Winning my Best Friend's Girl - Piper Rayne Page 0,14
calls her over. “We need to order an MRI, and can you get a geriatric orthopedic doc on the phone? I have a bad feeling she broke her hip.”
Samantha smiles and turns away from me.
I smile back then bury my head in my paperwork before handing it to Allie.
She signs it and hands it back to me with a smile. “What’s up, Romeo? Are you really going out with Samantha?”
“It’s just a drink,” I say.
“Uh-huh, I’ve heard that before.”
Stella glances at me and smiles.
“Did you know that these two know one another?” Lou thumbs at both Stella and me.
Allie tilts her head, taking a bite of a sandwich that looks as if it came from the cafeteria. She steadies her gaze on Stella more than me.
Stella smiles and looks up. “We went to high school together.”
“Really?” Allie turns her attention to me. “Huh.”
Although she’s said nothing much, it feels as though she’s said everything.
“Let’s go, Lou,” I say and walk over to the stretcher. “Bye.”
I wave to Allie and Stella, who looks amazed by my politeness, and push the stretcher from the emergency room. I turn the corner and ignore the fact that Lou isn’t following me. After all, I agreed that it wouldn’t bother me if they date. I might as well deal with it.
Seven
Stella
I’m getting changed out of my scrubs when Allie comes into the locker room. “Spill.”
“What?”
“You went to high school with Romeo?”
I pretend it’s not a big deal. Which it’s not. I went to high school with a lot of people, right? “I did.”
“The fact that you didn’t tell me after I so kindly told you about his nickname says you’re hiding something. What gives?” She sits on the bench, crosses her legs, and stares at me.
“Privacy? I’m changing.”
She waves me off. “Please, I’m sure you’re used to this environment. And if that’s the best you can do to try to deter me away, then you need some new tactics.”
“It’s nothing.” I sit next to her to put on my shoes. “We grew up in a small town together. I didn’t know Romeo was Kingston Bailey.”
“Lake Starlight?” she asks, and I raise my eyebrows. “What? Anchorage isn’t huge. He told me once where he was from. Did you know there’s this thing called Lake Starlight Buzz Wheel?”
“Uh-huh,” I say, tying my shoe.
“It’s awesome. I religiously check that thing all the time now.”
Great. Not that I didn’t find myself checking it in New York sometimes on the nights when I missed home. My mom always filled me in on the town gossip, but she kept out anything having to do with Kingston. Every time I clicked on that page, I feared I’d read about his upcoming wedding.
“Yeah well, don’t believe everything you read on that thing.”
“I went to Lake Starlight once. You guys have the cutest downtown. Tell me.” She elbows me. “Did you and Kingston walk hand in hand through that gazebo area when you were just youngsters and fall in love?”
“You’re delusional.” I stand and grab my watch out of my locker, securing it around my wrist.
“Am I though?” She waves her phone.
“What have you read?”
She holds her phone in front of her and clears her throat as though she’s about to give a speech. “‘Rumors are flying that two of our own have reconnected up in Anchorage. Kingston Bailey suffered a concussion last week during a fire, and the entire Bailey clan rushed up to the hospital to make sure he was okay. Which he thankfully was, but…’”—she peeks at me and I groan—“‘the surprise was on everyone when Stella Harrison pulled back the curtain to announce that she was his doctor.’” Allie’s eyes widen as if she’s recapping a soap opera episode. “‘Now I think we all figured they role-played doctor and patient when they were younger, but it’s been eight years since Stella Harrison was a permanent fixture in Alaska. Anyone else worried that history will repeat itself? I think I speak for us all when I say that I can’t bear to see either of them broken apart all over again.’”
Allie clicks off her phone and drops it in her lap, staring at me silently, waiting.
I sit back on the bench and put my head in my hands. “I can’t believe you follow that thing and I can’t believe they’re talking about us. How did anyone find out?”
“From what I’ve read over the years, whoever writes this should work for the FBI. They know so much shit.”