The Best Medicine

Chapter 21



THE SISTERS WERE BACK. THIS was getting tedious, but I should have expected it. Hilary stomped into my office already shaking her head, followed by Gabby, who was wearing a lime-green dress and a huge smile. They both sat down, but nobody had brought me coffee this time. I wished they had, because I was exhausted. I’d stayed up with Tyler well past the witching hour and was in surgery by six this morning. Now it was nearly two o’clock in the afternoon, and I was drained.

“I thought we agreed Tyler Connelly was bad news,” Hilary said. She was using her mad mom voice. That’s how I knew I was in real trouble.

“You may have suggested he was bad news, but I’m not sure we agreed on it.” I avoided eye contact. “And anyway, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I knew exactly what she was talking about. I should have known I couldn’t show up at that bonfire without word getting around. I just didn’t think news would spread so fast.

“My cousin said she saw you two at a beach party last night, and then you snuck off into the bushes.” Gabby’s cheeks were pink with anticipation.

I frowned and started rummaging around in my desk drawers for a granola bar or something. Maybe some food would wake me up. And calm my nerves. I felt an inquisition coming on, and I did not want to face that on an empty stomach. “We did not sneak off into the bushes.”


Gabby’s face fell, until I added, “We snuck off to a lifeguard tower.”

“What?” Hilary’s screech was owlish. Mice scurried. I think she may have popped a blood vessel in her eye. “Please start at the beginning, and explain to me how this happened. I thought you had a good time with Chris Beaumont.”

“I did. But I tried to get you to cancel that, remember?”

“Yeah, but I didn’t realize it was because of Tyler! What are you thinking, Evie?” She’d transitioned to her I’m-so-disappointed-in-you mom voice. That one was a drag.

But I was in a damn good mood today, and she wasn’t going to change that. Turns out sex outside is delicious, and other than an inconveniently located splinter, my body was still enjoying the memory of it.

“What am I thinking? I’m thinking your advice to me was to have some fun,” I said. “Remember? Wasn’t that you on my birthday telling me to get a little something-something?”

She rolled her eyes like a preteen drama queen. “Yes, to fun, but why would you waste your time with some doofus like Tyler Connelly when you could have somebody handsome and smart like Chris Beaumont? You said yourself he met most of the requirements on your list. So I don’t get it.”

“Look,” I said, closing the desk drawer. “Don’t make a big deal out of this, Hilary. Tyler and I are just . . . ships passing in the night. OK?”

Gabby’s phone pinged, and she pulled it from her pocket. “Well, you might try having him dock his dinghy someplace a little more private than a lifeguard tower. This is from a different cousin, and he saw you too.”

“Do you have your entire family spying on me?” God, I wish I had a granola bar.

Gabby held up the phone and read the message out loud. “Saw hot redhead getting on TC last night. Think it was your boss.”

My stomach did the tango from one side of my abdomen to the other. I was a hot redhead?

“Doesn’t your family have anything better to do than send you texts about me?”

“Not in this town. Plus I have more bad news. That wasn’t a private text. That was Twitter. Hashtag boo-yah-sex-on-the-beach.” Gabby giggled.

“Oh, that’s just great,” Hilary said, crossing her arms and her legs simultaneously. “Your affair with Tyler has gone viral.”

“It’s not an affair! It’s just a . . . it’s just . . . well, yeah, I guess it is an affair.”

“Yay!” Gabby clapped her hands and tapped her feet on the floor.

“You’re doing this on purpose.” Hilary’s voice rasped with frustration. “You’re deliberately choosing the worst possible guy because you know this is going to crash and burn. And you’re going to ruin any chance with Chris in the process. You say you want a real, adult relationship, but obviously you don’t.”

“Why are you getting so mad about this?”

“Because I need you to be part of a couple! I never see you anymore. I can’t invite you to any of my dinner parties because you always come alone and it screws up my seating assignments.”

“You want me to get married because I’m screwing up your social life?” Something told me there was more to this than table assignments.

Hilary stood up and smoothed the front of her Calvin Klein dress. “Evie, I found you a perfectly acceptable man. If you’re going to mess it up on purpose, I can’t help you. You’re on your own.” She sounded more weary than angry, and I found myself wondering why, but she turned and left before I could ask.

