Grace Falls Read online

  Peter took a long gulp of his coffee ignoring the heat of the liquid, “I thought that you usually had breakfast together on a Tuesday?”

  “Not this morning,” Alex said brightly. “About tonight. I have plans, and Jessica.”

  Letting out a low growl of a yawn Peter stretched up, “He’s your godson, you can’t skip it and bring Jessica, it’s not like she’s never sat in the bar before!” He drained his coffee with a satisfied lip smack. “I’m sure the good doctor won’t mind sharing you with your friends for a bit,” he added with a grin.

  Alex felt her face flush, “Okay we’ll be there.”

  The bell above the door rang as Teddy opened it and Jessica burst in running to Peter for a twirl.

  “Hey big girl, you going to come see Ben tonight?” he asked spinning her around above his head.

  Jessica gave a quick look over towards her mom who nodded. “Can I hold him?” she asked.

  “If you’re careful,” Peter smiled planting a kiss on her cheek before lowering her to the ground.

  “Hey Daddy Cool,” Teddy said hugging Peter in a greeting.

  Pulling away, he pointed between Teddy and Alex, “You two need to stop hanging out.” With that he gave them a wave over his shoulder as he left the coffee shop to head towards the clinic.

  Teddy gave Alex a quizzical look, “Why have we to stop hanging out?”

  “We’re speaking alike now,” Alex laughed. “Kinda scary,” she scooped her daughter into a hug. “How was school?” she asked, receiving a shrug in reply. Alex rolled her eyes. “There’s a cookie in the kitchen for you and some milk,” she swatted Jessica on the behind as she sprinted off towards the kitchen. “Be careful,” she shouted after her. “How was school today?” she asked Teddy. “Did you behave?”

  Teddy snatched a cookie from the plate on the display and shrugged. “It was school,” she replied through a mouthful of cookie, catching falling crumbs with her fingertips. She looked up when she heard a soft snort coming from her friend, “Soooo you look…” Teddy rocked her head back and forward as she tried to place the look on Alex’s face, her eyes widening in recognition. “You got laid,” she whispered. “I’ve seen that look…not for a while,” she frowned. “But I have seen it.”

  Alex looked around the coffee shop glad that the afternoon rush had ended leaving the only other occupant sitting in the corner, “Shhhhh, seriously Teddy!”

  “But that’s…” Teddy’s smile fell from her face. “Wait,” she started to count on her fingers, her head bobbing back and forth as she did. “It’s brilliant!” she exclaimed finally satisfied that her Math added up.

  “Okay, what was that?” Alex asked, pointing towards Teddy’s hands. “Should I worry that you’re in charge of my child’s education and still use your fingers to count?”

  Teddy scowled. “I was just trying to work out the days…and I win!” she said clapping her hands.

  “Win what?” Alex asked, wiping the crumbs left by Teddy from the counter.

  “The bet with Ruth. I said it would only take a week, she said two. I win since it was day seven when the doc and you finally got all Sapphic…wait, it did happen before midnight right? ’cause otherwise I lose,” Teddy asked, her face scrunching in concern.

  Alex listened with her mouth hanging open. “Okay firstly,” she held a finger up. “I can’t believe you thought that I would have sex with someone I only knew for a week. You bet on me being easy!” she narrowed her eyes and glowered at Teddy. “And secondly, I’m not giving you any details about when, or where, or how.”

  Taking another cookie from the plate, Teddy sniffed haughtily as Alex stuck her head into the kitchen to check on Jessica, “Nineteen ninety six, Spring break. You knew that girl less than four hours and you slept with her!” she muttered.

  Alex’s head snapped back into the coffee shop and she bore down on Teddy. “Nineteen ninety four, you and Matt Sullivan on Peter’s mother’s lawn,” she countered, pointing a finger at Teddy as she continued. “Just ’cause you did it then don’t mean that you would…” she paused. “Wait…actually Matt probably would,” she grinned, swiping the cookie from Teddy’s hand. “No pay, no eat.”

  Teddy grumbled pulling money from her pocket and slapping it on the counter before looking dolefully at Alex, who relented and returned the cookie.

  “I’m happy for you,” Teddy smiled taking the cookie.

  “I’m happy for me too,” Alex beamed in response, her dimples crinkling her cheeks.

