Remote Consequences by Kerri Nelson Page B

Maimie's words created. Thank goodness for Ty. It seemed that he was back in my life every time I turned around this week.
    "Well, I was here yesterday afternoon, and no one mentioned it. How come that didn't make it into the paper?"
    "'Cause Ty asked me not to." Penny's voice reached my ears, and I turned to see my old friend take the stool next to mine.
    Maimie gave Penny a purposeful glare and then dropped the topic of conversation.
    "What can I get you?" she asked me, returning to the business at hand.
    "I'll take the burger, well done…almost burnt…and some fries."
    "And a peach pie shake…" Maimie completed my order and wrote nothing down. She knew the order by heart. She gave me a nod and left to holler out the order to the kitchen crew.
    "What do you want, Penny? Haven't I given you enough?" I pulled a straw from the dispenser in front of me and began to twist the white paper wrapping around my left index finger.
    "Oh, I'm just getting started." The tone of Penny's voice screamed hurt . I hadn't picked up on this yesterday. Had it been there all along? Had I been too preoccupied with my own day's events and troubles to hear it?
    "So, Ty didn't want you to print the story about his heroic efforts with my sister, but he did want you to print a story about me finding a dead body in the mayor's house?"
    Penny's nostrils flared a little at the comeback. "You don't worry about what goes on between me and my family . You worry about your own problems. And you're fixing to have a lot more problems rain down on you. Trust me on that."
    I hadn't missed her stress of the word family . She'd once been like family to me, but then after all the mess with me and Ty—things had changed between us. I'd retaliated by revealing her biggest family secret and, well…I wasn't proud of it. I'd hoped she moved on, but I guess there was no chance of that happening anytime soon. "Tell me, Penny, buying the newspaper—is that your way of trying to control what news is released and what news is kept a secret?"
    Penny seemed to study me for a moment, and then said, "What was your medical specialty going to be up there at big-shot UAB?"
    The question took me off guard. I cleared my throat before responding, "Well, you don't actually have to choose your specialty until you're well into your residency."
    She did a slow nod. "Was it going to be psychiatry?"
    I gave a nose scrunch at the thought of me sitting in a dark room with a mood fountain trickling nearby and listening to my patients' mother issues all day. "Uh, no. Most definitely not psychiatry. I was leaning toward pediatric neurosurgery."
    She took a sip of the water that had been placed before her. "That because of Paget's condition?"
    "Yeah." I looked down at my hands. Hands meant for a career in surgery, not for a career in cable splicing. I wasn't sure where this conversation was going.
    "Well, until you get your degree in psychology, how about you don't go around trying to analyze everyone and their reasons for doing things. Oh, and while you're at it—how about you do your current job. I think I might like to add a cable box to my guest bedroom, think you can handle that?"
    The jibe should have hurt me, but I knew that I'd hit close to home with my analysis of her decision to own the Main Street Mile . My public revelation, though accidental, of her adoption in retaliation for Ty's leaving me in the lurch had embarrassed her family and broken our relationship off completely.
    "Look, you're pissed at me. I get that. I guess you'll never be able to forgive me no matter how many times I've apologized. But you're the one who took everything from our conversation yesterday and turned it into front-page news. You let me sit here under the impression that you didn't work for the paper anymore when, in fact, you own it? How's that for dishonesty?" My voice carried a certain mocking singsong quality, but I couldn't help it. I'd had enough of all this old high school news in my dealings