Page 17 of Grumpy Sunshine

I gave it and waited.

“What am I looking for?”she wondered.

“In her file, does it have anything about cancer or seizures?”I asked.

“No.”She sounded slightly hesitant.“Um…”

“Just tell me.”I put it on speaker and placed the phone in the middle of the bar.

“It says nothing about any illnesses that she actually has,” she said.“But it does flag her as a narcotics seeker.”

I sighed.

“It also has her in and out of this hospital about two hundred times in the last two years.It does show that at her last treatment, she was referred to a psychiatrist for suspected self-harm,” she read.

“Thanks,” I sighed again.“How are those patients?”

“Both are surviving, but only long enough that decisions can be made,” she explained.

My stomach sank.“Thank you, Val.I’ll see you next week.”

“Anytime, Chevy.”She hung up, and I looked at Copper.

“I’ve spent years dealing with her, and trying to help her because she’s so sick, and all of it was a lie,” I grumbled.

“Sorry.”Copper shrugged.

I knew he was, but still.

“What was that about?”Doc asked.

Doc was known as ‘Doc’ not because he was a doctor, or even in the medical field, but because he was a smart guy.He knew everything there was to know, from the radius of a standard size marble to how far Earth was away from the moon.

And in case you’re wondering, because I’d joked last week that I didn’t know and asked Doc, it’s 238, 900 miles.

Copper gave a quick rundown and ended with, “I noticed it when she was a child.Always saying that she had a cold or a broken bone when she didn’t.I think it got worse as we aged, but by that point she was a good friend and I wouldn’t let her go despite her crazy theories on why she was sick.”

“Then why did you react that way when you saw them together in the bed this morning?”Cutter asked.

There was silence from Doc and Webber for a long moment as they processed those words.

“You had a girl in your bed?”Doc asked.“And you were actually nice to her?”

Okay, so I wasn’t the nicest person in the world.

I just didn’t see the point.

But I was nice to her and one other woman…

Thinking of Aella had me smiling slightly, which of course gave my club brothers the wrong idea.

Copper didn’t notice the look, luckily, and explained his earlier reaction.

“I once thought I was in love with her,” he explained.“For a few years, I contemplated it, but then I realized that I was clinging to a past life that wasn’t available to me anymore.This morning I just…overreacted.”

Doc burst out laughing.“You don’t overreact.”

“Reign is beautiful,” I said.“He hadn’t seen her in years, but she’s even more beautiful now than she was when they were teens.I lost sight of her for a few years, and when I saw her again, my heart nearly stopped in my chest at the sight of her.But she’s a lot, and there’s only so much a pretty face can sustain you.”

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