  “I like the cut of her rug,” Teddy mused. “Wait, is the saying cut of her jib?” she wrinkled her forehead in concentration. “’cause cut of her rug sounds wrong…and kinda dirty.”

  Alex rolled her eyes, “For the love of all things godly, stop with the cutting of the rug.” She held up her hands hoping to stop Teddy from rambling further.

  “What did you do to your wrist?” Teddy asked noticing the brace on Alex’s wrist for the first time. “Actually second thought, sometimes there should be secrets in this town. Don’t tell me,” she shook her head and nibbled on her cookie.

  ***

  “So how did the first night at home go?” Maddie asked, handing Ben back to Ruth and jotting down his weight into his records.

  “Looong…noisy and tiring,” Ruth smiled.

  Maddie let out a small laugh, “I believe the response to that would be ‘welcome to parenthood’. It’s going to be like that for some time.” They both looked up at the knock at the door and Peter’s head appearing. “Ahh come in proud Daddy,” Maddie waved him in. “You look suitably exhausted.”

  “I have just downed a coffee like it was a tequila shot, I’m good for another twenty minutes,” Peter replied, taking his son from his wife.

  Maddie closed the file on the desk and rested her head in her hands taking a moment to observe the family sitting opposite her, both parents looking in awe at the tiny life they had created. She hoped that one day she would have that. She shook herself as her mind created an image of Alex looking at her, sitting with a baby in her arms. Resuming professional mode, she stood up.

  “Keep an eye on his feeding, it’s good he’s latching on, just make sure that he’s getting enough milk,” she walked towards the door as Ruth and Peter stood up.

  “You’ll come to his sign ceremony tonight?” Ruth asked.

  “Well I…” Maddie hesitated. She didn’t want to bail on Alex, she had to speak to her sooner rather than later about her plans.

  “It’s okay. I’ve spoken to Alex already. We’ll see you both there at six, it won’t be a late one,” Peter smiled, catching his wife’s surprised look when he mentioned Alex. “We’ll be ready for bed at seven,” he added looking down at his son. “Won’t we?” he said in a baby voice nuzzling against the side of his son’s face.

  Ruth narrowed her eyes and regarded the slightly embarrassed looking doctor. “So,” she smiled. “We’ll see you and Alex at six.”

  Maddie nodded, still surprised at Peter’s words. “See you then,” she smiled, closing the door behind them.

  She was sitting completing her filing when Mack came into the office. “It would appear that the years of studying to be a nurse have been wasted on some of the inhabitants of this town, who appear to believe I’m your PA!” she held out a ‘Post-it’ under Maddie’s nose.

  Pulling her head back so she could focus on the writing on the yellow square, Maddie couldn’t help but smile at the message, ‘Have to go to bar for Ben tonight, we’ll pick you up. See you at yours at five thirty - Alex and Jessica’. She took the note from Mack, “I’m sure that Alex didn’t mean anything by asking you to pass me this, she thinks a lot of you.”

  Mack raised an eyebrow, “I know that!” she snorted. “Her skinny blonde ass would have failed Biology in high school, if it wasn’t for me and our tutor sessions,” she gave Maddie a smile and headed out backwards from the office. “Haven’t seen her tendonitis play up all of a sudden like that before,” she chuckled as she closed the door.<
br />
  Maddie palmed her hand against her forehead. “Jesus, this town!” she groaned.

  Chapter Nine

  At precisely five thirty there was a small knock at Maddie’s door, she opened it and expected to see Alex looking back at her. Instead, she was looking down the empty path towards the gate.

  “Hey Maddie-Lyn,” Jessica’s voice rang out, Maddie looked down to where the small child was standing looking up at her with her mother’s smile wide on her face.

  “Hey Jessica, where’s your mom?” Maddie asked looking out.

  “I’m here,” Alex’s voice sounded as she came into view around the side of the house. “I told you to wait,” she scolded Jessica.

  “I wanted to show Maddie-Lyn my dress,” Jessica frowned at her mom.

  Maddie bit her bottom lip at the adorableness of both mother and child. “It’s a lovely dress Jessica,” Maddie said, pulling the door closed behind her and locking it. She tossed the keys into her purse wherein the gleam of her car keys caught her eye, she silently cursed them for haunting her every move that day. She pushed her purse onto her shoulder as Jessica reached up and gripped her hand, before putting her other hand in her mother’s.

