Vivid (7 page)

"Thanks, Dad."

He winked at me and smiled.

My dad may have been a nerd, but he was certainly handsome. Being his daughter made me a little biased, but I saw the eyes that followed him whenever we were out in public together. He was tall and strong without being overly bulky. His eyes were like mine, not one color, but interesting enough to be special. His face was always clean shaven, and even with the thinning hair on top of his head, he looked younger than his age. He had started to shave his dark brown hair recently, so it was just fuzz. Mom said it made him look like a sexier Bruce Willis and women in town seemed to agree.

Mom never let it get to her that women admired my father from a distance. I figured she was damn proud to have a man like that standing beside her, and she never doubted their love. Neither did anyone else in this town. They may look, but they knew her husband was off limits.

The fact that he never noticed anyone but Mom certainly helped.

I wandered past the desk and down the hall to the back offices. Patient charts lined the walls of one room while extra medical supplies and instruments covered the shelves in another. Keara was standing in the middle of the room with all the charts, looking like she was about to climb Mount Everest.

"Need any help?" I asked, shakily. Why the hell was I so nervous to see my best friend?

Keara let out a tiny squeak of surprise before jumping to the side in a spin move I had only seen in the movies. Her hand went to her chest and the folders in her arms went tumbling to the floor. "Sweet mercy, Grace! You almost gave me a heart attack."

I smiled and tried not to burst out laughing at the look on her face. "You must have really been concentrating, huh?"

"Well, there are about a billion Smiths that come to see your dad and like ten of them are named Sandra. I'm trying to find the right one."

"I can help with that."

Keara finally smiled at me, her eyes filling with moisture. "Thanks."

Neither one of us moved as we stared at each other with goofy grins on our faces. I decided it was my responsibility to make the first move.

"I'm sorry, Keara."

She didn't even hesitate. She stepped all over the papers lying on the floor in order to get to me, and I barely caught her without tipping over. Her honey blonde hair covered my face as she tackle-hugged me. It was the greatest tackle-hug I had ever experienced.

"I missed you, Gracie."

"I missed you, too." I hugged her back and felt a sting in my nose. All the memories of our friendship came rushing back. I wanted to bawl for coming so close to losing it all completely.

Keara pulled back and lightly smacked me on the shoulder. "Don't you dare do that to me again. I've been worried sick. A girl needs a phone call now and then."

"I'm sorry, Keara."

"A year!" she shouted, ignoring my words. "A year of not hearing one word from my best friend. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to be asked how you're best friend is doing by random people and not have a clue?"

"I'm sorry."

"And then I had to listen to Laura talk about how Jason just left you and how you deserved it for what you put him through. Do you know how long I had to wear the stupid cast after I broke my hand from punching her? A long time. It looked horrible and it would get all gross. And it itched like a bitch. I almost went psycho and cut it off myself, but it reminded me that I had finally gotten in a good one. Finally!"

"Wait! You punched Jason's sister? When was this?" I asked, trying to get her to hear me over her ranting.

"It was like a month after ... you know ... and he came back here all smug and shit, before he moved to God only knows where. I hope he's in Hell." She took a deep breath and met my shocked stare. "Laura was telling everyone that you faked the pregnancy to keep him and that he felt bad leaving so he stuck with you. Then, suddenly you were really pregnant. Said you cheated on him."

"WHAT?"

"I know! I knocked out one of her teeth, then ripped out a chunk of that nasty hair. If Josh hadn't pulled me off of her, she would've been eating it out of my hand."

I was still reeling from the fact that Laura had spread those lies about me. I thought we had been friends. She was a snooty bitch, but when Jason and I started dating, she was always so nice to me. We spent a lot of girl's nights talking about more than our fair share of secrets. Her betrayal stung. Badly.

"No one believed her, Grace. Especially when you spent most of your life being so sweet to everyone in this stupid town. No one believed you were capable of something like that. Not even Laura, but she was trying to cover up the shit her brother had done."

