and for all. I love you like a brother and always have. Harlow loves you and to my knowledge has never been anything but kind to you, even when you were a downright dick to her. You and Lucas are locked in a bromance that would make a lesser man jealous. Kennedy really seemed to dig you, right up until you dropped a grenade on that whole thing. Her grandmother, too.”
“And I’ve been a fan since day one.” Delores’ voice came from directly behind Collin. I whirled while his eyes went wide and he uttered a whispered, “Holy shit.”
“How do you always manage to sneak up on me?” I asked with a nervous laugh.
“The better question might be, why are you never paying attention to what’s happening around you. And, if I’m overhearing things right, it seems like that’s gotten you into quite a pickle this time. If you were paying any attention at all, you would have known that Kennedy would only cheat on you with Collin West.” The glimmer in her eyes said Delores meant to make a joke.
And it would have been a good one, in any other circumstance.
Collin coughed into his hand and waited while she studied him. When recognition lit her face, he extended a hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Joe’s brother.”
“Now I see why you’re jumping to conclusions.” Delores gave me a sad smile. “All joking aside, and no offense to you Mr. West, but I’ve seen the way that woman looks at you. You officially dethroned your brother. Or you had…right up until you made an ass of yourself.”
Panic surged through me and I yanked my phone out of my back pocket and called Kennedy. One ring. Two. And…voicemail.
“Penny. Kennedy. I’m so sorry. I just talked to Collin and Delores and…” I rubbed my hand over my face. “My God, I was such an idiot.”
With that cryptic message, I ended the call. Paced the driveway a few times, then turned to my brother. “I need to go see her.”
“Yeah, you do. You need to make this right.” He gave me an encouraging smile.
“I need to see her right now.”
“I agree.”
I pointed at his car, blocking my truck in the driveway. “I need you to get out of my way.”
With an apology dressed in laughter, Collin climbed into his car and drove out. I hopped into the truck and drummed my fingers on the wheel as he took his sweet ass time.
Delores lifted a hand when I finally hit the road. “Go get ‘er, Tiger.”
“I most certainly will,” I said to myself.
Or, at the very least, I’d try.
The difference between Key West Pediatrics and the Community Health Clinic was extreme. No expense had been spared in the quality of the building or the décor. Frowning patients quietly perched on expensive chairs under pretentious paintings. The woman at the desk practically snarled as I barged in.
“I need to speak to Doctor Monroe, please.” I tried to stare past the receptionist in the hopes of catching Kennedy walking by, her arm lovingly wrapped around the shoulders of a patient as a choir of angels hovered over her. I’d leap over the desk to get to her if it came to that.
“Doctor Monroe is no longer with the practice,” the receptionist whined in a nasally voice.
That caught my attention. I zeroed in on the sour woman in front of me. “What do you mean?”
“She quit three days ago.” She glanced around then leaned close, her eyes lighting up with a sick sort of glee. “It was all very dramatic,” she whispered, leaning even closer, smiling even wider, “between you and me, she was sexually harassing one of the other doctors. Can you believe that? She tricked him into meeting for drinks, then made him feel very unsafe.” The woman shook her head in judgement. “When they tried to reprimand her, she up and quit.”
“You…” I clamped my mouth shut to keep a few choice words from slipping out. “You have the story very wrong. Doctor Dickbreath tricked Kennedy into meeting him for drinks. Not the other way around.”
In the hall behind the receptionist, the man himself strolled past, looking just as douchey in his white coat as he did at The Drunken Goat. A woman in a pink pantsuit walked beside him, her blonde bob grazing her chin. Ramsey’s eyes widened when he saw me.
“You must be a bigger idiot than I thought,” I said to the man. “Did you really think you could take advantage