The Nurse She Forgave

Nora Callis left Alder Creek at eighteen and came back at thirty-two to bury her father, and she is still here because the clinic couldn't find anyone else. Ellis Pruitt runs the feed store on the square and has been her best friend since they were seven. Three years ago he got down on one knee at the county fair, and she said no in front of the whole town. They've been polite ever since. Now his mother is dying, and Nora is the one holding the chart, and the two of them are drinking hospital coffee at midnight like nothing ever happened. It should be simple. It isn't. Because Ellis is losing the feed store, and Nora is losing her nerve, and the only thing either of them has ever been sure of is the person sitting across the table.