Stuart still couldn’t believe she had a big, high school–age son. Somehow it only made her more attractive. They’d both had their children early. She possibly even earlier than he.

“Actually, that’s not why I’m here. I was pretending,” he admitted. “For Arnold’s sake.”

Peaches stood up so abruptly her spine cracked. “Oh?”

He’d come to seduce her. It was happening. It was really happening!

Her eyes were so blue and bright, the dimples in her cheeks so ridiculously cute, Stuart was caught off guard.

Remaining seated, he walked backward with his feet, rolling the swivel chair away from her a foot or two. He was about to bring up Mandy again. He needed some distance so he could think straight.

“It’s about my wife,” he began. “I was wondering…”

Fuck a duck. Peaches attempted to compose herself.

Stuart coughed, jiggled his knee, coughed again. “See, pot, weed, marijuana is supposed to help with MS, right? But she doesn’t have a prescription yet, and I think she should try it. I thought maybe since you’re a nurse you might have some kind of connection? And like maybe you could hook us up, see if it helps?”

Peaches smiled through her disappointment, distracting him with her dimples.

“Sure,” she answered slowly. She had no idea where to get pot, but there was no way she’d ever say no. Maybe Liam could help. He’d told her about the kids who smoked weed through those little vape pen things and pretended it was just herbal apple fumes or whatever. She hadn’t smoked pot herself since college. She preferred wine.

“My friend mentioned some ‘doctor’ who makes house calls. He can bring you whatever you need. I think he called him Dr. Mellow, but that can’t be his real name. I haven’t looked him up. I thought I’d ask you first.”

“Sure, of course.” Peaches had no idea who Dr. Mellow was, but he sounded like the type of doctor all those cool arty people in the sixties like Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick would call when they’d almost OD’d on amphetamines and hadn’t eaten or slept in a year and needed some cocaine and a vitamin B12 shot just to stay alive. “I’ll see what I can do.”

She closed the gap between them and ran the comb through his hair just because she could, parting it on the side and combing it back behind his ears so that he looked like a little boy on picture day.

“I’ll get my people to talk to their people and get back to you,” she said vaguely.

Her school phone began to ring. She mussed his hair up with her fingers again and turned to answer it.

“Nurse’s office, this is Peaches.”

Stuart stood and rolled her chair up behind her so she could sit down.