“Okay, we are all done here. You can go to our pharmacy and get the prescriptions filled. I’ll call you when the blood tests come back.”
Marshall and Eliza headed home. Zachary had passed out in his car seat by the time they exited the hospital parking lot. Both parents were grateful for that.
A few hours later, the nurse called them and Marshall answered the phone.
“Hi. This is Nathan from the hospital. I have received your son’s blood work back. I’ve got a question for you. I see that your son was born in this hospital, right?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?” Marshall was a bit perplexed at the question.
“Well...it seems that the blood types are different, which is a bit of a curiosity. We took his blood when he was born and it doesn’t match the sample we took today.” Nathan paused for a response.
“Um, well, what does that mean?” Marshall asked.
“Probably nothing. It’s most likely just a clerical error, but I thought I would check with you. Do you know what your son’s blood type is?” Nathan asked him.
“No. Is that something I should know?”
“Yes, you should know. I’m going to just make a note in the chart that the one we took today is correct and we can all just assume that someone entered it incorrectly into the computer when he was born. His blood type is O Positive, by the way.”
“Okay, thanks.”
“Oh, I almost forgot why I called you in the first place. The results came back with everything fine. He just has the ear infection that the doctor diagnosed. So just follow the doctor’s instructions and come back to the hospital if his fever isn’t gone by tomorrow.”
“We will,” Marshall replied, completing the phone call, and hanging up.
Chapter 5
Cecily Blackwood arrived late to work one night, which was completely out of character for her. As she entered the Wildflower Inn Bar, where she was the head bartender, she noticed that the bar was hopping that night. With standing room only, Cecily had to push her way through the crowd to get to her station. No one paid any attention to her, everyone was drinking and doing their own thing.
“What is going on? This place is never like this,” she asked one of her co-workers. She pulled her long brown hair back into a ponytail as she spoke.
“There’s a big fight on TV tonight,” the bartender replied. “I guess everyone wants to watch it here.”
“Fine with me. I could use the cash.” Cecily smiled as she stuffed her purse under the bar and began washing the glasses that had been piling up in her absence.
“Hey girl, can I get a Lemon Drop?”
Cecily looked up to see her best friend, Javier, sitting at the end of the bar.
“Hi Jav, I didn’t see you there,” Cecily told him. “One Lemon Drop coming right up.”
As Cecily walked over and sat the martini glass on the bar in front of Javier, she could see that he was otherwise engaged with some of his fans. They were getting his autograph and taking photos with him. The whole scene made her smile.
Javier Lopez was one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood. He also happened to be her best friend since childhood. He was just a regular guy to Cecily and she was still surprised by all the attention he got. The two of them were never able to do anything together in public without being accosted by his fans. Completely avoiding them was not an option, unless they stayed in, which they did a lot. Javier was used to it, but it still annoyed her.
Cecily watched the scene unfold in front of her for a moment, then she walked away. Perhaps Javier would have time to talk later. She had work to do anyway.
Another one of her regulars, Sebastian, as well as his brother, were sitting at the bar too. Sebastian had a crush on Cecily and she didn’t care. He was not the one for her. She had yet to meet the man of her dreams.
“Hi Cecily,” Sebastian greeted her when she asked them for their drink orders.
“Sebastian. Andy.” She nodded her greeting at each of them. “How are you two tonight?”
“Pretty good. This place is packed,” Andy replied, looking around at the crowd. “I guess everyone’s here for the fight?”
“Oh and here I thought they all came to hang out with me,” Cecily chided.
“Well I know I did,” Sebastian smiled.
Sebastian was very cute. Cecily could see that. But she just wasn’t interested. He was a serial dater that never stuck around long enough to get very serious with anyone. His dirty blond hair and boyish good looks got him a lot of attention from the ladies. The problem was that he didn’t really want any of them. He wanted Cecily.
His focus on Cecily might have had more to do with the fact that she was a challenge, than the fact that he wanted an actual relationship with her. Sebastian never thought the whole thing through. He rarely thought anything through. Even with her rejections time and again, Sebastian continued to pursue her.
Cecily thought Sebastian was a bit ridiculous. He had a drawn out southern accent that he used. It was charming, and it was fake. He wasn’t fooling her. His brother was sitting right there on the barstool next to him, and Andy didn’t have a southern accent. They had grown up on the island, not in Louisiana, which is what he sounded like. Either way, it seemed to work for him. He was never at a loss for a date.
Sebastian and Andy each ordered a beer and Cecily set them down on the bar. She couldn’t walk away fast enough though.
“Sooo…Cecily,” Sebastian began. “What are you doing tonight after work?”
His voice behind her was low, melodious, confident. It sent a tingle up her spine and caused her to stop her departure...almost involuntarily. She turned back toward the brothers. Cecily still needed those tips, so she had to be somewhat careful about being too rude to anyone that came to her bar, whether she liked them or not. A girl had rent to pay.
“Going home. It will be pretty late when I get out of here,” she replied, attempting once again to walk away. But she turned back toward him when he continued speaking.
“Want some company?” He threw his most charming grin her way.
“Is that your way of seducing me?” Cecily asked him with a straight face and unblinking eyes.
