“Julian, seriously, don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Con whispered fiercely. “It’s just the usualbullshit.”
“I heard he came here because he got into trouble with the law and he was on the run,” Myrna Lucano said, frowning. "But he seems realsweet."
“I think that’s a load of horseshit,” Rena Cobb said. “He’s a goodman.”
I didn’t hear much of anything after that. There was a fire in my stomach, overriding all my common sense, a need to take action that burned through my passivity. I wanted to bitch slap Shane Goode. I wanted to scream at the top of mylungs.
It might be the usual bullshit, as Con said, but this time they were talking about someone I cared about. Someone who wasn’t here to defendhimself.
I pushed to my feet, sliding my chair back over the floor with ascreech.
“Listen to me, everyone,” I said. “Daniel Michaelson didn’t have anything to do withthis.”
“We know, Jules,” Jamie said. He reached for my hand, like maybe he wanted to pull me down and shake some sense into me. “It’salright.”
“I wanna know how he knows that!” someoneyelled.
“Yeah, how do you know that, Doc Ross?” someone elseasked.
“I know, because… I knowbecause…”
I wanted to vomit. I wanted to disappear. I felt like I was poised at the peak of a rollercoaster, full to the brim with potential energy, and it scared the shit out ofme.
“I know because Daniel was with me the night Elliot Marks wentmissing.”
“What?” Con’s eyebrows were near his hairline. “Withyou?”
It felt like Con was giving me an out. Was Danielwithme, like we happened to be strolling the same street at the same time? Orwith me,in a total, claiming, I’m-vouching-for-this-guy kind ofway?
The oddest moments define your life. It’s not just about the occasions Hallmark sells greeting cards for—the graduations, the weddings, the birthdays, the funerals. It’s also about the moment when you’re ten, and your mom says you can’t have a dog, so you decide right then and there that you’re going to be a veterinarian. It’s about the moment when your asshole teenage self goes off on a rant and says shit to your father that you’ll never get the chance to take back. It’s about the moment you keep your mouth shut and don’t say what you really feel. And it’s about the moment when you find yourself standing in the middle of Goode’s Diner, in front of your entire town, speaking the greatest wish of your heart like it’s actualtruth.
My brain went quiet for a second, all the noise and the worry stilled to nothing. The words feltinevitable.
“Yeah,” I said. “We’retogether.”
“Damn,” Con breathed. His eyes were like saucers and his hand was resting on his plate—my plate—in a puddle of syrup. “Mom is going tofreakout.”
All conversation stopped. Someone was making a choking noise. I could feel the tidal wave of curiosity gathering, ready to break over my head like a tsunami and drownme.
Oh, fuck. All the things I hadn’t considered before my impulsive decision came flooding back, and I clutched the back of the chairunsteadily.
“I’m… I’ve gotta go.” I threw some money on the table and shoved past Constantine toward thedoor.
I heard someone, Si maybe, calling after me, “Julian! He’s not introuble!”
Daniel might not be in trouble, but I sure as fuckwas.
My mother would be livid and worse,worried.
I’d basically just invited O’Leary to gossip about me… and mylove life. Oh,Christ.
And… and Daniel. I’d lied about him, when I knew exactly how much he valued honesty andprivacy.
I was sofucked.
“Jules!”
I heard Con rushing after me as I pushed open the diner door with a jangle of bells and emerged into the chilly air, but I didn’t slow down. I passed between a couple of parked cars and darted across the street to the building that housed my clinic and my little apartment above. I thought about going upstairs—God, I needed to be alone in the worst way—but Con had an emergency key. He’d follow me and make himself comfortable. I headed for the clinicinstead.
