"Can't imagine why she would feel that way."
"I didn't have a choice." Sean spread his hands. "She was part of a case."
"Oh, that blows. I guess she found out?"
"Yeah, and she thinks it was all an act."
"Was it?" Royce asked.
"The things I said? Stuff I told her? Part of my cover. But my emotions? How I felt about her? One hundred percent bonafide real."
"Are you sorry they assigned you to the case?"
"Not for a second. Without it, I'd have never met her. And now she'll never speak to me again." Even saying it made his chest hurt.
"You sound sure."
"Her note was pretty clear. 'I’ll never forgive you.’"
"That word again. Never.You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Royce referenced thePrincess Bride, which cut even deeper. "What you need to do now is get injured in a fire so she doesn't mind you stood her up at the train station. Then let your brother threaten her while you're high on versed."
"I'm sorry I was a little harsh on Vandy, but I'm not taking romance advice from my younger brother who then tried to have sex with her in the exam room."
"It made sense at the time with her pressed on top of me." Royce smiled, the carefree smile Sean had missed ever since he'd broken up with his fiancé two years ago.
And that was a very good thing. "Sounds like it worked out for youanyway. Were you sexting all through Thanksgiving?"
"No, Mom was right there. Vandy's got the same problem. She's the center of attention because her sister lives in another state and her brother is a med student taking call at MetroGen. She can't exactly pretend to be sick when her parents are both doctors."
"She should say she's going to a pre-Black Friday flash sale. I've worked security for those. The lines can be hours long."
Royce considered Sean's suggestion. "Won't they expect her to buy something?"
"You two need to get better at this. She waited in line for hours but didn't get her whatever it was because it was sold out."
"You are way too good at sneaking and lying. No wonder the police have you… never mind. Sorry."
"See, a lie for a good cause. I wish Lily understood that."
"Give her time. Never is a long time, especially since I never thought I'd see you head over heels." Royce sent a quick text and put his phone away.
"Don't worry about me. You get out of here. I'll do the dishes and make your excuses."
"You will? What are you telling Mom and Dad?"
"You’re Black Friday shopping, of course."
Chapter24
Lillian yawned. She was never getting pushed intoworking Thanksgiving again. Her night had been completed by the admission of ten children in one family with severe food poisoning from a Thanksgiving meal gone wrong. She was never looking at potato salad the same way again.
She and the residents spent all night bolusing and rebolusing the patients as fast as they lost their fluids from both ends. She’d have sent some of them to the PICU, but they were so blasted up there, she kept the kids on the regular floor.
The only thing she wanted to do was grab her purse, run up to the nursery for Clarissa, admire the babies, and hightail it out of the hospital.
She walked down the dark hallway, past a janitorial cart. She set her phone and pager on her desk. In the middle of unlocking her desk drawer, she paused.
The clinic had been closed yesterday and was closed today. A cart hadn’t been there when she dropped off her purse yesterday at her office.
