Page 52 of Welcome Home to Ivy Falls

‘He told me a little about his brother. It sounds like he isn’t close to his family.’

‘Look at you getting all the details about our mysterious town doctor,’ she said like she was impressed. ‘He wouldn’t answer any of my questions, but I also don’t have an ass like yours.’

‘Maisey!’ I shrieked.

All she did was shrug. ‘Only facts here, Pipe.’

‘You are incorrigible.’

‘And that’s why you love me.’ She combed out the lower section of my hair and wrapped it around the flat iron. ‘What else did he say?’

‘That Africa is beautiful. He told me about a couple of spots he likes to visit on his days off. Beaches and a place with sand dunes. He’s also fluent in French.’

She fanned herself. ‘Well, that makes him ten times hotter.’

‘You are too much.’

She barked out a laugh. ‘What about his job?’

‘He didn’t say much, but by the way his eyes lit up when he talked about the other staff and the patients, it was easy to see he loves it.’

‘When is he going back?’

‘Early October.’

She got a glint in her eye but stayed silent, which worried me.

‘It’s okay to meet a new person,’ I said. ‘Get to know them and keep things platonic.’

I might have been saying the words, but the way my heart stuttered every time he dragged his hands through his dark hair said my feelings were anything but platonic.

She bit into her lip while she worked the iron through the rest of my hair.

‘You think I’m wrong,’ I said, needing to break up the silence.

‘Piper, it’s your choice. All I want is for you to be happy. If being friends with Ford is all you want, then I’m behind you.’

‘But…’ I urged because she’d always been careful about my feelings. Not pushing me.

She pressed her lips together, pausing for too long.

‘Spit it out, Maise.’

‘I love you, but I worry that you’ve fought so hard to get your life back that you’re afraid now to take a risk. Rock the boat against the solid life you’ve built.’

‘Is there something wrong with that?’ I said, unable to keep the hurt from my voice.

She set the iron on the edge of the sink and turned me to face her.

‘You’ve been through hell and back. Battled nightmares that would knock most people out for the count. But every damn day you get up and prove to this town that you have the heart and soul of a warrior.’ She went back to work on my hair. ‘What good is all that fighting, getting yourself to a solid spot, if you’re not thinking about the future? Any man on this planet would be fucking lucky to call you theirs, Pipe. I wish that you would be willing to take a small chance. It doesn’t have to be with Ford. It doesn’t have to be right now. I only want you to think about what comes next, because you, my best friend in this world, deserve goddamn rainbows and unicorns-farting-glitter-out-of-their-butts kinds of happiness.’

‘Oh, Maisey,’ I gasped. Tears tracked down my cheeks and she pulled me into a firm hug.

‘Good thing I didn’t do your makeup first,’ she said, swiping away her own tears and then pressing a tissue to mine.

‘Before I got sober, I made terrifyingly bad choices when it came to men. Those choices hurt a lot of people.’

My mind flickered to the moments in New York where I blew through all my money. How I took drinks from strangers. Walked home alone at all hours of the night. I was reckless, dumb and damn lucky I didn’t do anything worse to ruin my life.