“Glad I amused you, Milly. But seriously, Toronto has great hospitals. So long as Troy’s not planning to take her on a backwoods camping trip, I wouldn’t worry.”
Melissa bursts out laughing at that. “I doubt Troy’s ever been backwoods camping in his life.”
“So it’s probably safe, then.”
“Yeah,” she agrees reluctantly.
“You don’t want them to go?” I ask.
“I do and I don’t, you know? They actually haven’t been back since we moved, so this house’ll feel weird without them.” She huffs a little sigh. “I don’t know how to feel about Troy anymore. I mean, he cheated on me with a twenty-one-year-old. So I’d like to write him off as a worthless ass.”
No argument from me there.
“But I also want my kids to have a relationship with their dad,” Melissa continues. “So I try to see Troy’s strengths. He works hard—too much, probably—but he provides for us. We were able to settle the divorce without a big court fight, and I think he was pretty fair.” Another little sigh. ”He just happens to have a weakness for pretty women.”
In my opinion, Troy’s biggest weakness is that he couldn’t recognize a pretty woman when he was married to her.
“And then there’s Olivia,” Melissa continues. “She was Claire’s figure skating instructor, if you can believe it, which made for hot gossip in our neighborhood. So I’d like to despise her as a home-wrecking bitch.”
“Seems about right.”
“But she and Troy are still together, and I think she’s going to be part of the kids’ lives for a while. So if she’s ahome-wrecking bitch, so is the woman who might end up being my kids’ stepmother.”
“Shit.” I’d never thought of it that way.
“Exactly,” Melissa agrees. She walks to the fridge to get the cookie dough, then dips a spoon into the bowl and hands it to me. “Since the kids are busy, you’re on quality control.”
I eat the dough off the spoon and it’s delicious, the perfect mix of salty and sweet. “This is great.”
She looks up from arranging balls of dough on the baking sheet and smiles at me. I wouldn’t have guessed that I’d end my day at Melissa’s kitchen counter, eating cookie dough, but here I am. There’s something relaxing about the house, with Liam’s toys on the floor and Claire’s artwork taped to the fridge.
And Melissa in the kitchen.
“So,” she says as she carries a tray of cookies to the oven. “I’ve whined enough about Troy and Olivia. How was your day?”
“Pretty good, I guess.”
Melissa closes the oven and sits on the stool next to mine. “Really?”
Even after all this time, she can still tell when I’m lying. “I saw a patient with colon cancer that could probably be cured with surgery, but her daughter’s pushing her to do naturopathic treatments instead. She found a Facebook group that recommends it. Asked me what I thought.”
“What did you say?”
I sigh. “I almost told the daughter she was absolutely right. That the cancer could be cured by an infusion of herbs, but I was recommending surgery because I needed to make money.”
“But you didn’t, did you?” Melissa asks softly.
“No,” I say with a sigh. “The daughter didn’t look likethe type who would appreciate sarcasm. She’d probably complain to the hospital, and the Medical Board, and anyone else who would listen. It’s not worth it.”
Melissa looks thoughtful. “That might be part of it, but I think the real reason is that you’re a fundamentally decent person. You’re still hoping the patient will go for the surgery, and you know she won’t if you blast her with sarcasm.”
“Maybe.” Except right now, I’m acutely aware that Melissa’s only inches away, smelling of vanilla and sugar andMelissa, and I don’t feel decent at all. I feel like a man who wants to make love to a woman on her kitchen counter, despite the fact that her kids are watching cartoons in the next room. I can picture it in my mind, raw and loud and primitive. Absolutely nothing decent about it.
“Do you mind if I use your bathroom?” I ask. I have to get out of the kitchen before I do something I’ll regret.
“Of course,” she says. “It’s just down the hall on the right.”
I escape to the bathroom and lock the door before unzipping my jeans and adjusting myself. I spend a few minutes taking deep breaths and thinking about how difficult it would be to defend a relationship with Melissa to the Medical Board. The thought alone should be enough to cool me off, but strangely enough, it doesn’t.
