“It’s a text from Cameron… Oh my God.”
“What?”
James was at her side in a flash, as if he could somehow fight the phone if needed.
It wasn’t good news and it wasn’t bad news.
But it was shocking news.
“Damon Tillman is awake.”
Chapter Twenty
There was still one thing that was bothering Rose, and for the life of her, she couldn’t catch the thought. It bothered her like a small pebble caught in her shoe. No matter how many times she tried to shake it out, it stayed.
It rubbed.
It annoyed.
She felt James’s gaze fall on her. After the elevator doors closed behind them, he finally asked if she was okay.
Rose couldn’t decide, so she did a half shrug and head tilt.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “There’s…something I’m forgetting? But I’m not even sure where there’s space to have forgotten something. We’ve gone over every question with an answer now or at least a confirmation that we still need an answer. Nothing has been left undone, right?”
She faced him full-on and took a tiny step forward. It put her close enough that she had to crane her head back to look up at him while he tilted his forward to look down at her.
If she hadn’t been so focused on trying to solve herproblem, she thought she might blush at the closeness. Especially since James had been right—shewassore from their previous trysts between the sheets.
As it was, she gave him the most serious of expressions to know she meant business.
“Ordowe have any other outlying questions? Things we were trying to answer before what happened out at the cemetery?”
James turned thoughtful.
“The only other thing I was wondering about was how much trouble was I going to get into for basically stealing a car from someone at this very same hospital last week.” He shrugged. “But the car wasn’t damaged and the sheriff sweet-talked that guy into forgiving me since he knew him. So that’s that for me.”
Rose stifled a smile, despite herself.
The man whose car James had taken was bingo buddies with Liam’s newest father-in-law. Rose still was waiting for the time to ask him about howthatconversation had gone. She bet Blake had also gotten a good kick out of it.
But Rose was still feelingbothered.
The elevator arrived at its destination. The doors slid open but Rose didn’t move from her spot yet.
“There’ssomething,” she reiterated. “And it’s really bugging me.”
James reached down and put a thumb between her eyebrows. He pressed the crinkled skin there, gently.
“Don’t worry, Little,” he said. “I believe in you. You’ll get there.”
It was a simple pep talk but it did the trick. Rose decidedto try and shake off the feeling and come back to it later when she had the mental space for it. In her experience not every detail always shook out. Sometimes you had to eventually just walk away.
Or sometimes the thing that’s bothering you walks into your elevator.
No sooner had the doors slid open than a man nearly bowled her over.
Her reflexes were normally spitfire-fast, but James beat her this time. His large hand wrapped easily around her hip before tugging her back. She thudded softly against his chest, a wall of muscle she now knew in the most intimate of senses.