Gabby watched her sister leave then swung her gaze back to me. “She’ll be all right. She’s in some dumb fight with Steve and taking it out on everyone else. She even snapped at Delle. I mean, who does that?”

“What’s the fight about?”

In a town of few secrets, Hilary had managed to keep her fears of Steve’s infidelity to herself, and I was not going to be the one to spill those adulterous beans.

Gabby fluffed her skirt. “She booked some fancy bed-and-breakfast place for the weekend to surprise him, but then he couldn’t go because he had to work. What did she expect? She knows he’s working on some big project. Now she just can’t let it go.”

It looked like Hilary and I were in need of a long-overdue heart-to-heart, like the kind we’d had back in our residency days. I wished I had time right then to perk up her spirits, but I had patients to see. That girl time would have to wait.

“And speaking of not letting go,” Gabby said, “why do you say you and Tyler are just ships in the night? Why put an expiration date on it? I mean, maybe he’s the one. Maybe he’s your Mr. Dr. Evelyn Rhoades.”

I swallowed a giggle at the thought of it. “Oh, come on, Gabby. You can’t be serious. For starters, he’s too young for me. And he . . . um . . .” My mind went blank after that. I knew there were lots of other reasons. Very valid, logical reasons. But they’d scattered like M&M’s hitting the floor when the bag rips open. I couldn’t retrieve a single one of them.

Gabby leaned forward in her seat. “OK, so he’s young, but he’ll grow out of that. And in spite of what Steve has told Hilary, everybody else thinks Tyler is a good guy. My cousin Regina, who works at the bank, told me he’s been paying his mother’s house payments since she lost her job last year. That’s a pretty cool thing to do.”

I stood up. “Wow. Your cousins are ubiquitous. And I have patients to see.” My joke was flip, but my internal reaction was anything but. Tyler Connelly was paying his mother’s house payments? Of course he was.



“So I said to myself, ‘what’s the best way for me to spend this alimony check?’ and then it hit me. New boobs. That’s going to drive my ex-husband crazy, seeing me strut around town with a couple of C-cups. Serves him right, lying, cheating piece of shit.”

My last patient of the day was a beautiful twenty-eight-year-old, fit, trim, full of vitality. She was a perfect candidate for this kind of surgery. Still, I had my job to do.

“Madeline, I think it’s important to consider the reasons behind wanting cosmetic surgery. The purpose is to help people develop a healthy self-image and grow their self-esteem. You need to make sure you’re doing this for yourself.”

“Oh, listen, Dr. Rhoades, this is absolutely for myself. This is the best decision I’ve ever made. I got rid of one lousy boob of a husband, and now I’m getting two awesome new boobs in his place. I feel fantastic about this. I didn’t realize how miserable that slob was making me until he was gone.”

Her smile was bright, and I couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm.

“OK, then. Let’s get you scheduled.”

“Great. And do you know any nice single guys?”

I let out an even bigger laugh over that. “You do not want advice from me on that front. Sorry.”

I finished with my patient and was packing up my work bag to take home when Hilary shuffled back into my office, shut the door, and slumped down into my chair.

I put my hand on her shoulder and spoke softly. “What’s up, Hil? Why the crazy-town lately?”

She looked up, her big brown eyes as sad as Bambi on the first day of hunting season.

“I think Steve is having an affair with the tax-coding whore.” And then she burst into tears.



Hilary and I sat on the couch at my apartment, sharing a pint of Ben & Jerry’s while she filled me in on all of Steve’s alleged escapades over the last few weeks. It all sounded pretty circumstantial to me, but I was trying to be supportive.


“They should make a flavor called Cheating Spouse,” she said, putting a fist-sized bite into her mouth. “They could fill it with all the stuff women give up eating when they’re trying to stay skinny for some jerk of a man. Although I guess that’s the definition of all ice cream, isn’t it?” Her eyes were still red from thirty minutes of weeping, but at least her sense of humor had begun to resurface.

I took a bite. “I’m still not clear on what you think happened.”

