50 Harbor Street - Debbie Macomber [96]
Roy pulled one of them out and stretched his long legs. “What’s up?”
“Gloria Ashton.”
Roy turned to his wife. “Who’s she?”
“Linnette’s neighbor,” Corrie reminded him.
“And friend,” her daughter added. “A good friend, too.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Roy asked, his voice impatient. He was a lot more accommodating with his clients than his children, Corrie thought, and she resisted the urge to kick him under the table.
“Does it have to do with Chad?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah, the doctor fellow,” Roy muttered.
Linnette lowered her head and nodded. “He asked me to have coffee with him after work a week ago, and I agreed.” She frowned and then shrugged her shoulders. “Basically, he wanted to tell me he’s dating Gloria.”
“Your neighbor,” Roy put in, although by this point, he knew darn well who Gloria was. “Why should he have to ask your permission? It’s none of your business.”
“Which is exactly what I told him.”
Now Corrie was getting confused. “I must’ve missed something here. Last I heard, you’d decided pining after Chad was a waste of time.”
“Big waste,” Linnette concurred. “I told Chad if he wanted my permission to date Gloria, he had it. I felt that his asking me was junior-high stuff. Then Chad explained that Gloria’s refused to go out with him because she and I are friends.”
It sounded like the kind of thing that happened in high school, all right. “Why would she do that?” Roy demanded.
“I don’t know. I tried to talk to her,” Linnette said, “but she wouldn’t listen. She said men are a dime a dozen.” Their daughter sent her father a tentative glance. “Sorry, Dad.”
“Continue,” Roy urged, waving off her apology.
“Gloria said good friends aren’t that easy to come by, and I agree. I told her it doesn’t matter to me that she’s interested in Chad, but she said she didn’t want to risk losing my friendship over a man.”
“And Chad blames you?”
Linnette sighed. “I feel guilty about it and yet why should I? I went so far as to tell Gloria that if she didn’t go out with Chad, I would—and that was the worst thing I could’ve said.”
“Does Chad get a say in this?” Roy murmured.
“Not really,” Linnette said. “Okay, he does, but I don’t care if he asks me out or not.”
“Would you care if Cal did?” Corrie inserted triumphantly.
“Cal?” Roy repeated. “Does every man you date have a name that starts with the letter C?”
“Cute, Dad, very cute.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Corrie said.
“Yes,” she admitted with another deep sigh.
“Have you seen him since he was at the clinic?”
Linnette shook her head. “I doubt I will, either.”
“Don’t you need to take out those sutures?” In Corrie’s opinion, this was the perfect excuse.
She shrugged. “Someone needs to. Either Cal will do it himself or Cliff Harding.”
“You could always go to him,” Corrie suggested.
“Is there a reason my presence is necessary here?” Roy asked in a bored voice.
“Yes, Dad, there is. When I asked you about Cal, you said if I was supposed to see him again, fate would send him back into my life. That’s what happened with you and Mom, right?”
“Right,” Roy agreed.
“Fate did bring him back, and this time I refuse to make the same mistake. I don’t know what’ll come of it, but I’m willing to find out. He isn’t a doctor with a lot of degrees, and I doubt he has a large income, but he’s about all the man I can handle.”
Delighted, Corrie smiled, but when she looked at Roy, she noticed that her husband wasn’t quite as pleased.
Thirty-Nine
Maryellen was at her wits’ end. Jon had set up a makeshift bed for her downstairs. Now, what had once been their living room had become the center of her universe—and her prison. The doctor didn’t even want her climbing stairs. Worse, Maryellen couldn’t lift anything that weighed more than a few pounds, which meant she was unable to hold her own daughter.
Fortunately, her sister was looking after Katie during the day, and Maryellen didn’t know what they’d do without Kelly’s help. Jon handled all the childcare plus most of the housework at night, and that was difficult enough.
Every morning he