Page 33 of Rescuing Dr. Marian (Made Marian Legacy #1)

I blinked at her. “I… I thought we were studiously avoiding this part of the conversation,” I admitted.

“I lulled you into a false sense of safety.” Tilly winked. “Trap sprung. Also, I stole your truck keys.”

I patted my pocket. Empty . “The fuck?”

She patted her chest. “In my bra. Where they’re safe. And you won’t go digging.”

That was for sure. Still…

“I’m not talking to you about my love life,” I insisted. “And I’m sure as hell not talking to you about Tommy’s.”

Tilly flicked a hand in the air. “I already know you kissed in Hawaii.” When I shot her a look, she continued smugly, “Tommy told Ella, and Ella told her father, and Blue Marian tells me everything. What I want to know is why it can’t work.”

For a moment, I floundered. Then I countered with, “Who says either of us wants it to?”

Her hand came up to fake a yawn. A ring with giant diamonds caught and scattered the light. “Spare me the denial, Man Candy. I don’t have much time left.”

The news was surprising. “Are you sick?” That would devastate Tommy. Family was everything to him.

Her face crinkled in confusion. “What? Hell, no. I’m tired and need my beauty rest. So let’s skip the conversational gymnastics. Why don’t you want my Tommy?”

I ground my teeth together before capitulating. “I do. I do want him. And if you can figure out how to make it work when we live noncompatible lives, I’ll buy you a bottle of whatever whiskey you prefer.”

Tilly’s eyes lit up. “You’ll regret that offer because I will take you up on it.”

Now it was my turn to shrug. “You talk a big game, lady.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t get smart with me, boy. I’ve been managing Marian men since before you were born.”

I let out a laugh, unsure why I was engaging with this firebrand. “Tommy doesn’t need managing.”

He needs loving. And if I could figure out how to be the one to do it, I would.

Before I could respond, Alex’s shout rang through the bar. “Another random fire safety inspection? We just had one!”

I glanced over to see an attractive older man I recognized as the fire chief who’d been at the scene of Hazel’s accident yesterday. At the time, he’d struck me as being coolheaded and efficient as he’d helped manage the rescue effort.

Now, he was flushed and intent as he leaned over the bar, eyes focused on Alex.

“That’s what ‘random’ means, firebug,” he growled. “If you knew when they were coming, you’d get your house in order and pass with flying colors.”

Alex threw up his hands. “You’re insane, Kincaid! This is harassment! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why me?”

“Do you really want a list, Marian? Because I could give you one.”

Tilly giggled softly. She nodded at Alex and shot me a look of extreme satisfaction. “Case in point. ”

I blinked at her. “What do you mean?”

“Never you mind. Here’s what you need to do. You need to find a way to remind Tommy what it is he really wants.”

“Pretty sure he knows exactly what he wants. The man is currently in California, interviewing for his dream job. Face it, we’re different people with different lives. He belongs in the city, and I belong in Wyoming.”

“Says who?” The shrewd intelligence in her eyes was unsettling.

“Says… reality?” I shook my head. “I’m a small-town sheriff who pulls tourists out of trees. He’s a brilliant trauma doc who saves lives in ways I can’t even comprehend. You should have seen him during Hazel’s accident?—”

“Oh yeah? What’d you see out there?”

The question seemed simple enough, but something in her tone suggested it wasn’t. I thought back to those hours at the accident scene, the controlled chaos of the rescue, the way Tommy had moved through it all with absolute certainty.

“I saw someone who was exactly where he belonged,” I said, making my point easily. “Someone who was made for that kind of work. Tommy was in his element. He threw his whole self into getting Hazel out of that car and making sure she didn’t…” I stopped before saying bleed out .

Tilly studied me for a moment and then shook her head, reaching into her shirt for my keys.

“Maybe you’re right, Muscles. But if you are, then I must have gotten the story mixed up.

Because the way I heard it…” She met my eyes with laser directness as she dropped the keys into my palm.

“There wasn’t a damned emergency room within a hu ndred miles of him when he was supposedly ‘in his element.’”

I stared at her, both frustrated at not getting my point across and also feeling like she’d somehow judged and found me lacking.

She banged her fist on the bar to get Alex’s attention. “Barkeep, put it on my tab. Tilly out.”

She stopped to give Chickie a quick pat on the head, and then I watched her saunter away, arms swinging past her designer puffer vest with a shh-shh sound.

The woman was a force of nature. Her interference and meddling were enough to make my mother’s matchmaking look like child’s play by comparison.

I dropped enough cash on the bar to make up for all of our drinks before waving my thanks to Alex and heading out. Once in the truck, I couldn’t get Tilly’s words out of my head.

You need to find a way to remind Tommy what it is he really wants.

I thought back to our conversation in Hawaii, about how Tommy’s face lit up with excitement and passion when he spoke of his time practicing wilderness medicine in North Carolina. About the way he thrived here at SERA, teaching others how to help people in an emergency and improvise when needed.

