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“No hospital in town, but we do have an urgent care center. Doctor Mole should be open by now,” the older gentleman comments. “I can call him for you, if you’d like me to.”
“No, really. Thank you, sir. I’m okay. I’m okay…”
“Tom Jones, ma’am. We met the other day at the pharmacy.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Jones. Pardon me. I’m still trying to put faces and names together in my head.” I chuckle.
“No worries, ma’am. You’ll get it down in no time.”
“Please, call me Victoria. Or Tori, would be fine.”
“Well, Tori, if you’re sure you’re good, we will head back into town. If you start to have blurred vision, or any pain that is not going away, get yourself to urgent care.” He gives me a look that I am sure he’s been using for years. It brooks no arguments from me.
“Yes, sir. I will. I promise.”
“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Ian says. “She’s in good hands.”
I glance up at him. He has placed his hand over mine where it still rests on his chest while I was preoccupied by Mr. Jones. Oh my heavens. I haven’t taken my hand off of him either. The hard muscles… It’s safe to say my body is fine after that fall. Parts are working and making me awfully aware of just how close he is to me. How his body heat is warming me. The man is rugged and sexy. And too damn young for me.
“Vicky, babe, we need to talk.”
“Stop calling me babe, Carter. You have no right to be here and right now, I don’t have the patience to deal with your bullshit.” I may have let my temper get the best of me, but I am so over this jerk thinking he has any say in my life.
“I’m sorry, sir, you need to leave. The door is this way.” I watch Carter’s face turn red as Mack motions to the door. Why my late husband was ever friends with this rat, I’ll never know. He is nothing more than a worm wiggling his way into everyday life. He hit on me at the funeral for Christ’s sake. Asking me out for dinner. I should have put him in the hole with Barney.
“Vicky!”
“Are you deaf? Tori asked you nicely to get out. Now as I see it, you have two choices, mister. Either you walk out on your own, or we help you out and you’ll be the one needing a ride down to urgent care.” Ian moves toward him, putting me behind his solid, muscled body.
The wall that he and his guys make should have made Carter rethink his presence here. But oh no, it does the opposite. Some men are so dumb sometimes.
“Victoria, we need to discuss Barney’s?—”
“There is nothing to discuss. Let the man rest in peace for Christ’s sake. His estate was closed years ago now. You got what you were promised, and you will get absolutely nothing else. You used my husband for years. How—why he tolerated you—the man was a freaking saint. Now get out of my house!”
“He has other property that I helped him obtain!” Carter snarls.
I push around the men. “I know what he had. It’s all in my name now. It will be handled as I see fit, when I see fit, how I see fit. Anything that belonged to Barney is going to his son. So now, I swear if you don’t get out of my life?—”
“Don’t dismiss me, Victoria.”
“Don’t use that tone with me, Carter Lowery. You may have been friends, and I use that term loosely, with my late husband, but you were never anything to me. Do not come back. Do not call me. Nothing. You were out of my life the moment Barny died. Now get out of my house!”
“You’re making a mistake,” he moves toward me, and I step back, “you stupid bi?—”
He doesn’t get to finish whatever he was going to say. One of the men in Ian’s group snatches him up by his collar and drags him outside.
I mean that literally. The big man just scoops him up like he is a rag doll.
If it had been anyone else, I may have worried what they’d do, but…meh.
Good riddance.
I walk out of the foyer and down to the kitchen. It’s one of my favorite rooms in the house. The large room has everything a ‘wannabe’ chef needs. The latest updates have added a water spout behind the stove so I no longer have to carry big pots of water from the sink. The island also has a hidden dishwasher, convection oven, and plenty of space to roll out dough.
I love to bake. Being in the kitchen is my Zen time. Mixing ingredients, kneading dough, providing something sweet or savory for my friends and family—it will always be my ‘me’ time.
Once my son and former parents-in-law get here, I will be doing a lot of baking. They love freshly made bread with my mother-in-law’s homemade apple butter. It is a delicious treat that we all appreciate.
