Courtney’s phone rang early on Monday morning, pulling her out of a deep sleep. She rose on one elbow and checked the caller ID. It was Lisa Brigs, Dr. Lamborn’s nurse practitioner and one of Courtney’s work colleagues back in the day when she’d been a nurse. She accepted the call.
“Hey. What’s up?”
“Sid Miller’s in the hospital,” Lisa said. “He went to the emergency room with chest pains last night. It looks like he needs bypass surgery, but he’s being stubborn. I thought maybe you could visit him, help change his mind.”
Damn him. Courtney regarded Sid like family. It hurt that he hadn’t called her. “I’m on it. And Lisa, thanks for calling.”
Half an hour later, Courtney marched into Sid’s hospital room, ready to read him the riot act, only to find him lying in his hospital bed with his eyes closed, looking frail and slightly gray. Her heart twisted in her chest, and she swallowed the ball of emotion that clogged her throat. She couldn’t lose Sid, not after she’d lost Mom and Dad. Not after she and Sid had lost Barbara last year, following a long, expensive battle with cancer.
“When were you going to tell me about these chest pains?” she asked in a hushed voice as she gripped the bed’s railing.
Sid cracked one bright blue eye. “Go away.” His eyelid shut.
“No. And what’s this I hear about you telling Dr. Lamborn that you don’t want the bypass operation?”
Sid said nothing, but Courtney could tell he wasn’t asleep. She pulled up the chair and settled into it. “I’ve got all day to wait. I don’t work on Mondays.”
“What’s the point?” Sid rolled his head toward Courtney and opened his eyes.
“What do you mean, what’s the point?”
“I mean that I’m ready to go.”
Courtney’s heart slammed against her ribs. “No. You’re still young. You have a lot of life left. I won’t let you give up.”
“Courtney, girl, I love your grit,” he said on a long, tired breath. “But I ain’t got much to look forward to. Medicare will pay eighty percent for this operation, but where am I gonna get the rest of the money? Besides, Barbara’s gone. Your mom and dad are gone. The hardware store is gone. And pretty soon the rat hole apartment building I’m living in will be sold right from under my ass. Where will I go then?”
“Sid, we’ll find the money for this operation. And we’ll find someplace for you to live. As for the rest of your life, haven’t I told you dozens of times that I could get you a part-time job working for Dusty McNeil’s guide service? He’s about to open Shenandoah River Guides, and he needs guys like you who know the fishing in the Shenandoah and Potomac watersheds. Wouldn’t you love to have a job that got you out on the river as a guide?”
“I won’t take no charity.”
Courtney tried not to roll her eyes in frustration. She and Sid had been through this many times before. Sid’s interest in life had disappeared with Barbara’s death, and it was pointless to argue him out of his depression and grief.
So she changed the subject. “Arwen told me about the tenants association’s battle with your landlord, but I didn’t think you were being evicted.”
Sid looked away and shook his head. “We haven’t been. Yet. But Leslie got a boatload of bad legal advice from Lyndon, Lyndon & Kopp that blew right up in her face. Honestly, that useless law firm sent two of those Lyndon boys out, and neither one of them knew their asses from holes in the ground.”
Suddenly intrigued, Courtney asked, “Oh? What did they do?”
“Well, the first feller—Andrew—thought he could negotiate with the landlord. Ha, that’s a laugh! Scott Anderson is an SOB. He wasn’t ever going to negotiate. And then they sent his brother or cousin or whatever—Matthew.” He shook his head. “What an idiot. That boy thought Anderson would jump right to it and fix the place up when the county fined him.”
Arwen had mentioned the fact that Sid had argued with Matt, but she didn’t quite understand what Sid was so upset about. It seemed totally reasonable to think that something good might come as a result of county intervention.
“Why shouldn’t Matt have been happy about that?” she asked.
Sid rolled his head and gave her a hard, probing stare. “You know Matthew Lyndon?”
Damn it all, why did her face get hot? “I’ve met him.”
“Honey, by the pink in your cheeks, you’ve done more than meet him. I figure you’re a grown woman, so I’m not going to give you a lecture.”
“You know, Sid, I am a grown woman, and when you get to be my age and you’re still living alone, you start to think about throwing caution to the wind.”
“Girl, I just don’t understand it. You’re a smart, capable woman with a pretty nice figure. I think maybe sometimes you’re a little too picky when it comes to fellers.”
“Sid, let me ask you something. When you asked Barbara to marry you, were you settling? Or was she Ms. Right?”
His eyes lit up, and a dreamy smile softened his thin lips. “I fell in love with Barbara the first time I saw her—you know that.”
She nodded. She’d heard the story many times, about how Sid and Dad had gone out to dinner and serendipitously met Barbara and Mom. If her parents and Sid were to be believed, love at first sight had simultaneously occurred for both of them. She idly wondered if anyone fell in love at first sight anymore.
“You hang in there, girl. You’ll find a nice feller one day.”
Time to get back to the main subject. “Yes, Sid, I will. And when that happens, I expect you to dance at my wedding. So, you listen to me,” she said in her best take-charge, wedding-planner voice. “I’m going to go down to the nurses’ station and get the consent forms, and you’re going to sign them. I don’t want to lose you, Sid.”
“But where am I going to live?” His voice sounded strained. Clearly his living situation was a big worry, but she didn’t quite understand why he thought he’d be losing his apartment. It sounded as if LL&K was doing everything they could to get the landlord to clean up the place.
She didn’t want to argue with him though. So she patted his shoulder. “Look, while you’re recovering, you’re going to move into my spare bedroom. Okay? I’m a nurse. I’ll take good care of you.”
