Page 61 of Hypnotized By Love

I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Nope. If she could hide the fact that she and Mason had been secret friends for years, I could conceal that I’d tried to kiss him and he’d said no.

My twin did not need the encouragement, and I wasn’t particularly anxious to relive that moment. Although that was all I was doing right now—running it through my head over and over. Me attempting to kiss him and him moving his face as far away from me as he could.

“Are you feeling anxious? Because that’s actually pretty common,” she said. “They call it hangxiety. It’s because alcohol mimics GABA, which is a brain chemical that makes you feel relaxed and happy. And then when it’s out of your system, it increases glutamate, another brain chemical, which has the opposite effect and makes you feel restless, anxious, and worried.”

“Thank you for the science lesson,” I mumbled. This was just plain old embarrassment, though. “But I don’t think I have that.”

“Either way, I’m here to take your IV out.”

I lifted my right arm for her. I had the vague recollection of being woken up when a nurse I didn’t know put in an IV line for fluids. That was after they had taken me in for an X-ray, which showed that my ankle wasn’t broken. It was only a sprain.

Just after Sierra had removed the IV, a man walked into our room.

A man I knew.

“Mr. Franklin?” Frederick Franklin was one of the Board members who had censured me.

“Ms. Sinclair? My apologies, I’m looking for my niece. I must have the wrong room.”

Next thing I knew, I heard a voice I recognized.

“Room eleven, not room ten, Freddie.” Vivian walked through the doorway. The same Vivian who worked on the floor above me and had seen me with Mason during the fake fire, when she’d assumed he was my client. “Savannah! Sierra! How are you? Are you okay?”

My heart was beating so hard. It might have been a delayed chemical reaction from the alcohol, but regardless, my fight-or-flight reflex kicked in, and I wanted to run. “I accidentally fell while doing some gardening. I have a slight sprain. Sierra’s been looking after me. How do you two know each other?”

“Freddie is my brother. My daughter had an eardrum burst, and he’s always been overprotective, so he rushed down here to help out.”

I knew that Vivian was a single mom who struggled with taking care of her daughter alone, and while I was glad that she had family close by to help out, it had never once occurred to me that Frederick Franklin and Vivian Franklin might be related.

“How do you know Freddie?” Vivian asked, a perfectly reasonable question.

“Professionally,” Mr. Franklin said quickly, and thankfully didn’t go into any more detail.

“Right.” She nodded, looking like she felt silly. “I know you’re both hypnotists. I should have made that connection. I’ve just been up all night, and I’m a little out of it.”

With them standing there together, I could see the resemblance. I had been so upset at my meeting that I hadn’t noticed it.

“I hope Taylor is doing okay,” I said, finally finding my voice.

“She is. I’m actually about to take her home. Come with me, Freddie. Heal up quickly, Savannah!”

They left, and I did my best to not hyperventilate. If Mason had been in here when Mr. Franklin had accidentally walked in, with Vivian knowing what she did ...

“That was so close,” I said.

“What’s wrong?”

“Frederick Franklin is on the Florida Board of Professional Hypnotists. He was one of the people who voted to censure me. Vivian saw me and Mason together the day of the false alarm and knows he’s my client. What if Mason had stuck around?”

Oh, it would have been so bad.

Sierra looked concerned. “He was here until about half an hour ago.”

“What? Why?”

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