Keara calmed down and was hugging me again before I could get a word in. "Don't worry, my hand is all better and the doctor was a stud. Josh ended up coming with me to the last appointment to make sure he didn't make a move on me."

I laughed, my shoulders shaking both of us as we hugged. Then Keara started laughing and suddenly, neither one of us could stop.

"I would have paid good money to see you punch her," I gasped between fits of laughter.

She covered her face with her hands, but she couldn't hide the blush that spread over her cheeks. "Josh thought it was the hottest thing he'd ever seen."

"Of course he did," I stated. "How is he, by the way?"

"Wonderful. Amazing. Sexy. Mine." She bit her bottom lip, her grey eyes twinkling. "I think he's going to ask me to marry him."

"Seriously?" I all but shouted.

She nodded and I gave her another hug.

"Oh God, Keara. I'm so sorry about everything. I abandoned everyone, thinking it would be easier. I just couldn't handle it."

She pulled back and cupped my face in her hands. "That's because you didn't have me. You can handle anything with me, I'll make sure of it."

We were both crying. Tears of happiness, tears of regret. It didn't matter because I had my friend back.

A few minutes passed before we finally got a hold of ourselves.

"Now, help me clean this up before your dad fires my ass for messing up his charts. I don't know why he doesn't just go electronic like everyone else."

I chuckled and helped her gather the papers still sprawled on the floor. "He doesn't want anything to be missed. He has notes in these charts that he wrote down years ago and thinks it will all be distorted once it's scanned in."

"True. Your dad is amazing. Did you know he just did surgery on an eight year old that probably saved the kid's sight? It was a last minute thing. He was here seeing patients and all of a sudden he burst out of his office and raced to the hospital while he called the kid's parents. Told them he knew exactly what was wrong."

I smiled, proudly. "That's my dad."

"That's your dad," she agreed.

Once we had all the charts squared away, I helped her find the one she was looking for while we chatted about anything and everything. She asked about the last year and I told her the truth. Not much had happened. I worked, I barely ate, and I barely slept. She scowled at me while pursing her lips and giving me the evil eye. The one look that always told me she was about to beat my ass.

"I'm done with that now, Keara. Mom came and knocked some sense into me. I'm not better, but I'm happier. I know what I did was a way of grieving. Pushing everyone away and not taking care of myself. I know I took it too far. It won't be happening again."

"Good," she said with her arms crossed over her chest. I followed as she led the way back to the front desk.

Mandy greeted me with a smile and a hug before she went back to her post. The employees my dad had working for him were always genuine and kind. Not once did any of them say anything negative about their job or the people they worked with. I think that was one of the reasons why my father was so successful. His employees were happy there.

"So, tell me what's going on with you and Josh."

Keara looked like her face was about to crack with the massive smile that covered it. "We moved in together about three months ago."

"Really? That's awesome. And how is that going?"

She blushed and turned to her computer. "It's fantastic!"

"Come on, Keara. Give me details."

She looked around us to make sure no patients were within ear shot before she leaned in and whispered, "The sex is even better, now that we don't have to wait to see each other every night. I wake up in the morning because of the orgasm he gives me and I fall asleep at night because he's worn me out."

I giggled right along with her as she gave me the details of how they ended up moving in together. It was like no time passed while we were apart. Exactly how it had always been between us.

Josh Colson and Keara Brighton had been dating since right after high school. They ended up at the same university together and hit it off immediately. They'd been inseparable ever since and if it wasn't for the busy schedule they both followed through school and work, they would be married already. Josh ended up getting a full ride football scholarship to Washington State in the middle of their sophomore year at the university. They lived apart for a couple years, managing a long distance relationship full of questionable Skype sessions and freaky weekends indoors. When Josh tore his ACL, his football career was officially over, but he didn't really mind all that much. They wanted to be together and he always wanted to become a paramedic. Both of them got their dreams and they were slowly working toward their next one.