Once I was on the road out of town with Chickie’s ears flapping in the wind on the seat beside me, my phone buzzed with a call from my mom. I clicked to accept.

“Hey, sorry I haven’t called you back,” I said before she could lecture me. “Things have been crazy around here. ”

“I figured as much. Just wanted to hear your voice and make sure you’re alright up there.” Her warm, familiar voice washed over me. I felt my shoulders come down a little from around my ears.

“Yeah. All good. How’s it going in Majestic? Everyone okay?”

As my mom launched into her update on local gossip, I smiled to myself.

Jo Blake was the social hub of our small town, and if there was news to be had, she had it.

She told me about my good friends and their families, my sister’s latest achievement in her beginner pickleball classes, and the fact that the new dentist had possibly met his forever match in one of the visiting adventure racers.

“That could have been you,” she lamented. “If you’d just let me?—”

“I met someone,” I blurted, shocking myself possibly even more than my mother.

“You… what?” Her voice carried suspicion, and I could hardly blame her for it.

“Don’t get excited. It’s not a permanent thing. I just…” I blew out a breath. “I really like him, Mom. And I can’t have him.”

She was silent for a beat. It had been a long time since I’d confided my feelings for a guy to her, but there’d been a time when I’d told her everything.

My dad had taken off when I was eleven, and she’d been a single mom ever since.

For as busy as she was running the cafe, she’d always had time for me and Anna.

It was one of the reasons it had been my honor to stay close to home and look out for the two of them in return .

“Baby. Tell me everything. Is he one of your students?” She gasped. “Is it against the rules?”

“Not a student,” I said with a laugh. “He’s actually an instructor. And no. I don’t think Trace would have a problem with it since the woman I’m replacing married another instructor recently.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

I began to fill her in on Tommy’s move from New York to California, the fact that moving to Majestic wasn’t even an option for a doctor at his level, and the ultimate agreement we’d made to keep things limited to a summer fling.

It was unlike me to share this much with her, but after talking to Tilly, I was left feeling even worse than I’d felt before walking into Timber.

Whether she’d intended to or not, Tilly had painted a picture of Tommy’s future, one that could potentially include me.

If he decided to pursue wilderness medicine, he could find a job in Wyoming or Montana.

He could be closer to me.

“So what’s the problem?” Mom asked. “I still don’t get why you’re so convinced it won’t work.”

“Tommy’s spent his whole life being a good guy, doing what’s right.

Trying to be perfect. He’s selfless and kind, generous and devoted.

There’s no way he’s going to give up a chance to move back home to be near his parents and grandparents.

And he’s not going to reject the opportunity of a lifetime if Stanford decides to give him an offer.

Guys like him… they don’t say no to Stanford, Mom. ”

Even if it might not make them happy.

“He sounds like a nice man,” she said carefully .

My throat was too thick to speak, so I nodded into the dark cab of the truck and made a mmhm sound.

“Are you going to be okay, sweetheart?”

I shook my head, glad she couldn’t see me. “When am I ever not?” I asked, forcing a smile on my face in hopes she’d hear it.

“Wouldn’t hurt you to be a little selfish, you know. You don’t always have to be so strong.” She paused again, and just when I expected her to press, she changed the subject. “Tell me you heard about Hanson arresting the guy towing a hot tub?”

I was grateful for the opportunity to collect myself. “What? No. Why’d he bring him in? Must have been a good reason, but towing a hot tub itself isn’t illegal.”

“There were people in it at the time,” she said with a snicker. “And apparently, they’d been enjoying their party the whole way from Mammoth Hot Springs.”

I let the sound of her laughter and the remainder of her story carry me the rest of the way back to SERA, and for fifteen straight minutes, I wasn’t bombarded by thoughts of the golden boy who’d weaseled his way under my skin in such a short time.

But when I opened the door to the cabin and heard Chickie’s pitiful whine of disappointment, something felt different.

Not just Tommy’s absence—I’d been expecting that.

It was the way his things were still here, scattered around like he belonged.

His book on the nightstand. His jacket on the chair.

The lingering scent of that damn shampoo.

For the first time since Hawaii, I let myself imagine what it would feel like if he never came back. If Stanford offered him everything he’d ever dreamed of and he took it. If he left me behind.

The thought hit me like a physical blow. To never share a room with him again, a shower. A bed.

To never sit next to him and share a laugh over a training exercise gone wrong, or strategize a rescue drill, or have him remind me to give a student a fair shake because people could change.

To never run my tongue along the ticklish spot below his ribs and hear the intake of breath half a beat before his soft snort of laughter.

“Fuck,” I whispered to the empty room. Suddenly, it was clear to me that if he came back to me, even if only for a few more weeks, I’d take every ounce of him I could.

If he’d give me another chance, I’d grab any opportunity to have a summer fling with Tommy Marian, even knowing it would leave mangled wreckage behind after he was gone.

Better to taste heaven for a few weeks than spend the rest of my life wondering what loving Tommy Marian felt like.