“Screw that,” Teri said emphatically, and Lillian had to laugh again. “That’s a dumb reason. You didn’t do anything wrong, and there’s no shame in asking for help. You had to help me do literally everything after my accident, remember? I should pay it back somehow.”
“I’m the older sister,” Lillian said. “That’s how it’s supposed to work.”
Teri shook her head firmly. “Nope. I’m vetoing that. I want to help you. Come on, what other deep, dark secrets do you have? Let’s get them all out in the open. It’s time to share.”
Lillian was planning to shake her head and demur. But somehow...what fell out of her mouth instead was, “I slept with Cal.”
Teri’s eyebrows hit her hairline. “You what?”
Oh God, she shouldn’t have said that. Why had she said that? The blush came back full-force, and Lillian turned away. “Never mind. Please forget that.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, no. No. I am not forgetting that. You and Cal? Cal never dates! I’ve never seen him with a woman outside of doing his job. No one has. Not once, not ever.” Teri tugged at her shoulder until Lillian turned back around. “And you never date! What happened?”
“I don’t know!” Lillian realized her voice had gone high, almost a wail, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “I only met him yesterday! I don’t und
erstand why I—I never do anything like this. And you’re right, he didn’t seem like the kind of man who does, either! I just don’t understand.”
Teri’s shock was turning into a frighteningly thoughtful expression. Lillian wasn’t sure what was going through her head.
“You felt a connection with him right away, didn’t you,” she said slowly.
“Well—I suppose so.” Lillian thought back to the meeting in Cal’s office. “I mean, I suppose I could see that he was a kind man. A smart and sensible man.”
“An attractive man,” Teri said pointedly.
“Well, yes. Of course, yes! Considering what happened. Please don’t rub it in, Teri,” Lillian could hear her own voice; it sounded almost despairing.
Teri’s eyes widened. “No! I mean—I just mean—look, shifters sometimes move quickly,” she said carefully. “Remember, Zach and I got engaged super-fast?”
“I do remember that.” Their mother’s high-volume ire echoed through Lillian’s head.
“So sometimes stuff goes very quickly. But usually that means it’s really...really serious. That there’s a kind of—connection. That shifters get.”
“I’m not a shifter,” Lillian pointed out.
“I wasn’t either,” Teri said. “Not at the time. I think this might mean that Cal is...very interested in you. In a serious way.”
Surely that couldn’t be it.
Lillian was a thirty-three-year-old woman living with her parents. A staid, buttoned-up librarian, who lived an incredibly boring life. Who was in debt up to her eyeballs and had a pain of an ex-husband who kept dangerous company.
In short, she was not anyone’s idea of a catch. Not a good long-term partner to be sure.
Besides, who on Earth picked a long-term partner after one day of knowing each other?
Of course, Cal would be a fantastic partner. Strong, caring, thoughtful, intelligent, a wonderful cook...a good man with a good job that he loved. No impossible ambitions, no unrealistic ideas. Just a man who wanted a happy, comfortable life in the Park that he clearly adored.
A fantastic partner. For...somebody. Somebody else.
“I think you should talk to him about it some more,” Teri insisted.
Lillian suddenly didn’t want to talk to anyone about this anymore. She cast around for a distraction—and then she remembered the other reason she’d been upset when she arrived.
Talking about Cal had driven the man in the road right out of her head, somehow.
“I can’t focus on that right now,” she told Teri. “Something else happened on the way here.”
Teri immediately leaned forward, concern filling her face. “What?”