“What the fuck?” When Carrie’s voice came through the sleepy haze, Lynn struggled to open her eyes, and when she did, she found Carrie, eyes narrowed, standing just on the other side of the coffee table.

  She was warm but couldn’t feel her arm. In fact, she couldn’t move. Maggie lay draped across her like a blanket. She shot up, and Maggie rolled to the floor like a log falling from a timber truck. The warmth Lynn had been feeling quickly vanished as fear raced through her.

  “This is why you stayed home last night? So the two of you could—”

  “No. Absolutely not.” Lynn straightened her clothes. Thank God she still had them on. How had they ended up like that? What had happened last night?

  Maggie stood and rubbed at her eyes before she picked up her phone and looked at the screen. “It’s only nine thirty.”

  “Does that really matter?” Carrie asked.

  “I didn’t think you’d be home until later.”

  “And wouldn’t interrupt this cozy little picture,” Carrie said, the words coming out in a deep sort of growl.

  “It’s not at all what you think.” Lynn moved around the table to Carrie.

  “It’s exactly what I think.” Carrie backed up. “You weren’t even sick last night, were you?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t want to go out with Beth and knew you’d have a better time if I stayed home.”

  Carrie’s eyebrows flew up. “You mean you’d have a better time. I knew you and Aunt Beth were having issues, but sleeping with Maggie?” She glanced at Maggie and tilted her head. “And you, my best friend…did this?” The betrayal in Carrie’s eyes was clear.

  “We are not sleeping together.” It didn’t matter what she’d wanted last night. Nothing had happened. She’d made sure of it.

  “Really? Sure looks like something’s going on to me.” Carrie turned and rushed out the door.

  Lynn couldn’t stop the tears that came next. “Oh my God. How am I going to fix this?”

  Maggie spun her around. “I’ll fix it. I promise.”

  “You can’t.” Lynn couldn’t look at her. Everything in her world she knew to be true had been shattered. “I made promises—vows. I have to try to make it work.”

  “But Beth is a horrible wife, and you clearly don’t love her anymore.” Maggie’s voice wavered. “Do you?”

  “That doesn’t matter. Only Carrie matters now.” She pointed toward the door. “Did you see her face?” The look of betrayal flashed in her mind. “She would never understand.”

  “You can’t say you don’t feel anything for me.” Maggie closed the distance between them and took her in her arms.

  “I can and I will.” Her lips trembled, and she pushed Maggie away. “Fuck! I can’t do this. Any of it.” She should’ve left well enough alone, made Maggie leave last night, but she was weak and liked the warmth Maggie provided. A total delusion that she was going to have to wipe from her mind.

  Maggie grabbed Lynn’s shoulders, holding her in place. “You don’t have to leave her. We’ll work something out.”

  She snapped her gaze back to Maggie. “I can’t be that person, Maggie. Lying, cheating, leading two lives. That’s not me.”

  Maggie let her hands drop to her sides. “So, we’re just done here? There’s no future for us?”

  The hurt look on Maggie’s face cut right through her. “There can’t be.” She picked up her phone and hit the button for Carrie. “I need to find Carrie.”

  “I’ll find her.” Maggie didn’t say another word as she slid on her sneakers and tied them.

  Lynn thought of Beth. She’d been a good partner in life, providing her a home and more things than Lynn had ever thought she’d have. She had loved Beth, but she’d never had the desire for Beth that she felt for Maggie. Eventually she realized her life was incomplete and she’d always yearn for the kind of love she couldn’t have as long as she was married to Beth. In truth, Lynn and Beth had been dealing with several issues, but after Maggie came into Lynn’s life, lack of desire had moved to the top of the list.

  * * *

  Stacy stood at the nurses’ station reviewing charts when Maggie got there. She glanced at her watch. “Where have you been?”

  “I…” She thought about what Pam had said, about keeping her secrets. “I was helping Pam, I mean Dr. Davidson, with a laceration.”