"Does Josh know that you want a destination wedding?" I asked.

"Yes, he loves the idea. I mean, we haven't talked about it much, but when I mentioned it last year he thought it was a great idea. He said once we were both done with school, there was nothing to stop us. I think Daddy really scared Josh when he said he would hang him if I didn't finish school. Josh apparently wasn't taking any chances, but that's okay. We are both really happy," she said brightly.

"I'm happy for you, Keara. You both deserve a good life."

"So do you, Grace."

I grinned and nodded. "I'll get one. It will just take some time."

We spent the next hour goofing off in between patients until Dad finally came to the front and made us both go home.

"If I have to hear another giggle session while I'm shining a light in someone's eye, I might go crazy," he said, trying to be serious. The grin on his face gave him away.

"Sorry, Dr. S. Your daughter is the culprit," Keara said, throwing me under the bus.

Dad seemed happy about it. "Well, in that case, go get your mom and have a girl's night or something. You all need it, apparently."

Keara and I both started giggling before we could leave. Dad just shook his head, waving goodbye. We stopped at Keara's car and decided to leave mine for my dad to take home. I texted Mom, who was leaving the library in ten minutes, and told her to bring enough sushi for the three of us. Keara drove us to my parent's house, and we settled in with a couple glasses of wine before Mom showed up with her arms full of bags of sushi.

"I'm starving," she said when we started tearing open the boxes. "I got so busy with story time this afternoon that I forgot to have a snack after lunch."

"Oh shit!" I shouted. "I was supposed to go to the library and see if I could find anything to help Merrick with Braille. Do you guys have anything like that?"

Mom tapped her chin with a slender finger, tipped with a bright red nail. She was always so put together. "I'm sure we do. And your dad might know some people who can help, too."

"Merrick?" Keara asked.

"Merrick Thatcher. Next door."

"Aahh, that's right. I knew he was injured, but I only briefly remember someone telling me he had lost his sight. Why are
you
helping him?"

"I'm his homecare nurse," I shrugged.

Keara's mouth hung open and the piece of sushi that had been dangling from her chopsticks, fell to her plate. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. He's in a wheelchair until his leg is healed, and his left arm and hand were in a cast until this last week, but he still needs a little help until he adjusts."

Keara and Mom exchanged a look and ... was that a smile?

"What?"

Keara took a sip of wine before gently placing her glass on the table and leaning forward. Her eyes locked with mine, her brow furrowed in concentration. My fingers started to fidget with my chopsticks the longer she stared at me.

"You're Merrick Thatcher's homecare nurse. You get to touch that fine specimen of a man almost every day, hell, you've probably seen him naked, and you didn't think this was important to tell me before now?" Keara's voice got louder and louder with each word and I couldn't stop the laugh that burst out of me.

"She thinks this is funny, Alaina. Is this funny?"

My mom started to laugh right along with me. "Oh goodness, I forgot that you two had massive crushes on him back in the day."

Keara grumbled something about her having a bigger crush than I did, before she shook her head and got back to the point. "This should have been the first thing you said to me right after 'I'm sorry'," she demanded.

"Really? I was supposed to walk in and say, 'I'm sorry for being a horrible friend, Keara, but I get to see Merrick Thatcher naked and I think we should be friends again.'"

"Yes!" she yelled. "In fact, you probably wouldn't have needed to say you were sorry. It wouldn't have mattered after hearing the words 'Merrick Thatcher' and 'naked' in the same sentence."

She crossed her arms and looked away from me as if she was angry and didn't want to even look at me.

"Keara, I don't even see him completely naked. I help him get into the shower, but I never see anything."

"Why not?" she demanded.

"Because I cover him with a towel. He doesn't need me looking at his ... you know, when I need to be helping him as a nurse."

She looked disappointed, but quickly decided I was right. "Are you going to tell me what he's like then? I mean, all those years and he never really spoke to us. I always wondered if he was a complete asshole or if he was really the funny and sweet guy everyone said he was."