Edge of Disaster (12 page)

Her words brought me back to Earth and I giggled.  “Sorry, I was just so...”

“Oh honey, don’t be sorry.  I know what I was like the first time Avery brought me up here.”

“Avery?”

“Avery Miles Middleton.  That would be my mother-in-law. You’ll meet her shortly.  She doesn’t usually come down until early afternoon.”

“Come down?”

“Yes, honey.  She claims it’s age, but she’s as sharp as a tack and don’t let her fool you.”

I laughed and we went back down to join the rest of the family.

Betty brought in more trays of all sorts of appetizers and another round of drinks appeared.  This time they were Bellinis.  They were delicious.  We toasted and then Justin and Andrew, Pearce’s youngest brother and I started talking about my job.

“So how are you liking working at MedSoft?”

“It’s really good. I’m working on a proposal right now for the Greenville Hospital System. They’re looking into switching their entire software when all their physician offices go to electronic medical records.”

Pearce looked at me and said, “Wow Alexia.  You didn’t mention this.  That’s great news.”

“Yeah, I guess I sort of forgot.”

“Damn, Pearce, I wonder why,” Justin ribbed him. “You probably can’t keep your hands to yourself long enough for her to tell you anything.  Am I right Alexia?”

My face really burned with heat this time.  “I...I...well, maybe a little,” I stammered.

I looked at Pearce for help, but he was laughing.

Then Ava yelled out to me that I just needed to ignore the boys because they were totally obnoxious all the time.

Suddenly the doorbell rang and I heard this high pitched voice.  It reminded me of nails on a chalkboard. Everyone looked around and the room became dead silent. I wondered what was going on when this tall, stick thin, gorgeous red head waltzed into the room.  Dressed in high fashion, and I mean designer stuff from her Christian Louboutin stilettos, her Louis Vuitton handbag and her D&G jacket, she looked fabulous.  I felt like the poor church mouse in comparison.

Then she headed straight for Pearce.  It didn’t matter that he had his arm around me.  She bulldozed into him and pushed him backward, threw her arms around him and kissed him soundly on the mouth.  And not just for a second, or two or three.  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, they broke apart, while he was still trying to pull me back into him by my hand.  Then she screeched out in that godforsaken banshee voice, “Why Pearce darling, it’s been far too long! I just got in from Milan.  It is so good to see you.  Now you know the two of us just have to spend some time together while I’m here. I’ll be staying at my parents for the next two weeks.  Maybe we can rekindle our flame, darling.  Remember those days? We had some good times didn’t we?” Then the banshee had the audacity to rub herself against him.

I stood there and tapped my foot against the floor, waiting for Pearce to say something...anything...to whoever the hell this she-demon was.  If he didn’t, I was going to rip that red hair right out of her fucking scalp.

I suddenly felt an arm go around me and looked to my left. Justin was standing there, grinning. I wished someone would tell me what the hell was going on here.

“Why hello Carmody. Nice of you to bust right in here,” Justin said.

Banshee Carmody looked over at Justin and smiled.  It was more like a grimace.  Now that I had the chance to examine her closely, I was thinking she was looking more like a Gremlin...and I’m talking about Stripe, not Gizmo. Yeah, I’m pretty sure her teeth were pointy.

“Well hello Justin. Is that your girlfriend?” she sneered.

“Um no, it’s not.  As a matter of fact, it’s Pearce’s girlfriend.”

I looked at Pearce and he was trying his hardest not to laugh.  There was something fishy going on here, but I still didn’t like the way Banshee Carmody Stripe was leering at my guy.  She looked like she wanted to eat him for dinner and by the looks of that greeting she gave him, she nearly did.

She looked at Pearce and then at me.  Then she started to laugh.  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” she exclaimed. “Why Pearce, I always took you for a man of good taste.”

“Thank you Carmody. I believe I do have good taste. In fact, Alexia is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”

Pearce finally shrugged free of Banshee Carmody Stripe’s arm and pulled me into him.

“Thank you Pearce.  But I wish you’d stop telling me that a hundred times a day.”

“But why sweetheart? It’s true and it’s the way I feel.” Then he ran his hand down my cheek and leaned in and whispered, “She a fucking bitch and I hate that she’s here. I’m so sorry you had to witness that display of nastiness.  As soon as I can, I’m going to brush my teeth.”

I burst out in a fit of laughter.  Everyone looked at me and I could tell they wanted to laugh too but the banshee was getting really pissed by now.

“So Pearce, aren’t you going to invite me in?”

“Sure Carmody, whatever.”

Then he turned to me and said, “Come on babe,” and he tugged me away from that awful scene.

We hurried up the steps and he pulled me into his old bedroom.  True to his word, he went straight to the bathroom and brushed the hell out of his teeth.

“Dern Pearce, you’re going to scrub the enamel off if you’re not careful.”

“Ugh, I almost gagged when she put her mouth on mine.”

“Pearce, did you ever sleep with her?”

He stopped dead in his tracks and his face went white.

“Yes, I did,” he admitted.  “It was a long time ago. I didn’t think she was so disgusting then. I’m sorry Alexia.”

“Don’t be. It happened before us.  I just wanted to know because she’ll throw that at me one day. At least now I’ll be prepared. Is she one of the girls you thought you might love?”

“No! Never her. We grew up together but the older she got, the more pretentious she became.  Just like her mother. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s not your fault honey.  Don’t worry about it. I could tell your family was not happy about her arrival.”

He told me how they all disliked her. We sat in his room while he explained how she and Justin despised each other so he knew if Justin insulted her enough, she’d leave.  Sure enough, by the time we went back downstairs, she was gone.

We were all standing around talking when a voice from the doorway said, “Thank God that annoying screech owl decided to take her leave.  What in the world possessed that nettlesome creature to decide to torture us on this lovely day?”

