Page 29 of Silent Threat
Dan tapped his steepled fingers together as he evaluated her revelations. But instead of warning her to be careful with Cole, he moved on. “How are you doing with Trevor?”
Trev.Annie switched gears. “I wish I could see him more.”
“Maybe soon. I do think you and I will have to do the lion’s share. No offense to Milo, but Trevor isn’t going to improve from having needles stuck in his ass.” He waved his hand as if trying to erase that last word. “Sorry. I’m tired. I’ve been working too much.”
Dan was somewhat of a professional snob. Out of all the people at Hope Hill, he considered only Annie as hisalmostequal, because she had a degree in psychology. He was unfailingly polite to the other staff members and supported their therapies, but he believed them to be the icing on the cake. Annie was pretty sure that Dan thought he did all the real work.
“What are you working on? Another article?” she asked, because she didn’t want to argue about Milo, who was an excellent acupuncturist.
“The History of Medieval Medical Practices.” Dan was proud, to the point of vanity, of his publication record.
He cleared his throat. “Back to Trevor. He’s not making much progress with me. I’m worried about him.”
That put Annie on alert. Dan wasn’t prone to worry. “I’ll pay extra attention to him at our next session.”
They talked about Trevor for another few minutes, then about her other patients, and then, at the end, about her continued troubles with Joey.
After the session, Annie grabbed a granola bar and a cup of tea from the cafeteria before heading out. Time for the morning feeding, finally. Time to let the grazing animals loose in the backyard. Esmeralda the donkey, especially, didn’t like to be cooped up in the garage.
Her phone rang. Annie took the call as she walked.
“How are you?” Kelly asked. “I’m so sorry for what happened. I’m going to help you pay for it. Want me to come over to help clean up?”
“Let’s wait with that until I find out if it’s safe to go in. Thanks for offering. I’m not mad at you. I swear.”
“I’m mad at myself. Home reno looks a lot easier on TV.” Kelly did sound miserable. “Listen, I just listed a house for a client. When it sells and I get the commission, I’m going to give you the money.”
“You have your own mortgage. You have alimony to pay.”
“Loser exes. What’s wrong with them? Has Joey stopped stalking you?”
Annie glanced at her phone. “No texts so far today.”
“It’s early yet.” Kelly called out a greeting that came through the line faintly, as if she’d put the phone down for a second. Then she said, “I’m at the agency. People just came in. I have to hang up. Are you going to be OK?”
“I will be one hundred percent better than OK.” Annie raised her voice a notch so the universe could hear her.
“Let me know when you find out more about the damage,” Kelly said before they hung up.
Cole was leaning against Annie’s car in the parking lot, as if he’d been waiting for a while. And maybe thinking about bench-pressing the Prius out of boredom. Seriously, he probably could have. One-handed.
He pushed away from the trunk as she reached him. “I thought I’d go with you and help. I have a couple of hours.” He jerked his head toward the silver pickup next to the Prius. “We could take my ride today.”
“If you have a car, why were you walking to the gas station the other day?”
“Just rented it this morning. When I came here, I flew into Philly from Chicago and had the shuttle bring me out here from the airport. I didn’t want to drive through Philly one-handed. Out here, it’s no big deal. There’s no real traffic.”
She eyed the pickup. The truck definitely fit him better than her Prius.
“Ram 1500 HFE,” he said, as if the words actually had meaning. “Highest gas mileage in its class. I figured I couldn’t get you into it otherwise. EcoDiesel three-point-zero liter, V-6, two hundred forty horsepower, intercooled turbo engine.”
He looked so pleased with himself that she didn’t have the heart to say no. He was reaching out to another person. He was venturing out into the civilian world. He was taking interest in something other than his dark memories. All of that supported recovery.
So she said, “I only understood half of that, but OK. Maybe we could pick up a couple of bales of hay.”
He didn’t exactly smile at her. But the way he looked at that moment, she could almost imagine him having a twin brother who might have smiled. Once. She could almost imagine what a smile might look like on Cole’s face.
He opened the passenger side door for her, glancing at the Prius. “How do you usually bring home all the hay and feed?”