“Well yeah. Is it working?”
“Not even a little bit,” she said in what she hoped was a tone of dismissal.
Cecily rolled her eyes heavenward and walked down to the far end of the bar where Javier was sitting. His fans had dispersed by then.
“Oh my gawd, Jav, Sebastian is annoying the crap out of me. He won’t take no for an answer.” She leaned on the bar as she spoke.
“Baby Girl, you just gotta ignore him.” Javier reached over and took her hands in his. “He’ll eventually give up. Another girl will come along and he’ll forget your name.”
“That’s the dream,” she replied. She couldn’t even smile at that one.
Javier looked down the bar in Sebastian’s direction. “See what I mean?” He looked back at his friend and did an over exaggerated head tilt in Sebastian’s direction.
Her eyes scanned down the bar and saw Sebastian flirting wildly with a pretty young woman that Cecily did not know.
“Well that was quick. Figures. But it’s perfectly fine with me.” Cecily turned back to Javier. “Hey, I wanted to ask you if you heard the news about Tim and Roxanne splitting up?” She leaned in and whispered as she spoke.
“No, I didn’t. What happened?” Javier whispered back, leaning toward his friend.
Cecily Blackwood was a terrible gossip, and had been since childhood. She just couldn’t help herself. She knew her reputation as the island loudmouth. It didn’t bother her a bit. And Javier loved it. He thrived on the gossip that Cecily spouted. He had grown up on Wildflower Island and knew everyone that she talked about. Javier never repeated it though. His reputation depended on it. The tabloids could be ruthless whenever they caught wind of even the tiniest bit of impropriety. So he listened to everything she said, then he kept his mouth shut.
“T
ruth is that I don’t really know. Tim’s been acting weird and they argue a lot. I mean A LOT. It seems like they don’t even notice that people are around and can hear their fights. It’s kind of embarrassing, if you ask me,” Cecily replied.
“Yeah, I’ve even heard one or two, when I was at the cafe,” Javier told her. “They should really learn to be more discreet. With the Wildflower Inn to run and them being really well known all over the island, it’s kind of necessary that they act accordingly, you know?”
“Yeah, agreed. And there’s more.” Cecily looked around to make sure no one was listening. She seemed satisfied that everyone in the bar was focused on their own thing at that moment and weren’t paying a bit of attention to the two of them. “Tim is seeing someone else. I don’t think Roxanne knows.”
Cecily lifted off of the bar and stood straight up. Her eyes going wide with the revelation she had just made to her best friend.
“Are you freaking kidding me?!”
Both Cecily and Javier turned to see Mary Carmichael standing right behind Javier. She had just turned the corner into the bar when she overheard them talking about her parents.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Cecily? Don’t you dare gossip about my parents!”
Jumping all over Cecily, or anyone for that matter, was completely out of character for Mary. She was the shy twin and the least likely one to ever confront someone like that. Especially in a busy public place.
“Oh, Mary, I’m really sorry. You are right,” Cecily responded, her eyes downcast in shame.
The room became deathly quiet. Javier looked around the bar and realized that almost everyone in the place was staring their way. Someone even muted the televisions.
“Hey, hey, Sweetheart.” Javier climbed off of his barstool and walked over to Mary. “I’m also sorry,” he told her as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “We had no right.”
It was meant as a comforting gesture, but Mary didn’t see it that way. She stood there with her lips pressed together and her arms folded in front of her.
“Don’t,” she told him and twisted out from under his arm. “I don’t care who you are, my parents are off topic for you too. Got it?”
Mary was livid. Cecily and Javier could see that, as well as all of the patrons in the bar watching the scene play out. Javier had known the twins their entire lives and was shocked at Mary’s reaction to their conversation. And, since he was as famous as he was, he was used to people always being nice to him and hanging on his every word. Mary’s words were completely unexpected, and he wasn’t entirely sure how to handle the situation.
Cecily took it upon herself to rescue Javier. The whole incident was her fault anyway, and she realized that.
“Mary,” Cecily said as she rounded the corner of the bar and walked up to the girl and Javier, “he had nothing to do with this. I was the one gossiping. If you need to be angry at someone, make that me. He was just sitting there minding his own business.”
Mary’s eyes flashed with fury. “That’s not true. He was just as involved in it as you were. I heard what the two of you said. But, whatever, it doesn’t matter now. If you gossip about my family again, I’ll get you fired.”
Mary said it slowly and deliberately. Cecily and Javier were both shocked at her words. It was a side of Mary that Cecily had never seen before. She believed what the girl said though. She knew Mary meant business.
“Look, I’m really sorry, Mary. It will never happen again.” Cecily made the ‘cross my heart’ gesture. “Are we okay?” Cecily pulled at her ponytail as she spoke. She liked Mary and really didn’t want the girl to be angry at her. And she definitely didn’t want Mary to tell her parents about what had transpired there that day.
“Yeah, we’re fuckin’ peachy.”
“Mary!” Cecily couldn’t believe what she was hearing. In all the years she had known Mary, she had never heard her speak like that.
