the boat shot forward.
“You seem to have only heard part of the rumor.” Brijette spoke loudly above the engine.
“Are you going to tell me the rest?”
“No, I’m going to get us home.” She pushed to a faster speed, putting off further conversations, as Alicia hung on. Brijette wondered what she would be able to tell Alicia to pacify her. Part of the story might do it. The part everyone else in town knew. Dancing around all these lies and half-truths was beginning to make her feel worse than bad, but right now she needed to get home and get her daughter away from Cade.
CAR LIGHTS FLASHED in the window as darkness had begun to settle in. Eight-thirty was pretty late for Brijette to be coming home.
“Does your mom get home this late very often?”
Dylan swallowed the last bite of her chocolate-chip cookie. “No, she’s hardly ever this late. I go with her to the clinic sometimes.”
“Do you like it?”
The girl grinned. “Yeah, it’s fun, but my mom says it’s hot right now and I might not want to go. Besides, I’d rather stay here and fish with you if you get home in time.”
A knock sounded on the door and he yelled for Brijette to come in. He heard her shoes slapping on the floor before she blew into the kitchen. Her scrubs were stained and strands of hair had come loose from her ponytail. She looked windblown, understandably, since she traveled to and from the clinic on a boat. And she’d never been more beautiful. He crushed the thought immediately, along with the napkin he wadded in his hand.
“I’m sorry, Cade. This won’t happen again. Let’s go, Dylan.” Her words were clipped.
“Hey, it’s okay. I offered to let Dylan stay here so Norma could go to her sister’s. Do you want to eat?”
“Yeah, Mom, Cade made crawfish pasta and it’s awesome. You’ve got to try it.”
“I’m not hungry.” She turned to him. “I hope this didn’t inconvenience you.”
“Mom, how rude. You could at least try the pasta.”
Cade went to the cabinet and found a plastic container, filling it with leftovers from his and Dylan’s meal. The air in the room was thick with tension and he hated it, but it was partly his fault. He gave the container to Dylan.
“Your mom may want this later when she’s feeling better.”
She glared at him over Dylan’s head and he frowned. “I don’t feel bad now. I just don’t want you saddled with my daughter.”
“And for the fiftieth time, I offered to let her stay.”
“I imagine you couldn’t have had much choice. Besides, I told her not to come here and bother you.”
“But, Mom…”
“Don’t ‘but mom’ me. Go get in the car. It’s late.”
He thought they’d settled on a truce the other day, but Brijette obviously thought it didn’t extend beyond the walls of the clinic. “I went by Norma’s to pick up a cake. Dylan didn’t come here.”
The girl crossed her arms in front of her with the kind of smug expression only a nine-year-old can get away with. “See, Mom, I tried to tell you.”
“Dylan, wait in the car.”
The girl slid off the barstool, muttering about her mom going whacko, and Cade nearly grinned. But Brijette’s expression stopped him. She didn’t seem angry, but completely panicked. He waited until Dylan left the room to try to reason with her.
“I don’t know why my keeping Dylan is making you nuts, but I won’t offer again. Although, I don’t know what you expect your babysitter to do, when you’re late and she has plans.”
“She can tell me she has plans and I’ll stop what I’m doing and come home.”
“It didn’t make sense for you to come home. Besides, by the time you would’ve gotten here she’d have been late going to her sister’s.”
“It’s not your responsibility.”
Her sharp voice hit a sore spot in him. “You’re right. It’s your responsibility, but I guess you should’ve thought of that before you got pregnant, right?”
It was a harsh thing to say, but he was feeling a little harsh at the moment. He could see he’d taken her breath and he nearly apologized, but then she was the one who’d gotten in trouble and taken money to end their relationship.
She opened her mouth but snapped it shut before she spoke. “I was a kid.”
He imagined she’d wanted to scream those words; instead, they were a barely audible whisper. Under her olive skin she had gone pale and Cade sighed. This wasn’t what he wanted to happen.
“I shouldn’t have said that. We all make bad decisions when we’re young. Really bad.”
He crossed the room and put his hands on her shoulders, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“I don’t want her to get attached to you.”
“What?” He caught her chin and tilted her face upward.
“She doesn’t have a father around and I don’t want her to get attached to you when you’ll be leaving soon. It’s not fair to her.”
“A lot of things aren’t fair. But I do see your point. I’ll try not to spend too much time with her if that’s what you want.”
Under his palms, her shoulders drooped with relief. “It’s for the best.”
And then he did the unthinkable. His hands slid around her back and pulled her to his chest, where he’d always felt she belonged. She felt it, too, had to. He could tell by the way she snuggled in closely, her own arms circling his waist. He thought he might want to keep her next to him like this forever, but she pulled away.
Cade let his arms drop to his sides, as did Brijette.
She studied the floor intently. “Thanks.” Her voice wasn’t much more than a whisper.
“For what?”
She cleared her throat and looked up at him. Her eyes were shiny with unshed tears, but her voice was strong. “For understanding about me trying to protect Dylan…and for the hug.”
