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Chapter 150: Coming clean
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Diagnosis: Love Chapter 151: Unwelcome
NOAHThe damn bottle of Jack was empty. Again. Or was it the same bottle? Maybe. It was empty before. Earlier? Last night? The bottle wavered in front of me, and I frowned. Why was the table moving? And when had the sun come up? Wasn't it, like, midnight?"Well, here you are, morning glory." A series of heel clicks-way, way too loud for my aching head-was coming my way. I squinted, turning to look at who might be in my house. In heels. For a brief, other-worldly moment, I thought of Angela and once again, the fleeting, ethereal memory of seeing her recently tickled at a corner of my brain. I remembered a thousand different times I'd sat at this table and listened to the sound of her approaching me, her heels somehow seductive on the tile, as if I could already picture her legs under the knee-length skirt and scent her sweet perfume. But it wasn't my wife who appeared in the arched kitchen doorway. Instead, it was a small woman in a short sundress and high-heeled sandals. Her
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 152: Therapy
NOAH"Now, was that so bad?" Juliet beamed at me as we stood on my front porch. She was allowing me to unlock the door, even though I knew damn well she still had the key Zeke had given her. Fucking Zeke. Talk about betrayal. What the hell had he been thinking?"It was brutal," I answered her flatly. "I'm in agony. That therapist is a sadist. She gets a kick out of making me hurt." "That's bullshit, and you know it. How long have you been playing football, Noah?" She posed the question just as I opened the door, and though I wanted to slam it in her pretty, heart-shaped face, I had enough of the manners my mother had drilled into me to refrain. "A long time." I tossed my keys into a bowl on the front table. "Since I was a kid. Six years old." "Uh-huh. I thought so. And has it been all sunshine and roses, buddy? Or was there a lot of pain along the way? Practice, conditioning. Running sprints. Building muscles and endurance. Not to mention hits on the field." "Yeah, but that p
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 153: Motherhood
ALISON"When I say the word mother, what do you think?" Brooke lifted her eyes to me expectantly, and I groaned. "You've asked me this before. Back when we first started meeting. You're starting to repeat yourself." "Very funny." She tapped her stylus against the edge of her tablet. "I'm not repeating myself. The question has an entirely different meaning to you now-and let's face it, the concept of motherhood has taken on new importance in your life." "Fine." I heaved a heavy sigh. "Mother. Well, I guess it means-""Don't overthink this. Give me the first thing that pops into your mind." "Gone." The word burst out before I could stop it. "That's what I think.""Hmmm. Not surprising. For most of your life, you've oriented yourself around a missing maternal figure-actually, around two missing parental figures, but I think because you experienced multiple abandonment scenarios that concerned a woman, it's the mother role that affected you most deeply." "Thanks for reminding
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 154: Connection
ALISON"Oh, Ms. Wakely! It's been a long time since we've seen you. How are you?"I paused at the reception desk of Peaceful Gardens Home for Care, returning the smile of the nurse who sat there greeting visitors. "I'm fine, thanks." Except for a slight case of pregnancy . . . I swallowed the words. Making the trip across the country from Florida to northern California had been a last-minute decision. An impulse, maybe. It had just seemed like serendipity at the time; Dr. Johanson, from whom I'd bought my practice when he'd retired, had stopped by to let me know he was back in town for the winter and willing to give me a hand if I needed him. I could tell that his real reason for visiting was that he was bored, but still, it had been a generous offer. And then, shortly after we'd spoken, I'd gotten a call from this nursing home where one of my foster mothers had been living for many years now. When Daneen's doctor had called to let me know that in addition to the progressing de
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 155: Love the one you're with
NOAH"I'm putting down a three on your run of hearts there . . . and I'm out." Juliet dropped the card on the table and did a cute little chair dance, her arms in the air as she wriggled around. "I beat your ass again, bubba!"I groaned as I laid down my hand. "Holy hell, woman. I'm going to be deep in the hole. You definitely won." "I did, I did." She counted her cards quickly. "Ha! Take that, sucker." I leaned back in my chair, shaking my head. "Okay, I'm done with rummy. I'm bored." I drained the bottle of beer next to me. "We need to find something more exciting to do." Juliet glanced up at me as she shuffled the cards, and I couldn't read the expression on her face. That was unusual; for the past two weeks, we'd been spending so much time together that I thought I'd figured out her tells and her ticks. But maybe not. I wasn't even sure how it had happened, that Juliet Connors had, for all intents and purposes, taken up residence in my house. It had started the day after
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 156: Bad romance
NOAH"Juliet?" I called out as I stumped out of my bedroom. Sun beamed through the windows of the living room onto the tile floors and gleaming wood accents. The housekeepers had been here the day before, I remembered. That was why everything smelled so nice and looked even better. I'd been at physical therapy while they worked. Juliet had driven me there as she shuttled me any place I had to go these days. In the week since I'd lost to her at strip blackjack, she hadn't left me alone for longer than an hour here or there. But now, it seemed, I might finally be alone. On the kitchen table, a single sheet of white paper was covered with loopy handwriting. Honey Bear~I had to run into town for a meeting at the stadium, then I'm having lunch with Daddy-he's in town just for the afternoon, or I'd have insisted he come out to the house to eat dinner with us.
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 157: Last try
ALISON"Dr. Wakely, I didn't know you'd be back today! How was your trip?" Gina, my office's assistant manager, appeared in my doorway holding a steaming cup of coffee and a pile of paperwork. "It was fine." I pasted on a smile that I hoped didn't look as phony as it felt. "Bet it was nice to be in California," Gina went on. "I've never been further west than Tennessee. Did you see any movie stars?" I shook my head. "Wrong part of the state. I mean, there might be a couple up in the Bay Area, but none who I saw. Besides, I spent most of the time either in the hotel or at the nursing home where my . . . relative lives.""Oh." Her face fell into sympathetic lines. "Yeah, that's right, I think someone told me that you were flying out there to see your family. I didn't realize that's where you were from. I thought you lived in the northeast somewhere before you came to Florida.""I did. Philadelphia." I accepted the papers she handed to me. "But I grew up in California. And yes, i
Diagnosis: Love Chapter 158: Lies
NOAH"Was that the doorbell I heard?" I stepped out of the bathroom, using a towel to dry off my hair. It was longer than I'd ever worn it, I observed absently to myself. I should probably think about getting a haircut."What?" Juliet was perched on the bed, her pink robe wrapped around her, her face still flushed from the hot water. Or maybe it was more than just the water . . . as a reward for getting through a painful, challenging session at physical therapy, she'd joined me in the shower and given me an incredible blow job. "I thought I heard the doorbell ring right after you got out of the shower. Who was it?" "Oh." She frowned, and I saw a shadow of something I didn't recognize pass over her eyes. "No, it wasn't the doorbell. It must've been on TV.""Really?" I glanced at the huge blank screen that hung on the wall. Juliet's face flushed even redder. "I turned it off, okay? I was checking something on ESPN, and when I saw what I wanted to see, I clicked it off. Why are y
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