“I told you. He’s working all these extra hours, he wouldn’t go away with me for the weekend, and he’s also spending a ton of time at the gym. Who is he getting buffed up for? Not for me.”

“How do you know it’s not for you? Have you asked him?”

“No. But then there’s the fact that he changed his e-mail password. I used to have access and now I don’t. What’s he hiding?”

“Maybe confidential client information?” It occurred to me then that maybe Steve hadn’t told her anything about Tyler at all. Maybe she’d read it in a file. I wasn’t certain if that should give me slightly more confidence in him as a lawyer, or less.

Either way, Steve Pullman had a pretty high opinion of himself, but he’d never seemed like the kind of guy who would cheat. And Hilary was a dream wife. If I was going to swing the other way, I’d want to marry her.

“Do you think I should confront him?” Her eyes started to puddle up again.

“Yes, I do. I think rather than driving yourself crazy and getting a tummy tuck that you don’t need, you should talk to him. No matter what you find out, it’s better than worrying and not knowing.”

“I suppose.” She took another enormous bite. This was more calories than I’d seen her consume in all of the previous year. “So, what’s really up with you and Tyler? I know I haven’t been very supportive, but it’s only because I don’t want to see you waste your time on some deadbeat guy.”

I bristled in defense. “He’s not a deadbeat. He’s the opposite of a deadbeat. Aside from that stupid mishap with the Jet Ski, he’s working like crazy to support his family. He’s practically Prince Charming.”

Hilary quirked an eyebrow.

“OK, maybe a dented, smudgy version of Prince Charming.” I took the ice cream container from her.

“I know you, Evie. You are blinded by hormones right now. And even if he’s as great as you say, he’s not the marrying kind. Not for you. I mean, think about it. You drive a Mercedes. He drives a Jeep POS. He’s a college dropout who probably makes thirty-five grand a year if he’s lucky, and you make six times that much. Why wouldn’t he be hitting on you?”

Irritation shot through me like an electrical shock. “You think he’s after my money?”

She reached over and took the ice cream back, taking advantage of my surprise.

“I know that sounds like an insult, and I don’t mean it that way. I think he hit on you because you’re hot, but the fact that you’re about to move into a million-dollar love shack on the beach probably doesn’t bother him.”

“I hate this conversation. I hate everything about it.”

She was trying to bring me down because her own marriage was circling the drain, but I couldn’t deny that what she said was valid. Tyler was no stranger to money troubles, and hooking up with me could be the solution to all his problems, but that just didn’t seem like him. Not the guy who wouldn’t even let me pay for my own drink on the night he’d walked me home.

“You don’t know him at all.”

Hilary put on her mother-knows-best face. “Evie, look. I could be way off base, but I think you panicked a little. You hit thirty-five and jumped on the next guy who came along.”

“Oh, and whose fault is that? Yours. You’re the one constantly harping on me about finding a man.” I hoped I was wearing my you’re-not-the-boss-of-me face.

“Yes, a man. A man with real, honest potential. Hey, I get why Tyler’s fun. He’s cute and easy and eager to please. That makes you comfortable, and I guess that’s fine if it’s all you’re after, but real relationships have a balance of power. I hate to see you ruin your chance with somebody like Chris just because Tyler got to your panties faster.”

I wanted to argue with her, but she was probably right. If I’d met Chris before Tyler, things might feel very differently to me now.

“Why are you so stuck on Chris?” I asked.

“I’m not. I just think he’s more worth your time. And as much as I hate to agree with your parents, he’s your intellectual and professional equal. Tyler sure isn’t.”

“You do sound like my parents.”

“Well, it took them long enough to figure it out, but isn’t that what you decided you wanted too?” She handed me the ice cream.

I hated it when she was right. “And didn’t you make fun of me for saying that?”

“No, I made fun of you for using that horrible pink website. But listen, do me this favor. Go out with Chris one more time. Give him a fair shot, and if you don’t like him, I’ll get off your back. You said you had a good time with him, right?”

I did have a good time with Chris. Lunch had been very enjoyable. Not glorious sex in a lifeguard tower kind of enjoyable, but enjoyable enough to give him another chance. I supposed there were worse ways to spend an evening.