Page 16 of I'm Watching You

Lindsay smiled. ‘You carry too much stress in your shoulders, but if you keep at it, your body will open.’

Jennifer held up her hands in mock surrender. ‘Okay, okay, I promise to be there Wednesday night.’

‘Good. Hey, I’m here to see Sam.’

‘He’s just finishing up rounds. He should be passing by in just a second.’

‘Great.’

Jennifer leaned forward. ‘I hear you and Sam had a date last week.’

Color rose in Lindsay’s face. Jennifer knew everyone and their business. Hospital staff jokingly called her ‘Jenni-dot-net.’ ‘I wouldn’t call it a date at all.’ The idea that Jennifer and likely now everyone else was calling her evening with Sam a date didn’t sit well.

Jennifer wagged thin eyebrows. ‘What would you call it?’

Lindsay shoved fingers through her hair. ‘A friendly night out.’

‘Friendly?’ A smile twitched the edges of Jennifer’s full lips, made her eyes spark. ‘I’ve seen the way Sam looks at you.’

Since Lindsay was a child, she’d been careful to keep her private life private. Her home life shamed her and she didn’t want anyone to know about it. But the days of hiding a violent home life had long passed and there was no need to keep secrets. Yet the habit of hiding persisted.

Her evening out with Sam wasn’t shameful or dark, just fun, and it had been exactly as she’d described it – friendly. ‘Movies. Dinner at a burger joint. Home by nine. Very pleasant.’

Jennifer looked disappointed. ‘That can’t be it.’

‘It is.’

‘Ah, come on, there must be more details,’ Jennifer said.

‘Nope. Sorry.’

Sam’s voice drifted down the hallway as he gave orders to a nurse.

Lindsay sighed her relief.

Jennifer laughed. ‘The cavalry has arrived.’

‘See you around. I’ve got to run.’ Lindsay tossed Jennifer a grin and hurried down the hallway toward Sam.

Sam stood in front of a curtained cubicle wearing his green scrubs, a patient’s chart in hand. An inch taller than her, Sam was trim but not muscular. He looked like a tennis player who belonged at a country club. Blond hair curled at the edges above his ears. Horn-rimmed glasses accentuated intelligent brown eyes.

‘Sam.’

He peered over his glasses and smiled warmly as he closed the chart. ‘I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.’

Her smile came easily. ‘Sorry, we had some trouble at the shelter.’

Worry creased his forehead. ‘What?’

She lowered her voice and leaned close to him. ‘This is not for anyone else to hear right now, but Harold Turner’s body was found in the shelter’s alley this morning.’

‘What?!’ His voice raised in shock.

Lindsay glanced around and noticed several nurses staring at them. ‘I don’t have many more details than that. The cops were at the shelter this morning interviewing me. In fact, they’ll be there for days.’

‘No one else was hurt?’

‘We’re all fine.’

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