Discovering Pride (Pride Series) (11 page)

L
acey had been avoiding Aaron again. She was sure she would run into him sooner or later, she just preferred it to be later. It had been a little over a week since she’d seen him last. She knew he was keeping busy up at the house, so she kept herself busy too.

As she waited on a table of twelve, nine of which were children under the age of ten, she thought of how she’d seen him several times around town. She had made a point to always be heading in the opposite direction.

What had he meant when he said he wanted more than friendship? She could only guess what she thought he meant, but every time she went over it in her mind she started to question his motives. Was she ready for something more with Aaron?

She couldn’t get over the feelings he had stirred up in her. She’d never felt anything like this before. Sure she’d had a few boy friends in high school and since, but she’d never really taken a relationship serious before. Every time she thought about Aaron, her toes started to tingle. It could be that she was having low blood circulation due to the fact that she’d pulled several hours of overtime every day. All she had to show for it was a blister on her right heel from working to much.

She thought that if she kept busy she wouldn’t have time to think about what had almost happened between them. Last night, she’d gotten home at one in the morning only to pick up the early shift again. Another double shift day lay ahead of her.

Setting down the menus, she saw the three moms were doing their best to ignore the fact that their table was the loudest spot in town.

She recognized two of the women from her school days. Remembering they hadn’t run in the same crowd as her; she had been somewhat of a loner.  But she remembered their names, Stacie and Bridget.

She started the kids drink order and noticed that their mothers’ heads stayed bent over a small book that held pictures.

When she asked them for their drink order, she noticed that both women had changed since school. It appeared they were very comfortable with their lives because each had gained about thirty pounds.

Both ordered diet drinks without even glancing at her. 

Lacey went to fill their drink order and delivered food to two more tables before heading back to ask for their food orders.

“
Has everyone decided what they would like for lunch today?” Lacey leaned down and put a small blonde girl back on her chair before she hit the floor.

“Oh, Yes, well…” Stacie began looking over her menu at Lacey. “You went to school with us didn’t you?” Lacey noted how she had chosen to word the question. As if it had been a privilege to attend the same educational facility as the great Stacie and Bridget.

“
Yes.  We were in the same grade.   Have you decided on your food order?” Lacey had no problem conversing with most of the people she went to school with, but didn’t care to with the two girls who had caused her most of the pain during those awkward years.

“
Lizzy, or Libby, isn’t that your name?” Bridget smiled over to Stacie. Lacey had the feeling they both knew her name.

“
Lacey.” she said pointing to her name tag pined to her shirt. “Have you decided?” Lacey pulled out her pad and patiently waited.

Lacey remembered they both had crushes on Todd and Iian during Junior High and Senior High School.   She also remembered that at one point the duo had decided to bring Lacey into their little circle; with the hopes, they would get to spend time over at her house.  Probably fishing to obtain one of the two most sought after brothers in town.

“
Lacey, that’s it.  Aren’t you Iian and Todd’s sister?” Bridget jumped in smiling.

Of the two, Bridget was the one that Lacey despised the most. Bridget had moved away from Pride after graduation and Lacey knew she’d married a Lawyer in Portland. Where Stacie had stayed in town and married the High School quarterback, who now worked across the river at a mill. Lacey still didn’t travel in the circles they did; actually, she made a point to stay clear of them.

Lacey nodded and knew she’d be unable to take their orders until they had played out their game. She might as well go along with it.

“
So you’re still working here, how quaint. I was just talking to Stacie about this place the other day. I haven’t been back into town since I moved to Portland. I can’t believe the old place is still standing.  We decided to take the kids for a ride down memory lane. These are my four here, two boys and two girls. Stacie has three boys there and this is our friend Beth along with her two girls.” Bridget nodded to the two girls at the table who were sitting quietly coloring on the kids’ menus. Of all the children, Lacey noticed the best behaved of the children didn’t belong to either Stacie or Bridget.

Lacey looked at the small woman whose blonde hair was pulled back in a neat braid that reached down the middle of her back. She had a polite smile on her face and appeared to be embarrassed by the rudeness of her two friends.

Lacey returned the smile. “Nice to meet you Beth I’m Lacey Jordan, owner of the Golden Oar.  Welcome.” With that said both Stacie and Bridget let out duel breaths that sounded more like hissing.

“
You have beautiful girls, have you two decided what you want like to eat?” Lacey leaned over and saw that the girls were drawing with crayons trying to mimic the large painting of the green mermaid on the opposite wall.  Their little blonde heads were bent together as if they were trying to keep out all of the other loud noises from the children who were currently running around the table screaming.

She smiled at the pair. “My Grandmother drew that picture years ago; you girls have some talent.”

“
Thank you.”  Both girls said in unison with eyes wide open at Lacey. 

The older girl ordered her meal followed by the younger, then their mother
followed by everyone else.