  “Ooh, so you’re on a first-name basis with the doc now, huh?” Stacy chuckled. “Lady-killer.”

  “Don’t even start that rumor.” She took a tablet from Stacy and scrolled through it. “Not that I’d mind, but I think she’s already taken.”

  “I don’t have to start it. Anyone who saw you last night is gonna be way ahead of me.”

  “Shit. Was I that bad?”

  “Let’s just say you’ve set your sights pretty high.”

  “There she is.” Russell’s voice echoed through the hall as he came their way. “Miss Let’s-have-another-shot.”

  “Why didn’t either of you stop me?”

  “We tried. Multiple times. Where’s the object of your affection this morning?”

  Maggie reached in front of Stacy and grabbed Russell’s arm. “Don’t say another word. That is top secret.”

  “I thought it was cute,” Stacy said.

  Cute, right. It might have been if she could envision a good ending to this whole scenario—one where she and Lynn rode happily off into the sunset. But with Pam around, that wasn’t likely to happen. “If you tell another soul, I will make sure neither of you ever has another on-call room to yourselves again.”

  The look of panic Stacy and Russell exchanged was comical. “Got it,” they said in unison. “At least we didn’t let you follow her home.”

  She put her palm to her face. “Did I try?”

  “You don’t remember anything, do you?” Russell leaned on the counter and raised an eyebrow.

  “Not after the second shot.”

  “Lightweight.” He swiped a tablet and started to walk away, but spun back around and whispered, “Just an FYI. The doctor is already married, so you might put your efforts into someone else.”

  Maggie held the counter for balance as the room grew smaller and her whole body heated. They’re married? She was too late. Lynn had moved on with her life and found happiness with someone else.

  Chapter Seven

  As soon as Maggie had arrived home from her shift, she’d gone straight to bed and crashed for several hours. Stacy had picked up another shift and wouldn’t be home until late, so when she’d woken later, Maggie had opened a bottle of wine, ordered a pizza through the app on her phone, and settled on the couch for a night of binge-watching the new show everyone at the hospital was raving about on Netflix. She’d only taken her first sip of wine when she heard the knock on the door and grumbled. It couldn’t be the pizza. She’d just ordered it a few minutes ago, and it usually took at least thirty minutes for it to get here if they weren’t busy.

  Closing one eye, she looked through the peephole and squealed when she saw Carrie. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” she asked as she jerked open the door.

  Carrie dropped her bag in the hallway, rushed in, and swept her into a hug. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Mission accomplished,” she said with a huge smile.

  “Yay.” Carrie picked up her bag and entered.

  Maggie reached to take Carrie’s bag from her. “You’re staying here, right?”

  “Yep. Lynn’s busy, so I’m all yours.” Carrie grinned. “Did you know she lives in the same building as you?”

  Maggie’s mind spun. Multiple apartment buildings surrounded the hospital. What kind of a crazy serendipity was it that they’d chosen the same one? This development added a whole new layer of complication to their situation. “Awesome,” she said as she took the bag into her bedroom, wondering what was keeping Lynn so busy that she couldn’t make time for Carrie. “So what’s Lynn up to?”

  “She and Pam had a trip scheduled to a cabin upstate. They go every year just to get away from work.”

  “Just the two of them?” Maggie’s stomach knotted at the thoughts running through her head. Lynn and Pam alone together in the wilderness, loving life, loving each other.

  “No. I think about five or six of them go. It’s a big cabin. They invited me, but I’d rather hang out with you.”

  Maggie smiled. At least that was something. It didn’t relieve her pining for Lynn, but being with Carrie would keep her mind off reality for a while. Or would it? The ultimatum Carrie had given her four years ago flashed through her mind.

  Maggie had called Carrie multiple times and still no answer. She didn’t want to talk, but she had to find her and explain what had happened, or, more accurately, what hadn’t happened.

  Maggie stood at Deidre’s door, a mutual friend from college, and waited for her to answer. The door swung open, and an immediate roadblock stood in front of her. Deidre.

