Page 39 of Clara Knows Best

“She was perfectly nice. But I’m leaving town on Saturday at dawn.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re ‘leaving’ this weekend.”

“Don’t putleavingin air quotes. It’s scary.”

“Well, we’ll see. I thought I was leaving, too, once upon a time.”

She expected him to walk away, but he asked, “So, you do all the billing? Scheduling?”

“Uh, yep.”

“You like it?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s easy. A little tedious.” She looked up to see him watching her thoughtfully, so she continued, “When I got here last summer, my mom and Dr. Pike and Yoli and Darcy the nurse were trying to figure out the computer. The software they had was huge and way too complicated for a small office. My mom and Dr. Pike couldn’t get their calendars to sync so they were making appointments on a paper calendar. So I was like, okay, move over. Six months later, I’m still here. But at least I got them some decent software and Igot everything caught up with the insurance companies and sent invoices to a bunch of people who didn’t know how to pay.”

“Billing insurance companies is no cakewalk.”

“Yeah. Luckily, there’s not a whole lot going on here. Same procedures over and over.”

“That makes sense. I thought you were saying the other day how much you hate business.”

“Yeah. Doesn’t mean I can’t figure it out.”

He nodded. “Is your mom actively looking for an office manager?”

“Are you kidding? Not even on her radar. But I’m looking. I have listings on a bunch of job sites. The candidate pool’s kind of limited around here. Going to a job fair at the high school in a few weeks, though.”

“That’s a good idea. Then you can get out of here, maybe move back to Austin.”

She looked at him in surprise. “Austin?”

“Sure. You know, a real city. Nothing’s going to happen to you while you’re buried out here, living in your mom’s house.”

“Happen?” she asked. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, opportunities. For one thing, it’s impossible to date in this town. Everyone knows everyone. No job market to speak of, either.”

“True,” she said vaguely. She was very curious to know where he was going with this new campaign to relocate her so that she could date with more privacy. “I don’t have a lot of friends left in Austin. If I moved back, would you hang out with me?”

He looked dark and brooding for a moment, and then said, “I don’t know.”

So much for that, she thought wryly. “Anyway, we need to talk about the hunting cabin.”

“Nothing to talk about.”

“Why are you backing away?” she accused.

“It’s five o’clock. I’m leaving.”

She watched his hasty departure through narrowed eyes.

When she got home from work she ran upstairs to exchange her pink dress for loungewear.

“Where is everyone?” she called, heading back down.

“I’m in the kitchen,” her mother answered.

Clara found Dr. Wilder sitting at the counter, grating a block of cheese. In fact, it looked like she had grated several blocks of cheese already.

---