He caught her hand and squeezed it. Then she smiled and he couldn’t believe how the blood rushed through every part of his body, leaving him a bit dizzy.
“I guess you weren’t expecting me to thank you.”
He shook his head and she pulled her hand away to press it against her eyes, though she was smiling. “Sorry, I don’t mean to get weepy and hormonal on you.”
“Are you having problems with your hormones?”
She glanced at him, and he realized he had taken on a much more serious expression than he’d intended.
She started laughing. “That’s such a doctor question.”
“Well, I am a doctor.”
“It was just an expression. My hormones are fine. I appreciate you letting me have a ‘moment.’”
“Do you mean a weak moment?”
Her smile softened. “Yeah, I do.”
“Everybody has them and they can certainly use a hug from a friend when they do.”
“Even the calm and steady Cade Wheeler?”
“Especially me.”
“I guess I’ll owe you one, then.”
“I definitely plan to collect.” He hadn’t meant to lose his smile or to let the heat that had suffused his body become evident in his voice, but he had.
Brijette fidgeted with the hem of her scrub top. “I’d better go.”
He didn’t move until he heard the door slam, and then it was only to go to the window to watch them leave. Dylan was a well-adjusted kid and Brijette seemed to be doing a fine job as a single mom, but if tonight was any evidence, she needed a little help. The thought of trying to help Brijette should have been the last one to enter his head. But maybe she’d changed. He certainly had.
If he could go back in time he’d likely do things different. He now knew what it felt like for everyone to believe you’d done w
rong when you hadn’t. What if Brijette hadn’t been in the wrong but had been an innocent victim, as she’d said? What if he loved it here in Cypress Landing this time as much as he had when he’d first come? He might even want to stay. He shoved himself away from the window. Promises. He’d made his father a big one before the man died and Cade couldn’t go back on that.
HER MOTHER had officially gone nuts. She’d come in blasting Cade for no reason. He’d only been trying to help. Couldn’t she see that? Then her mom had sent her to the car like a three-year-old.
From the corner of her eye, Dylan watched her mother steer the car onto the highway. She was acting really weird.
“I thought I asked you not to bother Cade.”
“He told you he came to Mrs. Norma’s to get something.”
“Don’t get smart, Dylan.”
She pulled at the seat belt strap across her chest. “I’m not getting smart. It’s true.”
“I’ll be sure not to be late from now on. I don’t want this to happen again.”
Dylan held on to the side of the seat as the SUV bumped up their drive. “Yeah, right.”
She could feel her mother’s eyes on her for an instant. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re always going to be late because you’re always working.”
The car came to a stop and they both unhooked their seat belts. Her mother leaned toward her. “I have to make a living, you know.”
“And you get paid how much for what you do at the free clinic?”
“That’s not fair, Dylan. You’ve been there and seen how little those people have, and how much they need medical attention.”
“I didn’t say they didn’t need it. I just said you weren’t going to just up and stop being late, so you need to quit freaking out because Cade let me stay at his house.”
“I’m not freaking out. You need to remember that Cade’s not going to stay here. When his uncle is better, he’ll go back to the city.”
Dylan flung the door open. She didn’t want to think about Cade leaving. She intended to do everything she could to get him to stay. “If you’d be nicer to him he might not leave.”
She jumped from the car and ran up the steps, her mother right behind her. The grip on her shoulder kept her from escaping to her bedroom.
“What’s gotten into you lately? You never used to act like this.”
“Like what? How am I acting, Mom? Because you never used to act like you are.”
“You are being rude and downright hostile. I don’t want you hanging around Cade so much. He’s a grown man and you’re a little girl. I’m sure he needs his time off to rest.”
Dylan jerked her shoulder away from her mother’s grip. “You’re just mad because Cade likes me and not you. I heard someone at the store say Cade was your boyfriend a long time ago when you were young.” The look on her mother’s face was enough to tell her that what she’d heard was true. “Well, I won’t stay away from him, and I’m going to try to get him to stay here.”
She spun around and ran, making the whole house shake when she slammed her bedroom door. With the stereo blasting, she didn’t have to listen to her mother move around the house. She was actually surprised her mom hadn’t come in and thrown a cat fit over what she’d said. It only proved that she was right. Her mom was mad because she wasn’t still Cade’s girlfriend or even his wife. Things had gotten really mixed up lately. She loved her mother more than anything, but she had some niggling doubts about some of the things her mom told her. Plus, she heard stuff around town, when people thought she was out of earshot or just didn’t care. No one ever said a name, but they speculated about who her father was. She tried to ignore them, but, darn it, she really wanted to hit them in the head. Glancing at the clock, she decided to wait another hour, then if the house was quiet she’d go take a bath. Cade had to stay in Cypress Landing. Somehow she’d find a way to make him.
CHAPTER SIX
ACROSS THE DESK, Sheriff Matt Wright shuffled papers that he’d pulled from a file. “You know, Brijette, we did a bust last year on the edge of the parish and found prescription drugs in large quantities. Those prescriptions had been written by doctors in several towns an hour or more away. This is the first I’ve heard of anything involving your clinic. I can check with the city police, but they usually let us know when they have an investigation going.”
