I was going with the kiss.

“Have you heard how she’s doing?” I asked, sitting.

Dano shook his head. “We usually don’t get reports from the ER staff.” He sounded a bit pissed, and I wondered if that was because Pansy was an employer, or if Dano had another reason why he wanted to know if she was going to make it.

Hopefully that reason was because she was a human being and deserved to live, like everyone else.

And nothing dreadful.

I hung around the ER until the looks of the staff indicated they wanted to throw me out. After way too much small talk, Nancy even tried to look busy instead of talking to me. When Ted Grosch came out of Pansy’s room, I asked how she was doing. He said, “She’ll be off to surgery soon. Still alive, but barely,” and then hurried off.

But barely. Damn.

Two of the cops standing by the doorway started to look at me suspiciously. Of course they didn’t know who I was and Shatley was nowhere to be found, so I figured I’d better hightail it out of there before I was questioned as a suspect. Only Shatley knew I worked with Jagger. That was my cushion to fall back on and keep me from possible incarceration. There was that breaking and entering time…

When I got to the exit, I realized Jagger had abandoned me without a ride. Damn it. Pulling out my cell phone, I stepped to the side while another ambulance company brought in an obviously “in labor” woman, who was cursing at her husband nonstop.

I winked at her and punched in Goldie’s number. “Hey. I need a lift from the ER.”

First, in his usual way, he shrieked, until I hollered into the cell to calm down. “A case, Gold. I’m fine.”

“Oh, good. I’ll swing by to get you, but I’m meeting Miles for lunch at Madelyn’s. You’ll of course join us.”

I couldn’t even use the excuse that I was not dressed up enough for the swanky-the only swanky-restaurant in Hope Valley. Sitting by the Connecticut River and having a Coors Light might be just what the doctor ordered right now. “I’m in,” I said, to Goldie’s delight, and I leaned against the wall to wait.

Miles hugged me as if we were long-lost buddies instead of roommates who had just seen each other that morning. “I’m thrilled you can join us.”

I always felt as if I were interrupting a romance with these two, but that was my take on it, not theirs. I knew that much but still always wanted to give them some space. But I was famished, dressed to kill, and had nowhere else to go but home to flop on my bed and contemplate a horrible day.

“This turned out perfect,” I said, following the hostess as she made small talk with Goldie, who just about everyone knew, and showed us to a table with a water view, since Goldie had insisted on as much for his “Suga.”

The woman set the menus down on the table, turned and stepped to the side, holding the chair for Goldie.

He smiled, began to sit and gasped.

Miles looked in the direction Goldie had and said, “Shit.”

Confused, I turned to see what the big deal was-and froze.

Sitting across the room was Jagger, still in his fantastic suit. Still looking like a GQ model from Testosterone Heaven, and still not noticing me.

Thank the good Lord, since across the table from him was the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.

Gorgeous with a damn capital “G.”

Twelve

“You’ve got it all over her,” I heard Goldie say as if in the distance.

Maybe that was because I was in shock, jealous as all get out, although I tried to tell myself I had no right to be. I was still staring.

Long black hair touched her shoulders. A mint green skirt suit with snakeskin shoes, of matching green and black, ivory skin set off by the darkened locks and no wedding ring blurred in the distance. My damn vision cleared enough, unfortunately, to notice teeth whiter than Pansy’s pallor. Okay, bad analogy, but someone that looked so perfect as this chick deserved a bad/ morbid analogy.

Plus, she was with my Jagger!

She looked at him several times and smiled-like a freaking magazine model, airbrushed and all. She made “flirt” the word of the day.

He looked in her eyes and returned a smile. I had to think, though, that it wasn’t too genuine-looking and maybe should be classified as a half smile. I felt my complexion turn a lovely shade of green while I told myself that I was trying to manipulate the image for my own satisfaction. Honest Abe that I was. I really knew little to nothing about Jagger’s life outside of our investigating together and that he vacationed in Newport, Rhode Island, once a year.

Maybe he was making it perfectly clear that we were only coworkers.

I looked at my roomies. “Guys, I’m not really hungry,” I said, and turned and walked away despite their protesting.

I yanked my cell phone out of my pocket. After I punched the buttons with much more force then needed and had to redial three times, I heard a voice that made me feel oh-so-much better.

“Hey, Nightingale.”

Ah…

Earlier I’d only had to swallow a teeny, tiny bit of my pride to invite myself out to eat with ER Dano, I thought, as I looked at him across the table of the Dew Drop Inn diner, Hope Valley’s famous.

Although I’d made the call to him on a whim and telling myself that if Jagger was spending time with the likes of Airbrushed Lady, then I shouldn’t be pining for him. I had to have a love life of my own-it had only dawned on me after the fifth ring that Dano might refuse.

I smiled at him.

He smiled back.

Thank goodness for not refusing. Seems as if dear Dano was my saving grace today. He’d eaten with Buzz earlier, but graciously offered to meet me for coffee, which I took as a good sign.

“I feel a bit overdressed for this place,” I said, knowing it was stupid small talk, but Dano-make that most guys-didn’t do small talk very well. Actually, they didn’t talk nearly as much as women, and when there was a lull in the conversation, I always felt obligated to fill in the dead airspace.

Dead airspace. I was full of lousy analogies today.

He looked at me. His eyes drifted down toward my hint of cleavage. Actually, when I bought the dress under Goldie’s impeccable taste and guidance, it fit differently. There was no cleavage. At least that’s the way it was after Goldie tucked here and there and then let me look in the mirror and insisted I buy it.

When I dressed today though, there was about a two-inch cleavage that I couldn’t tuck away. Gotta love my Goldie!

And apparently Dano couldn’t help noticing too.

I felt like a naughty nurse, but leaned a bit forward. He said, “You look fine.”

Fine? I gathered a statement like that coming from ER Dano could be likened to a compliment from Jagger. “Fine” was like the word “fantastic” in a normal guy’s vocabulary. I had actually convinced myself that it was so.

As I had convinced myself that ER Dano and Jagger were not normal, run-of-the-mill guys.

Way too delicious for that!

He took a sip of his black coffee and looked at me, his eyes drifting occasionally to my chest as he spoke. “Pansy is in recovery now.”

“Oh, wow. Good. Then she survived the surgery.” I nodded. “That’s great.” How I wanted to ask if I could talk to her, but realized I would have to do it on my own. I’d snuck into places before and was getting quite good at it. Besides, who’d question me in my scrubs? Certain there’d be police guards outside her door, I’d have to come up with something. Although lying was not my strong suit, I was getting better and better at it. Hey, practice makes perfect, Stella Sokol always said. However, I’m quite certain she never meant to use it for lying.

In fact, I know she never meant to use it for lying. She was the main reason I stunk at lying-her and “Sister Mary I Can Get Away With Anything I Want Because I’m a Nun.” I think I had her throughout all eight years of Catholic School, and still had the scars on my knuckles from the wooden ruler to prove it.