The Mysteries of Max: Books 31-33 by Nic Saint (chrome ebook reader txt) 📗

I thought was considerate, kind and potentially a wonderful partner, I didn’t hesitate. I made his acquaintance standing in line at the General Store, and when he told me he was single, I thought he’d be perfect for my sister. And now I feel absolutely terrible about what happened.”

“I understand,” Tex said, still not quite catching on. “Do you want me to pay your sister a visit? Perhaps give her something to dull the pain?” He could think of a couple of things that would relieve some of that anxiety, if that’s what Mrs. Bezel was after.

“Doctor Poole,” said the woman, adjusting her position on the chair, “you should know that Evelina speaks very highly of you. In fact she’s told me on numerous occasions how much she has come to rely on you.”

“She does, does she?”

“Yes, so I just thought… I just figured… well, I hoped…” A blush had settled on the woman’s cheeks, and Tex was more in the dark now than ever.

“I could always give her a mild sedative,” he suggested. “Something to make her sleep a little better? Nothing too strong, of course.”

“I was actually thinking more along the lines of…” Emma Bezel seemed to steel herself, then blurted out, “Doctor Poole, I would like you to date my sister.”

“What?!”

“At least take her out a couple of times.”

“But…”

“Make her feel that she’s still desirable, you know.”

“But, Mrs. Bezel!” said Tex. Whatever he’d been expecting, it most certainly wasn’t this! “I’m a married man,” he said, for good measure displaying his wedding ring.

“I know,” said Mrs. Bezel, nodding as she took in the gold band, “and I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t want you and my sister to actually become a couple or anything. I just want her to go out a couple of times with a good man. A man she respects, and a man I can trust not to break her heart like the previous fellow did.”

“Surely you can’t be serious,” said Tex, taken aback by this extraordinary suggestion.

“I know it’s a little unorthodox, perhaps, but…”

“Unorthodox! It’s unethical, Mrs. Bezel, not to mention my wife would probably kill me if I started dating a patient.”

“She wouldn’t have to know, Doctor Poole,” said Mrs. Bezel with a hopeful look. She’d scooted to the tip of her chair and was now pleading with a passion that became her. Her blue eyes were ablaze, and her cheeks were flushed. “You can take her on a few dates—two or three perhaps, and then you simply let her down easy. You could take her to dinner in Happy Bays, where people don’t know you so there won’t be any gossip.”

Tex was shaking his head throughout. “My dear Mrs. Bezel, I can tell that you love your sister dearly, for you to come up with a solution like this, but I can assure you—”

“I’ll pay you!” suddenly the woman said, and took out her purse.

“Oh, no, please,” said Tex. This was simply too much.

“How much do you want? I have money. I can pay you… a thousand?”

“Please, Mrs. Bezel.”

“Two thousand? I’ll pay you ten thousand… per date. Let’s say three dates at ten thousand each, that’s thirty thousand. Even you wouldn’t say no to that kind of money, would you, Doctor Poole?”

“But, Mrs. Bezel!”

“Please,” said the woman, folding her hands now in a gesture of supplication. “I’m desperate. Evelina isn’t eating, she isn’t sleeping, she’s been crying non-stop since that awful man stood her up. I’m afraid that if this continues she will harm herself.”

“Have you considered taking her to see a professional?”

“I thought I was doing that right now?”

“I mean a psychologist. Someone at whose feet she can lay all of her troubles.”

“She’s been laying all of her troubles at my feet, and now I’m laying them at yours, Doctor Poole.”

“I really can’t…”

“But I’m begging you!”

“I’m sorry.”

“She’s your patient, doctor. If she takes her own life, wouldn’t you wish that you had done everything in your power to save her?”

“Of course, but…”

“Well, then? You can save her now. It’s your duty—your sacred duty to save my sister’s life. You swore an oath, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did. But I think you’ll find that your interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath is a little… original.”

“Look, like I said, I don’t expect you to actually date my sister. I’m not crazy. I know you’re married. That you have a family. And that’s exactly why I chose you. You’re probably the only man left on this planet that my sister trusts and respects, except maybe for our dad.”

“Okay, suppose I say yes.”

“Oh, please!”

“Just supposing, I’m not saying I will do it. But what happens when after the third date I tell your sister I don’t want to see her anymore? How do you think that’s going to affect her? Another blow, so soon after the first one might very well be the final nail in the coffin of her faith in mankind.”

“By that time I’ll have arranged for her to go on a long vacation with me—far away from here. The only problem is that our cruise isn’t sailing until next month, and thirty days is too long for her to be left alone, wallowing in heartache.”

“So you want to use me as a kind of stopgap until your sister can go on a cruise?”

Emma Bezel smiled shyly. “I wouldn’t exactly put it in those terms, Doctor Poole, but yes, I want you to take her mind off things for a while. Until I can get her away from here—away from the place where everything reminds her of her failed affair with Bob Rector.”

For some reason the name seemed familiar to Tex, but then he discarded the notion.

“Look, I’m not asking you to engage in some kind of torrid love affair with my sister. Just go out with her a couple of times. Distract her. Make her smile again. Make her feel that the world isn’t all dark and gloomy. That there still are decent people living in it.”

“I don’t know,”