Page 33 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls

Chapter Ten

FORD

Golden Boy

A good thing about the new apartment was how quickly the water got hot. I stepped into the shower and let the sharp stream pummel my back and shoulders. Hot water was the one thing I missed while living on the ship in Senegal. After a while you got used to the lukewarm trickle that barely allowed you to rinse the soap off your body and the shampoo out of your hair.

After I toweled off, pulled on a T-shirt and gym shorts, I made my way toward the couch and my computer. Logging in remotely to the clinic’s mainframe, I confirmed that the blood I drew from Mrs Vanderpool would go to the lab as a stat request and confirmed the notes in her file about the results of her EKG.

When I’d walked out of the clinic with Silvio and Mrs Vanderpool, the last person I expected to find was Piper. She stood erect. Hands fisted at her sides. There was something in the way she held herself so tightly, like rope wound securely against a sailing line. It was the same way she’d behaved with Dex. Like she wanted to tug those she cared about close and keep them from harm. When her chest started to heave, hands trembling at her sides, I understood what was happening.

Over the years, I’d witnessed several panic attacks. My reaction to hers was different. Gone were all the clinical directions, the rational response to her fear. Instead, I wanted to surround her in my arms, hold on to her until her body stopped shaking. Whisper that she was safe. That I’d never let anything harm her. It took focus to calm her down. To not sweep a hand over her cheek, cup her face and reassure her that she was going to be all right.

Once her breaths returned to normal, it struck me how she shifted right into caretaker mode, her concern immediately turning to Mrs Vanderpool. It was a rare sight for me.

Growing up in Harpeth Manor people were self-involved. The only issues that mattered were the ones that affected their status or wealth. Sure, they volunteered at charity events, attended fundraiser balls, but that was more about jockeying for position in society rather than caring about the cause. It wasn’t until I witnessed the staff on the Humanity of the Seas go out of their way to help our patients, comfort them, ensure they had the barest of necessities, that I began to question how I was raised. What I truly valued.

Piper was another reminder of the goodness in the world. She didn’t have to say a word. Her concern for the people of Ivy Falls was clear in her actions. The worry etched into the lines around her mouth when she saw Mrs Vanderpool move unsteadily on her feet.

A sharp knock at my door pulled me from my thoughts. When I opened it I was shocked to find Gray on the other side.

‘What are you doing here? How did you find me?’

‘Made a phone call yesterday. You’d be surprised what a little sweet talk to the woman who answers the phone at your clinic can do.’

Gray stepped inside the small and simple apartment. The way the skin pinched around his eyes said he thought the place was beneath me. This was where the two of us parted as brothers. He loved the indulgences our upbringing provided. Prep school. A new car for his sixteenth birthday. Access to his trust fund at twenty-five. He enjoyed filling his life with things, where I was content with medicine and the way it connected me to people.

He took two strides forward and plopped himself down on the couch. ‘Got a beer?’

‘It’s nine a.m. I am not giving you a beer.’

He mumbled something that sounded like, ‘Killjoy.’

‘To what do I owe the honor of this unexpected visit?’

He crossed his arms over the Prada polo he was wearing. From the unpleasant twitch of his lips, I understood where this was going.

‘Stop worrying. I promise I’m going to call Mom.’

He leaned forward and clasped his hands in front of him. ‘Can’t you give her a break? She means well even if she has a shitty way of showing it.’

I dragged my hands through my wet hair and sank down beside him. ‘How long before Mom and Dad let go of this dream that I’m going to come back here, join some fancy practice, and live the country-club life? Since we were kids, I’ve been telling them I want another path.’

He rubbed a hand over the dark stubble on his chin. ‘Ford, you’ve always been like this.’

‘Like what?’ Irritation filled my voice. I was tired of having this conversation with him. Tired of my family wanting me to be something I wasn’t.

‘Stubborn. Unwavering in what you want. There’s never been even a flicker of compromise in you.’

‘Compromise?’ I ground out. ‘Just because I’m not happy with a nine-to-five, playing golf on the weekends, sleeping my way through every eligible woman in Harpeth Manor, does not mean I can’t compromise.’

He flinched as I spoke. I probably should not have thrown his very existence into his face, but this topic was getting old. It came up every time I returned to Tennessee.

‘I’m sorry,’ he grumbled. ‘It’s only that when you leave, Mom and Dad freak out because their “golden boy” is gone and all they have left is me.’

Even though he constantly razzed me as a kid, Gray and I spent a lot of time together when we were young. Our backyard led to an open portion of woods where we’d build forts and pretend we were pirates or explorers. Our parents were always gone at work or committee meetings so we spent a lot of time hiding from the housekeeper or begging her to make us the boxed macaroni and cheese our mother hated. When he went to college in Texas, he made a point of calling me once a week to check in. To make sure that our parents weren’t being too overbearing – which they always were.

I took in the white hairs sprouting up around his ears and across his temple. How his sun-worn skin made him look older than thirty-five. Every time I fled home I was doing it to pursue what I wanted, and I didn’t think about what I was leaving behind for him.