Zach met Grace in the hallway outside Dolores’ hospital room. Her hair was pulled back and a purple stethoscope hung around her neck. She’d dressed in her dark blue paramedic uniform with patches proclaiming she worked for Centre Community Hospital. With only one button unbuttoned the blouse didn’t show much, but Zach could imagine.
There was something about a woman in uniform.
He shook himself. He should be worried about Dolores.
Grace looked like a woman on a mission. “Where are you headed?”
“To see the father of Dolores’ baby.”
He grabbed her arm. She was getting in over her head. She had no idea. Neither did he for that matter. “Don’t do anything foolish.”
Her eyes clouded over and her face went pale. “Grace?”
“Let go,” she rasped out.
“You’ll fall.” He dragged her to a chair in the hallway. “Sit.”
She did and he relinquished his hold on her. The color rushed back to her face. She blinked. “Thanks.”
“You not eat or something?”
She put up her hands. “I ate. Just don’t touch me.”
He cocked his head at her. “Whatever.” He wasn’t sure he could keep that promise as her peach perfume tap danced into his nostrils. What was it about this woman? His attraction to her was irrational. At the very least, odd. “Now, where are you headed?”
“After work, I’m going to see the father of Dolores’ baby.”
“Who is?”
She shook her head. “That’s for her to tell you.”
Zach rammed a hand through his hair. He wanted to shake her. She could be so stubborn. Didn’t she realize she was tilting at windHills? There would be no murder. “Grace, don’t be obtuse. Where are you going?”
She stood, avoiding his touch, her body angling away from him. “Back to the ER. Back to work.”
Her smile couldn’t have been more forced. He swiped at her, but she jumped out of his reach.
“Grace. Is this about that supposed murder you’re predicting?”
Her gaze raced up and down the hallway. “Shh. I don’t know what you are talking about.”
By now she was at the elevators and as if she’d asked for it, the doors opened. She disappeared into the car.
Dolores was sitting up, but not smiling when Zach entered the room. Her face looked drawn and pale. No one occupied the other bed in the room. Despite this a curtain separated Dolores from the empty bed.
“Hey,” he said, putting a vase of flowers on the window sill. “You feel better?”
“Yes, I do. I owe you and Grace a lot for finding me.”
He stood with his hands in his pockets. “Uh, I’m sorry about the baby.”
She nodded. “I am a little, too. I thought it would be a new beginning for me.”
“Maybe it still can be.”
“How about for us?” she asked.
Zach shook his head. He hadn’t been this sure in a long time. “No. There is no future for us.” He couldn’t take the lying anymore. There had to be more to love than heartache, but he wasn’t ready to find it. Nor was Dolores the woman with whom he’d discover the possibilities.
She frowned. “You run into Grace?”
“Yes.”
“She tell you the news?”
Zach settled into the chair by the bed. Extending his long legs, he crossed his ankles. He wanted some answers. “She wouldn’t tell me who the father was. I already knew the baby wasn’t mine. You were too far along. Did you seduce me on purpose?”
She sucked her lip into her mouth. “Yes and no. I didn’t plan it, but when the opportunity arose I grabbed it.”
How flippant she could be with others lives. Why hadn’t he noticed? “It’s the end of the line, Lors. I’m done.” He shook his head. “Too many lies.”
He wasn’t angry anymore. He was at peace with his decision.
“I know.” Her gaze went out the window. “Will you still be my friend?”
“I’ll have to think about that. We do have a lot of history together to throw by the wayside.”
She looked back at him, a plea in her eyes. “Think hard Zach.”
She sighed.
He frowned.
The silence materialized like fog between them. The mist obscured the woman he’d once loved. One he wouldn’t love again. She’d fractured his heart. Laid waste to it as if he’d been a fly. He deserved better than that. Honesty was too important to him.
“What did you and Grace talk about?”
Dolores waved a hand. “She thinks I’m in danger.”
A nod moved his head. “So she did tell you.”
Her brow knit. “You believe her?”
He chuckled. His gaze traveled out the window. Grace had him off-kilter. “I’m not sure what to be believe with her. I don’t see any reason why someone would want you dead.”
“Dead? She didn’t say that.”
Zach could have smacked his own forehead. He figured Grace had spilled all her beans. Well as much as Grace lets out. “I assumed.”
“She thinks I’m going to be killed? That’s crazy.”
“That’s what I think, too.”
As if in the depths of deja vu, Grace knew what her calls were for that next day. She even got to do a better job the second time and save them all.
“You’re on a roll today,” her partner of the day said as they left the hospital.
