The Best Medicine (26 page)

He actually had to consciously go easy on them. His martial arts training wouldn’t advocate doing more damage than was necessary.

Finally Lauren’s voice pulled his focus away from Josh and his friends, who had clearly given up. “Scott, that’s enough,” she said. “You have to stop. Mickey said the cops’ll be here any second.”

Scott surveyed his path of destruction: broken glasses and chairs. “I’m sorry, Lo. I . . .
shit
 . . . I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, a seductive smile swept across her face. “You really have no idea how hot that was, do you?” she whispered.

*   *   *

Scott attempted to clean up some of the mess inside the bar, but there wasn’t much he could do other than put some of the broken items in a trash can. Josh and his friends had already made their way outside. And despite the fact that Scott had embarrassed them by beating them all senseless, he was sure Josh and his friends wouldn’t hesitate to tell the police what had transpired. Finally, Scott exited the bar to find that a gray-haired officer was already talking to Josh about twenty yards away in the parking lot. Josh was leaning against the side of the police car, and Scott could see over the shoulder of the officer that he was holding a paper towel on his face to stop the bleeding. Scott turned back toward the exit to see that Lo and the rest of their friends had followed him outside. “Stay here,” he said to Lauren. “I’m going to go talk to the cop. Josh is there, and I don’t want you anywhere near that asshole.”

“Okay,” Lauren nodded.

As Scott approached him, Josh’s eyes grew narrow but he didn’t speak.

Scott introduced himself to the officer and told his version of the events—which seemed to match Josh’s almost exactly.

“So you beat up
four
men?” the officer asked in disbelief.

Scott nodded.

“Well, Doctor, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with how the law works. But here in Virginia, kicking the shit out of multiple people is considered simple assault.”

Scott nodded. “Okay.” He didn’t know exactly what the charge would be, but the officer’s explanation didn’t surprise him.

The officer scrawled something in his notebook and then put it in his pocket. “Do you have any sharp objects on you that I need to know about before I search you, Dr. Jacobs?”

Is this guy serious?
“No, sir,” Scott responded politely, although it crossed his mind to say he always carried around a few hypodermic needles.

The officer directed Josh to move around to the front of the vehicle but to stay where he could see him until backup arrived. Scott put his arms on the top of the police car so he could be properly searched. Never in his life had he been in trouble like this, and as much as he didn’t want an assault charge on his record, he didn’t regret his actions for a second. Josh had deserved every bit of what he’d gotten and more.

The officer patted Scott down and removed his wallet, his silver dollar, and a long black box from the pocket of his jacket. He opened it, taking a look at its contents. “This looks expensive,” he said. “Is there someone you want to hold this for you?”

“It’s hers,” Scott replied, turning around to gesture toward Lauren. “Happy birthday, Lo,” he yelled across the small parking lot. Another police car pulled up, and a cop—who looked about Scott’s age—exited the vehicle. When the officer who had searched Scott directed the other man to give the box to Lauren, Scott’s eyes followed him as he neared her. There had been so many times he’d wanted to give her the gift—to see her eyes light up when she opened it. But he never did. Two months ago when he’d gotten it for her, he hadn’t thought twice about it. Though he quickly realized that giving Lauren a gift like that would have blurred the lines between them even
more. But for some reason he hadn’t gotten rid of it. And now Scott knew why. Because somewhere, in the recesses of his mind, he must have known that one day he’d get to see her open it.

Lauren looked at Scott as she held the thin black box in her hand, and he smiled when she removed the platinum heart necklace she had admired at the benefit. “That’s the one you wanted, right?” he called to her.

Lauren was moving toward Scott now, and the officer didn’t stop her. Scott wanted to wrap his arms around her and never let her go.

“You gave me your heart before I was ready to give you mine,” Scott continued, hoping she understood that he wasn’t just talking about the necklace. “But I hope you’ll take it now.”

