“I…well, sure,” she said, flustered by the turn of events.
She jumped when the motorcycle’s engine suddenly roared in her ears.
“’Night,” Marc said.
“Marc…wait,” she called as he began to turn the cycle around in the drive. She saw the tilt of his chin and suddenly knew for a fact that the golden day had come to an abrupt end.
Eric and she stood immobile, watching as Marc tore down the street in the opposite direction of the Kavanaugh house.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Eric said uncertainly. “It’s just that I think I found the perfect manager for The Family Center today.”
“Really? That’s great.”
“You don’t seem as excited as I thought you’d be.” He glanced down Sycamore Avenue. “Mari…are you seeing Marc Kavanaugh?”
Her spine stiffened at Eric’s incredulous tone. She felt beleaguered and on edge, having her idyllic day with Marc end this way.
“Why do you ask it like that?” she bristled.
“It…it just seems a bit surprising.”
“Does it really? It doesn’t seem strange to me at all!” she said a little shrilly. Her emotions seemed to be reaching some sort of crescendo in her body. A strange, indefinable feeling had risen in her as she’d watched Marc ride away. She felt exhausted and yet prickly with adrenaline. She was vaguely queasy. In the back of her mind, she had the niggling thought that she was now hotly defending to Eric something she’d just been denying with Marc, and that upset her even more.
“Well… Cut me some slack, Mari, but yeah,” Eric said slowly. “It does seem a little unusual, at the very least.”
“Marc and I were involved years ago, before the crash. Maybe you didn’t know that. Listen, Eric. I’m thrilled that you think you’ve found someone for the manager position. But I’m not feeling very well. You’ll have to excuse me at the moment. I’m sorry.”
“Mari, wait. Are you okay?”
She felt intensely guilty about treating a friend in such a fashion, but Mari couldn’t seem to stop herself. Eric’s question went unanswered. She hurried up the front steps and into the darkened house. Without pausing to set her bag down, she rushed into the downstairs powder room and—much to her shock—threw up.
A moment later, she flushed the toilet and brushed her teeth. Leaning against the bathroom sink, she stared at herself in the mirror. A cold sweat had broken out all over her skin, and her face had gone pale beneath her tan. She started when she saw Eric’s face appear behind her in the mirror.
“Mari?” he asked tensely.
“It’s okay,” she said shakily, noting his worried expression. She turned on the tap and filled her palm with cool water, then pressed it against her cheek. “I…I guess that bug is still bothering me.”
“Seems like an awfully strange bug to me. I’m going to make an appointment for you with an internist I know at Harbor Town Memorial.”
“No, Eric, that’s not necessary.”
“It is, Mari,” Eric countered.
A trickle of unease went through her when she noticed how sober his expression was.
Chapter Six
Mari felt so good the next morning that she had herself convinced her illness last night had been the result of strong, conflicted emotion. Eric was kind enough to have arranged a lunch for her and Allison Trainor, the nurse he thought well-suited for the manager position of The Family Center. It had turned so hot and humid outside that they opted to eat indoors in the air-conditioning versus the sun-soaked terrace of the Captain and Crew Restaurant downtown.
“Your qualifications are exceptional,” Mari mused as she perused Allison’s resume for the tenth time.
Allison possessed both social work and nursing degrees and had significant managerial experience in hospitals and substance abuse rehab programs. Even better, Allison was not only warm and kind, but confident and down-to-earth.
Mari looked up as the waitress cleared the remains of their lunch. “Eric says he knows of your work. So, as far as I’m concerned, the job is yours if you want it.”
Allison looked pleased. “I accept. When Dr. Reyes told me about your plans for The Family Center, I was hooked. I like the idea of a treatment facility for people struggling with substance abuse combined with a place where family members can get education, understanding and support. What you plan puts a positive spin on a topic most people would rather ignore.”
“I really want the emphasis to be on education for the community—clubs, workplaces, schools. Substance abuse is a community problem as well as an individual one. The stigma attached to it keeps us from seeing that.”