The Homespun Holiday (11 page)

Wednesday, December 18

Two days later, Millie waved a cheerful
hello at Aubrey Daniels as she carefully navigated her way through the packed I
Don’t Care Café toward the table the other woman had claimed for them.  Bree,
luckily, had arrived before the current lunch rush and nabbed them a round
table toward the back of the restaurant where both women knew Mack preferred to
sit.

Peeling her coat off and draping it
over the back of her chair, Millie offered the woman an apologetic smile. 
“Sorry I’m late.  This has been an absolutely
crazy
day.  Your brother
will be along behind me; he sent me ahead to grab a table, but thankfully,
you’ve already grabbed one for us.  You didn’t have any problem finding the
restaurant, did you?” she asked.

“Given that it’s the only real
restaurant in this town and it’s the
only
place at all to eat on Main
Street, I found it just fine,” Aubrey mocked with a mischievous grin.

“You know, I can really see the
family resemblance between you and your brother at times like these,” Millie
returned with a chuckle, pulling out her chair and sinking into it.  She nearly
groaned as she sat back in her seat, her busy morning finally catching up with
her.  Exhaling harshly, Millie closed her eyes for a moment.  “I truly hope
your morning has been a lot less taxing than mine has,” she declared upon
opening her eyes and looking across the table at her newest friend.

“Taxing?  No,” Bree denied with a
shake of her head, her long blonde hair swinging against her shoulders. 
“Eventful, on the other hand.  Absolutely,” she declared with an excited smile.

Finally focusing her tired eyes on
the woman across the table, Mille noted the professional tailored black suit
Aubrey wore, and her emerald eyes widened.  “You had your interview with the
hospital board at Paradise General today!  How the heck did I forget that?” she
asked out loud, frustrated that she’d forgotten something so important to both
Bree
and
Mack.  “How did it go?  Spill, girl,” she demanded, leaning
forward in her seat eagerly.

“We-ellll,” Aubrey drawled, drawing
circles in the condensation on her cold glass of sweet tea.  “The chairman of
the board offered me the job.”

Millie squealed, throwing her hands
in the air as she bounced in her seat.  “Oh my God!  That’s amazing, Aubrey! 
What did you say?  Did you take the job?”

“Not yet,” Bree said slowly,
shaking her head.

Millie’s eyes clouded.  “What? 
Why?  Was their offer that disappointing?”

“Not exactly disappointing, but not
quite what I’d hoped to be offered.  Plus, it is a
lot
less than I’m
making in Portland.  Which isn’t all that surprising when I put things in
perspective.  Portland is a large city on the West Coast.  Paradise is a tiny
country town in the South.  The demand for therapists with my credentials isn’t
exactly booming around here.  Although, after visiting for just a couple of
days, I can already tell that there is a market for my brand of therapy here. 
I think the Board recognized that, too.  Those muck-a-mucks already called me
in the last hour to up their offer by five thousand dollars.”

“Wow,” Millie breathed.  “That’s
great, Bree.  What did you tell them?” she asked.

“I told them I needed 48 hours to
think on it,” she answered, propping her chin in her hand.  “I wanted time to
talk to you and Mack about things.”

“Well, my vote is that if you can
afford the pay cut, take it,” Millie proclaimed.  “I love having another girl
friend close at hand.  And whether Mack admits it or not, he’d love having his family
closer to him.”

Aubrey smiled.  “I’m pretty sure
Mack would deny that.”

“Probably, but believe me, I’ve
seen him after he gets a phone call from you or his mom, Bree.  He gets this
distant, faraway look in his eyes.  It’s sad.  I’ve often wondered why he ever
took the job in Paradise when it meant a move further away from you guys.  The
money couldn’t have been that great.”

“It wasn’t.  But he wanted to put
some mileage between him and his ex-wife.  Right before he got the job here,
she was making noises about wanting to reconcile.  Evidently the Sugar Daddy
she’d cheated on my brother with cast her aside as soon as her divorce was
final.  Turns out it wasn’t so much
her
that got the guy’s motor running
as it was the forbidden act of screwing another man’s wife,” Aubrey explained,
filling in the blanks that Millie had often wondered about during her time with
Mack.