  “You certainly came out in a big way.” She shook her head. “Did you really sleep with her aunt?” Deidre and Maggie had slept together on more than one occasion to relieve stress.

  “I did not.” Given the chance, she would’ve, but Lynn had shut her down. “Is she here?”

  “She doesn’t want to talk to you,” Deidre said firmly.

  “Well, I need to talk to her,” she said as she pushed through the door. She found Carrie sitting on the couch, and the scowl on her face let Maggie know she was in no mood for any explanation.

  Carrie bolted off the couch and came at her hot. “I can’t believe you’d do something like that to me.”

  “I didn’t do anything, at least not what you think.”

  “You were wrapped around my aunt on the couch like a fucking flour tortilla on a burrito. What am I supposed to think?”

  Maggie slapped her hand to the back of her neck, trying to suppress the heat tingling across it. “I don’t know.” And she didn’t. If Lynn had let her, she would’ve taken her to bed and done everything she’d sworn to Carrie that they hadn’t. “I’ll be honest. I tried, but Lynn wouldn’t.”

  “You can’t treat her like one of your college fuck-buddies.” Carrie threw her hand up and looked past her at Deidre, then stared back at her.

  Maggie would admit to a few of those, including Deidre, but it wasn’t like she slept with a different woman every night. “It’s nothing at all like that with her. You know she means much more than that to me.”

  “Do I? If she meant more, I think you’d be more worried about her needs than yours.”

  That comment hit Maggie right in the gut. She knew how Lynn felt about Beth, but she couldn’t tell Carrie that. “Maybe Lynn’s needs have changed.”

  “That’s not your concern. She’s still married to my Aunt Beth, and they’re going to get back together. Beth wants it and said she’s going to try harder to make it work.”

  “Right.” She hated the words as they came out of Carrie’s mouth, but they were true. Lynn had told her the same thing just a little while ago. Her decision had been clear, and Maggie couldn’t do anything to change her mind. Whatever Maggie had thought the circumstances were, Lynn had chosen to stay with Beth, and she wouldn’t stand in the way of that.

  “Besides that, we’re going to Boston, and she’ll still be here, six hours away.”

  Carrie was right. Her life was getting ready to be busier than it ever had been. She wouldn’t have time for romance with anyone, let alone someone long-distance. “What do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to stay away from her. Then I’ll see if I can forget it ever happened.”

  “Okay.” To save her friendship with Carrie, she would steer clear of Lynn and never speak of her feelings for her to Carrie again.

  Did Carrie still expect Maggie to avoid Lynn now that they were working at the same hospital? Now that she was divorced from Beth? Tonight would be the perfect opportunity to test those waters.

  Carrie unzipped her bag and dug out some clothes. “So, unless you were planning to go out, which it doesn’t look like you were, I’m gonna change and get comfy.”

  “Nope. Just slumming around here and watching TV.”

  Carrie’s eyebrows rose. “Pizza?”

  “On the way,” she said as she left the bedroom. “You want a glass of wine?” she shouted as she swiped her glass from the coffee table and then rounded the corner from the living room into the kitchen.

  “Of course,” Carrie shouted back.

  Maggie met Carrie on the way to the couch with a newly filled glass of wine and a refilled glass for herself. They each took a corner of the couch, their places being set since college. Maggie exchanged her glass of wine for the remote and began clicking through shows on Netflix. She stopped on the one everyone was raving about.

  “Season one of this was my plan for the next couple of days. Thoughts?”

  “That’s good. I’ve been wanting to watch it too.”

  “Awesome.” Maggie clicked on episode one and let it start.

  They were only fifteen minutes into it when the pizza arrived. Carrie sprang from the couch to answer the door. “Did you already pay?”

  “Yep. Tipped too.”

  Maggie grabbed some paper plates and napkins from the kitchen and met Carrie back at the couch. She didn’t use real plates often. They weren’t practical for how little time she spent eating at home, and paper plates were easy cleanup.

