Page 74 of Careless Whisper

I didn’t hesitate. She was a line to Reggie. She’d been kind enough—after ripping me a new one—to let me talk to her granddaughter in New York; and now I was hoping she’d be kinder still to tell me where the heck she was.

None of us could track her down. Luther gave me dirty looks all day long, blaming me for losing his friend. Cindy asked me at least once a day if I’d heardfrom Reggie and if she’d accepted Harper Memorial's offer for her to return.

Mrs. D was still investigating Maren but had cleared Reggie of any wrongdoing—and had insisted that we ask her to come back because everyone had sung her praises as a surgical nurse.

The door clicked shut as I sat down across from Reggie’s indomitable G’Mum, as she called her. The car pulled away, and I braced for impact.

“You’re very good-looking for someone so bloody dense,” she stated dryly in her British accent.

“I get that a lot.”

“Do you?”

“No,” I admitted.

She folded one leg over the other and looked me dead in the eye. “You let my granddaughter take the fall for your mess not once buttwice. I don’t care that you’re sorry. I don’t care that you finally grew a spine and told Dr. Loring to stuff it. What I care about is the fact that Reggie is in Podunk, Mexico, running a clinic she has no interest in managing.”

Reggie was in Mexico? Well, that was more than I had a minute ago—because a minute ago, I didn’t know where the hell she was. But Mexico was a big damn country, so here’s hoping Faye was planning to be a little more specific.

“She’s running a clinic?” That was what had struck me after the fact that she was in another country.

“Yes. Her parents are doing what they call ‘goodworks’ since retiring—one of which is running a clinic with several mobile satellites. She’s managing the whole operation.”

“Wow. That’s pretty cool.”

Faye groaned. “Well then, why the fuck don’t you join her there too?”

“I will if you tell me where it is,” I blurted out.

Faye arched an eyebrow. “The plan is to bring her back so she can do what she loves to do, which is being a surgical nurse. She belongs in ORs and critical units, bossing around surgeons who think they’re gods. She does not belong in some dusty outpost inventorying gauze and solar panels.”

I swallowed hard. “Faye, for the love of everything holy, please tell me where she is.”

“I want you to man the hell up.” She glowered at me. “I want you to show up with authenticity. Not a sob story. Not an apology. Not flowers. No measly I love you, Reggie bollocks. I want military-style emotional maneuvers. I want an attack plan. I want a damn ring on her finger if that’s what it takes.”

I grabbed Faye’s hands. “Faye, I’m on my fucking knees, I’ll go to where she is, and I’ll bring her home. She’s probably going to knee me in the nuts…repeatedly, but I’m not going to give up.”

“What if she doesn’t want you?” Faye mused haughtily.

“She loves me.” I knew it in my bones just like I knew how I felt about her.

She rolled her eyes. “Someone has already sent you a travel itinerary with tickets. Be on the flight. A driver will meet you at the airport and take you to her.”

“Where the hell am I going, Faye?”

“San Miguel de Allende, where that bastard son-in-law of mine took my daughter away,” she complained. “Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Ignacio, I just don’t like that he and Anna want to stay so far away.”

The car pulled up to the curb.

“Now, get out and break a leg or whatever you’re supposed to do to fix a heart.”

I opened the door and paused. “Why are you helping me?”

She smiled. Sharp and dangerous. “I’mnothelping you. I am helpingmy granddaughterbecause I love her. And because—God help her—I think she might still love you. But you’ve got one chance, Doctor. Don’t fucking waste it.”

“Oh, I don’t intend to,” I promised.

CHAPTER 27

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