She shifted in the hard wooden seat. Even though she visited the sheriff’s office frequently as part of the search-and-rescue team, she never really got past that uncomfortable feeling that hung low in her middle. “It’s probably just an odd occurrence, but I wanted to know if you’d heard of more. I don’t need that kind of trouble.”
“Don’t worry. I know you’ll work with us, and if I have a problem, I’ll ask you. I don’t think anyone around here thinks that you’re writing illegal prescriptions.”
She raised an eyebrow and he frowned. “I meant what I said, Brijette. No one’s digging up the past.”
“People are always digging into other people’s pasts.”
“Around here we go on the evidence, not rumor and speculation. Jackson Cooper’s in charge of investigating drug trafficking, the prescription kind in particular. I’ll have him keep you updated on any new findings.”
“Thanks, Matt.” She stood to leave and he followed her to the door of the office.
“How’s Doc Wheeler’s nephew doing at the clinic?”
“All right, I guess. He’s actually a little faster than his uncle is.”
“I imagine. You know, I met him the other night at his place when we went to check on Robert’s horse. He asked me if I knew Dylan’s dad or if the guy was from here.”
She stopped with her hand halfway to the doorknob. Angry, shock riveted her in place. “He did what?”
“Yeah, that’s how I thought you’d feel. I told him the truth, though. Said I didn’t know a thing and he needed to ask you.”
“Good.”
“I was a single parent for a while before I remarried. I remember not needing extra problems. That job has plenty of problems on its own.”
She raked her fingers through her hair trying to get a grip on her anger. “You’re right, and I definitely don’t need extras.”
The rest of the hallway that led from the sheriff’s office passed in a blur. Cade had nerve trying to mine the locals for dirt on her. Thank goodness he’d leveled his first questions at Matt, who hadn’t been willing to share a bunch of gossip. Why did Doc Wheeler have to ask Cade to come here and why didn’t he hurry and recover so Cade could go home? She almost laughed at herself. Now she was blaming poor Doc Wheeler for her problems, like he planned to have a faulty heart valve. Her difficulties were rooted in decisions she’d made years ago, as a young and stupid girl.
No, she wouldn’t confront Cade yet. Right now she was angry and she didn’t really want to say things to him in anger, not anymore. But since she’d placed undeserved blame on the old doctor, the least she could do was go by to check on him. Dylan had gone off with Norma and she didn’t have to pick her up first, though Doc Wheeler would be disappointed that the girl didn’t come. He didn’t have any children and counted Dylan as his only grandchild—at least until Cade married and had children… She caught herself in mid-thought. Boy, how did things in her life ever get this confusing?
BRIJETTE KNOCKED on the older man’s door and waited. In a moment, Doc opened the door himself.
“Aren’t you in perfect health?”
He stepped back to let her in, motioning for her to follow him. “I’m feeling good today.” He entered the spacious kitchen and sat at the table. “I’m having supper—and where’s my little girl?”
“She went with Norma to visit her sister, but I don’t want to interrupt your meal.”
“You’re not interrupting, and there’s plenty of food. Jeanine baked enough chicken for five people. Now, tell me how things are running at the clinic.”
“Things are fine. It’s real
ly busy, though. Dr. Hershing finally closed his office the other day and we’ve gotten his patients.”
Doc Wheeler nodded. “He’s wanted to go help his son in his practice in Boston for a long time. But you and Cade are handling the extra load?”
Brijette bit into a piece of baked chicken and chewed for a minute before answering. “We’re doing okay.” She couldn’t very well tell him how inundated they were with new patients. Before, they hadn’t had time to go for lunch and had had to eat it in the clinic; now they seldom had time to even eat, and were running at least an hour or two later since Dr. Hershing had closed his office. If he knew, Doc Arthur would only worry and try to come back to work before he’d had time to recuperate. She especially didn’t want him trying to convince Cade to stay. With any luck, this first influx after Dr. Hershing’s move wouldn’t last long and soon their schedule would be back to normal.
“Cade says you had an overdose victim collapse in the lobby the other day. He says we need to update our equipment to respond to that kind of emergency. Not the first time I’ve heard that.”
She grinned and shrugged, downing the last bite of her squash casserole.
“Are they seeing a lot of OD victims in the ER?”
Brijette wiped her mouth on a napkin. “I don’t know—I could check. But I did want to let you know that Elliot at the drugstore caught an illegal narcotic prescription with my name on it a few weeks ago. I went by the sheriff’s office today and he said they hadn’t found anything from our clinic at their drug busts, but they had found find scripts from other clinics.”
Arthur Wheeler’s brows drew together. “Did the sheriff think the prescriptions were written by the drug dealers or by the doctors?”
“I think it was a bit of both.”
“I don’t know why that kind of thing happens. The law will take care of these people, don’t you worry. I’ve had folks write illegal prescriptions on script paper they stole from my office. You and Cade just keep your pads on you.”
She snorted. “You’re one to talk, Mister Where-in-the-world-is-my-prescription-pad-now.”
He laughed. “I didn’t say do what I do.”