“My mom keeps telling me that recovering from any shock or tragedy takes time.” He had soft brown eyes that easily showed compassion. And while I didn’t exactly take comfort in his words, I gave him major points for trying.
“Do you think she’s right?” I asked before I stuffed the last bite of the tasty spinach pie into my mouth.
Maybe I’d recover, but I was never dating again. I would sell the house and do my job with my unusual partners until I could afford to return to Milwaukee, where I’d trained, and lead a quiet life off the radar. NoAni-you’re-just-too-much, which was what my mom was fond of saying.
“Not sure.” He held out another pie, but I shook my head, not wanting to risk adding to my still-queasy stomach.
I settled my head back against the seat, suddenly suppressing a yawn. “I’ve been up since five a.m.,” I said. “Hair and makeup.”I lifted my hand up to my hair, but feeling the hopeless scope of the disarray and the strange, crunchy texture, dropped it back into my lap.
“You should take a nap.”
I glanced sideways at him. Maybe he was an angel, sent here expressly to prevent me from completely losing my shit. In any case, he was the best thing that had happened to me on this awful day. “Thank you for the food. And for being nice.”
The soft, warm jacket, the good food, the kindness—it all helped to settle my mind and brought me to a place where exhaustion finally overtook me.
Chapter Two
Adam
“How long does it take to get a cab to the airport?” Ani, standing at the reception counter, asked the concierge.
It was the next morning, and I sat in an open lobby surrounded by potted palms, tropical-colored sofas, and bright parrot prints on the walls. As I sipped my coffee, I pretended that I hadn’t been hanging out waiting for her—Ani—to show.
I wasnotstalking her. Being the sole person who knew of her crisis, I felt a responsibility to check on her and make sure she was okay. But now, apparently, she was leaving and going back to face the chaos she’d left behind.
Good, I told myself. I was absolved of responsibility.Now go out there and get some sun.
I waited for relief to wash over me. After all, she was someone in the middle of a massive emotional crisis, and I was here for rest and relaxation, not to help a stranger who didn’t have anyone. Instead, I felt a strange twinge of disappointment.
Maybe I’d somehow gotten myself too wrapped up in her plight. Maybe I was sitting here because this woman, whom Ididn’t even know, had done something for me that no one else had been able to do in the two years since Liv passed—woken me up from the dead in some supercharged manner.
Either way, I had no further obligation to help her. Even though that look in her eyes had haunted me, causing me to toss and turn all night. I sensed her absolute aloneness—because that was what I also had inside of myself.
The woman standing at the counter looked a lot different from yesterday. Petite in stature, she wore a navy sleeveless shirt, jean shorts, and sandals. She had a halo of blond curls—I never would have guessed that her hair was naturally curly—and no bird’s nests today. She looked appealing and pretty, like someone ready to enjoy a week in the sun.
Plus, she had a really cute butt.
Which really startled me. Because I’d been fairly dead below the belt since Liv died.
But I swear, I wasnotinterested in her that way.
“Could I please schedule the cab for two p.m.?” she asked.
Okay, she was definitely leaving. My heart sped up as it often did in the ER, and I found myself reacting before I could think. I stood up and intercepted her as she turned away from the concierge desk.
That was when I saw her face. She wore no makeup, and her eyes were puffy. But she wasstunninglypretty, far moreso than with the cakey, heavy makeup she’d worn yesterday.
I should have known right then that I was in over my head.
“Oh hi, Adam,” she said in a friendly tone. “You don’t have to check on me—I’m fine.”
She’d called me out in her first sentence. “Great to hear it,” I said. She’d been blunt, so I would be too. “You’re leaving?”
She bit her lower lip in worry. “I’ve got to go back and deal with the mess I made.”
“That’s the physician in you talking.”Be careful, I cautioned myself.Don’t interfere.You don’t even know her.Yet I couldn’t seem to stop myself.
“What do you mean?”
