“No. Apparently the only one who can be trusted to interpret the results is the doctor, and I guess I’ll hear from him sometime soon.”
“When’s your next appointment?”
“Next week. Wednesday.”
“I’m working Wednesday through Friday.”
She shrugged. “No problem. I think I can go to a simple doctor’s appointment by myself.”
“Are you sure?”
What choice did she have? Her friends at the bank were working. Her friends in the suburbs were working. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
“Okay then. Let me know how it goes.”
“Sure thing.”
He glanced over at her again. She kept her eyes straight ahead. She thought he might ask if something was wrong—again—but he didn’t. Maybe he really didn’t care.
* * *
Gabe met his older brother for a drink that night. They found a quiet table, and before they even sat down with their beers, he asked, “Can we keep this between the two of us?”
Jayce adjusted uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t keep secrets from Kristine, but you can trust that whatever you say won’t go any further.”
Gabe chewed his lip and thought it over. He didn’t know his new sister-in-law very well, but if Jayce trusted her completely, it was probably safe. One thing their parents had impressed on all the Fierro boys was finding women they could trust with abigsecret.
Come to think of it, a public bar might not be the place for this conversation. “Jayce, can we go out on your boat?”
“In the middle of winter? Why? Do you want to do some ice fishing?”
Jayce. Always the joker. Maybe I should have called Ryan—in Ireland. Yeah, that would help, he thought sardonically.
“No. To clear my head.” He lowered his voice. “I need to fly. You know we can’t do that where our ridiculously colorful tail feathers will be spotted.”
“Why don’t you just do what I do? Find a chimney to fly down and coat your feathers with creosote?”
“Yeah, and getting that crap off is so easy. Even in the shower, scrubbing with castile soap, it doesn’t like to come off.”
“What’s going on, Gabe?”
He sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see some falling out from stress. “It’s Misty. I don’t know what to do about her.”
“Ah. I should have known.” Jayce smirked. “You’ve still got no game, do you?”
Frustrated, Gabe set his beer on the table a little too hard. “It’s not that.”
After a long hesitation, Jayce tipped his head. “Well, are you going to tell me what it is or not?”
Gabe took a deep breath, then spit it out. “I know I told Parker I’d look after her, but I’ve been doing a piss-poor job of it.”
“What do you mean by doing a piss-poor job of looking after her?”
Gabe glanced around the bar. No one was paying any attention to them. He just hoped his brother wouldn’t give him a stern lecture and embarrass the shit out of him. “This is just between us, right?”
Jayce nodded.
“Okay. No. I don’t want to get overinvolved, but I think I made a mistake.”