“I love it, Scott. I love
you.
” Her eyes stayed glued to his until she brought him into a warm embrace. “Thank you.” When she finally pulled away and turned to glance at the cop standing beside Scott, she began laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Scott saw the man shake his head and let out a huff. But an amused smile spread across his face as recognition seemed to set in. “Not you again.”

It didn’t take long for Scott to put the pieces of the puzzle together. “Let me guess,” he said. “You’re the one who arrested her?”

“That would be me,” the officer retorted dryly. “Looks like you two make quite a pair.”

“I guess we do,” Scott replied, a gleam in his eye as he looked at Lo.

“Will he have to stay in jail overnight?” Lauren asked, clearly concerned.

“Yes,” the cop replied. “He’ll have his arraignment with the judge in the morning.”

“Okay, well, call me when you’re allowed to leave, and I’ll come get you. Oh, and tell the judge I said hello. We go way back.”

“Will do,” Scott answered. He couldn’t avoid catching Josh’s gaze when Scott spotted him standing with his friends by the car. Clearly Josh wasn’t going to be detained. The bastard had gotten off without punishment again. Yet Scott’s eyes found Lo’s again and he thought,
I’m still the lucky one.
“Hey, Josh,” Scott called, unable to resist, “your face looks pretty bad. You might want to get a doctor to take a look at that.”

Scott could see Josh struggling to restrain himself. Finally, the cop put Scott in the back of his car and shut the door.

As the car started up, Scott heard Lauren say something about sirens and someone named Eleanor. Then just as the car started to pull slowly away, Lo began running beside it and tapping on the window.

Surprisingly, the cop stopped the car and rolled down Scott’s window halfway.

“Just one more thing,” Lo said softly. And as Lauren leaned into the car, Scott caught the reflection of the blue lights in her eyes before she kissed him.

We’ve got to start with Sarah Younger, whose belief in us has been steadfast and enduring. Never afraid to put us in our place, while still assuring us that we
have
a place in the literary world, you’re the best agent a pair of wacky girls could hope for. Thank you to everyone at the Nancy Yost Literary Agency for supporting us. And to Mama Younger, thank you for coming up with the chapter title when we weren’t able to.

To our editor, Laura Fazio, you’ve been fantastic throughout this entire process. Our first foray into the traditional publishing world has been quite the adventure, but you made the process painless and exciting. We can’t thank you enough for believing in us and for trusting our judgment. You let us have our creative freedom while still leading us down a path we wouldn’t have known existed without your guidance. And don’t worry. One day we’ll get better at Tweeting.

Thank you to all of the people at Penguin Random House who have helped us make
The Best Medicine
the best it could be. From the art department to the copy editors, you guys are incredible.

Alison Bliss, stumbling upon you and convincing you
to CP for us was one of our most fortunate moments. You’re a terrific critique partner, author, and friend.

Amanda, you’re the best personal assistant money doesn’t buy. You’ve been our friend and our supporter from the beginning when all we had were ideas on a page. And nearly two years later, you’re still here. Thank you for going on this journey with us. Hopefully the trip will be a long one.

Erik, I know I’m a total pain in the ass most of the time. Thank you for always loving me anyway. You and Mya are everything to me, even though I sometimes forget to show it properly. I love you guys. ~Elizabeth

To Hayley, you’ve helped me realize a dream and make it a reality. There’s no amount of thanks that can satisfy the gratitude you deserve. Working with you . . . there’s just nothing better. Love you. ~Elizabeth

Nick, thanks for being the Real Elizabeth Hayley when we don’t know how to do something like set up a Web site, save a document, open a file; the list is really endless. You’ve been our biggest supporter when this was all just a crazy idea. Thank you for not only allowing me to pursue my dream, but for dreaming along with me. I couldn’t ask for a better husband or for a better father for Nolan. Because simply put, there is no better. To both my boys: I love you. ~Hayley

Elizabeth, nothing I will say in a paragraph will accurately express how I feel about how far we’ve come together. I love you for being my friend, my partner in writing (and crime), and the sister I’ll have forever. Thank you for always calling me out on my bullshit while somehow still letting me dream big enough for the both of us. Now, tell me about the rabbits. ~Hayley

Want to see how the girl next door finds love?

