“Actually...” The words tumbled out before she could stop them. “Something kind of different happened today.”
Both Harper and Liam leaned forward with identical expressions of interest.
“There was this woman at the clinic. Gerri Wilder. She owns something called the Paranormal Dating Agency, and she wants me to go to another planet called Nova Aurora to help a dragon shifter king with his mental health crisis.”
Silence. Complete, stunned silence.
Then Liam nearly choked on his wine. “Are you serious? That sounds incredible! Like, way cooler than the shifters we have here in California. They’re probably massive and powerful and?—”
“Liam.” Harper’s voice cut through his enthusiasm. “Lila, this sounds... intense. And potentially dangerous.”
“I know.” Lila stared into her wine glass. “I mean, sure, I’ve helped a few patients who turned out to be shifters after theyfinally opened up about their true nature. I’m not prejudiced or anything, but this is different. This is shifter royalty on another planet with a problem that has apparently stumped their best healers. What if I’m not enough? What if a human really isn’t the best choice?”
“What if you are exactly what he needs?” Liam set down his glass, his expression intense. “Come on, Lila. You’ve never backed down from helping someone who needed it. Remember when you talked Jackson off that bridge? Or when you spent six hours straight with that veteran having flashbacks?”
“This is different?—”
“Because it’s exciting?” Harper’s tone had shifted, her analytical mind engaging. “Because it’s an adventure? Because it might actually be good for you instead of just good for someone else?”
Lila felt heat creep into her face. “It’s not about excitement. It’s about being qualified enough. It’s about abandoning my patients here.”
“Bullshit.” Harper’s confidence was showing. “You’re scared. Scared that if you take a risk, if you do something for yourself, it might not work out. Like with Trevor.”
“Don’t.” Lila’s voice carried warning.
“No, I’m going to.” Harper scooted closer on the couch. “You’ve been playing it safe since that cheating asshole broke your heart last year. Staying in your comfort zone, helping everyone but yourself, convinced that you’re not enough for anything bigger or better or more exciting.”
“That’s not?—”
“Lila, a dragon shifter king needs you specifically.” Liam’s voice was gentle but firm. “Not their healers. You. That has to mean something.”
Lila pulled out Gerri’s business card, the shimmer of it catching the candlelight. “She said it was urgent. That time was of the essence.”
“Then maybe you should stop overthinking it and trust your instincts for once.” Harper clinked her wine glass against Lila’s. “When’s the last time the universe dropped an adventure in your lap?”
Never.The answer came swift and certain. Adventures happened to other people. Lila was the one who cleaned up after them.
But the card in her hand pulsed with warmth, and somewhere deep in her chest, something that had been dormant for years began to stir.
“I should at least call her back,” she heard herself say. “Just to get more information.”
Liam’s grin could have powered the entire block. “Now we’re talking.”
Later that evening, the townhouse felt different without Harper’s laughter and Liam’s booming voice filling the corners. Lila stood at her kitchen counter, the marble surface cool beneath her palms as she stared at Gerri’s business card propped against her tea mug.
Dragon shifter king on Nova Aurora suffering from a mental health crisis.
The words should have sounded absurd, but they pulsed through her mind with an urgency that made her chest tight. She picked up her phone, then set it down. Picked it up again.
What am I even considering?
But she knew. Deep in the hollow space Trevor had carved out when he’d chosen Jessica, something had been waiting. Something that craved more than the careful routine she’d built around her wounds.
Every day blended into the next—sessions with patients who needed her healing while she ignored her own emptiness, evenings spent alone with takeout and Netflix, and weekends filled with errands that felt more like obligations than choices. She was drowning in the shallow end of her own life.
When was the last time you did something just for you?
The answer was pathetic. Years. Maybe never.
