“Um, a couple of months ago, yeah.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about you.Well, it’s nice to finally meet the man who made our favorite doctor smile.”
“She’s your favorite too, huh?”He grinned, then the second part of her sentence dropped into awareness.“She doesn’t smile much, huh?”
“She never used to.But this past week, it’s all anyone can talk about.It’s like she’s found a reason to be happy again.”
His heart warmed.Maybe it was prideful to think so, but he’d like to think he’d had a hand in that.“Well, I hope these flowers make her smile.Would it be too much trouble if I ask you to pass them on to her?”
“My pleasure…?”She waited, eyebrows raised, clearly waiting for him to offer his name.
“Kyle.”
“Kyle.”She smiled, and her sternness dropped a thousand degrees.“Well, I’ll make sure she gets these very soon.”She gestured to a chair.“If you like, I could even see if she is on a break and could come out for a minute, then you could give them to her yourself.”
“Uh, sure.”But only for a minute.The longer he waited, the more chance he might get recognized—or pick up a disease he really didn’t need.
He waited, standing in the corner, studying his phone so he didn’t accidentally make eye contact with someone who might want to talk to him.Today was about Gen, not anyone else.
But the “Kyle” that floated softly across the room was not from Gen, rather, the same nurse as before.
“I’m sorry, but she’s elbow deep in a procedure and will be really busy for the next hour or so.”
He handed the flowers to her.“Then if you could pass this to her, that would be great.I don’t want to interrupt her day.”
“So sweet.Well, I’ll make sure she gets these as soon as possible.”
“Thanks.”
“Bye Kyle.”
He lifted a hand and the corners of his mouth, then exited.
Okay.So, no Gen.Well, he knew it would be a long shot, so he shouldn’t be surprised.
Now what to do…
He got back in his car and somehow roadwork pushed him away from where he’d intended to go, along a series of one-way streets he half-recognized, more roadworks, a freeway exit, then he was passing through a somewhat run-down neighborhood in a section of Seattle he’d rarely visited before.Where on earth—?
Then he turned the corner, and saw it.Run-down, seventies exterior, dead grass out the front.Huh.Wasn’t this where he’d seen Gen and that girl?What were the chances?
He parked across the street, half of the car edged up on the curb so traffic could still pass.He was about to get out when the door to the house opened.
He recognized that small figure.Minnie Rivas.His nemesis.
He swiftly pivoted, pretending to get a call as he faced away.So much for being a brave hockey player…
But if Minnie was here, then maybe this was where Gen lived too.Gen had mentioned numbers of times just how indebted she was to her mother.The way she’d talked, using words like “sacrifice” had made him think that maybe Minnie had done something extreme, like donate a kidney.But if so, then surely his own kidney troubles would be enough to open that conversation.So it couldn’t be that.
He checked the side mirror and saw she’d hopped in a beat-up car, similar to the one he’d seen Gen drive off in yesterday.Huh.Maybe it was the same one.Was that what she’d meant?That she and Minnie shared a car?Still, that didn’t quite fit with the word sacrifice.
“Hey.”
He startled and turned to face a man with dyed black hair wearing tatts and a scowl.
“Can I help you, buddy?”
How to explain what he was doing loitering around the place like some weirdo?“I, uh, was wondering if you knew which house was Genevieve’s.”
