“I can’t believe I let myself get talked into this.” Aleen blew her bangs out of her face as she talked to herself in the rearview mirror, parked outside Miss Molly’s shop.
She didn’t call Miss Molly for an appointment. She figured she’d go in, feel things out, and go with what her gut told her to do.
“Ah, there’s a familiar face I haven’t seen for a while.”
Miss Molly greeted Aleen as soon as she entered the store.
“Hi, Miss Molly. I’m sorry I haven’t been in for a while—I’ve been picking up extra shifts.”
“Oh yes, I’ve been hearing about these extra ‘shifts’. No luck in the love department, huh?”
“You really do know everything that happens in this town, don’t you?”
Miss Molly tapped her eye patch—a tye-dyed pattern with bright yellow stitching.
“I may have only one eye, but I see everything! And from where I’m standing, I see a woman who needs me to point out the obvious. You may have two eyes, but you are blind.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Come closer, dear. Write your worries on this paper and put them in my worry jar. I’ll release them into the universe for you.”
Miss Molly handed Aleen a square of pastel-green paper and a pen with feathers on the end.
“Go on, now. Write them down. And then open your ears and your eyes so you can hear and see what I’m about to tell you.”
To appease Miss Molly, Aleen jotted down her one worry.
She wasn’t superstitious, but if this thing really worked the way people around town claimed it did, she would be forever grateful.
“This is confidential, right?”
“Of course, my dear. I would never tell anyone that your greatest worry is that you won’t have a baby of your own.”
How had she read that? Aleen purposefully wrote more sloppily than normal, and she had folded it as soon as she finished writing.
“Thought it would be confidential from everyone…”
“Oh, I don’t read them. I just know. Remember? I see everything.”
Aleen concentrated on taking a deep breath, just like she told her patients to do when they were on the brink of an anxiety attack.
Why had she come here? Why hadn’t she gone straight home from work, as planned?
Why had she allowed Sabrina’s voice to be louder than her own?
“I can see you don’t want to be here, so let’s get the advice out of the way. You have tried on several types of shoes, and none of them have fit. I know your generation is keen on catalog shopping and getting everything on the internet, but why pay for shipping when you have what you need in this quaint town of ours?”
Aleen studied Miss Molly’s face, trying to determine whether or not she had begun to show signs of senility.
“Don’t look at me like I’ve lost my marbles.” Miss Molly threw her permed head back and cackled. “I’m talking about that cute veterinarian of yours. He is the one you are most compatible with. He is the one I would match you up with in a heartbeat. Don’t make that face, dear. I’ve been watching and listening. He came in here just yesterday to buy those soaps you like. Did you like the new scent? Sweet Julia has been busy making more types. But I digress. As I watched the way he spoke of you, the way he carefully selected soaps based on what he thought you’d like, I knew. You should know, too, but you’re too close to the situation.”
“Yeah, too close because he’s my best friend. We don’t belong together in the way that I need to belong with a guy.”
Aleen laughed nervously, then popped a mint in her mouth when she realized what she was doing.
“Nonsense. Friends make the best lovers. Don’t ask me how I know.” Miss Molly wagged her eyebrows at Aleen, settling Aleen’s fired-up nerves. “You can search the stratosphere for true love, but I’m telling you, dear. Luke is your man.”
Aleen thanked Miss Molly, picked up several items to purchase, and after a few moments of non-Luke small talk, left the shop.
She fought the urge to vomit on the sidewalk.
Finding love in the microcosm of Healing Springs probably wasn’t the best idea she had ever had. Importing men from the surrounding areas via the cruel world of online matchmaking hadn’t done her any favors.
She wasn’t the clubbing type—she enjoyed hanging out at Jake’s now and then, but only to kick Luke’s butt at darts or for a quick game of pool.
She had to find love. Fast. Before her birthday, and before Luke found out that every damned soul in this town was trying to merge her heart with Luke’s.
Aleen called her mom for reassurance. Even she asked why Aleen and Luke weren’t together.
They all thought it looked obvious. Easy. Right in front of her face.
They didn’t understand.
True, she didn’t think of Luke as a brother. She had never had a brother, but she knew she found Luke way too attractive to be like a relative.
He didn’t annoy her. Not much. He was the tidy to her messy. He was the healthy food to her processed diet. He was the stable to her chaos.
She needed him.
He had never maintained interest in a woman beyond the first few dates. When he had allowed this last girlfriend to move in with him, Aleen had known it wouldn’t last. She hated the woman for hurting Luke, but she didn’t blame the woman for cheating—not really. Luke was never emotionally available to the woman, and though Aleen was delighted that he was always there for her, she couldn’t help but ache for the women in Luke’s life who had tried to crack him open.
He was never unkind to the women, just not lovey-dovey. He didn’t believe in sending flowers. He couldn’t stand to listen to their daydreams unless they had concrete plans for achieving their goals. He didn’t appreciate long-term laziness, and he despised long grooming sessions. If she couldn’t be ready to go within fifteen minutes, he didn’t want to bother leaving the house.
But he was hard-working, ridiculously intelligent, and he could melt a heart with the way he treated animals.
Aleen had watched him jump all in with women more times than she could count, but when the relationships died, he never tried to contact them again. Never responded to texts or calls. He didn’t believe in social media, so no late-night reunions happened there.
When they were done, they were done.
The idea of Luke being done with Aleen splintered her heart into teeny, tiny stakes and drove them straight into her bloodstream, where they scraped and pinched and punctured.
She was bleeding out.
Aleen pulled over to a scenic spot near the Springs and forced herself to take deep breaths to ward off the hyperventilation.
As she regained her breath, her phone buzzed with an incoming text from Luke.
“You are a beautiful goddess. You will make a man very happy one day, but more importantly, he has to make YOU happy. See you tonight. Pinches.”
He always signed his correspondence with “pinches” instead of hugs or kisses, because when they had met in college, he had pinched her arm when he lost a Trivial Pursuit game. She had laughed hysterically at his immature pout, and he continued pinching her all over her body as she rolled around on the bed, laughing to the point of tears. When he saw her tears, he thought he had hurt her. He had scooped her in his arms and apologized profusely. She pinched him on his chest, and the pinching war resumed. They gave each other a few bruises, but she had never had more fun in her life.
From then on, he pinched her affectionately whenever she needed a laugh.
Tears puddled around her lips and dripped on her neck at the memory.
God, how she loved that man.
He always knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.
She needed to find a husband to father her children, but she already had her soul mate.