Since Simon, things had been a little slow on the dating front.

Maybe that’s why I found myself admiring Dr. Colin Bixby’s obvious attractive physical attributes.

Not to mention his nice smile.

Which had disappeared. His eyebrows were furrowed slightly, his lips pursed in a grim line.

“I’m deeply sorry to have to tell you that Trevor McKay passed away about half an hour ago.”

Chapter 16

I felt like I’d swallowed a bag of marbles.

“Excuse me?” I managed to sputter.

His expression conveyed his compassion. “He didn’t indicate a next of kin on his paperwork. I’m glad you came in.”

Next of kin? I barely knew anything about the guy except he could lip-synch to Britney songs while dancing on six-inch heels and look like he was having the time of his life. I also knew he had a pinup girl who looked remarkably like Britney Brassieres on his upper left arm. Ace had done the ink.

I didn’t even know where the guy lived.

Charlotte did. As I thought of her, I took a deep breath. This would devastate her.

“How?” I asked softly.

“He was incredibly dehydrated when he came in. He lost a lot of fluids. We couldn’t keep anything down him.”

“He didn’t look good when he came to my shop earlier.”

Colin Bixby frowned. “Yes, I meant to ask. What shop is that?”

“The Painted Lady.”

His eyes traveled over the garden on my arm, the dragon poking up over my tank top. “You’re the painted lady,” he said softly.

I nodded. “That’s right.” His gaze was a little disconcerting, but not in a bad way. I had to keep talking or I’d get too distracted. “He was at my shop when he became ill. Although, come to think of it, I think he was sick when he arrived. You know he was in the hospital overnight?”

“Yes.” Colin Bixby leafed through a file folder that he picked up off the desk. “He had a concussion and a small chest wound. According to the report, he was perfectly fine when he was released this morning. All tests showed normal.”

Covering his tracks in case I wanted to file a malpractice suit or something.

“It doesn’t say how he got the concussion,” he added.

“He got knocked over.”

The doctor’s eyebrows rose.

I nodded. “Some guy shot a champagne cork at him. Hit him square in the chest. The shock knocked him off balance, so he cracked his head against the floor. He was wearing six-inch heels, so he didn’t have too much traction.”

“I hate to ask…”

“Trevor McKay is a drag queen,” I said matter-of-factly. “He was performing at Chez Tango last night.”

“MissTique’s show?”

Now I was the one who was surprised. “That’s right. Do you know her?”

He nodded, and by the way his jaw was set, I knew that was all I was going to get. Interesting. But a little troublesome. Here I was, feeling all warm and fuzzy and other things about this guy, and this admission meant quite possibly that he was gay. I hated to think my radar was that off center. I totally had felt that little spark.

“I’d like to get some information from you,” Colin Bixby was saying.

It took me a second to realize that he didn’t want to hear about me; he was talking about information about Trevor. Information I didn’t have.

“I really don’t know him very well,” I said.

“But you came to see him. He was in your shop.” His green eyes were mesmerizing, teasing me a little, like he knew I was a fraud but didn’t care.

He couldn’t be gay. He couldn’t.

“I wanted to see how he was, and I wanted to ask him about something.” Right. Charlotte said Trevor was the one who could explain everything. Now Charlotte was going to have to come out of hiding. I pulled out my cell phone. “A friend of mine knew him better. She can tell you what you need to know.”

Colin Bixby put his hand over mine, the one that was holding the phone, and I felt it again. The spark, the warmth-and the firm way he closed my phone.

“You can’t use that in here,” he said softly, leaning toward me.

I usually don’t like to share my personal space, but I didn’t have a problem with that right now. He smelled nice, like fresh Ivory soap with a splash of Purell thrown in for good luck.

“You can use this one.” He lifted his hand off mine and waved it over a landline on the desk.

“Thanks.” I picked up the phone and dialed Charlotte’s cell.

The voice mail kicked in, and I said she needed to call me right away. I hung up and dialed Ace’s number. It rang a few times before I got his voice mail. I left the same message. I turned to Colin Bixby and shrugged. “I can have her call you.”

He was looking at me sideways in a way that made me sure he’d aced chemistry class. “How many tattoos do you have?”

I couldn’t help myself. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.” I sounded like I was in sixth grade. Yikes.

But it didn’t seem to turn him off.

“That sounds like a challenge.”

Okay, so he knew MissTique, but the way he was looking at me now definitely clinched it: He was so not gay.

He slipped a card out of his breast pocket and pressed it into my hand. “Call me.”

Just try and stop me.

I stuck the card in my bag and stood up. He shook my hand, holding it a second longer than he should have. But I wasn’t complaining.

All right, so I knew nothing about Colin Bixby except he was a doctor and he worked in the emergency room at UMC. But to a single woman of thirty-two who hadn’t had a date in a while, it was nice to know the man at least had a job. I just hoped he didn’t live with his mother.

I took one of my own cards out and handed it to him. “In case you don’t want to wait,” I flirted shamelessly.

He gave me a sort of half smile and blushed again, and I had to leave before I said something even more stupid. I almost sprinted out the door but stopped when I heard him calling me back.

“Miss Kavanaugh, you might want to know that Mr. McKay was delirious when he arrived here because of his dehydration. We did not find any ID on him. All we found was this.”

Colin Bixby held out a stone-studded pin with the queen of hearts on it.

Chapter 17

He didn’t let me take it. Instead, he just asked me if I could identify the pin as belonging to Trevor. I felt like I was living an episode of CSI.

I told him yes, the brooch was Trevor’s.

“Since Mr. McKay became ill in your shop, did you notice whether he had a wallet or any other identification on him there?” Bixby asked.

I thought about how quickly Trevor had gotten sick and shook my head. “No. We told the paramedics his name, but they moved really fast to get him out of there.”

“So you don’t know where he lives?”

I felt like an idiot. But then I had a thought: “MissTique probably has his address, because he works for her.”

“Thank you, Miss Kavanaugh. I’ll give Kyle a call.”

So he knew MissTique’s name was really Kyle. Uh-oh. Those doubts again started to bubble up.

But then he winked at me. “And I’ll call you, too, if you don’t mind.”

I was bouncing back and forth like a pinball.

“You can call me Brett,” I said, giving him a short wave as I turned and practically skipped away.

I picked up takeout from Noodles in the Palazzo shops. When I first came to Vegas, I could never figure out whether I was in the Venetian or the Palazzo, since they’re connected and there isn’t a real definitive line on the border between them. I count the waterfall that spills down to the first floor as the start of the Palazzo shops, but I think they start before that, possibly at the end of the canal.