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But, the cold hard truth was, I was a dumbass.
The male species, in general, were all dumbasses from time to time. Me more so than most.
I had everyone fooled.
Being a doctor and all didn’t negate the fact that I was a moron from time to time.
I groaned and kicked my stand down, then stood up with the feeling of dread pooling in my stomach.
“Don’t be a pussy.” Bram started his bike. “I have to go home and talk to Dorcas. I have my own shit to sort out, and my own dumbassery to deal with.”
I watched him ride away with a look of confusion on my face.
Did he not know that she’d left?
We’d only been riding around for an hour, at most.
Coreline came up to me and snuck under my arm, watching me watch my brother ride away.
I wasn’t surprised by her presence.
Honestly, I wasn’t surprised by anything this woman did.
“You’re friendly with Dorcas,” I said after Bram had disappeared from sight, remembering a time when I’d seen Coreline and Dorcas cutting it up at a couple of events that’d been held around town.
“Yeah,” she confirmed, pressing her face to the spot between my shoulder blades.
“Do you like her?” I asked.
“I love her,” Coreline said. “She’s funny and sweet. But she seems scared. All the time. As if she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop at any second.”
I’d always been indifferent when it’d come to Dorcas.
She’d never seemed to fit in, and I’d always tolerated her, but never made a move to do much more than smile at her. Now, I wondered if maybe it’d been me being distant that made Dorcas be distant right back.
Kind of like an abused dog.
“I noticed that myself tonight,” I admitted. “I don’t think I’ve given her a fair chance with this marriage between her and Bram. I guess the surprise of them getting married so fast made me think that it wouldn’t last. Meaning, I never really got to know her. She always seemed so standoffish to me, that I respected that big red flag and stayed away. But today… I helped her carry a bag of what felt like books and clothes to her car. Which had been filled to the brim with them. As if she was leaving. When Bram left, he said he had his own dumbassery to deal with. And now I’m wondering if I helped his wife leave him.”
There was a long pause as she contemplated my news. “Dory loves Bram with her whole heart.”
“Dory?” I asked. “You call her Dory?”
“Dory hates the name Dorcas, to be honest. Her father gave it to her, and she seriously can’t stand it.”
I thought about all the years I’d spent calling her Dorcas, and her never correcting me. Never correcting me. Bram. My parents. Cannel. None of them ever got corrected.
Which made me wince.
“She never said,” I admitted. “Now I feel bad. If she hated it so much, she should’ve told us. We would’ve respected that.”
Coreline let me go and started walking toward my house.
I turned around and followed her inside as she said, “Y’all are intimidating. And you have such a tight-knit group that sometimes it’s hard not to feel like an outsider, even when you pull us into your gravitational orbit.” She tossed me a knowing smile. “I haven’t had a chance to spend much time with your entire family and you yet, but those times that I have? I feel like I’m in a simulation-type study that reminds me of how badly I stand out among wild creatures.”
I burst out laughing as I opened the front door for her and gestured for her to go inside.
“Anyway,” she grumbled as she stopped to run her fingers down the length of the cat’s back before continuing her walk to the kitchen where she reached for a glass of milk on the counter. “Dorcas, likely like me, just wanted to feel like she was accepted. If y’all didn’t give her that…”
I winced.
“I didn’t mean not to,” I admitted. “But I’m a doctor. I’m taught to read body language. I read her body language loud and clear. Stay away.”
“Sometimes, people put up those stay-away signs hoping people will give a shit and break the law just to know that they’re worth the trouble,” she pointed out.
I felt my stomach sink.
“You’re worth all of my trouble,” I told her bluntly. “And I’m a complete and utter dumbass for how I reacted today.”
She sighed. “I can’t say that I didn’t expect that reaction, Tide. I, more than most, know the front that you put on. You want everyone to think that you’re this big, bad, brave doctor who can conquer the world. But on the inside, you’re just as human as the rest of us.”
I walked toward her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. “We’re going to kick breast cancer’s ass.”
