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Delaney sighed. “Anything is better than staying holed up in your apartment grieving alone. Stay a month until the cast comes off. Stay until you’re done with physical therapy. I’ll help you find a great PT, one who specializes in dance injuries. And then, I don’t know, back to New York to try again if that’s what you want. I’m on your team, Bethy. I promise. But until you’re able to live the exact life you want, I thought maybe just living—like…having a reason to get out of bed in the morning—might be enough. Plus there’s me.” Beth’s sister let out a nervous laugh. “I just want what’s best for you, Bethy, but you never would have come to Meadow Valley if I’d laid this all out ahead of time, am I right?”
Beth groaned. “Of course you’re right.” She let out a long, slow breath. “I can come hang by you and Sam any time I want?”
“Any time you want.”
“And this job… It’s a paying job?”
Delaney snorted. “Of course it is. And Eli? He’s a really good guy, you know. Everything he does for the shelter is pro bono. A guy like that’s gotta be a pretty decent boss.”
“I guess,” Beth mumbled.
“Why don’t you get settled, let Eli show you around the property, and I’ll pop by after dinner.”
Dinner. Beth hadn’t even had lunch yet.
Her stomach growled in protest.
“Okay,” she relented.
“Okay?” Delaney echoed, and Beth could hear the smile in her sister’s voice. “You’re staying?”
“For now,” Beth told her. But the first thing she was doing once she was settled in tomorrow was finding a physical therapist who would do whatever it took to get Beth one more shot at Radio City.
“I’m so happy!” Delaney blew her a kiss through the phone. “I’ll see you later tonight. Bye, Bethy.”
“Bye, Lanes.”
Beth ended the call.
She craned her neck to glance over her shoulder. Eli was still standing where she’d left him, head down as he tapped something out onto his own phone. This was her cue to make her awkward and ungraceful exit from the truck…again.
She slid slowly on her stomach until her right toe touched the ground. She lowered her cast once she found purchase.
When she spun to face Eli, her stomach growled again. For food, of course. She needed food.
He held his hat at his side now, tilting his head up so his gaze met hers. “Last flight from Reno to Vegas leaves in fifteen minutes. I hate to break it to you, but you’re stuck here at least for the night. I can take you to Delaney’s, though, since I know you have no intention of staying here.”
Beth had snapped at the man who’d been nothing but helpful since he met her at baggage claim, and now she approached him with her tail between her legs.
“I’m…sorry, Eli. This is all between me and my sister. No, it’s actually between me and me, but we don’t need to get into that. I shouldn’t have taken the smile comment out on you earlier, and I shouldn’t have taken Delaney’s little trick out on you either. I’m actually a pretty pleasant person when I’m not in the middle of a deep emotional crisis, but we don’t need to go there right now either. Where I would like to go, if it’s okay with you, is the guesthouse. Where I’ll be staying. Then I’d love to know where I can grab something to eat. And after that, if you’ll still have me—temporarily—I’d like to see the clinic and hear more about how I can help out while I’m here.”
Eli’s lips parted, and she was ready for him to tell her that he’d actually had enough of the younger Spence sister and would like nothing more than to pawn her off on Delaney, Sam, and Beth’s rarely sleeping niece. Instead, the corners of his mouth turned up, and his eyes crinkled at the corners.
Again her stomach responded, loudly, confusing a smile with something it wanted to devour.
“Are you smiling at this turn of events?” she asked, suddenly famished.
“Are you begging for your job back?”
Beth scoffed.
Eli raised an eyebrow.
“Ugh. Fine. Yes, I’m asking if I can still have the job for, like, a month. Maybe two. Tops.”
He crossed his arms and pursed his lips as if mulling the idea over. Finally, he held out his right hand. “Okay, but if you’re good at it, I may have a hard time letting you go.” His eyes widened. “From the job, I mean.”
Beth laughed. “You’ve got yourself a deal, Dr. Murphy. And trust me, I’m not a big fan of animals and they’re not a fan of me. You’ll be counting the days until I’m out of your hair.”