Read on for a sneak peek at Quinn’s story

in Elizabeth Hayley’s

JUST SAY YES

Available from Signet Eclipse in November 2015.

Tim shoved his hands in his pockets as he got out of his truck and walked toward the white house with blue shutters that his brother had told him to look for. He was happy to be there to celebrate the fact that Lauren had gotten her master’s in psychology.

Withdrawing one of his hands as he approached the front door, he briefly wondered if he should just walk in, but decided against it before reaching out to ring the doorbell. Lauren’s mom had worked for Tim’s dad before he had died and Scott had taken over his medical practice. Therefore, he felt some level of formality was required.

A small, slightly round woman answered the door, smiling broadly.

“Hi, Mrs. Hastings.”

“Tim, I’m so glad you made it. And call me Pam,” she added with a wave of her hand.

Tim nodded and entered the house when she pulled the door open wider. “Your home is beautiful.”

“You Jacobs boys are so polite. I’m not sure how
either of you puts up with Lauren,” she replied with a laugh. “But thank you. Make yourself comfortable. The gang is all out on the back deck.”

“Thank you,” Tim said as he started for the back of the house. It wasn’t difficult to locate his brother; Tim heard his voice before he even reached the deck doors.

“Lo, if you don’t stop spraying that damn bug repellent all over the place, I’m going to have to take it away from you.”

Lauren huffed out a laugh. “I’d like to see you try.”

Tim stepped out onto the deck in time to see Scott make a move toward Lauren, who quickly lifted the bottle as though she were going to spray him in the face with it.

“I’m not playing with you, Scott. This is my party, and I’ll spray Off! if I want to.”

“You’re causing a haze to settle over the deck,” Scott complained.

“That means it’s working.”

“Are you still getting bitten?” Scott challenged.

“Yes.”

“Then it’s not working. Give it to me.” Scott rushed her, but Lauren threw the bottle into the backyard before he wrapped his hands around her. “Do you want to explain what the point of that was?”

Lauren laughed and turned into Scott’s chest. “I panicked.”

“Can you two stop canoodling? I’m trying to keep dinner down,” Cass jibed.

Scott kissed Lauren on the cheek before he looked up and his eyes caught Tim’s. “Hey, bro.” He disengaged from Lauren and made his way toward Tim, pulling him into a one-armed hug.

Lauren hugged Tim after Scott moved away. “Thanks for coming, even though it’s completely ridiculous to have a party for getting out of grad school.”

“It’s not ridiculous,” Scott said, appalled. “You worked hard. You should get a party just like everyone else.”

“
Who
is everyone else? No one else I graduated with is having some big shindig in their parents’ backyard. You and my mother are insane for insisting we have this.”

Scott raised a hand. “First of all, ‘big shindig’ and ‘parents’ backyard’ are mutually exclusive terms. If you’d let me rent out Clay’s like I’d wanted to,
then
—”

“Then it would be pretentious and obnoxious in addition to being unnecessary,” Lauren interjected.

Scott glared at her for a second. “Forever with you is going to be a really long time, isn’t it?”

Lauren smiled brightly, looking pleased with herself. “Yup.”

Scott pulled her into an embrace. “Thank God.” He chuckled right before kissing her chastely.

“Yuck. Get a room,” Simone complained through a smile.

Tim shook his head at their antics. “How was your graduation?”

“Long-winded and dull,” Lauren replied with a smile. “Have you eaten yet? There’s a ton of food in the kitchen.”

“I’m good for now.”

“Okay. Well, make yourself at home.” Lauren drifted back toward her friends.

