“Until tomorrow?” I asked.
She patted my blankets back into place. “Yes, tomorrow’s Wednesday. You don’t have anything going on. I already spoke with Pauley at the office.”
“If I recall, I have a couple of meetings,” I said weakly.
“They’ve been moved,” she said.
Truth be told, the hospital had excellent ice cream milkshakes with extra vanilla. I wouldn’t mind a little rest. “Fine, but we have Violet’s hearing on Valentine’s Day.”
Violet’s eyes widened. “We can move that, right? We don’t have to go.”
“Oh, no,” I said. “The hearing’s happening. You’ve been seeing the psychiatrist recommended by the court since you’ve been home, right?”
“Yes. I saw him two days in a row, and we had another home visit just to be certain,” she said.
We needed to get in front of the judge. Soon. “Okay, I have all the other paperwork from the school counselors at your old school and your new one, as well as some family affidavits. We are having that hearing on Thursday, Violet,” I said firmly.
She gulped. “What if he says no?”
“If he says no, we’ll just ask for more time. Next time, he’ll say yes. It doesn’t matter. You’re family,” I said, looking at her. “How much did you panic when you learned I’d been shot?”
She paled. “I seriously panicked. You’re going to be my cousin. You can’t get shot all the time, Anna.”
“Amen, sister,” Aiden said.
Yara put her arm around Violet. “We just wanted to make sure you were okay. We’re going to head out to dinner.”
Tessa and Donna looked up. “We’ll come with you. The nurse is about to kick us out anyway.”
“I’ll see you all soon,” I said. They left, soon followed by my parents.
Aiden looked at Nonna and me. “I’m going to run back and check on Bud. He’s been cleared, but the doctor wouldn’t let him leave last time I checked. After that, you and I are going to have a little talk, Anna.”
“Great,” I mumbled.
He left. Nonna watched him go. “He is very sexy, even though he isn’t Italian.”
My heart warmed. “Thanks, Nonna. I appreciate that.”
She chuckled. “That was a fun case, wasn’t it? I will get better at this, sweetheart. You shouldn’t have gotten shot.”
It was a chance I’d had to take. If he’d gotten us to his cabin, he would have killed us, and I’d figured ramming Aiden’s truck would at least get him involved in time to save my nonna, even if I got shot—which I had.
“You were very brave. I spoke with Thelma and Georgiana earlier when you were still getting stitches,” Nonna said.
I sat up fully. “You did?”
“Yes. We decided to offer you a position with Three Hens Investigations. We think you might be a valuable asset to our firm.”
I lay back against the pillows, trying to find the right words. “Nonna, I don’t think you should be in a business where people are shooting at you.”
“Well, you are, Anna,” she said. “In fact, you’re the only one who’s been shot with either an arrow or a bullet in our little company.”
“I’m aware of that, but that could change. If you keep looking into cases like the Cupids or Nick’s dad’s murder—which turned out to be the same darn case—you could get hurt. Nobody wants you to be harmed.”
“I promise we’ll be very careful, dear. What do you say?”
Truth be told, I was torn. I didn’t want anything to do with them being in dangerous cases, but if they were going to follow through with this, I wanted to be there to protect them. “I accept. With a caveat that my actual job takes priority. I’m a lawyer first.”
