When we enter the office, I instantly relax, the waiting room neat and orderly. It’s not clinical like a lot of therapist offices. Even out here, there’s a diffuser sending up steam that smells like eucalyptus, and the chairs look comfortable instead of stiff. Evie releases my hand to walk up to the woman behind the window who stood up when we entered and greets her with a smile.
“Good evening, Ms. Richards. How are you today?” the woman asks.
“I’m wonderful, Silvia,” she tells her, and I take a seat in one of the chairs.
“You’re all good for paperwork unless your insurance or address has changed. But if you’ll have your partner fill out everything on this clipboard… and here’s a pen,” I hear Silvia say, and it makes me realize….
I lift my hand to my ear, and sure enough, there’s no pencil. I’d been so excited to pack up and leave school that for the first time in… God, five? Six years? That I didn’t have a pencil readily available, when normally one is there behind my ear until the moment I get undressed at home. Even on swim practice days, when I get dressed in the locker room afterward, the pencil is added almost like an accessory, and stays there until I’m hopping in my shower.
“You okay?” Evie asks softly, sitting beside me and handing me the clipboard and pen.
I turn my astounded look toward her and point to my ear. Her brow furrows, her eyes searching where I’m pointing, and then recognition masks her face and her expression goes soft when she smiles. She lifts her hand to my cheek, her thumb stroking my jaw.
“You good?” she prompts, and I know she’s asking if I’m okay with the fact that I don’t have my own pencil.
I nod, my eyes never leaving hers when I ask instead of answering, “What are you doing to me, little mouse?”
She giggles, seeing I’m not bothered in the slightest by the revelation, and leans in to place a sweet kiss on my lips before turning her attention to the clipboard in my hands. “Just fill all that out. It’s the usual doctor junk. When we get inside with Doc, he’ll have the NDA for you to sign,” she tells me, and I turn my questioning eyes to her. “Everyone who wants to learn about you know where has to sign one, and if you decide you want to become a member, there will be a separate contract. But I won’t get into all that. Let’s just get through this first appointment and see what you think.”
I nod once more and begin to fill out all the paperwork about my medical history and insurance. When I’m done, I take the clipboard up to the window with my insurance card and driver’s license, and the woman makes a copy then hands them back to me, keeping the paperwork.
Soon, the door directly in front of the seats we’re waiting in opens, and a beautiful blonde woman hurries out of the room, her face turning crimson when she looks up and sees us watching her. A tall man, maybe even taller than me but much wider, his shoulders seeming to fill the entire doorway, calls after the woman just as she reaches the front door.
“Be careful getting home, Astrid,” he tells her, and she tucks her long, light hair behind her ear before giving him a nod then shoving her way through the door.
His hand shoots through his hair as he blows out a breath, and then his eyes turn to us. I’m surprised when Evie speaks up beside me. “Was that…?”
“Yep,” he replies, popping the P then sighing.
She gives him a sympathetic look I’ll have to ask her about later, because she stands, making her way up to the big man. She turns and gestures to introduce me. “Dr. Neil Walker, let me introduce you to Nathaniel Black IV.”
He holds out his hand. “Of the Black Mountain Blacks?” he asks, and I put my hand in his, giving him a hearty shake to let him know I’m not a little bitch.
“How’d you know?” I ask, slightly worried he knows my family when I’m here to talk about things I’m not quite sure I want them knowing about me.
“I have a cabin on Black Mountain. You stay up that way for even a weekend and you know the history of the place.”
I relax a little, understanding he doesn’t know them personally. “Yeah, I got picked on in elementary school for all the signs along the trail and for having a museum made out of the first log cabin our ancestors built up there.” I reach behind me and rub my neck, giving Evie a half smile when I see her grin at me.
“Because why wouldn’t you have a family museum, Mr. Black?” she provokes, and as I lift an eyebrow at her, she has the decency to blush.
“Well, come on in and take a seat,” Dr. Walker backs up and allows us into the room, and my eyes go wide at the space. Everything is dark woods and brown leather. There are floor-to-ceiling bookcases along one wall with a huge shiny dark wooden desk that screams power. Directly in front of us is a leather couch, and facing it is a matching chair with a small table next to it that has a notefolio and a pen sitting on top.
Evie walks ahead of me and plops down on the sofa, clearly comfortable in this space that looks absolutely nothing like any therapist’s office I’ve ever been in, and I’ve been in a lot of them.
“First, let’s get this out of the way,” he says, opening his folio and handing me the stapled paper that says Non-Disclosure Agreement at the top. I look it over quickly, automatically reaching up to my ear
