CHAPTER THREE
Laura walked through the smart reception of the hospital, feeling like she was entering some start-up’s swanky office block rather than a medical facility. The place where Chris Fallow had chosen to practice medicine, since returning from his work with Médecins Sans Frontiers, was perhaps the opposite of that charitable work. Slick, state-of-the-art, and definitely not affordable for the masses.
The fact that he took a designated one patient a week from the inner-city hospital who wouldn’t have been able to make their insurance payments there, just to help save a life, was the only thing that made her feel comfortable with it all – the only thing that made her secure in the knowledge of how different he was from his violent brother, Governor Fallow. Now that he was Amy’s guardian, being sure that he was not just about money and appearance had been one of Laura’s first concerns.
She walked right past the desk with only a smile and a wave to the woman behind it, who returned the gesture and flagged her right on through. Chris always took a short break at this time of day, usually to go over paperwork and make sure he was up to date with the admin of his job. When she wasn’t out on a case, Laura knew she could come here easily and find him.
“Hey,” he said, looking up with a grin when she entered his office and then standing up. “Laura! I didn’t know you were coming.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d have time,” she said, walking right to his open arms and receiving his kiss of hello. The office matched him: modern, light, and airy, but not too stuffy. There were little touches here and there, like a framed card drawn by a young child to thank him for helping to save their father’s life during his work in Africa, that made it clear this was not the office of the average cardiologist.
“Well, it’s good to see you,” he said, smiling down at her from his slightly taller height. His brown eyes were full of affection, a look she could never imagine seeing on his brother’s face. “A very welcome change to staring at the paperwork, anyway.”
Laura chuckled. “I brought your gym bag,” she said. “You left it at my place yesterday.”
“Oh!” Chris exclaimed, taking it from her hand. “I wondered why it wasn’t in my car. And why you had it. For a moment when you came in, I thought Gina had just given it to you on your way in.”
Laura laughed. Gina, out in reception, had been flipping through a magazine – Laura doubted she would even have noticed the presence of the bag. “No, it was behind my sofa. You should really leave it somewhere you can see it when you’re on the way out, so you don’t forget.”
“I will,” Chris said, and leaned down to kiss her again. “Still, I don’t mind the excuse of having you come over here in the middle of the day. And I didn’t mind the rest this morning either, when I got to the gym and realized I was going to just have to come to the office early instead. I had a quick nap on my couch.”
Laura shook her head in amusement. “Did I really wear you out that much?” she asked. “You’re a lightweight.”
“Hey!” Chris exclaimed in mock hurt, leading her over to the sofa so they could both sit down together. “I’m a single dad, you know. Having the night off while Amy was staying at a friend’s house was the only break I got this week. It’s not my fault my stamina might be a bit, well, suffering.”
“The lucky thing is, I didn’t have any problem with your stamina,” Laura grinned. They’d had a good night, after all. It was only the fact she knew she was meeting Zach in the morning that had cast a shadow over anything, but she hadn’t been able to mention anything about that to Chris.
How could she? He had no idea about her abilities. The only person who did know was her partner at the FBI, Nate – and that was only a very recent development. There was a part of her that wanted to tell him, now that their relationship was getting more involved, but…
She’d only just learned to trust her partner of several years of close work. Trusting Chris might not take as long, but she definitely wasn’t ready for it yet.
Not given the risk that it could destroy their relationship before it even fully blossomed.
“You didn’t?” he asked. There was a little hesitance in his voice even as he sat, as if he wasn’t sure about the question he was going to ask. “Only, you did seem a little distracted. Normally, I wouldn’t take it personally – but I thought you’d wrapped up your last case and sorted everything out with Nate.”
“I did,” Laura nodded, inwardly cursing herself. Evidently, she hadn’t done a good enough job of hiding her inner emotions. “I was just a little tired, myself. That’s all.”
Chris nodded. At least he seemed to be convinced easily enough. “So, what about this weekend?” he asked. “Still on for the girls’ playdate?”
“Of course,” Laura smiled. Amy and her own daughter, Lacey, had become fast friends. They would probably have led their own miniature revolution if either she or Chris tried to cancel their weekly visits. For a five-year-old and a six-year-old, they had a lot of foot-stomping power between them.
“Did you want to stay a little later?” he asked. “I was thinking we could make a full weekend of it and let the girls have a sleepover. And, you know. So could we. If you wanted.”
Laura smiled. “Yes, that would be great,” she said, although she was inwardly marking off those days on her internal calendar as dates on which she would not be able to secretly meet with Zach again. Chris might find it suspicious if she snuck off halfway through the weekend to meet a strange man who she wasn’t willing to tell him anything about. “I’ll have to check with Marcus. He might not be okay with Amy staying over at another man’s house, and I don’t want to cause an argument by doing it without permission. She’s bound to say something, isn’t she?”
Chris nodded. He seemed a tiny bit crestfallen about the idea they might not be able to go ahead with it, but of course he had to accept that Lacey’s father would have a say in things. Even though Laura and Marcus were long since divorced, he had full custody – and she only had visitation rights. She may not have been happy about it, but he had the final say over where Lacey did and didn’t go, and it had to remain that way until one day she might be able to get herself a better custody agreement.
She’d have loved to have her daughter full-time again – but since that would also represent a huge upheaval in Lacey’s life, she didn’t want to push it just for her own sake.
“Well, enough about me,” he said, even though they hadn’t really been talking about him at all. “I’ve had a boring morning. What about you? How do you spend your time when you’re between cases? Are you in the office today?”
“No, thank God,” Laura said. “I’ve finished all my paperwork since the last case, so I managed to fit in a day off.”
“You didn’t just sleep in all morning, did you?” Chris teased. “If you did, I’m going to have to demand an apology for making me feel bad about skipping the gym!”
“No, no,” Laura laughed, but she knew she couldn’t tell him the truth. The lie came out of her mouth almost automatically. “I was just doing some chores, you know. General to-do list stuff that doesn’t get done when I’m working. I’ve got some grocery shopping planned for after this.”
“So exciting and glamorous,” Chris said with a grin. “You know, I don’t actually have an appointment for another half-hour. You can always stay with me a little later, if you think your groceries can wait a bit.”