  “Do you like my mama?” Jessica asked innocently as they walked into town.

  “Jessica!” Alex gasped. “Madeleine I’m sorry…she-”

  Maddie cut her off with a wave of her hand, “It’s okay.” She looked down at the girl, “Yes Jessica, I like your mommy.” She looked back up at Alex, who gave a bashful smile.

  “How much?” Jessica asked.

  “Well?” Maddie said cautiously, unsure how much to give away at this stage, particularly since she was talking to Alex’s daughter.

  “’cause my mama likes you enough to change her outfit five times,” Jessica said, skipping in between the two adults.

  Alex rolled her eyes and prayed for the ground to swallow her, or her daughter, whole. At this point, she didn’t care which it was and would take whichever would make the embarrassment that she could feel flooding her face stop.

  “You are so grounded, as soon as being grounded has some meaning,” she muttered.

  Trying not to laugh Maddie looked back down at Jessica. “Well in that case, I must like your mommy a lot ’cause I changed six times,” she leaned down and whispered in Jessica’s ear. “How do I look?”

  Jessica gave her a quick look up and down. “You look like a vision,” she said, pleased with herself, then frowning slightly at the surprised response she got from the adults, immediately worrying that she’d said the wrong thing.

  “Where’d you hear that Squirt?” Alex asked, changing the hand that held Jessica’s and placing an arm around her daughter’s shoulders.

  “Daddy,” Jessica answered. “He said it to Aunt Lou when she came round last night.”

  Alex raised her eyebrows and smirked at Maddie, “Did he now? Well you’re right, Madeleine does look like a vision.” She gave Maddie a subtle wink.

  They walked the rest of the way with Jessica rattling off what she’d done at school that day to Maddie, Alex listened intently as Maddie effortlessly chatted with Jessica about her day and elicited more information in the ten minute walk than Alex had managed in the previous three months. She held the door open as her daughter sped off to greet her father.

  “She likes you,” she said quietly to Maddie, as she passed through the open door.

  “I like her too,” Maddie smiled, squeezing Alex’s hand delicately as she passed by.

  The bar was busy, it seemed to Maddie that the entire town had turned out for the ritual performed for all new born Grace Falls inhabitants. Peter and Ruth were on the small stage with Ben. Smiling proudly as Sully presented them with a town sign; with the population number crossed out and increased by one. The room burst into applause as Peter accepted the sign then announced that drinks were on him. The announcement apparently took Ruth by surprise and she quickly scanned the packed bar in concern; calculating firstly how much Peter’s generosity was going to cost them and then how she could get away with murdering him.

  “Oh he’s so going to pay for that later,” Lou snorted, as she caught her sister’s look.

  “Yep,” Teddy agreed. “Scotty, I’ll have a double,” she waved the glass towards Sully’s bartender. “Might as well before she kills him,” she reasoned, as Lou looked at her shocked.

  “Me too Scotty,” Lou said, holding her glass up.

  Maddie was standing with Alex when she felt a buzzing in her purse, frowning she fumbled her hand through the contents until she located her cell. “Ah, I have to go take this,” she said looking at Zoe’s photo on caller ID. She pushed her purse back on her shoulder and made her way out of the main bar and into the small entranceway where the restrooms were located.

  Alex spotted Lou standing at the bar with Teddy and made a beeline for her. “Hey you. How’s things?” she asked brightly.

  “Good,” Lou said sipping her drink. “You?” she asked.

  “Really good,” Alex nodded looking around her. “Enjoy your day off?”

  Lou started to get slightly nervous at the tone of Alex’s questioning. “Yep, was good,” she answered carefully taking a drink.

  “Excellent, I’m pleased. So I just wondered, were you doing the walk of shame from Matt’s this morning when you saw Sam and sent him to Maddie’s with a message for me?”

  Lou spluttered her drink, “Hmm, sorry I…no idea what…excuse me.” She put her glass on the bar and sped off towards the ladies’ room.

  Teddy grinned against the rim of her glass. “Well that was just plain mean,” she said, “and now you’ve done the bad cop, I’m off to be good cop and get the low down.” She took a swig, put her glass down and headed off in hot pursuit of Lou.

  Alex laughed as she watched her go. “Hey Sam,” she smiled and took a long suck at the straw in her drink as the mechanic approached the bar.