When she was done taking orders, the smallest of Beth’s girls pulled on her apron.

“See, I drew
’d you.” Lacey bent down next to the girl. She saw what she assumed was a copy of her Grandmother’s mermaid and next to the figure was
a Pixy with large purple wings. 

“Why, that looks just like me. Good job!” she smiled.

A half an hour later, Lacey walked back into the kitchen her feet hurt and now her head hurt. The headache began when Stacie started talking about the new hunk doctor that had moved into town and how she’d set appointments for all of her kids just to get a better look at him. Lacey tried to avoid listening in, but Stacie had such a big mouth, she could barely hear herself think over her voice.

Two hours later, she no longer had a headache; instead her head felt like it was going to explode. The place was packed with mothers and their screaming kids. Apparently it had been the last day at school before the Thanksgiving break, so of course everyone within two counties had decided to come into the Golden Oar to eat.

Lacey even called for backup and had hastily promoted Katie from greeter to waiting tables.  Katie was a hard worker and deserved the promotion. Plus, she had been working at the restaurant for almost two years, so she knew all the ropes.

It took seven more wait staff and two more hours to clear the place out. They had about four hours before they needed to start getting ready for the dinner rush. 

Lacey sat at an empty table with a soft drink and some aspirin; she didn’t think she would make it through the evening shift.  Her head was getting worse; her vision was narrowing as if looking through a tunnel. What really bothered her was remembering Stacie and Bridget giggling over the new town doctor, Stacie and Aaron…Aaron and Stacie.

She was leaning back with her eyes closed trying to decide whether she was going to be mad or sick when she heard a loud crash in the kitchen followed by screaming.

Running into the kitchen she saw Katie sitting in a chair, Iian was holding her head down between her legs. He held a towel wrapped around her hand which he held above her head.  Lacey saw the blood.

Rushing over she grabbed a fresh towel and began to apply pressure to the wound, while trying to calm the girl down. When she’d glimpsed the wound, she knew the girl would need stitches. Looking up at Iian he nodded in silent agreement.  Katie was very pale but Lacey could see her eyes were still clear and focused.

“
Katie, I’m going to drive you over to the doctors so he can have a look at this. Can you walk?”

When she nodded they helped her into Lacey’s car for the short drive.  Lacey kept Katie calm by talking to her about the busy lunch hour they’d had. When she pulled up to the door, Aaron came rushing out with a wheel chair.

“
The restaurant called ahead.” Aaron said helping Katie into the wheel chair. “How are you feeling Katie?” Aaron started to wheel Katie into the building and down the hall while asking her questions, no doubt to keep her alert. Not once did he look over at Lacey.

Lacey was left standing in the doorway holding a bloody towel.

She hadn’t been into the office since Aaron had taken over the practice.  She noticed there was new paint and carpet and the old hardwood floors had been refurnished. Lacey walked into what used to be Dr. Stevens office, it had been turned into a waiting room with new leather couches.  A flat-screen TV sat in the corner and a small table with boxes of toys sat underneath.  Along one wall was a large fish tank with tropical fish swimming around peacefully. This was a doctor’s office. Oh, it had always been a doctor’s office, just not this…shiny.

Lacey let out the breath she’d been holding to long and sat on one of the new couches to stare at the door, waiting for Aaron to walk in.

Aaron’s heart had skipped a beat when he’d heard that one of the girls at the restaurant had cut her hand pretty bad. The boy who had called hadn’t known the details just that someone had been hurt and they were being driven over. When he had seen Lacey’s car pull up, panic had surged through him. Then Lacey had gotten out of the car, and he noticed Katie sitting in the passenger seat holding her hand above her head.

As he put little stitches into the palm of Katie’s left hand he allowed her to chat about the busy day at the restaurant. He’d given her a local and could see the color finally coming back into her cheeks.

When he finished and was wrapping her hand up in gauze, a short stout woman came rushing in.

“Katie? Oh my God! Doctor is she going to lose her hand?”

“No ma’am,
she just needed a few stitches. She cut it pretty deep so I’ll prescribe an anti-biotic along with pain pills. She’ll need to keep the bandages dry and clean for a week.”

Aaron ushered the two women out of his office with assurances that the hand wasn’t going to need to be amputated.  He stood in the doorway watching them leave and noticed Lacey’s car was still sitting out front of the building.

He walked back to the waiting room and saw her curled up on the couch clutching a blood-stained towel, fast asleep.

Walking over to a closet he pulled out a medical blanket and covered her up.  He slid the towel out of her fist and noticed that she hadn’t moved. Bending down he could see the lines under her eyes. He had been focused on his patient before and hadn’t had time to look at Lacey other than to make sure she was not the one bleeding. But now that he did look at her, he could clearly see she had not been getting enough sleep.