“What an asshole,” Millie spat,
angry on Mack’s behalf at the witch that had hurt him.  Hadn’t that stupid
woman realized what a prize she’d held in being married to Mack?

“Yeah, the upside is that his
dipshit of an ex-wife found herself alone with nothing but a small divorce
settlement to keep her warm.  It was poetic justice if you ask me.  That bitch
got what she deserved.”

Millie shook her head.  “I still
don’t understand how that woman could have ever cheated on Mack.  He’s kind and
sweet and hot….”

“Oh, please stop.  You’re giving me
indigestion and I haven’t even gotten to eat yet today.  I was too nervous this
morning.  I’m sorry, chick, but I just can’t hear the words ‘Mack’ and ‘hot’
inside the same sentence.  It just sounds wrong,” Bree begged, looking repulsed
as she pressed one hand to her flat stomach.

Millie giggled.  “Then I guess I
shouldn’t tell you what a great kisser he is, huh?” she asked teasingly.

Glaring at the other woman, Bree
growled, “You are evil, Millie Robbins.  You look all sweet and innocent, but
at your core, you’re just pure evil, aren’t you?”

“Fine,” Millie relented.  “I’ll
behave.  Just know that my vote is that you stay here with us.  Mack has been
so much more relaxed with y’all here.  Overall, he’s a lot less stressed… this
morning not withstanding.”

“Honey, I think his decreased level
of stress has a lot more to do with you than it does with Mom and me.  If
anything, we’re one of the primary sources of the anxiety in his life.  I mean,
honestly, have you
met
our mother?” Aubrey asked.

Millie grinned.  “Just tell me,
between us girls, which way are you leaning?  Stay or go?”

“Truthfully, I’m ready for a change,
Millie.  Your town is open and friendly, which is not at all like the freeze
most newcomers get from where I’m from.  And I feel like I keep running into
the same carbon-copied patient in Portland.  I want to be challenged.  I want
to make a difference.  And part of my job here would be working with some of the
juvenile offenders over at the Paradise Alternative School.  I think I could
really help some of those kids.  I’ve always wanted to do more work with
children, and this would be a great opportunity.”

“What would be a so-called great
opportunity?” a deep familiar voice questioned suspiciously.

Looking over her shoulder, Millie’s
face brightened as her eyes connected with those of the man with whom she was
quickly falling head over heels in love.  “Hey, you made it out of the high
school alive and in one piece.  I was starting to get worried about you.  When
I left, it looked as though you were about three seconds away from popping a
blood vessel in your temple.”

“Don’t worry for me; worry for
those imbeciles that are supposed to be our future because seriously, if those
kids are our future, the world is completely fucked,” Dr. Mack Daniels grumbled
as he bent to capture Millie’s lips in a brief, hot hello kiss.  Finally
releasing her mouth, Mack lifted his head and grinned at the woman who’d
managed to begin thawing out his frozen heart.  “You taste like chocolate.”

Millie grinned.  “It’s the lip
gloss.”

Aubrey rolled her eyes as she sat
across the table from the couple.  “Okay, lovebirds.  You’re making the single
woman at the table nauseous.  Save that stuff for the bedroom.”

“Hey, I’m being a gentleman here,
Breebee.  If you must know, we haven’t even
been
to the bedroom yet,”
Mack growled, shooting his sister a dark look before he mumbled a grouchy,
“Dammit.”

Bree’s gaze sharpened on the pair
in front of her.  “Well,” she tsked, her lips turned up in a wicked grin, “This
is new.  The great Dr. Mackenzie Daniels is playing by the rules and actually
taking the time to woo a woman.  I’m impressed, Mack.”

“Oh, shut up,” Mack grumbled, his
own cheeks turning a ruddy red hue even as he linked his fingers with Millie’s
on top of the table. 

“Don’t tease him,” Millie chided
Mack’s sister softly.  “He’s had a rough morning.”

“Rough is the understatement of the
century, babe, and you know it.  I think I’ve been forced to interact with
every frickin’ nutjob this damn town has to offer.”

