not right, and you know that.” He glanced at Tadeo. “And don’t you go siding with Adam, you hear? Because Adam has to do the right thing.”
“He will,” Tadeo defended. “He’ll do the right thing.”
“Yes, he will, because he is trying to set a good example for you, Tadeo.” Davion grinned at Adam then took a swig of his own soda.
“Are you two ganging up on me?” Adam grumbled.
“For your own good,” Davion said. “Backing out on that deal isn’t right, and you know it.”
“A lot of things aren’t right. If I bothered myself worrying about all of them I’d never be able to drag myself from job to job.”
“OK, I get your point. You don’t want to be bothered with her. But did you see that red hair on her?”
Adam had. And he’d rather liked it. Lots of red hair … red, the color of an old penny. And wild, like the wind had swept through it once and decided to stay there. “What about her hair?”
“She’s going to be stubborn. One look at her, and you can tell she’s not going to give up. And you, Adam, are her target. Like it or not, you’re going to have to deal with her. Sooner, not later.” He grinned. “Which is why I gave her directions to your cottage. You need to get it over with, and quit being so miserable. You’re scaring the kiddies who come to the clinic. Even Tadeo’s looking a little worried.”
Adam regarded the boy at his side. No parents, and his mother’s cousin was raising him now. But he was neglected. Or more like overlooked. And he was so eager to please, eager to help. The son he would have, if he could. “You’re not worried about me, are you?”
“Some,” Tadeo said without hesitation. “You’re grumpy lately. Sometimes it scares me that maybe you don’t like me any more.”
Now, that made Adam feel truly terrible. He loved this kid. Tadeo had wormed his way into a special place in Adam’s heart and there was no way he wanted him to feel like that. “You know you’re my best friend, don’t you?” He tousled Tadeo’s scraggly black hair. “That’s not going to change, even when I’m grumpy.”
“Best friend,” Tadeo said, holding up his hand to high-five him.
“For ever,” Adam said, as their hands slapped.
“Now, maybe you should go high-five Dr Glover,” Davion suggested.
“Well, maybe I would, except, I’ve got to get back to work.” He stood. “And, Tadeo, come back later and we’ll have dinner together, if Pabla doesn’t mind.” Pabla Reyes, Tadeo’s guardian, never minded. “Conch fritters OK with you?”
Tadeo gave him a thumbs-up, handed Adam the empty soda bottle, then dashed off toward the beach.
“He needs better,” Davion said.
“At least we agree on something,” Adam responded on his way back to the bar. He worried about Tadeo, worried about Davion, too, but in a different way. Davion’s mother was Trinique, a salt-of-the earth kind of woman who had raised her son in the best possible way. She was saving to send Davion to medical school, and Davion was saving, too. But times were tough, and at the rate they were going, Davion’s medical education was a long way off. But with the money from the sale of his property, Adam was going to be able to help get Davion there sooner. Which was why, ultimately, he would turn over the deed to his property. He knew that, even though he couldn’t bring himself to admit it. His clinic needed supplies. He was out of all but a few of the necessary drugs, he needed a new stethoscope … couldn’t afford even the damned wooden tongue depressors, which were cheap. More than anything, though, the world needed the likes of Davion Thomas as a doctor.
Selling his little piece of land was going to make it all possible. Like it or not, he’d do the right thing by Dr Glover, because he had to. But he was still going to be grumpy for a while. He deserved that much.
“I know that look on your face,” Davion said, stepping up to the bar.
“There’s no look on my face.”
“Sure there is.” Davion grinned. “Look in the mirror, see it for yourself. It’s the look that says you’re going to give the property deed to Dr Glover and be nice to your new neighbor.”
“I might be thinking about finishing Stella, and selling her.”
“Ah, but you love that boat too much. You’d never sell her. Not even if you had to sell the both halves of your property instead of just one.”
He was correct in that assumption. That boat was a huge connection to his past, to his grandfather. It was the one thing in his life he’d never part with. “OK, if she’s there when I get home, I’ll talk to her. I’ll give her the deed then tell her to leave me the hell alone. There, does that make you happy? ”
“Or she’ll tell you to leave her the hell alone. She’s a strong woman, Adam. Like my mother. Once they know what they want, they don’t let anything stand in their way, and you’ve been standing in Dr Glover’s way.”
“I’m not even going to get into a conversation with you about strong women, Davion. You know how I feel on that subject.” His ex-wife had been a strong woman and look how that had turned out for him. Now strong women made him run in the opposite direction. He just didn’t have it in him to deal with them any more. Not that there’d really been a woman since … he wasn’t going to think about that discouraging part of his life since there hadn’t been a woman beating a path to his door since he’d settled here permanently.
“Well, the strong lady in question won’t be waiting for you at your house. She’s staying at my mother’s.”
“You asked her to stay here?” He swiped an angry hand through his hair. “Meaning she’s there right now, probably getting ready to waylay me on the way out the door when I get off work tonight.”
Davion grinned. “Probably. But you have it coming.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“I just want everybody to be happy.”
“And what, in all this, is going to make me happy?”
“The medicine you can buy for your clinic. You know it will. And I wouldn’t mind a new otoscope for the clinic to make me a little happier, if that counts for anything.”
“It counts.” Point made. It was hard being grumpy around Davion, even when Adam wanted to be grumpy, because Davion radiated happiness and enthusiasm. He never, ever saw the negative in any situation. “So, I’ll try and be happy. And I’ll even apologize to the lady. But I get the feeling that an apology won’t be enough for her. She’s going to want a pound of my flesh, too.” He looked out the window across from the bar, saw Erin Glover standing on Trinique’s front porch, leaning against the white column, arms folded tightly across her chest. It was breezy, her hair was blowing. Dressed in a gauzy skirt and a tank top, she was … well, unfortunately she was just about the sexiest thing he’d ever laid eyes on. Which was a problem because the last sexy thing he’d got himself tangled up with had taken him for a ride that, even after two years past its legal end, still stung. “And in the meantime, I’m going to wait on customers for the next several hours and make
