Love On Anchor Island: An Anchor Island Novel

When Alex shot her a warning glare, she added “I meant about the fortune. The right one always lands in your lap when least expect.”
“What are you guys talking about?” asked Flora’s daughter, Emma, rolling toward them on the desk chair. Thanks to a broken water pipe that closed her middle school for the day, she’d come to work with her mom.
“Alex’s grandmother sent him a fortune to try help him find a wife.”
“Like from a cookie?” the teen asked.
“Yes, from a cookie. And I was just telling him that the saying about love coming when you least expect it is correct. I’d given up on ever finding Mr. Right when your father barreled into my on his bicycle.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Not that story again. You two are sickeningly obsessed with each other. None of my friends’ parents are as gross as you guys.”
“What is so gross about loving each other? Besides, you go way more gaga for those K-pop boys of yours than I do over your dad.”
Cheeks pink, the teenager rolled back to the desk. “Whatever.”
Alex and Flora exchanged an amused look before he returned to his office. There was only one appointment left for the day, and he still had another fifteen minutes before Nota would arrive. To his surprise, she’d actually made it to her next regular appointment without any unannounced visits.
Before he could sit down, he heard the front door of the practice slam open, accompanied by Beth Dempsey calling his name.
“Alex! Where is Alex?” she yelled, presumably at Flora.
Dropping the envelope on his desk, he darted into the hall. “What’s wrong?”
Beth stormed his way, dragging Roxie along with her, both of them clenching the younger woman’s left hand. “My cousin is an idiot; that’s what’s wrong.”
“I am not an idiot,” Roxie defended. “It’s fine.”
Angrier than he’d ever seen her, Beth jerked to a halt. “There is nothing fine about it, and I am going to beat my husband’s ass for not taking you to the emergency room.”
Alex had never heard Beth curse before. This must have been serious. He spotted the blood running down Roxie’s arm and went into action.
“In here. Flora get me—”
“I’m on it,” she said before he could finish.
Leading them into an exam room, Alex said, “Let me see.” Beth unwrapped a kitchen towel from around Roxie’s hand to reveal a large Band-Aid over the thumbnail. “I need to take this off.”
“Wait until you see what’s underneath,” Beth mumbled. “I cannot believe—”
Before she could finish, Roxie let out a yowl as the bandage came off to reveal something gray sticking out of the bloody digit.
“Is that—”
“A nail,” Beth snapped. “She has a nail through her finger, and no one thought this was a damn emergency.”
“Have you tried to take it out?” Alex asked as Flora entered the room. Roxie shook her head and sank her teeth into her bottom lip. Based on the positioning, he didn’t believe the nail hit the bone, which was the best-case scenario. “I’m going to try, okay? Take some deep breaths.”
Roxie breathed in and out twice while Alex opened the sanitized tweezers.
“Here we go.” With a quick tug, the nail was out.
Unfortunately, so was Roxie.
Roxie had never been so humiliated in her life. Considering her track record, that was really saying something.
“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Alex assured her. “I have no doubt that hurt like hell.”
If by hell he meant like having her thumb smashed by Thor’s hammer, then he was close. At least Beth was no longer giving her raving lunatic performance, thanks to having to pick up the girls from daycare. Yes, she’d scared her, and Roxie wouldn’t want to be Joe this evening, but her cousin seriously needed to calm down.
“I’ve never fainted in my life,” she assured him, taking a sip from the bottle of water the teen at the front had brought her. “It must have been the blood loss.”
Alex was nice enough not to correct her. “I’m sure it was. Keep the hand elevated, and I’ll be back as soon as I finish with Nota.”
Due to her fainting spree, they refused to let her be alone, which was the only reason Roxie was still there. “I feel fine. Can I not go home now?”
She preferred to wallow in her mortification alone. Also, the throbbing was getting worse, and she didn’t want to cry in front of Alex again.
“Absolutely not.” Alex closed the folder he’d been writing in, blowing a slip of paper off the desk and into her lap.
On the tiny slip of paper was the words The right one will come along when you least expect it. “What is this?” she asked.
“Something from my grandmother,” he replied. “She’s trying to tell me something.”
“Sounds like Grandma wants great-grandbabies.”
“Then she’ll have to get them from Tanner.”
“Who is Tanner?”
“My brother,” Alex said, rounding the desk.
Dancing into dangerous territory but unable to stop herself, she said, “You don’t want kids?”
“I’m not saying that,” he said, gently raising her arm higher. “I just don’t want kids right now. I’m having a hard enough time trying to win you over. The last thing I’m going to do is scare you off with baby talk.”
Smart man. “Then I suggest you keep this until a later date.” Roxie handed back the fortune.
“Emma!” Alex yelled toward the hallway.
A teenager popped up in the doorway. “Yo.”
“Sit with Roxie while I take care of Nota, please.” To Roxie, he said, “Keep that hand up.”
“Yes, sir.” Pulling one foot onto the chair, she propped her elbow on her knee. “But I don’t need a babysitter.”
Alex ignored her and left the room.
Emma plopped down in his desk chair, her eyes locked on her phone. When Roxie spotted the AirPod in one ear, she asked, “What are you watching?”
“NCT.”
That told her nothing. “NC what?”
Blue eyes rolled hard, and Roxie couldn’t help but feel as if she were speaking to the thirteen-year-old version of herself. “NCT 127. They’re a K-pop group, and their comeback is today. I’m streaming the