Page 3 of Sharing Shane

“Joel will get over it. He only gets weepy over you when he drinks. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much all the time.”

“And you know this how?”

“His mother told me. He’s in Oklahoma now, living in her basement.”

Veronica stopped at the end of the block, glanced both ways, then stepped out into the street. “I don’t need to know this.”

“Knowledge is power, Veronica.”

“Thank you, Francis Bacon.”

“Who?”

“Francis Bacon. He’s the one who said knowledge is power. Thomas Jefferson said it a bunch of times too, but Bacon said it first. I mean, we think. It was 1597, so the records are kind of sketchy.”

“Nobody cares, V.”

Veronica rolled her eyes. “Did you have an actual reason for calling, or did you just want to torture me?”

“Of course, I have a reason, and you haven’t answered the question yet.”

“I’ve forgotten what it was, since you insisted on reminding me of younger Veronica’s poor decision-making skills.”

“How did last night go?” Delia repeated.

Veronica sighed. “He fell asleep.”

Delia’s gasp was sharp in her ear. “He fell asleep?”

“He’s been working long hours on this marketing campaign,” Veronica said, her voice trailing off weakly.

“Oh, honey.”

“I know.” Veronica slowed as she approached the coffee shop. “Something’s up.”

“Something is definitely up,” Delia agreed.

“He’s just busy.” Veronica reached for the door handle, then stepped back. There were way too many people in there, and none of them needed to hear this conversation. “We’ve both been busy. We just need to find some time to be together, that’s all.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all,” Veronica said firmly. “We’ve got Bermuda coming up, and we’ll have a whole week where it’s just the two of us, with plenty of time to have sex, and it’ll be great.”

“I’m willing to believe that if you are.”

Veronica decided to ignore that. “And thank you, by the way, for the hookup on the resort. I would never have been able to afford this without your discount voucher.”

“We can’t use it before it expires, so it was just going to waste. Besides, we’ll probably get another one. Julian is in charge of coordinating next year’s surgical conference, and the resort is schmoozing him hard to hold it there.”

“Well, thank you anyway.”

“Anything for you, sugar tits. Dead Dick Derek, on the other hand…”

“Shut up,” Veronica laughed. “You can’t keep calling him that.”

“Oh, but I can. Where are you, anyway? You want to get breakfast?”

“Can’t. I have a meeting with my supervisor in an hour.”

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