Page 15 of Distant Shores (Stapled Magnolias #2)

ADAIR

“ I ’m sorry, Mr. Jacks. If it’s still hurting this bad, I think we need more scans. And possibly surgery.”

My heart sank as Dr. Patel placed her tablet on the exam room table. “You’ve been doing physical therapy as prescribed?” she asked, rolling toward me on her stool.

“Yes, ma’am.”

My co-workers at the station had given me the name of a great physical therapist who wasn’t too far from the apartment.

Going to those appointments was about the only thing I’d had going on for me socially for the past month since I gotten back to Georgia from my weekend trip to see Pops on the coast. Especially since I hadn’t been cleared to return to work.

Dr. Patel hummed to herself as she led me through a series of extensions, all of which were level five pain at best, excruciating at worst. “Has anything happened that might’ve strained the injury?”

I gave her a sheepish grin. “There might’ve been an incident. ”

She stared at me blankly until I confessed, which took about four seconds.

“I fell. I went down hard but didn’t get up well. I wasn’t thinking.”

And then I’d spent weeks packing up the cabin with Cole, my thoughts so filled with everything about Live Oak—mostly Pops’s diagnosis and treatments he was starting and Beck Sewell’s daughter—that I hadn’t been careful of my ankle.

Her sigh was heavy. “And why didn’t we lead with this?”

I tried to smile at her, but it was more of a grimace. “The power of positive thinking does me dirty sometimes.”

That made her laugh, which made me feel better. I hated disappointing anyone.

“Do you think a couple more weeks of rest would do anything?” I asked hopefully.

She planted her feet and rolled backward, fixing me with a no-nonsense stare. “Sure. If you love wasting your time.” Tipping her head back, she raised her gaze to the lightly stained ceiling tiles. “Medics make the worst patients, you know that?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I agreed. “Though I thought it was doctors who made the worst. I’m not a doctor.”

“Stubborn as one,” she muttered as she grabbed her tablet back from the table. “I’m putting in the order for some scans. Go on down and get them done now. I don’t trust you to not put them off.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said for the third time.

The walk back to the Jeep a while later was brutal, but Delly’s call the minute I cranked the engine was a welcomed distraction.

“I’d murder for some fries, Addy,” she said through the speakers, not even letting me say, “Hello. ”

“No murder necessary. We’ll get you some on the way to Alabama.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this, Addy. An entire summer at the beach.”

I couldn’t either. It’d been an errant impulse to call Jillie the night we finished packing up the cabin, sitting in the airy, empty space, feeling even emptier inside.

I’d asked her if Live Oak was hiring positions that fit my qualifications and Delly’s.

Just because Pops thought he needed to leave didn’t mean we couldn’t follow. At least for a little while.

“How long, do you think, until you’re here? I got all my stuff packed and ready.”

I could practically picture her bouncing on her toes, and it made me wince just imagining doing the same.

“I’ll text you an ETA after I’ve loaded up. Shouldn’t take long.”

“Ugh,” she said, “I hate that I’m not there to help you. Imagining you hopping around on one foot as you load up the Jeep is depressing. And kind of embarrassing, honestly.”

“Yes, very embarrassing,” I deadpanned. “But thankfully for you, Cole will be there to help. That should mitigate your shame.”

There was a long pause and then, “Ew.”

I let out a long-suffering sigh. “Do I need to hire a peer mediator to stay with us for whenever Cole visits this summer?”

She snorted. “But why, brother? You’re so good at dealing with conflict.”

“Tell that to my tears.”

“Dork,” she accused.

“Brat,” I countered.

She laughed. “See you soon. Drive safe. ”

“I’ll park safe now, as I’m pulling into the complex,” I said, turning into a space. “Love you.”

“Love you too. And I’ll extra mean it once I’ve got my fries… and, Addy?”

I put the Jeep in Park, killing the engine but not the Bluetooth. “Yeah?”

“I’m excited about this. Really excited.”

My chest swelled with bittersweet emotion. “Me too.”

Three knocks rapped on my window, and I jumped at the sudden noise but then relaxed at my best friend’s smiling face. I laughed and grabbed my phone from its cradle, seeing that Delly had already hung up.

Cole yanked open my door. “ Baby .” He spread his arms wide as if he expected me to jump into them. “You’re home. Finally .”

I ignored his arms and slid out of the seat, giving him a mock serious look. “Cole. I’m leaving you. I’ve told you this.”

