Tobias: Book One of the Cantrell Brothers Series

Chapter Seventeen

“Karen!” Jane literally squealed as she saw Karen walking through the revolving doors of the Clinic. “How was it?”

Karen and Alex had decided to stay in Fiji a few days longer for their honeymoon, and Jane had missed her best friend every, single second of the day.

“Amazing!” Karen embraced her. “We went horseback riding, all of these fancy restaurants, everything. And Alex has just been the sweetest, most amazing man ever! We walked on the beach for hours, just swimming and talking about pointless things. Oh, I am so glad that we finally got married.”

“That's great, Karen. I'm so glad he makes you happy.” With one last comforting squeeze, she untangled from her friend's embrace and followed her to the receptionist's desk.

“So...” Karen arched an elegant, gold eyebrow at her. “What's this I hear about you and Tobias? He had to go to the hospital that night?”

“Well, yes,” she mumbled, feeling her face go red. “He uh...hurt himself.”

“How?”

Glancing up at Karen through her eyelashes, she lied, “He fell down the stairs.”

“No, he didn't." Her friend smirked. “Alan was switched to the same floor that night. Skylar and him had been walking past your room and heard some things.”

“Oh, God. We had sex, okay? Is that so wrong? Well,” she said again, quieter this time, “we sort of did. There was this crack before it...uh...finished, and then when I was going to get some stuff for his hip, he passed out.”

Watching the mixed emotions of confusion, understanding and then pure amusement, she was not surprised when Karen burst into laughter and was crying tears of pure joy. “Oh my God! I'm so glad Alex doesn't have those types of problems!” her friend squealed again.

“Karen! It wasn't his fault. Just...don't tell anybody else, okay? Tobias would probably be very embarrassed, and I don't want him to feel humiliated. He just got off crutches a little less than a week ago. You're so lucky I love you.”

After Karen calmed down, they took the rest of their free time to talk about Karen's honeymoon, and Jane completely forgot about the humiliating ordeal that had just taken place. The revolving doors brushed against the ground for the first time that day, revealing Huret Adams hobbling along with his cane. He sat down in the waiting room, avoiding eye contact with Jane the entire time.

“Go talk to him,” Karen stated simply. “This is your chance. Sara isn't here yet, so you have some time. I really think you two should talk.”

“I can't just go over there and talk to him,” Jane whispered to Karen.

“Just do it,” Karen hissed back and shoved her past the counter over to where Huret Adams was sitting in the waiting room.

Balding head with a very thin comb-over, Huret was a frail, old man who had always been smiling whenever he had come in for his regular sessions. Now, however, it was an entirely different story. What used to be a face lit up with humor was now full of fear and a shadow of what used to be. His frown increased further as he saw her walking towards him, but she persevered and kept going.

“Huret,” she said softly after walking up to him.

“What?” the seventy-four-year old snapped.

She gulped. “I would just like to say that I am sorry about what happened a couple of months ago and that it was never your fault for what happened. Would you like to walk with me for a little bit so we can talk?”

Eyes full of distrust and curiosity, he nodded his head and stood up from his chair. In a tense silence, they walked outside to an empty picnic area. Completely opposite of the situation's mood, outside was beautiful. With the absence of any breeze, the flowers around the picnic area could be smelt everywhere. The warm sun hit their backs but could not take out the chill from inside her. She offered to help him sit down, but he waved her off and eventually was sat down comfortably.