Page 17 of When You Are Mine

“Sorry about that.” She slid the phone in her back pocket. “Cam was just checking in.”

“Everything good?” He distracted himself with one final sweep of the kitchen to make sure he hadn’t left anything.

“Yeah.” She tossed their soda cans into the recycling bin against the wall. “He was just finishing up. He’ll swing through on his way out.”

“Cool. I’ll get going then.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the hospital.” She looked at him with wide eyes. “I mean, I assume…you’ve been coming…”

So shehadnoticed.

“You’re right. I always go on Tuesdays to see Iyani. I like to see her having fun with the other girls. It’s become her favorite thing here in the States.”

“She’s precious.” Kerris’s smile played tug-of-war with her sad eyes. “Have they scheduled her surgery?”

“Yeah. She had an infection so they had to postpone it, but she’s ready now. It’s set for this Friday.”

Walsh drew a roughened breath around the brambles crowding his chest. The procedure could save or end Iyani’s life.

“Worrying won’t do any good.” Kerris grabbed his hand, squeezing comfort into his tensed fingers.

He glanced from their clasped hands back up to her face, watching the sweet tension that always sprang up between them draw her brows together and tighten her full mouth into a line. She pulled her hand free.

“I’d better get back to work.”

She rushed back out to the front room and picked up her paint roller. Walsh recognized a tactical withdrawal when he saw one.

“You want me to stay and help?” He started rolling up the sleeves of his mint green Brooks Brothers shirt.

“No, you go on home. I’ve got maybe thirty more minutes. Cam’s on his way.”

She faced the wall for a few moments without moving, head bent. Walsh willed her to look at him one more time. As if the tensile string that always seemed to snap between them had pulled her inexorably into it, she glanced at him over one slim shoulder.

That steamy awareness wafted between them again, agitating his insides until his breaths slipped over his lips like puffs of smoke.

She looked like snared prey.

“You’d better go,” she finally said. “It’s getting late.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you at the hospital tomorrow.”

She offered no response and he didn’t wait for one. Just turned and left.

Chapter Seven

Brightly colored blankets dotted the riverbank, crowded with picnic baskets and sun lovers on the Fourth of July. Kerris and Cam approached an empty patch of grass, swinging their clasped hands. They spread the blanket, shared a smile, and unpacked their picnic basket. Cam stretched out on the blanket, recapturing her hand to leisurely stroke her slim fingers. He considered their hands together, a small smile teasing the corners of his mouth.

“What’s this?” He lifted the leather strap encircling her wrist.

“That’s the bracelet Iyani made for me.”

The bracelet held block letters spelling Iyani’s name. The smile Kerris pushed onto her lips felt like a too-tight sweater.

“Her surgery is tomorrow. She wanted me to have it, just in case. I hate that she has had to even consider the possibility of dying. It’s so unfair.”

“Baby, if anyone knows about unfair childhoods, it’s you and me. You learn to roll with whatever punches come your way. No matter what.”

“What punches came your way?” She squeezed his hand, inviting a confidence she wasn’t sure she was ready to reciprocate.

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