“Not that my nephew’s love life isn’t my top priority,” Meg said. “But let’s stick with you for the moment. Why are you working for Jane?”
“It’s only for a couple hours a day,” Lauren said defensively. “And Jane’s short staffed.”
“But what do you get out of it? Besides free pastries.”
“It’s something I can do. Something I’m good at,” Lauren said with growing assurance. “I need to help.”
“That’s why you quit school after your father died,” Meg said.
Lauren’s heart jolted.
“It’s not a secret,” Meg said. “It’s in your book. Which I read. You’re my client. You left college because your mother wasn’t holding it together and your brother, Noah, needed you.”
“He needed counseling,” Lauren said.
“Which you made sure he got,” Meg said. “And then when you did go back to school, you chose psychology as your major.”
Lauren hadn’t realized she had revealed so much of herself, her old self, on the page. Or maybe Meg, with her Harvard education and tight-knit family, was very good at reading between the lines. “Noah went through a really tough time after Dad died. The counselor made a huge difference in his life. It made me realize that that’s what I wanted to do.”
“That’s great. But, Lauren.” Meg met her gaze. “You can’t save everybody.”
“I know that.” She sure hadn’t saved Ben, despite her promises to him that everything would be all right. She hadn’t saved his family, even if she did still send them money every month. Somehow she had to learn to live with the guilt and move on. “It makes me feel better to try,” she said. “To give back, even if it’s just a cup of coffee.”
“Where does Jack Rossi fit into all this?”
Lauren hesitated. This wasn’t the kind of thing you discussed with your publicist. Only with your therapist. Or maybe a friend.
She was so very tired of being isolated in hotel rooms. Of presenting a front to strangers. Of hiding her hurt from the people who knew her best.
But she wasn’t sure enough of her relationship with Meg to know what to say. She wasn’t sure ofherself.
Are you moving forward?Jack had challenged her.Or running away?
Lauren took a deep breath. She’d come this far. She wasn’t going to back down now. “He makes me feel better, too.”
“Really.” Meg sounded disbelieving.
“You don’t think he’s hot?”
Meg shot her a droll look. “I’m engaged, not dead. Of course I find him hot. I’m just surprised you do.”
Lauren smiled wryly. “To use your expression, I’m messed up. I’m not dead.”
Meg turned pink. “I wasn’t going to say messed up. Fragile maybe. And Jack is kind of a bad ass. A cop. An ex-sniper. Are you really sure he’s the best person for you to be with right now?”
Asniper. The word conjured visions of black-jacketed, goggled figures swarming through smoke like demons from the mouth of hell. Of Ben’s uncle, George, one blind eye staring up at the ceiling, lying in his blood on the nubby bank carpet.
“Jack was a sniper? In Philadelphia?”
“In the Marines. In Afghanistan. Luke told me.”
Lauren’s heart beat faster. “Don’t they screen them? To be, like, super emotionally stable or something?”
Meg shrugged. “Maybe when they go in. God knows what happens when they come out. My point is, I just don’t see Jack as the nurturing type.”
Nurturing? No. Blunt and honest and uncompromising. A man of principle, Lauren thought, remembering how he’d tried to warn her off.I’m just telling you how it is.
But he’d given her water. Driven her home. Cared for her. She remembered those dark, assessing eyes on her face.No bad effects?