Everyone howled with laughter.

Pearce leaned into me and quietly said, “Leave it to Gran.”

“And Pearce, I am so thankful to our good Lord above that He has finally bestowed better judgement upon you where women are concerned.”

I laughed really hard and Pearce actually had the good graces to blush.

“I would have to agree with you Gran,” he said as he walked over to escort her into the room.  He brought her directly to me and said, “Gran, I would love to introduce you to someone very special.”

“I already know who she is honey.” Turning to me she said, “Alexia, I am so pleased to make your acquaintance. I have heard so much about you from Lisbeth.  She talks incessantly about you.  Now do me a favor honey. Please let us make our own gossip so I have something to brag to Lisbeth about!”

Pearce was quick on his feet with this one, but I wasn’t quite ready for him to say this out loud. “Well Gran, you can tell Lisbeth you heard this here first. You can tell her that Alexia and I are in love.”

I almost fell through the floor.  I had just taken a sip of my Bellini and instantly started to sputter.

“Good lord, Pearce, are you trying to declare your love and intentions or are you trying to kill the poor child?” Avery asked.

Pearce had already grabbed my glass out of my hand and patted my back asking me if I was okay. I was still sputtering, trying to recover from a combination of choking and embarrassment.

“Pearce, where are your manners? Will you escort the girl away from here so she can collect herself? I declare!”

Avery glared at Pearce as he almost dragged me out of the room and into a smaller sitting room across the hall.  He closed the door behind him, sat down and pulled me onto his lap.

“Shit, shit, shit! I’m sorry Alexia.  I don’t know what I was thinking.”

I finally recovered from the choking spell and looked at him. He was really concerned about the whole incident, which when I put it all into perspective was just damn funny.

I grabbed his shirt and laid the biggest kiss on him the man had ever seen. His arms went around me and he leaned me over and began kissing me back. My hands were in his hair, on his back, hell all over him. He was so damn sexy and the way he just blurted out to his family that he loved me...well, how could I not just go all crazy for him.

I finally pulled back from him and said, “Thank you Pearce.  For loving me and for not being afraid to say it out loud.” I looked down at my hands, which were clenching his shirt and then I cleared my throat. “I’ve never felt loved the way I do with you so thank you for that but what I really want you to know is that I love you more than I can say. I don’t know how or why this all happened, and I still can hardly believe it has, but I’m really glad you came into my life.”

“Babe, you just made me the happiest man alive.”

“I think we need to go back to the party.”

“Yeah, because if we don’t, I can’t promise I’ll behave here.” He kissed the top of my head and we headed back to the rest of the family.

We were kidded mercilessly by everyone, including Avery, but we just laughed. Dinner was excellent.  Betty cooked the traditional New Year’s Day meal of roast pork, hoppin’ john, collards, cornbread, and everything else you can possibly imagine. Right when dessert was being served, a cell phone started ringing and a text alarm went off.  I looked at Pearce because I didn’t think he was on call.

“It’s not mine sweetheart. But you’re surrounded by a bunch of docs. Whose is it?”

“It’s mine,” said Justin. “I gotta go.  Looks like a femur.”

Pearce looked at me and said, “He’s an orthopedic surgeon.”

“Oh.”

Then he added, “Andrew’s in his third year of his ENT residency.”

“Oh,” I said again, nodding and smiling.  Nothing like being in the midst of a bunch of brainiacs.

Pearce’s hand reached for mine under the table and I latched on to his. I found it gave me strength when I felt insecure about myself. He laced his fingers with mine and settled our hands on my lap.

Justin said his good-byes and quickly left. After dinner was finished, we hung out a little longer with the family and then headed home. I was getting sleepy from the combination of alcohol and too much food. I dragged my rear end up the stairs and we both got ready for bed. I dreaded having to get up in the morning, but I was also excited about the prospect of the potential business ahead of me.

We crawled into bed and Pearce turned on the TV. He found a sappy movie for us to watch, even though I figured it was the last thing he wanted to do.  He pulled out his iPad and started reading.

“Is this too awful for you?”

“No, it’s not that at all. I just have to catch up on some journal reading.” He showed me his iPad and it was opened to some article in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery. There was a picture of a man with a giant pole jammed through his midsection.

“Oh shit.  Is this the kind of stuff you do?” I wanted to hurl just looking at the picture.

“Yep,” he said, very nonchalantly, still reading.

I shut the TV off and turned to look at him. “Are you serious.  I mean do you really see that kind of stuff?”

“Uh huh.  Usually accident victims.  This was unusual...this pole flew off the back of a truck and came through this guy’s windshield.  He was in the passenger seat of a van and the seat was pulled back as far as possible.  If he’d been in a car, he’d be dead. That pole would’ve hit him in the head.”

“Shit Pearce. What do you do when something like this comes in?”

“The team puts the patient back together babe.  It’s our job.”

I picked up his hands and started to look at them...I mean really look at them. I ran my fingers up and down each of his fingers and turned them this way and that. He sat there, and just watched me with a puzzled look on his face. When I was done looking, I brought his hands to my lips and kissed them.  He was still looking at me with an odd expression.

I finally spoke, “You heal people Pearce.  Your hands are a gift from God. Not everyone can do something like this. You’re special, and I’m not just saying this because I love the hell out of you. You are truly gifted.”

“I don’t think of it...”

“I do and so do those people you save. I feel so awed by what you do. I had no idea. I thought you just sewed people up or something.  Really. And to think you can save someone like this.”

“Alexia, I can’t save everyone. All the stars have to be aligned for someone like this to survive.”

“Maybe so. But if this person didn’t have a trauma surgeon like yourself, he never would’ve survived. End of story.”