Page 27 of Wild

The journalist turns to Mia, who doesn't seem bothered by her presence—Lexie is one of the journalists traveling with the tour, covering every show, so Mia already knows her. What catches Mia's attention is the way Lexie looked at Erin. It was only a couple of seconds, but she watched her scan her from head to toe, and she looked pleased when she was done. Mia tells herself it doesn't matter—or at least that it shouldn't.

"How are you doing, Mia?" Lexie asks, and Erin notes with some surprise that it's not a professional question—the recorder is still off. It's personal, and the doctor decides she likes this woman too.

"Great—it was a good day," Mia says.

"I'm glad you're feeling better. I'll ask you a couple of questions and let you go, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

Lexie switches on the recorder and Noah watches her closely, going into his usual alert mode in case anything comes up that Mia shouldn't answer.

"Your agent's press release was pretty clear about what happened. How did you take the diagnosis?"

Mia shrugs and glances sideways at Erin, moving her hands along her hips as if looking for pockets she doesn't have.

"I guess the way anyone in my position would—at least now I know what's going on."

"And how have you been feeling these past few days? Have you fainted again since the Garden?"

"No—and now I have this sweet doctor stuck to me all day," she says with a hint of sarcasm, gesturing toward Erin.

Lexie looks at Erin and smiles, and Erin, who knows how to read people, can tell the woman is interested in her.

"Your fans will be glad to hear that, Mia—and so am I. Take care of yourself, okay? I'll see you around."

She squeezes Noah's arm, gives the doctor a small nod goodbye, and Erin raises a hand in return.

"Am I free to go?" Mia asks—she desperately needs a shower.

"Yes, but don't forget you need to eat dinner."

Mia makes a face almost identical to the one Noah makes, except his comes from knowing she barely touches food after a show.

Two hours later, Erin is back in her hotel room. She's showered and written a brief summary in her notebook about Mia's condition throughout the day—something that will give her a clear picture of her patient's baseline once she has enough entries. She finishes and sets the notebook down. It's late and she should sleep, but she's still wound up. The concert spiked her adrenaline too, and she knows that if she lies down she won't be able to drift off, so she swaps her pajama pants for a pair of athletic ones, laces up her sneakers, and decides to head downto the hotel gym to burn off some of that energy. She tucks her key card in her pocket and slips out of the room without any particular thought in her head—but when she passes Mia's suite, her pace slows until she stops dead in front of the door, caught by what she hears.

She doesn't have to guess what the sound is. Erin recognizes it immediately: a woman moaning. What she can't tell is whether it's Mia or whoever is with her. Her body reacts in several contradictory ways at once—there's a low pulse between her legs, but there's also something twisting in her stomach that leaves her vaguely irritated in a way she wasn't a minute ago.

She starts walking again and makes it to the gym, where she has to burn off not just the extra energy but that uncomfortable feeling too. She spends almost an hour working out before she finally feels right and decides to head back, but the universe seems determined to test her tonight—because as she's walking down the hallway, the door to Mia's suite opens and a woman steps out, still buttoning her shirt. Erin stares, caught off guard, because she expected Mia to be with someone her own age or younger. But this woman must be pushing forty—same as her—and that detail stirs a curiosity in her she can't quite explain.

Chapter 10

What was supposed to be a flight to Boston turns into a bus ride after the flight gets canceled due to bad weather. Because of that, everyone is woken up earlier than usual to get moving as soon as possible. Erin doesn't mind much; she's been up for an hour and was just about to head into the gym when Noah intercepts her to let her know.

The first thing she does is check her watch: it's barely seven fifteen, way too early for Mia to have gotten enough rest given how she spent her evening, and it puts Erin in a bad mood for two reasons — because it affects her patient's health, and because remembering that woman walking out of the singer's suite makes every muscle in her body go tight.

Half an hour later, she's standing at the hotel entrance with her suitcase handle in one hand, her backpack slung over one shoulder, and a to-go coffee she grabbed from the café on her way out.

"Not what you were expecting, right?" Nell says, stepping up beside her while Erin stares, impressed, at the double-decker bus with its tinted windows. "You didn't need to bring coffee — there's service in there, and the seats recline so far you could sleep the whole way if you need to."

"I don't know if I'll ever be able to get on a regular bus after this," Erin murmurs, as someone from the crew comes to take their bags and stow them away.

Nell laughs and rests a gentle hand on her back.

"If there's one thing I've learned in all my years doing this, it's that you can get used to luxury very fast — but if you weren'tborn into this world, there comes a point where you miss what you had before. Don't ever stop being who you are, no matter what you see here," she tells her.

Nell leaves her standing there on the sidewalk, makes her way to the steps, and boards the bus. Erin thinks about her words, and she honestly doesn't think she'd have any trouble going back to her old life as far as creature comforts go. But she might have a harder time returning to her routine at the hospital and her day-to-day that feels so empty — because even though she hasn't made any real friends here either and isn't sure she will, she notices the hours move faster, mostly because there's always something to do. The tour's pace is chaotic; it doesn't leave much room for sitting alone on a couch — the way she did back home — with no one to talk to and no idea what to do with her free time. Sometimes she thinks about her life and it frustrates her: she's still young and could do a thousand things if connecting with people came more naturally to her, if building relationships that weren't strictly professional felt less impossible. But after spending her whole life taking care of her family, now that she doesn't have them anymore — Brooke barely counts in that regard — she doesn't know how to start living.

When she really thinks about it, her biggest achievement has been that budding friendship with Barry, and just when it was starting, she left with Mia Wilder's tour. But over the week she's been on the road, Barry has texted her a couple of times to check in, so she feels good about what she's built, and she's sure that when she gets back to New York, she'll have a friend waiting for her.