Page 25 of Nora
“I’m going to check on Nora,” he said, peeling off from the small group as they passed the clinic. James shot him a curious look—which he ignored—and Ingrid simply waved in acknowledgment.
Climbing the few steps to the door, he stomped his feet to get the dust of snow off before entering. His eyes immediately landed on Nora standing at the end of the table with her cell phone pressed to her ear. Her eyes flickered to his, but she remained focused on the call. He unzipped his jacket and removed his hat as he listened.
“That was fast. Can you email me the report?…Yes, I’ll text you my address…I’ll have a look tonight and call tomorrow if I have any questions…No, I don’t have any more to share right now. But as I said, if I can, I will.”
Lucian’s eyebrows shot up. He hadn’t heard the question, but her answer was certainly evasive. She looked up and met his gaze. He half expected her to turn away from him, but he should have known better. She might be sweet, she might be kind, but she wasn’t one to back down.
“That sounds good, Ben. Thank you,” she said.
Ben?
“We’ll talk tomorrow.” And then she hung up.
“What was that about?” he asked, not even trying for subtlety.
“A report I’ve been waiting for. What can I help you with, Lucian?” she asked as she started packing up her bag.
“Who’s Ben?”
She shot him a look as she flipped the cover of her bag closed. “Just someone I’m doing some business with. Again, is there something I can help you with?”
He regarded her before speaking. Then deciding to change the subject, he asked, “What did you say to Craig?”
She walked by him and set her bag on the end of the table as she reached for her winter gear hanging on the clothes tree. “Not much. We just talked about family.”
“You rescued him from me.”
The look she turned on him surprised him. He’d thought she might take umbrage at his comment, but she was smiling. “So you admit he needed rescuing?”
He bit back a growl—because humans did not growl. Then after a beat, he shrugged. “He would have deserved any tongue-lashing I gave him. He doesn’t deserve that dog, though.”
At the mention of his tongue, her gaze dropped to his lips and for a searing moment, heat flashed through his body. Yes, it had been twenty years, but he—and apparently, she—still remembered that night in Capri when he’d used his tongue in so many interesting ways.
The memories he saw playing across her features slid away as quickly as they’d appeared, and she shrugged. “He’ll come around.”
“You sound certain of that.”
She wagged her head as she zipped her jacket. “Call it a hunch. He was already better with Miles by the end of the day.”
He’d give her that. Miles was a little unconventional but extraordinarily talented, loyal, and smart. In Lucian’s mind, Craig had a lot to make up for, but Nora was right—in the past few hours, he’d been different.
“You were late to the session this afternoon,” he said, zipping his own jacket. It was clear she was getting ready to lock up and leave, and he wasnotstepping out into the evening unprepared.
She shrugged and slung her bag over her shoulder. “It won’t happen again.”
He glanced up at that. Again, he hadn’t expected that response. “Where were you?”
“Like I said, errands.” She opened the door and gestured him out. He exited but waited at the bottom of the stairs for her to lock the clinic. She turned her back on him, and he saw a little puff of fog in the dim security lighting. She’d just exhaled. Deeply. It seemed she wasn’t as blasé as she was pretending.
“What kind of errands?” he asked, falling into step beside her after she’d come down the stairs.
She lifted a shoulder. “Are you headed out with the group tonight?”
More evasion. She was definitely hiding something. From him, for certain. But he suspected from whomever she’d been talking to earlier, too.
“Perhaps. You?” He thought it best to keep her guessing.
“Collin and Jonah asked me. So did Anne. But I haven’t decided yet. I have a few things I need to do.”
