Page 18 of Half Baked

I cast a warning glance at her, but she’d already begun stomping upstairs. Her attitude toward Lance had taken a 180 right after New Year’s Eve. She’d had a crush on him, and he’d seemed pretty interested in her too, but after they’d gone to a New Year’s Eve party together, she’d started giving him the cold shoulder and refused to tell me why.

His gaze followed her before he turned back to me.

I tried to decipher the look on his face. There was no malice or sorrow. There was definitely interest, but he didn’t look like he was about to run past me and demand she talk to him.

Maybe I could get the story out of him.

I tilted my head and gave him a wry look. “What happened between you two?”

“You should ask Mallory.”

“I did, and she refused to tell me.”

He shrugged and turned serious. “I’d like to talk to you about Noah if you have a minute.”

I tried to bury my disappointment.Lancewas here to talk about Noah. I would have preferred to talk to him directly. I took a step back and motioned down the hall toward the kitchen. “Come on in. I planned on making a cup of tea. Would you like some?”

“I’ll pass on the tea, but I’d take a glass of water.”

“Sure.”

He followed me back and slipped off his jacket. As I filled my electric kettle, it occurred to me that I could tell Lance about my visit with Detective Bergan.

“So go on,” I nudged as I put some ice into a glass for him. “Say whatever it is you came to say.”

After hanging his coat on the back of a chair at the small kitchen table, he sat and leaned toward me. “Something’s going on with him, Maddie.”

“You mean other than getting shot?” I asked dryly as I poured water from a filtered pitcher into the glass.

“Something’s eating him, and we both know he’s not one to share his feelings.”

I set the glass on the table in front of him. “I was hoping that Noah would come back to me, but he tried to push me away at the ER again. Maybe I should take the message. I’m not begging any man to stay with me, Lance. I’ve already had my share of emotionally distant men.” Angry tears stung my eyes. “I suppose I brought it on myself. Iknewhe wasn’t ready for a relationship.”

Lance’s jaw set. “Bullshit. Hewasready. Something spooked him.”

Like his family.

I leaned my head back and sighed in frustration before I leveled my gaze on him. “I’ve got my hands full with Aunt Deidre. I don’t have the time or energy to figure out Noah’s shit too.”

“I know, but I’m asking you to be patient with him a little longer.”

I shrugged, because I didn’t want to discuss it to death. Neither of us knew anything, and if Noah refused to talk or engage, there was really nothing to discuss.

“That’s not theonlyreason I came over,” Lance said, picking up the glass and taking a drink. “How did the tour at St. Vincent’s Village go?”

“As well as could be expected,” I said, heading back to the counter and finishing my preparations for the tea. I carried my cup to the table and sat across from him. “I have some decisions to make, but something else happened while I was there that I’d like to get your opinion on.”

His brow shot up. “Me?”

“I’d ask Noah, but he’s too busy wallowing in angst.”

He laughed. “So I’m second choice?”

“Consider it second best,” I said with a smile, then blew across the surface of my tea. “Or maybe first.”

“I’ll take it. What’s up?”

I took a breath. “When I was touring the memory care unit, the director got called away, and I walked past a room in which an older man was struggling with his TV remote.” I held his gaze. “Lance, it was Detective Bergan.”

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