“Mary Alice.” Remorse colored Finn’s tone.
“And thanks for spilling out all the details to Chad at the ER the other night. Because he might have been the only guy in town who didn’t already know that my ex went and married his best friend right after I broke up with him.”
Finn winced. “I know it’s not really meaningful to say I’m sorry for what I said when I was drunk, but I am.”
All out of mad and feeling vaguely sick with it, Mary Alice blew out a breath. “It doesn’t matter.”
“For what it’s worth, he didn’t look like he was here because he felt sorry for you.”
No, he hadn’t. “I don’t know why he was really here.”
“I may be hung over and almost concussed, but even I could see that the pretty, pretty doctor likes you.”
Pretty, pretty indeed.
“Maybe. Or maybe he was just being polite.” Or maybe he’d be so turned off by Finn’s outburst that he’d run the other way. Mary Alice couldn’t even blame him.
“Are you really ready to date somebody else?”
Mary Alice shrugged. “I don’t know. Nobody’s asked. But I’m not still carrying a torch for Judd. He and Autumn were never going to be happy with anybody but each other, and I’ve accepted that.”
“I’d like to get to that point. The acceptance. But right now, I just can’t see my way to it.”
She laid a hand over Finn’s. “By the Girl Code, you still have at least another six weeks to bash Seth before you’re required to start working through it like a mature adult. So how about I make some brownies and we put on Kill Bill and you can talk about how much Seth sucks and what you’d like to do to torture him.”
Finn sniffed and turned her hand over to clasp Mary Alice’s. “You’re a good cousin and friend. Thanks for taking care of me.”
“Any time.”
Chapter 3
BY THE TIME CHAD made it to the community center, he was a little bit late. He’d gotten hung up waiting on a patient’s test results, not wanting to leave until he could explain what they meant. With no idea how many people to expect, he went straight to the gym, but it was full of rec league basketball and evening walkers on the upstairs track. Back down the hall, he peered through the tiny windows of the doors on each room, finally seeing Mary Alice through the third one he checked. He stepped inside and all heads swiveled in his direction.
At the front of the room, Mary Alice’s baby blue eyes widened. “Chad.” Was she surprised because she hadn’t believed him when he said he wanted to volunteer or because she thought he’d blown it off?
“Sorry I’m late.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she gestured toward the dozen or so assembled people. “Thanks for coming. Have a seat.”
Chad gave her a small nod and quickly found a chair. He could feel the stir around him—the same subtle murmur of surprise and interest he’d learned meant something akin to Ooo, the new guy’s here. He’d gotten that a lot since he moved to Wishful. How long would it be before he was considered one of them?
“As I was saying, each sponsor business is responsible for setting up their own tree, but I’ll need someone to deliver the custom tags, along with the curated list of recipients—which I’m still making, by the way.” Mary Alice consulted a clipboard. “I will also need several someones to decorate and drop off the donation collection boxes at each location by Friday.”
As she reviewed the list of people and businesses around town who were donating materials and supplies to the cause, Chad looked around the room. He saw Margot and Finn and the other friend who’d been at the ER over the weekend. One of the city councilwomen, Grace Handeford, was also in attendance, along with Cassie Callister, the owner of the local coffee shop, The Daily Grind, and the pastor from the Episcopal Church. More than a half-dozen others he didn’t know filled up the rest of the chairs—a mix of men and woman, heavily skewed toward the female.
“We will, of course, have more to do the closer we get to D-Day—”
“D-Day?” Chad asked.
“Delivery day. I have this room booked for the next three weeks, until we make our final drop offs on Christmas Eve eve, so we can and should utilize it as a work space, not just for storage of supplies and donations. We’ll talk more about the later steps at next week’s meeting. For now, let’s get the immediate assignments done.”
Chad shot his hand up. “I volunteer to help you work through the list of recipients and getting the tags made.”
She went brows up. “How close do you adhere to the stereotype of doctor?”
“Sorry?”
The corners of her mouth quirked. “How bad is your handwriting?”