Madge did the honors. “Are you…keeping company with Doc Piney?” Jesse answered carefully. “We are not dating, but we are seeing a lot of each other.” Factually true. Revealing nothing. The three women sat silently for a long moment, sharing glances with each other. “You know he has a sad history,” Walter Lou said finally. “Of course she knows,” Madge said immediately. “Everybody knows. The question is are you planning on breaking that man’s heart again?” The suggestion was not at all what Jesse expected. She stuttered out an answer. “I…I don’t…I don’t think Piney knows me well enough to get his heart broken,” she managed finally. “Oh, Lord, girl,” Madge said. “He’s a Baxley. A more lovelorn line of men never graced the earth.” “That’s the truth of that,” Walter Lou agreed. “Those men dote on their women something fierce.

— Pamela Morsi

#the-lovesick-cure #dating