“Just a good day all around.” A shrug moved her shoulders.
Grace strolled towards the parking lot when she noticed a tall man leaning on her car. She groaned. Despite her positive day, she was exhausted. She didn’t want to tangle with Zach.
“What, ex-boyfriend?”
“No, you have a good couple of days. I’m not working the next two.”
“Lucky stiff.”
Her partner waved at her and went in another direction. She braced for the storm that was brewing on Zach’s face. Didn’t he get that she had no choice. Her gift had been given to her for a reason. She was compelled to help murder victims.
When her powers were gone she’d gladly not help people anymore. Except in her job as a paramedic.
“You’re scratching my paint,” she said.
Zach pushed away from her car, but didn’t uncross his arms. Nor did he seem phased by her accusations. “You’re not going to see him.”
“Why not? He’s the prime suspect.”
“Yours? Grace there hasn’t been a murder. There probably won’t be. Dolores will be safe at her house all day tomorrow.”
Grace narrowed her eyes. “You know something I don’t?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know she’ll be safe? Better yet. I’ll tell you how she’ll be safe. I’m spending the day with her. She needs someone to be there anyway. She’s still a little weak.”
Zach’s eyes rolled so fast she thought they’d pop out of his head and zoom across the parking lot. “And you’re going to defend her against a murderer?”
Her fists clenched and her jaw tightened. “I don’t see you doing it.”
“That’s because I don’t believe you.”
“At least you’re honest. What if I can prove that I’ve lived this day and the next before?”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
Since she read the newspaper cover to cover she’d figure out something that would happen today. “How about the baseball game. The Phillies are playing the Mets. The Phillies are going to win. The score will be 10 to 6.”
“What if I’m not a baseball fan?” he asked.
“You will be tonight.”
After much cajoling and some lying, Grace managed to get past Zach to her car. Despite what she said to him, she headed for his boss’s office.
Kent Winger sat behind a pin neat desk talking on the phone. He’d scrubbed the dirt from underneath his fingernails since the last time she’d seen him.
She’d charmed her way into his office and now he made her wait. His uniform had creases in it even after a full day of work.
His office smelled like an air freshener and Grace wondered just how in touch with his feminine side he was.
The call finished, the man replaced the receiver with such deliberation the phone could have been made with glass. He then turned his chocolate brown eyes at her, his moustache twitching once. “You again?”
“Me, again. I need to speak with you about Dolores Holten.”
His spine stiffened, but his face didn’t change from his impassive expression.eee wa “What about her?”
He didn’t use any pejorative, but the venom was clear from his tone. Boy, Dolores had made lots of friends throughout law enforcement. Too bad this one was Zach’s old boss. Probably why he didn’t want her here.
“I don’t have much time. Dolores lost her baby.”
His mustache moved again, but nothing else on his face did, like a Botox overdose. “So?”
“She says the baby was yours.”
He bolted to his feet. “Miss Harmony we’ve been through this. I don’t appreciate strangers coming in here making false accusations against me. Now leave or I’ll have someone escort you. And if I hear any of these accusations outside this office I’ll have you arrested for harassment.”
During his speech he strode around his desk and yanked her to her feet. With her toes barely touching the ground he dragged her to his door.
“Let go of me.”
He did. “Go. And don’t ever come back.”
“I have a good reason for talking to you. Dolores is in trouble.”
“Yeah, well she asks for trouble.”
He’d already pushed her out of his office and he slammed the door before she could say anything more.
She whirled to find five plain clothes detectives staring at her in disbelief. Readjusting her clothes, she strode across the room with a crimson face and a locked jaw. She released her breath when she reached the parking lot outside the Centre County Administration Building.
Zach’s voice startled her. “I told you to stay away from him.”
“But Dolores said. .”
Grace scooted around him towards her car knowing full well he intended to grab her. She didn’t think she’d survive his touch again. Despite how attractive he’d become she couldn’t risk it. Despite how much his touch soothed and excited her.
His face was a study in anger, his jaw locked. A muscle twitched on the side of his face. “You can’t believe everything Lors says.”
She stayed just out of his reach, but he caught up with her.
The colors danced in front of her eyes, but a warm feeling engulfed her as if she shouldn’t be afraid of those colors. Like a kaleidoscope things circled around and then came back. She blinked, but couldn’t rid herself of the vision that was coming.
She saw herself naked under Zach. Her desire for him was so palpable she could feel it from the vision.
“Grace?”
Her name sounded like stardust in his mouth. As her climax hit in the vision she felt herself being shaken.
Then the colors left her with just a black screen. And she was falling.