“How’s the restaurant been?” Scott asked.

“Going well. Business is starting to pick up.”

“That’s great. So being an executive chef is everything Wolfgang Puck made it out to be?”

Tim smiled at his brother in response before his eyes began to skim the crowd congregated on the deck. He tried to act uninterested, as though he were casually taking in the people before him.

But that wasn’t the truth. And as he stretched his six-foot-two frame to get a better look around, he caught a glance of the familiar head of red hair that made his heart rate jack up every time he saw it. Quinn was sitting alone in the backyard by the pool.

“Who are you looking for?” Scott questioned, making Tim shrink back slightly.

“No one,” Tim lied. “I’m going to grab a water. You want anything?”

Scott looked at him curiously for a second before shaking his head.

“Be right back,” Tim said, though he hoped he wouldn’t be. He walked over to the coolers lined up against the railing and dug around for a water before he descended the three steps that led to the yard and began walking toward Quinn.

Tim had seen her a dozen or so times since Scott had begun dating Lauren, and he had looked forward to it every time. Not that he’d ever let anyone know that. Tim was almost eight years older than Quinn, and he had a history that was seven shades of fucked-up. There was no way a girl like her needed to waste her time with a guy like him. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming.

He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of concern. Quinn’s best friends were all at the party, yet she was sitting alone in the backyard. He took in her posture as he approached, immediately knowing that something was off with her.
He’d hardly spent any time with her since they’d met, but he could tell something was wrong.

“Hey, stranger,” he said as he plopped down in the chair beside her.

“Hey,” Quinn said quietly.

He noticed the way her eyes drifted over him, taking him in from head to toe. It made him feel like fucking Superman. “So what’s up? Why are you sitting over here?”

Quinn took a long drink from the beer bottle she was holding. “That’s an interesting question.” The words were slow leaving her mouth.

Is she drunk?
“That’s why I asked it,” Tim said with a grin.

“Cheeky.”

Yup, she’s wasted.

Quinn was sitting cross-legged in the chair, and she turned her entire body toward Tim when she spoke again. “Did you know that I’m safe and traditional and predictable and a whole lot of other boring things?”

Tim took a sip of his water. “I did not.”

“Well, I’m glad that I was here to enlighten you,” she said as she drained the rest of the beer.

“How many of those have you had?”

“I lost count at seven.”

“Wow. Looking to dash that whole boring thing by getting your stomach pumped?”

“If that’s what it takes,” she murmured as she lifted the bottle back to her lips. Upon realizing that the bottle was empty, she muttered, “Figures,” and set it clumsily on the ground under her chair.

“Who told you you were all of those things anyway?” Tim asked.

Her only response was a slight shrug as she looked out over the pool.

“Okay, I’ll just ask all of them, then.” Tim stood up and turned toward the deck. “Hey, everybody, I was just—” He was cut off by Quinn leaping onto his back.

“
Shh.
Don’t be embarrassing.”

Tim tried to ignore how good it felt to have Quinn pressed up against him, her long, thin frame molded against him, her full breasts pushing onto the corded muscles in his back. He quickly gave his dick a silent warning to behave as he reached up and unhooked Quinn’s hands from his shoulders. He kept hold of one hand as he turned around to face her. “Then tell me who said you were boring.”

“I just am.”

“Bullshit.”

Quinn’s eyes widened slightly. “You said a bad word,” she teased.

“I did. And I’m going to say a lot more of them if you don’t tell me who was calling you names.”

“Aww, you going to defend my honor?”

Tim didn’t return her smile. “Absolutely.”

Quinn tilted her head slightly, and he would’ve given anything to know what she was thinking. She blew out a breath, pulled away from him, and sank back into her chair, resting her arms on her thighs. “Do you ever wish you were someone different?”

