Page 72 of Clara Knows Best

“My advice? Let him worry about your parents. Although, not knowing your secret family dysfunction, I may not be the best—”

“Oh, we worked that out over the weekend! I can tell you now,” she exclaimed, and Yoli made ramen noodles for them while Clara caught her up on the subject of Crazy Brittany, the problematic ex.

It was nearly midnight when she received a one-word text from the Colonel:

Status?

What was it Beck had always told her when they were in trouble?Answer fast; don’t make him wait. Stick to the truth and keep it simple.

Watching TV with Yoli.

She looked over at Jesse, who was sleeping hard in the recliner, and added,

Jesse’s a little concussed and he might lose a tooth.

Her father replied with a thumbs-up, and Clara breathed a sigh of relief.

Jesse disappeared from Yoli’s while she was asleep, but as she took her seat at her reception desk and prepared to start rescheduling all the day’s appointments, the front door ofRomeo Family Health opened and he walked in, showered and shaved and probably smelling heavenly. His left arm was in a neat black sling, and his hair was damp from the rain.

“’Morning,” he said, catching sight of her.

She returned the phone to its cradle. “What are you doing here? Did you drive here in the rain with a concussion and one arm? Hopped up on pain meds?”

“No,” he said calmly. “I haven’t taken anything since last night. Went to the doctor this morning and she and I agreed that I don’t have a concussion.”

“That sounds legit,” she said sarcastically.

“She gave me a shot of lidocaine and cleared me to work. Offered me a ride in, which I declined because, you know, she’s crippled.”

“You could have asked the Colonel to drive you.”

“For some reason I didn’t feel like asking your dad for a favor,” he said dryly.

Clara felt her cheeks heating up.

“Anyway, I think I only had to make two turns the whole way here. I can do that with one arm. Bella went home last night, by the way. The little girl with the concussion? Peter texted me that they discharged her.”

She nodded mutely, knowing that she was staring at him, and trying to get her emotions in order. Her anger had mostly been a cover for her embarrassment, but both of those had faded in the night. She wasn’t exactly grateful, because she still felt he had acted unwisely, but she could not deny that he had gone to battle for her, and that seemed to be making him appear even more attractive than before. Which was not good.

“You should see the other guy,” he said, breaking the silence.

The last time she’d seen DeWitt, he’d been soaking wet, bloody-nosed and handcuffed, and Jordan had been loading him into a squad car.

“Jordan said that because of the fight at the bar last month, the judge will likely issue some kind of emergency protective order at DeWitt’s arraignment.”

“You talked to Jordan this morning?”

She nodded. “He stopped by Yoli’s. He seemed to think that DeWitt was attackingmelast night, not you.”

“Yeah, I told him that,” Jesse admitted freely. “And no one could prove otherwise. We were standing together.”

“Yeah, we were,” she said thoughtfully, wishing she had any idea of how he felt about their kiss.

He didn’t look mortified, that was for sure, so Yoli had probably been right about her projecting that fear. Today he looked…curious. She wasn’t sure if that was any better than mortified.

“I don’t get you,” he said finally.

“I know,” she sighed.

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