This was still totally fine. All they really knew was that I saw her.
“Yep, a few days ago.” He turned his attention back to Molly. “Sweetie, that’s enough chocolate.”
Molly chided him. “Mama says there is never enough chocolate.” Billy’s wife, Kat, was pregnant and suddenly mighty fond of sweets.
My father giggled as she dumped the whole bag of chips into the batter. He turned to us. “Hope you boys like pancake with your chocolate.”
“Who doesn’t?” Luke whistled.
Bill started to stand. “Okay, Mols, that’s enough with the sweets.”
My father shushed him. “You talk to your brothers. Molly and I are making breakfast.” There was flour on my dad’s face. He looked so full of joy. There was nothing he liked better than family.
Always excited to attend a good ribbing, Cody turned the conversation back to me. “Luke, you were just about to say something about Wyatt’s doctor’s appointment.”
Luke crunched more bacon between his teeth and said, “Ah, yes, seems Doc Eggleston has gone on hiatus.”
Bill gasped. “Oh no, Caroline is the new doc in town, isn’t she?”
Luke nodded vigorously. “She certainly is.”
Cody started laughing. And that was when I remembered that I told him I was gonna shock the doc. Working around his hysterics, he asked, “Did you know it was gonna be her? Or were you standing there in the buff when she came in?”
Bill’s eyes went wide. “What?”
Under my breath, I huffed, “Oh my God.” And did my best not to make eye contact with my brothers.
Luke offered up the dirty details, warning, “I should tell you this story gets downright tawdry.”
How did he know this? Argh, this town.
“Maddie told me that Bev and Caroline were overheard talking at the Conway Cafe. Apparently, Wat-wat here.” He pointed his finger at me. “Was wearing his birthday suit and shaking his moneymaker when Caroline entered the exam room.”
Cody continued to crack up.
Bill, still shocked, said, “No!”
Molly looked at my father and asked, “What’s a moneymaker?”
My father gave my brothers and me the eye, but even he was on the verge of laughing. Trying to avoid her question, he pointed to the pan and said, “Flip that pancake before it burns.”
I dropped my forehead to the table and literally said, “Ugh.”
Luke continued. “Being the dutiful doctor that she is, Caroline took Wat-wat’s show in stride and went straight into her examination of …” He paused, finding the right word to use in front of Molly. “His dingleberries.”
Again, Bill said, “No!” Only this time he was laughing too.
My father's chuckles were silent, but his chest was bouncing.
“Kill me now,” I groaned.
Cody finally stopped laughing, but his whole face and neck were red from exertion. He took a sip of water right before Luke, who continued to be cryptic because of Molly, said, “Brightside, all the women in town know you serve above-average-sized sausage.”
At the word sausage, Cody got to laughing again and spat his water all over me.
“Oh God, stop. It was bad enough the first time I went through it.”
Bill joked, “I don’t know. Didn’t you always hope Caroline Winchester would taste your sausage?”
I couldn’t help it. I pictured Caroline on her knees in front of me. Her hands on me. Her white lab coat open and the V in her shirt deep enough for me to see into her cleavage. But I managed to say, “I’m not interested in Caroline. I’ve never been interested in Caroline.”
Luke looked at Bill. “I don’t know. Is that how you remember it?”
Cody just looked on with glee as Bill said, “No.” He shook his head. “Nope. What I remember was an awful lot of sappy glances from across the cafeteria.”
A little too defensively, I said, “I felt sorry for her. She didn’t have friends.”
My father set a plate of very brown pancakes in front of Bill and added his two cents. “I did raise you with all the feelings, Wyatt, my boy.” He was smirking just like my brothers.
“All of you, stop it. Yes, she saw my sausage and had her hand on my dingleberries or whatever, but she’s a doctor. Doctors see and handle a lot of sausage. It’s embarrassing but that’s it.”
Cody butted in. “So, the pajama shirt. What’s your explanation for that?”
“I’m tired, like I said.”
Cody shook his head. “Yeah, I never saw you with this Caroline and even I’m not buying it. You got …” He paused, glancing at Molly and then said, “Peaches on the brain, bro. No doubt about it.”
“Okay,” my father interjected. “Peaches is where I draw the line.”
“He’s right,” Bill added.
“Fine, but I want to be absolutely clear, no matter what y’all think, it’s the same now as it was then. I know better than to chase Caroline Winchester. She’s too damn smart for the likes of me, and her daddy is terrifying. So, squash down your gossiping grannies, and let me be.”
Handing Cody his plate of pancakes, my father said, “You're pretty darn smart. I wouldn’t say any woman is too smart for you.”
“She went to college at sixteen, Dad. She had a medical degree by the time she turned twenty-two.” Bill and Luke were looking at me and each other, like having any knowledge of Caroline was proof that I liked her. I ignored them. “I barely graduated high school.”
Sternly, my father said, “Wyatt, we all have our strengths. Yours may not be books but you are plenty smart.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Either way I’m not chasing Caroline Winchester.”
The back door opened again, and Kat, Molly’s mom, came through. Her belly was as round as a beach ball and she was holding her low back.
Bill jumped up and crossed to her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She smiled meekly. “Just pregnant.”
Bill guided her to his seat in front of the pile of very chocolatey pancakes.
“My, oh my,” she said. Then she looked at Molly, asking, “Did you make these?”
“Yes,” Molly said, climbing off the step stool and going to her mama. “I think they are perfect, but Wat-wat doesn’t want them.”
“Really?” Kat looked up at me. I shrugged, having no idea why Molly thought I didn’t want her pancakes.
“He wants peaches.”
“Oh,” Kat said, looking to all of us men who were trying to play dumb.
Then Molly said, “Mama, did you know that all the ladies in town want to try Wat-wat’s sausage and berries?”
“Do they now?” Kat asked, turning to each of us with fire in her eyes.
4
Caroline
“You need to wipe that look off your face,” Bev said. She was driving. We were in the cab of her daddy’s Ford F-250, the size of which made Bev inordinately happy. She said driving a giant truck made her feel like queen of the world.
“What look?” I questioned. I didn’t have a look. However, I did have the biggest gift basket known to man on my lap. It literally required my entire wingspan to manage it, and when I walked carrying it, I sort of had to spread my legs, like you’d imagine Santa Claus did with the girth of his belly.