Page 74 of Clara Knows Best

“I don’t have a headache.”

He came forward to set his coffee on the high counter above her desktop. She didn’t like how he looked like he was settling in for a long chat.

“I shouldn’t have kissed you,” he said seriously. “I didn’t realize it would upset you, and I’m sorry.”

His beautiful eyes, for once, were concerned for her, and…kind.

Fortune favors the bold, she reminded herself. “Did you like it?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Did you like it?” she repeated, feeling as if she might shrivel up and die if he didn’t answer the question. “Was it gross?”

He started to smile, and picked up his coffee. “Uh, no, it wasn’t gross.”

Relief flooded her. “Really?”

His smile grew. “Why, was it gross for you?”

The bell above the door tinkled delicately and a petite little woman in her seventies entered, accompanied by a tall black man who was built like a tank. He gave Clara a once-over and nodded approval, making her smile involuntarily.

She glanced up at Jesse and cleared her throat, saying quickly, “Good morning! How are you, Mrs. Nuñez?”

“Good morning,” Mrs. Nuñez returned brightly. “Dr. Flores, I brought you a covered dish. It’s my enchiladas. I can’t thank you enough for helping Felipe. He told me he remembers you talking to him while you were waiting for the ambulance to arrive. He said you told him everything would be all right, and it gave him so much peace.”

“Oh,” he said blankly, accepting the casserole from her escort. “Yes, I heard that he was awake. Wonderful news.”

“This is my neighbor, Charles,” she explained. “He drove me.”

“Would you like some coffee, Charles?” Clara offered him.

“Sure. Thanks,” he said.

“I’ll go get it,” she said, taking the casserole pan from Jesse. “Mrs. Nuñez, you’re all checked in. Yoli will be right out to collect you and take you back.” And she was pretty sure that Yoliwould notice, as she had, that Charles was not wearing a ring on his finger.

25

He came to the end of Dr. Wilder’s notes on Mrs. Nuñez, and thought about lowering the dosage of her blood pressure meds.

He was jealous.

It wasn’t until Clara smiled at Charles that he realized she hadn’t smiled at him since before The Incident. She usually smiled at him kind of a lot. Way more than other people did. In fact, she’d pretty much smiled every time he looked at her.

But no longer.

Shouldn’t Charles be at work on a Tuesday morning? For that matter, wouldn’t it look kind of stupid for her to date someone whose name also began with a C?

Yoli knocked briefly on his door. “Mrs. Nuñez is ready for you. She thinks her blood pressure meds might need an adjustment.”

“Thanks,” he said mechanically.

“Don’t mess around with Clara,” she added. “I’ll dump your body in the creek.”

“Take a hike, Yoli.”

“Yep,” she said meekly, and disappeared down the hall.

It disturbed him that he didn’t want Clara to go out with Charles. He needed distance from her and the whole situation, but every time he recalled that she’d been moping because she’d been worried that the kiss had grossed him out, he was just tickled pink.

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