Tim wasn’t sure how to answer that question. He was sure she knew about his past, at least the highlights. He’d drunk enough water at bars while he was out with them to make it pretty obvious. Not to mention the fact that Lauren knew all about Tim’s problems with addiction. The girls didn’t seem the type of friends who kept secrets
from one another. “I’ve been someone different,” he finally answered as he sat back down beside her.

Quinn looked over at him. “Oh. Yeah. Sorry. That was a stupid question.”

“No, it wasn’t. Now, tell me why you asked it.” Tim couldn’t believe Quinn would want to be different. As far as he was concerned, she was perfect.

She sighed. “I don’t know. I just . . . Sometimes I feel like this isn’t how my life is supposed to shake out. That there’s so much more out there waiting for me if I’d just grow a pair and go look for it.”

Tim couldn’t help but smile at Quinn’s choice of words. She wasn’t a saint by any means, but she didn’t typically speak so candidly either. “What’s stopping you?”

She looked confused.

“From looking for it,” he clarified. “If you think life has more to offer, then why aren’t you doing something about it?”

“I already told you. Because I’m safe and traditional and—”

“Don’t give me that shit again,” Tim interrupted. “Give me the truth.”

“That is the truth. I’m cocooned so deeply into my own comfort zone, I can barely breathe, let alone get out.”

“Just take it one step at a time.”

“I kind of already did that actually,” she explained. Tim gave her a look that told her to keep going, so she did. “I pitched an idea for an article. A kind of exposé of the life of a sheltered woman looking to spread her wings, if you will.”

“That sounds great.”

“Yeah, except now I have to actually go through with
it. I was only pitching the idea, but now my editor wants
me
to write the article. And I have no idea how I’m going to do that. I don’t even know the kinds of things I should write about.” Quinn sighed deeply. “How am I supposed to know what type of person I want to be? I can’t even pick the right type of guy to date.”

Tim felt his jaw tighten at the mention of Quinn and guys, but he ignored it because there wasn’t anything that could be done about it. “What type
do
you date?”

“In a nutshell, mamas’ boys,” she said with a hollow laugh. “It’s fine. I just couldn’t understand why I always date these guys who still live at home and think playing video games is a stimulating activity. Then I started reflecting on it and realized that it’s because I play it safe and look for guys who will be the least likely to hurt me. I don’t take risks, and I don’t like leaving things to chance. It’s just how I’m wired.”

He wanted to tell her that that was a good thing. There was a reason she was attracted to guys who were essentially the opposite of him: they were better. They hadn’t spent years on the streets, doing whatever it took to get their next fix. They didn’t hurt the people who loved them. They didn’t fuck up everything they had to chase a high that was never as good as promised. “There’s nothing wrong with that, Quinn. Trust me. I’ve taken enough risks in my lifetime to satisfy the quota for a football team. And it hasn’t made me a better person or more fulfilled or happier. It made me stupid and thoughtless.”

“You don’t think you’re those things now, happy and fulfilled?”

“I am them now, for the most part. But that’s because I’ve stopped being a reckless jackass.”

“Don’t you think that those experiences enabled you to be them, though? That by making mistakes and seeing how bad things could get, you actually found out how you
did
want to live?”

She had him there. Tim was a hundred percent formed by the lessons he’d learned. He was a better person at thirty-five because he’d been such a bad person from ages fifteen to twenty-seven. Tim had hit rock bottom about four times, and each time that rock bottom had gotten deeper. It made him appreciate being firmly above ground. “I’m kind of an extreme case, though. I don’t recommend my type of living to find out who you are.”

Quinn offered him a slight smile. “I’m not saying I want to hang out in dark alleys and befriend gangbangers. I just want to push the envelope a little. I don’t want to look back on my twenties and be bogged down by all of the things I
didn’t
do.”

Tim sat quietly for a minute. “Okay. You want to unleash your inner rebel, then we’ll do it.”

“We?”

“Oh yeah. There’s no
way
I’m missing out on this.”