Heart Conditions (The Breakup Doctor Series Book 3) Read Online Free

back my volume. “No…not Stu. I can’t talk about this with him yet. He still wants to kill Michael.”
    My brother had always had a protective streak, but since he’d started dating my best friend this past year, it had ballooned into something a bit volatile where she and I were concerned. Last summer he’d gotten cracked ribs and a sprained ankle after he tried to intervene when Chip Santana—my greatest mistake—had launched himself at us in a blind rage on my back porch.
    “Then I’m coming. I’ll be there in seven minutes. Don’t move.”
    True enough, exactly seven minutes later I heard my friend, who could have given Ayrton Senna a run for his money behind the wheel, screech her car into my driveway, and within seconds the front door crashed open. Sasha stood there spraddle-legged, eyes blazing, and somehow she’d procured a Taser that she wielded in her right hand.
    “Where is that son of a bitch?” she bit out, and frankly if I’d been Michael and I were standing in front of this Valkyrie, I’d have wet my pants.
    “He’s gone,” I mumbled wearily. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
    And then the tears came. Hard.
    By the time it was over we were sitting on my sofa, Sasha’s arm around me, Jake lying calmly at our feet after Sasha commanded him to “Go lie down, buddy.” My eyes were swollen like puffer fish…but I felt weirdly lighter.
    “Well, that was a long time coming,” Sasha said as my sobs tapered off. “Feel better?”
    “Yeah,” I said, surprised. “I do.”
    She nodded once. “Okay. Now that you got that out…what’s next?”
    “I don’t know, Sash. Do I see him? No—what would be the point? But why does he even want to? Guilt, I guess. Do I even want to see him? I don’t know. But should I? I don’t think ‘should’ really means much in this situation.”
    She was leaning back against the sofa, arms crossed, watching me. “Did you need me here, or are you having a perfectly adequate therapy session with yourself?”
    “Sorry,” I said. “I’m just trying to work through my feelings.”
    She slapped a hand to her heart. “Oh, padawan. I’m so proud.”
    Since my spectacular breakdown last winter, Sasha had taken a deeply vested interest in my awakening emotional side. Meanwhile I was still trying to deal with what felt like an out-of-control elevator jerking up and down the shaft. “I don’t know what to do, Sash,” I said finally. “What do I do?”
    “You see him, of course.”
    “What?” It was the last thing I expected her to say.
    “Honey, two years ago the most impactful relationship you’ve ever had imploded into a black hole. Now you have the chance to find out why. You’re a therapist: You have to analyze everything—and you need answers. So go get some.”
    “But what about reopening old wounds? Mining a spent quarry? Going into the crack den when you know you’re a crack addict?”
    Sasha lifted one eyebrow. “Do you think maybe you get too into the metaphors sometimes?” I glared at her. “I’m just saying, you can toss out every tried-and-true aphorism in your arsenal, but you know from your own practice that every person is different—every situation is unique. And for you, with Michael, I think you need to find out what happened.”
    “So…what? I should call him? Meet up?”
    Sasha shot me a skeptical glance. “Not looking like that, you shouldn’t.”
    I reached my fingers up to press under my swollen eyes. “Well, obviously I’ll fix the damage—I’m not a total idiot.”
    “Uh, no. It’s going to take a bit more than a splash of water and some concealer.”
    “Sash!”
    She held up her hands, and Jake took that as an invitation for petting, scrambling up and scootching his head within her reach. Sasha absently obliged as she frowned at my face. “Honey, no offense, but he caught you…well, not the way you want to run into an ex.”
    I looked down at the jeans and knit shirt I’d put on this morning to meet