Mary stormed out of the bar, never turning around to look back. Every pair of eyes watched her leave. Cecily just stared after the girl with her mouth hanging open. She and Javier looked at each other with shock in their eyes. As soon as Mary was out of sight, everyone turned to Cecily and Javier.
“Don’t you all have anything better to do?!” she yelled. “This doesn’t concern any of you.” Cecily was not afraid to confront those that were staring. It seemed to be something she was doing a lot of lately.
Almost instantly, the sound on the TVs switched back on and everyone turned their attention in that direction. No one wanted to be individually confronted by Cecily. Especially in public.
Cecily scanned the room one more time in search of a fight, but there was none coming her way. She relented and walked back to her work station behind the bar.
“Way to liven up the evening,” Sebastian joked, as she passed by him and his brother, who hadn’t moved from their usual spots.
“Shut up.” Cecily glared at him and Sebastian promptly did as he was told.
Sebastian’s brother, Andy, couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Cecily decided it was in her best interest not to respond.
Chapter 6
“What are you doing?”
Startled, Marshall lost his grip on the fence and slid down the dirt mound he had made in the corner of the rose garden. He caught his foot, twisted, and landed on his back right in the middle of the roses.
“Ow, damnit! Now look what you made me do,” Marshall snapped at his wife.
He got up carefully and began picking rose thorns from his clothing as he stepped out of the garden and onto the patio.
“You really need to stop sneaking up on a person like that.” His brows furrowed unconsciously as he threw rose thorns back into the garden.
Eliza ignored his crankiness. It seemed to be his default state lately. “I’ll ask you again. What were you looking at?” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes in his direction.
“Seriously, don’t worry about it.” Marshall never took his eyes off of his arms, as he checked them for damage. “Damn. Look at this. Now I’m bleeding. See what you did?” He held his arms out in front of him for his wife to see.
“That’s not my fault. You are the one that was skulking around in the rose garden. Doing what? Spying on the neighbors?” Eliza looked up at the mound of dirt that Marshall had been standing on, then she looked at the fence, and back at her husband. “Hmm.”
“What could they possibly be doing that you find so fascinating?” Eliza thought for a moment. “You got the hots for the neighbor lady? The one with the two kids?” She placed her hands on her hips as she spoke, her eyebrows raised in a questioning manner.
“What? No. I don’t have the hots for her. Don’t be ridiculous. And keep your voice down.” Marshall looked toward the fence, half expecting Lindsey to be peering over, listening to their conversation.” Satisfied that no one was paying them a bit of attention, he turned back to his wife and shook his head at her.
Eliza took in the entire scene, but said nothing.
Marshall decided that was the end of their discussion. He bent over and started brushing the dirt from his pants. “I’m going in to clean up.”
Marshall brushed past his wife without looking her in the eyes. She knew something was up, she just didn’t know what. Eliza stood there in the backyard for several minutes, watching the fence. She couldn’t see anything between the pickets, and the top of the fence was well over her head, but she could listen. She heard the children playing in their own backyard. Nothing sounded out of the ordinary. In fact, Eliza was pretty sure that their mother was not even in the backyard with them. She hadn’t heard the woman say a word. So it was just the kids. What in the world could be the reason Marshall was spying on the kids?
For just the briefest of moments, she considered climbing up the dirt mound in the rose garden herself, and peeking over the fence for a better look. Then common sense took over and she smiled at herself. Yeah, that would be brilliant, she thought. How would she even defen
d herself if Marshall walked out and caught her? She laughed at the absurdity of it all.
Eliza let it go for the time being, but decided to keep an eye on her husband to see what he was up to.
“Did you get all the thorns out?” Eliza asked Marshall when she went back into the house.
“Yes. No thanks to you.” Marshall gave her the side eye as he spoke, blaming her for his fall into the thorns.
“Don’t be cranky at me. I wasn’t the one peering over the fence, like a creep. Why were you watching those kids anyway?” she asked him.
“It’s nothing. Really. I thought I heard someone out there the other night when I was planting the rose garden. I just wanted to see if anyone had noticed me. It really bothers me that they might have been watching. Gives me the creeps to think about it, I guess.” Marshall shrugged his shoulders when he was done speaking.
“Don’t you think that if they had been up at that time of night, walking around in the backyard, that you would be sure of it? I mean, those kids are little. They wouldn’t be able to see over the fence. Even their mother wouldn’t be able to see over the fence. And if they climbed on something, you would have heard it. That wouldn’t be hard to miss in the middle of the night, when it’s dark and quiet,” Eliza explained.
“Yeah, I guess,” Marshall agreed. “I could just swear that I heard someone. That’s all.”
“Besides,” Eliza continued. “Are any of them acting weird or anything? Like they got caught spying on you?”
She walked over to her husband and smoothed down a piece of his unruly hair. It was a loving gesture that didn’t go unnoticed by Marshall. He smiled in response.
“No, not really. Not that I’ve noticed anyway,” Marshall admitted.
“Well there you go. Problem solved. No one saw anything. You were just planting a rose garden, right?” Eliza prompted.
“Right.”
Eliza started to say something further, but thought better of it. What was the point? It would just start an argument and she certainly didn’t need that. Again.
Thorns on Wildflower Island Page 4