My mistake.” Still humiliated, she faced Eric.
Thankfully, he laughed. “Guess you weren’t kidding about not being able to sleep. You’re seeing things—or, rather, people.”
She was saved from a response when his beeper went off.
Eric tugged it off his belt and stared at the readout. “Damn. Sorry, Karin, it looks like we’ll have to take a rain check on that lunch date. My patient just shifted into hard labor, apparently without any relief from her epidural.”
“Yikes, you’d better go rethread her anesthesia line before the woman unthreads your esophagus.”
Eric chuckled. “You know it.” He nodded to TJ as he reached the door. “Hey, José, if you find any pens, leave ’em on my desk—and don’t touch the paperweight. The last guy broke my old one.”
TJ hunched his shoulders slightly as he tipped the bill of his cap. “Sí, señor.”
The second the door closed, he straightened.
“What the hell do you think—”
An iron hand clapped over her mouth, cutting off the rest of her tirade. She waited none too patiently as TJ quickly reopened the door and hauled the cleaning cart inside. He snapped the door shut and shoved the cart up against it, then flipped on the radio at the edge of Eric’s desk.
Soft rock filled the office.
She glared at his coveralls. “Nice cover, José.”
He folded his arms and shrugged.
She did her damnedest not to let her gaze linger at the rolled sleeves hugging his dusky biceps as she continued to scowl. “Perhaps you’d like to tell me what you’re doing in that outfit—and what you’re doing here?”
“Why am I here? Perhaps we should start at the beginning, no? Why are you here?”
“I work here, remember?”
“A good try, Cariño. But you yourself told me you did not start for two weeks. You came to confront him, no?”
“Doug? Of course not.”
A single dark brow rose.
She ignored it. “Look, all I did was stop by to drop off some stuff and check out a few medical journals. I’m way behind in my reading. I was out of the country for six months, you know.”
“This, I know. I also remember seeing a stack of journals on your kitchen counter last night.”
Damn. Busted again.
She shrugged. “So I’m missing a few. I like to read them in order.”
He shook his head, actually chuckling as he stared at her ears. “Cariño, if you intend on persisting with these lies, you may want to consider growing your curls again.”
Oooh, she really did not like this man.
So why did her heart have to start thumping erratically as he leaned back against Eric’s desk? And why did she have to notice the way the muscles of his chest strained against those blasted coveralls as he leaned over to pick up the crystal paperweight?
Undercover—ha! Suiting TJ Vásquez up like a janitor was tantamount to slapping a collar on a panther and passing it off as a newborn kitten. His arms flexed as he tossed the crystal globe in the air. He caught it neatly, then stared into it.
“This man, you know him?”
“Who? Eric?”
“Sí. Eric.”
“I met him two minutes before you walked in.”
He glanced up. She could have sworn he was startled. “And yet you date him?”
What the…? “No, I’m not dating him. I told you, I just met the man.”
“But you agreed to have lunch with him, no?”
“He asked, I accepted. Then he canceled. Are you finished with the third degree?”
“Why?”
She blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Why did you accept?”
What the devil was he getting at? And why was he staring into that stupid crystal again as if it could divine the future of the world? “Because he offered.”
“I have…offered.”
That was what this was about?
Perversely, she smiled. “His was interesting.”
Liar.
TJ flipped the crystal into the air again, waiting until the last possible moment before catching it. His gaze narrowed as he studied the clear depths. “This lieutenant, have you considered he may be involved?”
“Because he asked me out? Thanks. That says a lot about your own invitation if you’re so sure he had to have an ulterior motive.” But she remembered Eric’s hands—in her desk. “Besides, I want to help. I need to. Not only that, someone obviously thought I could. If the note’s even real. Maybe if I get to know Eric and some of the other residents, something will click.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Something.”
TJ tossed the paperweight a final time before setting it back down on the desk. He folded his arms across his chest, his gaze dark and brooding as it met hers. “Cariño, I must ask you to stay away from the hospital for a few days. Take your vacation, visit your mother.”
She frowned. “My mother lives an hour away in La Jolla.”
“Visit her, anyway. You have been gone awhile. Or go to the beach, read your journals. Just stay away from here.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. Please.”
“No.”
He sighed.
“I mean it, TJ. If you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to do better than that. Tell me what you’re holding back—and don’t tell me you’re not keeping something from me. What is it you said about the note last night? Oh, yes, ‘Most likely this means naught, but I will look into it.”’
At least he didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “It was necessary.”
She stared at his coveralls. “Necessary to poke your nose in this deep or necessary to lie to me about it?”
“I did not lie.”
“Oh, no?” She jerked her chin toward the cleaning cart. “I suppose that’s your idea of looking into something discreetly?”
“The