He took a step back and shook his head in denial, then tucked one side of his shoulder-length hair behind his ears. “It was just a fight, Addy. We can get past this. And I didn’t mean to overwater your succulents. I swear.”

I shook my head and opened the back door to get my crutch. “That’s the problem.” I braced myself on the crutch and turned toward him. “You never do.”

He sniffed and scrunched his face up. “Damn, Addy. I think that actually hurt my feelings.”

I cracked a smile. “I trust you to care for my plants while I’m gone. And to replace them if you do murder.” I thought of the unkillable snake plants that’d wilted under his care last year. “Or murders.”

“This is why you’re the light of my life,” he said. “Without you, I would wither into nothingness.” He grabbed my shoulder and met my gaze. “Which is why you’re going to text me the minute you get your new work schedule so we can plan my visit. Maybe around my birthday, if not sooner?”

“Please remove your hand,” I said seriously. “The sexual tension isn’t good for my health.”

He patted my cheek. “Okay, sweetie.”

I really was going to miss him, but that was about the only thing I was going to miss about Georgia this summer. I was more than ready for the change of pace and scenery.

We caught up as we loaded the Jeep, but I kept answers to questions about my doctor’s visit vague and the ones about Pops the opposite.

When I finished telling him about the new medicines Pops was taking and therapies he was doing, I moved onto describing Live Oak and all the people I’d met, Miss Sewell included, for the hundredth time.

Cole looked ready to pack his bag and go with me once we finished the last load.

“I never thought I’d say that a retirement community sounds awesome… but it kind of does. I thought you were exaggerating when you first told me about it, but damn, your tune hasn’t changed.”

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and refilled my canteen from the water pitcher in the fridge.

“Think you’ll be able to find out the name of your mystery woman?” Cole asked as he pulled his blond hair back with a hair tie, gray eyes keen.

“We’ll see,” I said vaguely.

It would’ve been easy to ask Jillie for her name during our countless phone calls about Pops, who was back to dodging my calls.

But I didn’t want that. I wanted to find it out for myself .

“When’s Gary moving in?” I asked as he locked the apartment door.

“ Gary ,” he scoffed at the name like it’d offended him.

“I thought you liked Gary?”

He raked his hand through his hair, then his shoulders slumped dramatically. “He won’t take care of me like you do.”

I pressed my lips together to hold back a smile. Cole was a very capable man. A middle school counselor, volunteer firefighter, and man of many hobbies. He just liked to pretend he wasn’t. “I am so glad our neighbors don’t hear the things you say to me.”

He drew a heart in the air with his pointer fingers. “You complete me.”

“And now Gary can complete you,” I deadpanned.

He scrunched his nose. “Nasty.”

I sighed and opened my arms. “Give me a goodbye hug.”

Cole lit up like a puppy and lifted me off the ground as we embraced. “Just promise me the waves and sand won’t seduce you and you’ll come back when summer’s over.”

Fitness was one of his top hobbies, one that he’d dragged me into in high school. I hadn’t realized how much I missed our daily workouts until this moment.

A car door slammed nearby, and I patted his shoulder. “You’re gonna have to put me down, buddy.”

He relented and placed me with unnecessary gentleness back on the ground, and as if reading my earlier thoughts, he said, “Try to find somewhere to exercise when you get there. I bet they have a nice gym. Send me pics of their equipment, and I’ll send you a plan for things you can do with only one functioning foot. ”

“Will do. ”

“You’ll send me pictures of the ocean that I can cry over while I’m at work?” he asked.

“Yes. But it’ll be the Gulf, not the ocean.”

He shrugged. “Works for me.”

I met his gaze and guilt creeped in. “Thanks for the help loading up, and I’m so?—”

“If you apologize one more time for spending the summer at the beach, I won’t be responsible for my reaction.”

I closed my mouth, and he nodded in satisfaction.

“I’ll text you,” I said instead.

He ushered me into the driver’s seat, shutting the door softly once I was in.

I waved at him through the window, and the dumbass blew me a kiss, drawing the attention of several neighbors as they loitered around the complex. I pretended to catch it and then threw it in the back seat. He barked a laugh, and I smiled as I texted Delly my ETA as promised.

Then I pulled onto the road and drove toward our summer of….

Well. I really didn’t know.

“To be determined” seemed like a good enough label for now.