  “Hey,” he nodded. “The doc must be happy now her car’s fixed,” he said, waving trying to get the bartender’s attention.

  “Sorry?” Alex frowned, releasing the straw from her lips.

  “Her car,” Sam said, giving her a look as if she were dumb. “I dropped the keys off to her this morning. It’s all fixed. Didn’t she say?” he shrugged. “Did she tell you about the Sweet’N Low?” he whined, worrying that Alex didn’t get the message from Lou.

  “Yeah, I got the message,” Alex said absently, looking towards the exit to where Maddie had disappeared on her phone call. A sinking feeling settled in her stomach as she realized now what Maddie wanted to talk to her about.

  She was leaving.

  Maddie sat in the toilet cubicle replaying the short conversation that she had just had with Zoe over in her mind; her friend had called to check whether she had changed her mind and reverted to her original plan. She understood Zoe’s concerns, she had never before done anything impulsively, even shopping for a new kitchen appliance required research, consumer reviews and various visits to shops, before she would purchase. Her lack of spontaneity had often been a source of argument in her relationship with Joanna. However, this time…this time, she was being spontaneous, she was going with her gut and it honestly didn’t feel like she was being rash. The notion that had started to take hold and grow, made her feel a warmth inside.

  She felt at home.

  She felt almost giddy at the thought. Until she had spoken to Zoe that morning, it had been just that, a thought. Now that thought was slowly being put into action. She would call the chief at the hospital tomorrow and withdraw from the position. When she had left the clinic that night she told Mack that she needed to speak to Timothy; she wanted to talk to him about becoming the full time doctor in Grace Falls. She had to bite her lips to stop herself from laughing aloud.

  She heard the bathroom door open and someone enter and let out a loud exhale of breath. The door opened again, “So you and Sully?”

  Maddie’s eyes narrowed as she recognized Teddy’s voic
e.

  “Yes…me and Sully,” Lou responded. “God, can you keep nothing quiet in this town?”

  “You were the one that told Sam to give Maddie a message for Alex. How’d you know that she was there anyway, I only found out that they did the deed this afternoon?”

  Lou checked her eye makeup in the mirror of the restroom, “Jessica said that Alex was taking the doc dinner over, plus there was no-one at Alex’s when I called round this morning, which is when I saw Sam. Do you know he was fixing that car through the night?”

  Teddy leaned against the sink. “Serves him right, with his idiot idea. Does that mean the car is fixed now?” she asked, thinking about how upset Alex was going to be once Maddie left. Her heart ached for her friend; it had been so long since she had seen her this happy.

  “Hey that idiot idea made sure we had a doctor in town while my sister gave birth to my nephew. So I, for one, am glad that Sam lied about them having the parts, and don’t forget all the other people she saw and helped this week,” Lou’s head twitched as she said the word week. “Hey, she’s been here a week. Does that mean you won?”

  Teddy beamed, “It does, I should go get my winnings from your sister.”

  Lou laughed, she had seen Maddie gently probe for information on Alex and the glances that had been exchanged during Sunday dinner at Ruth’s. She smiled as she thought about the atmosphere that surrounded the two women when they were together, the attraction that coursed between the two was almost palpable, “I thought it might have taken a little longer.”

  Pulling open the door, Teddy waved her hand for Lou to go first, “Yeah well I know the Milne charm first hand, even though Alex complained earlier for saying she was easy.” Lou walked out of the bathroom followed by Teddy.

  Maddie could hear Teddy’s voice ask another question about Sully before the door swished shut and silenced it.

  Hot angry tears poured down her face, she felt used and humiliated. The warmth and generosity of the town had been built on a lie, all because they wanted a doctor. They had lied about her car, keeping her a relative hostage in the town, playing with her. But worse than that, worse than anything she’d ever experienced was hearing that she had been part of the town’s entertainment, that her time with Alex was part of some elaborate bet, and Alex, a loud sob escaped as she crumpled against the wall of the cubicle, Alex regarded her as easy. Hearing that word applied to her, regardless of context, shot her back twelve months to the restaurant and Joanna ending their relationship because it seemed like Maddie just wanted an easy life. She wiped angrily at the tears, took a deep breath, and stood up. This is where impulsiveness got her, this is where spontaneity got her; she’d wound up being toyed with and slapped soundly in the face by it.