“How did you get in here?” she asked, lifting the purse.
“I hid a microphone in there earlier, in case you escaped.”
“I’m going downstairs to have coffee and pie, then Bentley and I are going to see Kell.”
“Okay. I’ll be around. Have fun. And don’t hit him with the pie. You will be going to a hospital.”
“On your way to a hospital is the best time to hit people with things,” she retorted. “There are doctors there.”
“Yes, I know,” Bentley spoke into her purse. “I am one.”
“You’re a veterinarian,” Rourke shot back.
“I can treat injuries if I want to.”
“Try not to let her give you any.”
“You stop that,” Cappie told her purse. Nobody answered. “Hello?” she said, looking inside it.
“Don’t do that in public, okay?” Bentley asked as they walked to the door. “There are probably psychiatrists around the hospital, too.”
She rolled her eyes and went out into the hall just ahead of him.
* * *
The hospital cafeteria was crowded. They found a table, but they had to share it with an elderly couple who’d come all the way from the Mexican border to visit their daughter, who’d just had a baby. They had photographs, and showed every single one to Bentley and Cappie, who made the correct responses between sips of coffee and bites of apple pie.
Finally the elderly couple finished their soft drinks and went off toward the elevator.
“Alone at last,” Bentley teased.
“One more photograph would have done me in,” she confessed. “I swear, if I ever have a grandchild…”
“…you’ll have even more photos than they did, and show them to total strangers, too,” he chuckled.
She shrugged and smiled. “Yes. I guess I would.”
“Babies are nice. I used to think I’d like one or two, myself.”
“You don’t anymore?” she asked.
He moved his coffee mug around on the table. “I sort of gave up hope. Until you came along.” He didn’t look at her as he said it.
She felt her toes tingle. She hated the rush of pleasure she felt. “Really?”
He looked up. His pale blue eyes made sparks as they met hers. “Really.”
She hesitated.
“I never should have believed a man I just met, who sat in my office and told lies about you with perfect innocence. But, then, I was afraid you were too good to be true.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
“I realize that. You don’t have to be perfect. I just don’t want to get in over my head and get kicked in the teeth again.”
“I’m not that sort of person,” she told him.
His eyes narrowed on her face. “He really hurt you, didn’t he?”
