Made for You (The Best Mistake 2)

“Well, yeah, okay, braces suck,” Brynn heard herself say. “But I promise that one day you’ll realize there are a lot more important things in life.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. My mom tells me all the time. Looks are passing, but brains and kindness are forever…all that crap.”

Good mom.

“Your mom’s right,” Brynn said.

“Easy for you to say. You’re perfect.”

Brynn leaned forward and gave her a little wink. “I work hard to make people think so.”

She escorted Abby to the reception desk to wait for her mom, knowing that nothing else she could say would make Abby hate her reflection any less, but silently sending up a prayer that life would be kind to the girl. That she would be happy instead of perfect.

Brynn swung by the staff fridge to grab her yogurt before heading to her office for a quick break. She glanced at her watch and winced. She felt like she’d been here for hours, but it wasn’t even half past ten.

“That’s probably the tenth time I’ve seen you check your watch today,”

Brynn gave Susan a wan smile as she peeled off the yogurt top and dropped it in the trash before sitting on the corner of her desk.

But Susan didn’t let up. “Never known you to be a clock-watcher, everything okay?

No. No, everything’s not okay.

Brynn shrugged. “Having a little trouble settling back into the daily grind.”

Susan folded her arms and tapped plain fingernails against her forearm. “Interesting choice of words. Watching the clock, taking long lunches, leaving the office as soon as possible in the afternoon…referring to your job as a grind?”

Brynn raised her eyebrows at Susan’s detailed assessment. “If you’re concerned I’m not pulling my weight, just say so.”

“Oh gosh, it’s not that,” Susan said with an exasperated wave of her hand. “I know you’d never give less than your best to your patients, and to the practice. But ever since you got back from vacation…”

At the concerned look on her partner’s face, Brynn’s yogurt started to taste sour. “I thought the break would help, ya know?”

Susan nodded slowly. “It should have. I know I felt better after getting away for a few days, even though it was for unhappy circumstances.”

Brynn gave a sympathetic smile. “I’m sorry about your mom. But she’s doing better?”

Susan shrugged. “As well as can be expected, I guess. But yeah, she’ll make it. We’re grateful.”

Immediately Brynn felt awful that she was moping around for no good reason while Susan actually had a reason to be down, and instead she was going about her business happily and professionally.

“Well, I just wanted to see if everything was okay,” Susan said. “I know you just came through a rough breakup and all, so if you need to talk…”

“It wasn’t really a breakup since we were never together,” Brynn muttered.

Susan tilted her head. “What do you mean? Weren’t you guys together for like two years?”

Ohhhhhh. She was talking about James.

“I was kind of…seeing someone over the past few weeks. Casually,” she rushed to add.

“A rebound!” Susan said with a grin. “Sexy!”

“It was sexy,” Brynn admitted. “And then it blew up in my face.”

“Aha, I knew it was guy issues that were getting you down.”

Yeah, if by “guy issues” you mean your worst enemy telling you he’s been in love with you since forever and then promptly disappearing and not returning any of your phone calls. Yeah, that had gotten her down all right.