to the detached garage where they kept their canoes in progress.
“Are you dating Nora Walsh?” Law asked.
“Nope.”
“What do you call it, then?”
He didn’t answer, just sat and picked up a sanding block.
“Probably he’s going to say they’re just sleeping together,” Sawyer said, and Jake shot him an annoyed look. “So I saw you sneaking out of the Mermaid at the crack of dawn that time because you weren’t sleeping together?”
Jake ran his fingers over a rough patch near the boat’s stern. “We watched a movie the night before, and we fell asleep. That was all that happened.” Which was technically true. Also, this was pretty rich coming from Sawyer. They’d had a version of this exact conversation a year and a half ago when he was “not dating” Eve.
“So you’re falling asleep watching movies in her bedroom,” Law said.
“And fixing her deck,” Sawyer said.
“You told me to fix her deck.”
“And helping her with her vaccine thing,” Law said cheerfully.
“I thought we were supposed to make her feel welcome. I thought we wanted her to stay.”
“We do,” Sawyer said.
Law smirked. “Maybe some of us more than others.”
All right. He didn’t need this shit. The Toronto douchebag could make his own damn canoe. He tossed the sanding block aside and stood.
“Oh, come on,” Law said. “Don’t run away.”
“I don’t need you guys to perform an intervention here.”
“You know what?” Sawyer said. “He’s right. He doesn’t need an intervention. I think he’s doing just fine on his own.”
Jake wasn’t sure why, but that pronouncement made him more uncomfortable than all their ball busting had.
“Still waters run deep?” Law said with a smirk.
Jake picked up the sanding block again. “Shut up.”
Chapter Fifteen
The morning of the high school flu vaccine drive, Nora, Amber, and Wynd met at the clinic early. It was a Friday, and they always had a staff meeting on Friday mornings to review the week behind them and look at the schedule for the week ahead.
They were in a nice groove. The three of them had gotten used to each other. They knew each other’s quirks and accommodated them. For example, Wynd always brought Nora “coffee,” and Nora always pretended to enjoy it, when in fact the chicory brew with almond milk tasted the way she imagined wood shavings mixed with dirt would.
“Mmmm, thanks,” she said when presented with the vile concoction in a travel mug that said, “Nature is the Best Healer.” She pretended to take a sip before saying, “We’ll have to be quick today. What does the schedule look like next week?”
“We’re pretty heavily booked,” Wynd said, “but I did like you asked and kept two slots a day open.”
“Great.” Nora was finding herself getting booked up several weeks in advance, leaving no time for people who were unexpectedly sick, so they were experimenting with holding blocks of time for same-day appointments. “I have a couple more items, but we have to be at the high school at nine, so we’d better shelve them for next week.” She turned to Wynd. “You okay here? Anyone comes in with anything urgent, send them to Zurich.”
“I am, but can I, ah…talk to you before you leave? Just really quickly?”
Nora’s favorite flower child looked decidedly less sparkly than usual. She glanced at Amber, who said, “I’ll bring the van around and pick you up out front in a few?”
“Dr. Walsh…”
Nora had asked the other women to call her Dr. Walsh in front of patients but encouraged first names in private. Something was clearly wrong. “What is it?”
“Mike got laid off.”
Oh no. “I’m so sorry. Do you want some extra hours?” It would be tight, but she could probably afford ten extra hours a week, come up with a make-work project.
“No. I actually, uh…want fewer hours. Like, ideally no hours.”
Huh? Also: Shit. Nora and Wynd might never be best friends, but Wynd did a good job keeping the clinic running.
“I know I just started. I’m so sorry. But Mike’s situation is the universe whispering to us about our next step.”
“Are you sure? Because if it’s whispering, you might be hearing it incorrectly.”
“Well, we had a big chat about it, and I swear to goddess, later that night we had a knock on our door from a Realtor who said he had clients in Toronto looking to pay cash for a place in Moonflower Bay, and were we interested in selling? So we’re going to do it. We sourced a used RV, and we’re going to move to the farm property and trust the