Page 37 of Worlds Collide

“No, he called me and asked if I could come help out on a case he has.”

“And then you asked him if I’m doing a good job?”

“CJ,” she snaps at me in that gentle way. “I only asked if all was good with the residents in general.”

“Uh-huh,” I probe, knowing there’s more to it.

“Okay, yes, I asked.”

I laugh and feel some of the tension in my body release.

“He asked about the medulloblastoma on Cristy?”

“He didn’t tell me her name, just said she’s five and there’s a good chance of getting it all out cleanly.”

“Yeah, he told me he’s not happy with the chief of neuro here.”

“They’ve been trying to get me out there forever, but I’m not moving anywhere unless it’s to New York. Or wherever Kevin ends up since he’s sure he wants to follow in Adam’s footsteps.”

We talk shop for a while longer and by the time I’m lying in bed, waiting for my nap to start, I’m not really mad anymore.

I’m just sad.

Wolf clearly doesn’t trust me—I’m pretty sure he doesn’t trust anyone but his brother and Derek.

It sucks big time, but the worst thing is that I know I’m never going to get an apology from him even if he’s presented with irrefutable proof that I didn’t sic the paps on him.

TWELVE

WOLF

“Holy shit,”I squeak out once Tristan finally finishes reading the list of all the places where CJ dumped billions of dollars.

“Exactly,” he cheers in triumph. “I told you this is doing wonders for you, Wolf. I need to have a talk with Harrison. What the hell ishedoing with all his money?”

The way he mumbles the last part tells me that he’s not really talking to me but to himself, so I take the short time to think about the whole thing.

And I want the ground to open up and swallow me whole. House included.

“I’m not with him,” I say into the phone, trying not to sound like I’m having an awful epiphany.

“So it was just like a...” He trails off.

“Yes,” I answer before he can use words I can never unhear.

“Huh,” is his only answer.

“Look, if nothing’s wrong can I go now? I just need to go... dosomething.”Yeah, that doesn’t sound like a lie at all.I mentally roll my eyes at myself.

“Sure, but I have one more thing before you go. It’s really only so Zoe and I can plan. Do you and Hawk have any ideas about the next album? When you want to release it, how many dates do you want to tour it? I haven’t been able to get a straight answer out of him.”

“We have nothing, Tristan. That’s why he’s fibbing. We don’t have a deadline but it’s the first time we haven’t had one of those, so I guess we’re both dragging our feet a little.”

“I get that. And I know you made that statement about the next album being full of your mom’s songs, but you know you don’t have to do that if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah, I know. I guess I can talk about it with him tonight, but the material isn’t the problem.”

“Your lives have changed a lot in the past year, Wolf. If you need or want to take a real break and just not even think about music for a year, or even more, then you can do that. You know Cindy will make sure the label doesn’t bitch about this.”

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