Millie snorted, smiling at the
waitress as the young woman dropped off three glasses of ice water at their
table and assured them that she’d be back to take their orders in a minute.

Waiting until the waitress had
stepped away from their table.  “Okay, I’ve gotta know what got your panties in
a bunch this morning, Big Brother.  Enlighten me with the mental deficiencies
of this fair town.”

“Well, it started with… we’ll call
her Patient X to protect the guilty…. at 7:30 this morning.  She’s was a
patient of the practice when I took it over.  At any rate, Patient X is married
and in her early 30s.  She’s got three children already, and she came in to see
me this morning claiming she had a growth in her abdomen that she insisted was
some kind of malignant cancer.  When I got to the examination room, my Millie,
here,” Mack said, squeezing Millie’s hand, “Well, she had already gotten her to
change into one of our gowns and seated on the exam table.  I’d reviewed the
chart before I entered the room and was moderately concerned when I saw what
the patient claimed her problem was, but upon reviewing the blood work and
urinalysis that I’d had pulled when the patient arrived, I was relieved to note
that my patient was simply pregnant.  I walk in the room to give the patient
the good news and this woman is, I kid you NOT, at LEAST seven months
pregnant.  Aubrey, the so-called tumor was MOVING inside her.  Seriously, you
could see the imprint of a little foot when it kicked her belly! And it STILL
took me a blood test, a urinalysis AND 3D ultrasound where her kid basically
waved at her to convince this woman that her freaking tumor was what turned out
indeed to be an seven-month old healthy fetus!  This crazy broad had literally
convinced herself that she was dying from some kind of cancer!”

Bree rolled her eyes as she smacked
her brother’s hand.  “Well, Mack, obviously the poor woman was redirecting her
fear of an unplanned pregnancy and becoming a mother for the fourth time in her
life toward a cancer that she could possibly cure.  She needs a good therapist,
big brother, not to be ridiculed by a man that will never know the anxiety of
pregnancy and childbirth.”

“Spoken like the true spewer of
psychobabble that I know and love,” Mack grumbled before reaching for his ice
water.  “Face it, sis.  Some patients are just whack-a-doodles that, in my
humble opinion, I ought to be able to play whack-a-mole with their empty
skulls.”

Shaking her head at her brother’s
grumblings, Aubrey sighed.  “I don’t know why you don’t get more compliments on
your bedside manner, Mack.” his sister remarked dryly.  “I can only imagined
what a comfort you are during a mother’s labor and delivery.”

“Bite me,” Mack retorted, glaring
at his younger sibling.  “I’m a fucking delight in the delivery room, aren’t I,
Millie?  Besides, you haven’t been here long enough to judge me, woman.  Just
wait.  If you decide to stay here, it won’t be long until the crazy starts to
hang over your head like a black cloud.”

Millie grinned.  “I think it’s
important to point out at this juncture that your brother’s morning didn’t end
with Patient X,” she interjected with a giggle.  “Oh, no.  This morning was
Mack’s morning to talk to the junior class over at Paradise High about the
pitfalls of teenage pregnancy and the dangers of the sexually transmitted
disease.”

“Oh, Lord,” Aubrey murmured,
lifting her eyes heavenward as if searching for spiritual guidance from Above. 
“They turned Mack loose on innocent children?  Whose idea was that?”

“The idiot Principal over at the
high school conned me into stepping into this morning’s trap of pure quicksand,
and believe me, Bree, those kids are
anything
but innocent.  They told
me about things that I’d never heard of before!  But, sadly, they are dumber
than rocks where birth control is concerned,” Mack proclaimed irritably with a
disgusted shake of his head.

“They’re kids, Mack.  You gotta
give them a pass.  Kids are allowed to be stupid; it’s a fringe benefit of
youth,” Millie reminded Mack gently. 

“Oh, please.  I think half those
morons in the auditorium this morning were dropped on their heads while they
were infants, and the other half’s parents must have smoked everything but
their socks before the kids were born.  It’s the only explanation I can come up
with for some of the idiotic things that came out of their mouths.  Seriously,
babe, there’s stupid, and then there’s being a dumbass.  A lot of those kids
have drifted right on over the line.”