Page 2

“I’m fine, Mom.” I feel like my words are on repeat as my shoulders tighten, and I try to tamp down my insides.
“I know. You’re doing so well with your therapy, and I’m so proud of you. But I’m okay too. Susan will take good care of me today. Besides, she was keen to see the hospital one last time before Hudson comes back. Apparently, he wants to make lots of changes once he is here,” Mom says, and just at the sound of his name, I’m on high alert, my heart back to racing.
“Hudson?” I ask cautiously. I feel like the dots are starting to connect in my brain. Hudson Hamilton is Susan’s son and a billionaire doctor from the city, a man who screams wealth, who grew up here, and is bestfriends with my boss. He is also the man who rescued me from certain death six months ago. Held me close and promised to keep me safe, and I believed him. Pity my panic attacks prove otherwise.
“Hudson is coming home. He’s going to run the hospital. Susan is so glad to have him and her grandson coming to live in Whispers, she is beside herself. It’s all she has been talking about for weeks.” Mom huffs with a small smile dancing on her lips, filling me in on the local gossip.
I swallow harshly. I knew my boss, Tanner Whiteman, was trying to get Hudson to come back to manage the hospital, and even though Tanner runs this town and is good friends with Hudson, I never thought he would accept the offer. Hudson lives in LA and is one of the country's best doctors. Having invented some unique medical testing equipment while he was in med school, he earned his billions from selling his prototype to the country’s larger medical company, and even though he could retire young and live a life floating around the Mediterranean, he doesn’t.
If Hudson is, in fact, coming back, our billionaire count in Whispers will rise again. Our little quiet patch of the country already has many, Hudson’s brother Huxley also living here part-time. I’m quiet for a beat. Shocked, really. I first met Hudson months ago when he came to Whispers to spend a few weeks at the hospital to try it out. I remember his eyes following me around the bar in town when I worked the night shift and whenever he would come past the distillery to see Tanner. We shared smiles, a few harmless flirtatious moments. They werebrief, yet butterflies swirled every time he was near. But after the incident, he left pretty quickly. He sent me text messages almost every week for a month before they stopped—probably because I never responded. I was healing, both physically and mentally, and he’s a billionaire dad, who lives in LA, so far removed from my day-to-day that my dreams of being swept off my feet are well and truly just that. Dreams. I never thought I would ever see him again. I guess I was wrong.
“Lacy. Lacy?” Mom says, grabbing my attention, and I shake my head.
“Yes, Mom?” I ask, just as the washing machine beeps for a third time, making my shoulders inch upward to my ears.
“You need to get to work. You will be late, honey.”
With that, I shove Hudson to the back of my mind and run to the laundry, pulling out the wet clothes and throwing them into the dryer, the outside breeze not one I have time to utilize today before I quickly gather my things.
Mom is right. I’m busy. Busy with my new role, busy being her primary caretaker, busy trying to sort myself out, manage the house, manage our finances. It leaves little time for anything else.
Men and dating included.
2
HUDSON HAMILTON
My son runs around the empty house, arms spread out wide, pretending to be an airplane. His fascination with planes started when we took a trip in the jet back to Whispers a few months ago. Now he can’t get enough of them.
“It looks so big!” he exclaims as he zooms past me, my smile wide as I watch his delight.
“He’s right. This house is so empty, our voices almost echo,” my friend, Sutton, says as he takes a swig of his morning take-away coffee. I look around. The walls that were once covered with my multimillion-dollar art collection are now bare. My Dali and Picasso are now in safe storage. The polished marble flooring makes the house feel cold and uninviting, instead of warm and welcoming. Family photos that lined the wall up the stairs are all packed away, as are all our other things. The time has now come.
“Your place echoes,” I huff to him, knowing his Hollywood Hills mansion is decorated well, but has no life.Like me, he works too hard, although instead of a busy city hospital, he’s always off on a movie set somewhere.
“True. Maybe I need a new decorator?” he murmurs, obviously bored already and needing something new to focus on. Perhaps his new leading lady is yet to make an appearance. While I played the field in my youth, that side of me is long over. However, Sutton Silvers puts us all to shame. He has a different woman on his arm at every event.
“You need to enjoy life and stop working so hard. If anything, these past few years have taught me that,” I try to explain and ignore the small empathetic smile he gives me. I prefer his wide Hollywood grin, the one where his teeth are so white they are almost blinding.
“Well, I won’t keep you. I need to head to Cannes for the film festival this afternoon. I think my jet is parked near yours at the airport, actually. Tell Sawyer I said hello.” Then my best friend surprises me, pulling me close and slapping my back as we hug. His brother Sawyer spends a lot of time in Whispers these days due to his work with Tanner Whiteman, owner of the local distillery, quasi-mayor of the town, and one of my best friends.
Not much happens in Whispers without Tanner's hand, including me being placed as their new full-time resident doctor. It was always in the cards. I don’t work for the money anymore, but the deep-seated need to continue to help people through medicine runs through my veins and is what pushed me through my medical degree. After selling my prototype for new medical testing equipment years ago, my life is all financed, as isthat of my son and grandchildren, should I have them. With money not an issue, I can do life on my terms, and for a long while, that was city living and working to help people in the busy city hospital. Now my pace in life has changed and back home in Whispers, closer to friends and family, is where I want to be.
“I will see you across socials, no doubt. Come visit, yeah?” I ask him, and he gives me a cheeky grin.
“I heard the country girls are nice?” he says slyly, wiggling his eyebrows as he starts to walk backward toward the door. I swallow roughly as I think about my small town and the one woman I think about often. Lacy and I shared a significant night. And she hasn’t left my thoughts, even though she hasn’t responded to any of my text messages. Just the knowledge that I’ll be seeing her again has me both nervous and hopeful.
“I won't be telling you a thing,” I say, smiling devilishly. I’ve been single for the past few years, preferring to keep my life without strings attached, trying to balance single parenting with work and not really succeeding very well. I need a fresh start and can’t wait to get to Whispers just to breathe.
“Hudson, so glad I caught you,” my sister-in-law, Melody, says breathily as she sweeps through the open front door, interrupting us. She acts like she has run from the car, yet nothing about her is out of place. Just like my late wife Amanda, she is prim, proper, blond, blue-eyed, plumped and primped and boringly perfect.
“That’s my cue,” Sutton says, giving me a jovial salute and walking past my new guest, giving her a wink.
“Bye, champ.” Sutton fist-bumps my son before he picks him up off the floor and squeezes him tight.
“Bye, Uncle Sutton.” Harvey giggles uncontrollably as Sutton tickles him and then places him back on his feet and waltzes out the door. It must be nice to not have a care in the world. I can’t remember those days.
“I keep forgetting your best friend is a movie star,” Melody mumbles as she watches him go.