  They’d watched two episodes of the show before Carrie popped up off the couch and announced, “I have to go to the bathroom.” She held up her empty glass. “And I need more wine.”

  Maggie swiped the glass from her hand. “Go pee. I’ll get the wine.” She gathered the dirty plates and wineglasses on top of the pizza box and carried them into the kitchen as though she was a skilled restaurant server, which she had been for a time in college. Something that she didn’t miss, considering the sometimes lousy customers and tips. At least this life lesson had taught her how to talk to strangers, a skill that came in handy as a doctor.

  After she tossed the paper plates into the trash and put the leftover pizza in the refrigerator, Maggie filled their wineglasses and set them on the coffee table before she hit the bathroom in her room. When she came back into the living room, Carrie was back in her spot sipping her wine. It was now or never, time to feel out how thin the ice was.

  “So, hey. I’ve met someone and am not sure what I should do,” she said as she flopped onto her corner of the couch and picked up her wine.

  “What?” Carrie slid her glass onto the table. “That’s the first thing you should’ve told me when I got here.” She pulled one of her legs up under the other and gave Maggie her full attention.

  “Right?” She laughed, rolled her eyes, and shook her head. “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Why don’t you know what to do? Is it the beautiful blue-eyed brunette from your first day? Is she married, in a relationship, or just a dangerous choice altogether?” Carrie bulleted her with questions.

  “No. She is not the blue-eyed brunette and probably a dangerous choice altogether.”

  Carrie’s eyes widened and she leaned forward. “Ooh, I was hoping for that. Now I need all the details.”

  “You’re incorrigible.” She shook her head. “There aren’t any details yet. She doesn’t even know I exist in that way.”

  “Where did you meet her?”

  “Where do you think? The only other place I ever go besides here.”

  “Another doctor? An intern?”

  Maggie nodded. “Yes, but no. Not an intern.” She could see the relief in Carrie’s eyes. She’d lied because she didn’t want to give Carrie any specific details that would make her suspicious. And technically, even though she wished for something with Lynn in the future, nothing was going on between them. Especially since Lynn was currently off gallivanting in the woods with her wife. She shook the thought from her head.

  “You’re thinking about her right now, aren’t you?”

  Maggie nodded, and heat rose to her cheeks. Just the thought of having anything with Lynn made warmth spread throughout her. “She’s really special, and I don’t want to screw it up.”

  “Well, then don’t, dummy. Does she at least know you like her?”

  “She may have an idea. She’s beautiful, sweet, and super-smart. I can’t help but get a little gaga whenever she’s around.” She tried to calm the butterflies swirling in her belly.

  “Oh my God. Look at you. You’re blushing. I don’t think I’ve seen you act this way about anyone before. Not even Brenda.”

  “Never Brenda. That was all about convenience. Love never entered into that relationship at all.” At all.

  “Did Brenda know that?”

  “Oh, yeah. It was the same for her. We’ve never had anything in common besides sex. Which, don’t get me wrong, was amazing, but you can only base a relationship on sex for so long before you get on each other’s nerves.” And Brenda had been getting on Maggie’s nerves all the time before she left. Maybe Maggie’s state of mind was pushing her away, the knowledge she was moving back to Baltimore where she’d left her heart so many years ago. Even so, when Maggie wasn’t studying, all she wanted to do was stay at home and chill. Brenda never got that. She was a talker, which went along with her huge circle of friends and active social life. Maggie wouldn’t miss being dragged to parties and places she didn’t want to be.

  “I’m guessing you were at that point, or she’d be coming to see you.”

  “It was a clean break. I’m sure she’s already involved with someone else.” Brenda wasn’t the kind of girl to stay single for long. She hated being alone. Maggie, on the other hand, valued her privacy and alone-time, and she didn’t get much of it when she was living with Brenda.

  “I think she is.” Carrie smiled slightly. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but you seem to have moved on yourself.”

  She smiled lightly and shook her head. “That’s not surprising.” And it wasn’t. Brenda was a flirt and liked attention.