and then he had to stay around because newborns required checking. Maybe he could call someone else in? Who was he kidding? There wasn’t anyone else.
“Uhm, am I interrupting something?” Nell stood, staring at him, a basket of green in her hand. Some sort of plant.
“No.”
She looked around the office, her eyes studying the surroundings. “Oh, well, you were really concentrating. I thought you might have been doing some serious meditation.”
More like some serious freaking out. “I don’t meditate. What do you need?”
Yep, his bedside manner was in full swing.
“I wanted to talk to you.”
He stared at her, suspicion tickling at him. No one wanted to talk to him. He’d cultivated a reputation as a taciturn bastard. If it wasn’t about a physical malady, no one attempted to engage him in conversation. He could sit for hours in Trio or Stella’s beside someone and never utter a word until it was time to go. “Hello” and “good-bye” was about what he’d trained people to expect from him. That and “take a deep breath” or “this is going to sting.”
Except Alexei. He’d talked a lot that day. And he’d taught the Farley brothers. He’d felt bad for those kids from the moment he’d heard they were getting bullied, but until Alexei had talked to him about it, he hadn’t done anything. That day by the pond, he’d really talked to Bobby and Will. He’d given them advice his own father had given him. It had been easy because he’d known if he fucked up or said the wrong thing or had a panic attack, Alexei would take care of them.
“Have I lost you again?” Nell asked.
“All right. I’ll hear you out,” he said slowly. This was Holly’s friend. He could listen.
“I want to talk to you about Holly.”
Or not. He turned back to his equipment, dismissing her entirely. How large bore of a needle could he convincingly use on Alexei without really breaking his Hippocratic oath?
He could hear her foot tapping an impatient rhythm against the linoleum. “I’m not going to go away because you ignore me.”
“Most people do.” And he liked it that way.
A confident little huff came out of her mouth. “Most people haven’t handcuffed themselves to giant trees for days at a time. You know, you learn a lot when you protest. I know how to talk when being screamed at and threatened with bodily harm and various lawsuits. I’ve been called every name in the book. I’ve been shot at and played chicken with a bulldozer. I won. You can ignore me all you like, and I’ll just keep talking until you listen to me. That can be now or five days from now. I’ve cleared my calendar.”
Crap. He believed her. He turned back to Nell, who set down the potted plant and smiled. He gave her his best scowl, but she simply brightened her smile. She wasn’t going away no matter how much he tried to intimidate her. He knew when to retreat. “All right. I’m listening.”
“You know I like you, Caleb.”
He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond to that. He hadn’t really thought about whether Nell liked him or not, but she seemed to require a response. “Thanks.”
Her smile widened. “Oh, thank you. I really do like you. You’re a healer. You have a healer’s aura. It’s beautiful. You’re really lucky. Some people get auras that don’t blend well with their natural coloring, but yours is just lovely. Unfortunately, you also have a black cloud that follows you around.”
Again, he had no idea what she wanted, but she stood there, her doe eyes wide, forcing Caleb to respond. “Sorry.”
She waved him off. “Oh, you can’t help it. Something happened to you, something traumatic to damage your aura, but it’s fixable. I don’t suppose you have any interest in seeing a shaman? She makes awesome Blizzards, too. I can get you in for half price.”
No way was he going to Crazy Irene unless he needed some steak fingers. “No. I’ll keep my dark cloud.”
She continued on as though
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