“I can’t do that. What if your feller comes along? You’ll need privacy.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. And frankly, it’s highly unlikely ever to happen. By the way, are you allergic to cats?”
Courtney spent most of the day at the Winchester Medical Center, making sure Sid signed his consent papers and talking with his doctors. She got back home in the late afternoon and planned to spend some quality time with Aramis, her new kitten. But the moment she walked into the apartment, the cat scrambled under the bed and behaved as if Courtney were a depraved cat killer.
The cat’s rejection was the last straw. She refused to let a tiny kitten push her over the edge into a crying jag. So she put down a can of gourmet cat food, checked the litter box and water dish, and then headed off to the Jaybird Café. If Aramis wanted alone time, she was happy to give it to him.
When Courtney arrived at the Jaybird, she found Ryan Pierce sitting in his usual seat at the end of the bar drinking a Coke. She halted a moment, studying him. He had regular features, a strong jaw, and a buzz cut that branded him as ex-military. If she were going to settle, Ryan might be a good choice, but settling for Ryan might be dangerous unless she understood his demons.
Ryan also didn’t make her heartstrings zing. She’d never met anyone who’d done that, even though she’d met quite a few men who’d awakened her girl parts, Matthew Lyndon chief among them.
She took the seat next to Ryan, and an instant later, Rory put a Manhattan in front of her. “Thanks, man. I really needed this.”
“Rough day?” Ryan asked.
“You know it’s bad when you’re a single woman and the cat you adopt hates you.”
Ryan had the temerity to chuckle.
She rounded on him. “It’s not funny.” She turned away and took a swig of her drink.
“I think it’s hilarious. What did you do? Get a wild cat?”
Her glass thunked when she put it down. “No. I adopted one of the kittens from Melissa’s storefront. His name is Aramis.”
“Aramis? Like the cologne?”
“No, like the Musketeer. Honestly, Ryan, you should read more.”
“When you brought the cat home, did you put him in the bathroom?” This advice had been said in a deep, soft voice that traveled through Courtney’s eardrums and down her spine. She turned on her barstool to find Matt Lyndon, wearing suit pants and a white oxford-cloth, button-down shirt with the top button undone and a red and gray striped tie loosened. Boy, he sure had the Brooks Brothers preppy look nailed.
With all that eye candy to enjoy, Courtney momentarily lost her train of thought. What had she been talking about? Oh yeah, the cat. “Why would I put the cat in the bathroom?”
“To give it time to adjust. A new cat should always be left in a small room or the bathroom for a few days with its litter box, food, and water. It’s less scary for them that way.”
She blinked at Matthew for a long moment. “How did you become an expert on cats?”
He shrugged. “I’ve always had a cat. Well, except for the last couple of years. I was living in a pet-free house with several allergic roommates.”
Somehow this detail about Matthew didn’t fit. Hook-up Artists didn’t have cats. Having a cat required commitment, and players wanted to be free of all encumbrances. The shock of this discovery left her speechless.
Matt gave her a slow, sexy smile. “So is this your first cat?”
His question was simple, and yet Courtney thought she heard some kind of double entendre. Was he laughing at her because of the ridiculous question she’d asked him the other night? Or was he laughing at her because she was so desperate that she’d gotten a cat? “Yes, it’s my first cat.”
His smile widened, and a three-alarm fire started in her core. “You know, Courtney, I distinctly remember you telling me that you had a cat. It was the day Brandon left Laurie at the altar. I think you lied to me.”
Damn. She had lied to him. He’d been trying to pick her up, and she’d been leading him on a merry chase. “Guilty as charged,” she said. “But now I have become one of those single women committed to her cat.”
“Congratulations,” Matt said as Rory placed a Sam Adams in front of him. Matt hadn’t even ordered the drink.
The implications were earth-shattering. Matt was becoming a Jaybird regular.
She’d have to find some other place for cocktails, which would be difficult since only the Red Fern Inn and the Jaybird were within walking distance of her apartment. She stared down at her half-finished drink. She should never have come here tonight. Tomorrow was going to be a long day at the hospital. She should go home, capture Aramis, and put him in the bathroom.
No, wait. Why should she believe Matt about cats anyway? He was probably giving her a load of BS. The need to lash out overwhelmed her.
She turned toward him. “Did you really think that getting the county government involved would help the people living at Dogwood Estates?”
His eyes widened. “How do you know about that?”
“Sid Miller is a friend of mine.”
His frown deepened, but he said nothing.
“You don’t even know who Sid is, do you? For the record, he’s a great guy who’s fallen on some tough luck. And now he’s in the hospital, and he’s all upset about losing his apartment.” Her voice wobbled.
Matt nodded. “I remember Sidney Miller very well, Courtney. He ripped me a new one the first time I met him.”
“He told me that LL&K messed things up for the tenants at Dogwood Estates.”
Matt took a long sip of beer and put his glass down carefully. “It’s quite possible that we did. It’s also quite possible that the situation at Dogwood Estates was never going to end well for the people living there. I don’t know yet.”
“You don’t know yet?”
“I’m working on a theory, but I can’t talk about it. It’s way out there, and it will probably fail, but I’m as ticked off as you are about what’s happened to those people.”
Whoa, wait a sec. Who was this guy? Had an alien race snatched Matt Lyndon and replaced him with someone nicer? Or had she missed something?
Deep in the guarded part of her heart, hope awakened. Courtney wanted to push that feeling away, but it was too late. Somehow, in the blink of an eye, she’d started to see Matt in an entirely new light.