Page 22 of When You Are Mine

Kerris was leaning against Cam with obvious fatigue. Guilt stabbed Walsh in the gut. He knew she still cleaned houses with Meredith, and was working all hours of the day to ensure Déjà Vu was ready by the end of August. Iyani was his responsibility, not hers.

“Cam, why don’t you take your girl on home?” Walsh already missed having her to himself. “She’s exhausted.”

“Yeah, baby.” Cam ran a gentle thumb over the shadows under Kerris’s eyes. “Let me take you home.”

“No, I want to be here when Iyani wakes up again.” Walsh ignored the look Kerris shot his way, rich with confusion and accusation.

“Walsh and Cam are right, Kerris,” Jo said from one of the chairs by the hospital bed. “You should let Cam take you home. You’ve been here all day.”

“So have you, Walsh.” Kerris narrowed her eyes at him.

“I’ll be leaving soon, too,” Walsh lied, planning to charm the floor nurse into letting him crash in the chair here in Iyani’s room. “Go on home. Come back tomorrow.”

Walsh turned away, walking over to the window to adjust the blinds. He hoped she’d take the hint and go. He was not above begging her to stay if she kept biting that bottom lip, looking torn.

“All right.” Her mouth conceded, but Walsh could still feel the rebellion of her eyes hurling darts at his back. “You can take me home, Cam, but I want to know if there’s any change. Okay, Walsh?”

He nodded without turning from the window, studying the suddenly fascinating parking lot.

“I’m gone then.” He knew she was giving him one more chance to offer any other response. He nodded, stuffing his fist into the pocket of his jeans.

“See you tomorrow.” He freed his voice of inflection, leaving it flat and disinterested. “I’ll be fine.”

A lie, of course.

He was getting good at those.

Chapter Nine

Kerris almost danced off the elevator and down the hospital corridor in her lemon-colored sundress, short, fitted denim jacket, and worn cowboy boots.

“Morning, Dr. Myer,” Kerris greeted the tall, fair-haired physician who rounded the corner with head bent and hands buried in the pockets of his lab jacket. “I’m glad I ran into you. I wanted to thank you again for all you’ve done for Iyani.”

“Kerris—”

“No, really.” Kerris rushed the words, excited and steadily plodding her way to Iyani’s room, in step with the doctor. “I know I’m not family or anything, but she’s special to me. And we were so worried that something would go wrong during surgery.”

“Well, if you remember, Kerris, the time after surgery was just as crucial,” Dr. Myer said, his eyes just shy of meeting hers.

“Yes, but she got through that, too.” Kerris refused to entertain any negative possibilities. For once things were working out as they should. “I know she’s anxious to get back home, but I’ll miss her. Selfish of me, huh? If you feel confident, though, that radiation and chemotherapy will be fine administered in Kenya, who am I to—”

“Kerris.” Dr. Myer’s tension-filled voice sliced into her cheerful chatter like a serrated knife. “I don’t know a better way to tell you this than just to say it.”

“Say…say what?”

Kerris’s smile wobbled. The doctor’s eyes softened, but Kerris didn’t like the straight line he disciplined his mouth into.

“Iyani died about an hour ago.”

“No. No, but…what happened? I just saw her yesterday. She was fine.”

The world stopped making sense. Pain sank its fangs into her fast-beating heart. She felt it physically and clutched the soft denim jacket covering her chest. Tears burned behind her lids and stung her nose.

“Her brain began hemorrhaging this morning. It was an unavoidable complication. We couldn’t save her. I’m so sorry.”

“Oh, I…I…thought…”

Kerris didn’t know what to say, to do. She only knew what she felt, and it was an oppressive grief for a young warrior angel she had known for only a few weeks, but who had left an indelible imprint on her heart.

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