Page 68 of Guarding Colton’s Witness

“Yes. Wyatt’s going to come over shortly. He said he wanted to talk to his captain first.”

“I really hate living like this, looking over my shoulder and jumping at shadows.”

He wasn’t badass like her brothers, and it worried him that if those men managed to get to her or Sam he wouldn’t have the skills to protect them. If something happened to either one of them, he didn’t think he would be able to deal with it. All the more reason to take them away for a while. “Scrambled eggs okay?”

She shrugged. “After seeing that video, I’m not really hungry.”

“I’m not either.”

“Put the eggs away.” She handed him the cup of coffee he’d made and forgotten about. “Coffee and Pop-Tarts works for me.” She frowned. “If Sam hasn’t stolen them all.”

“We know his hiding place, so we can raid his stash if necessary.”

“Nope, he’ll have a new place now, a harder-to-find one.”

“Guess I have a lot to learn about kids. Did you or your siblings hide food?”

“No need to. One thing I can say about my parents, there was always plenty of food, even with four boys who had bottomless stomachs.” She opened the pantry door. “Ah, there are the Pop-Tarts. Good boy, Sam.”

“I’ve never had a Pop-Tart.”

Her eyes widened. “Seriously? How can you go… How old are you?”

“Thirty-one.”

“How can you go that long without ever having at least one?”

“I knew at a very young age that I wanted to be a doctor and thought doctors should eat healthy.”

“And you never changed your mind? Wanted to be a fireman or a cop? Run away to the circus?”

He laughed at that last one. “Nope. I’m guessing you did want to run away to the circus?”

“All the time. I was the youngest of six. By the time I came along, I kind of got lost in the crowd. Sometime when we’re at Mom’s I’ll show you the family album. Cal’s the oldest and there are tons of pictures of him. All the cute ones like bare bottom on a blanket, missing his front teeth, blah, blah, blah. Then came Kelly and there are a lot of pictures of her. Wyatt was next, and there are pictures of him. Not as many as Kelly, but they’re there. Then the twins, and I guess Mom thought twins were totally cute, so they actually have more photos than Wyatt. By the time I was born, it was hardly worth noting,”

Did he detect hurt in her voice? He supposed it would feel like you weren’t important enough to document your life if everyone but you had plenty of photos. He picked up his phone and brought up the camera. “Smile.”

“What are you doing?”

“Taking your picture.”

She crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, making him laugh. “Real mature there, sunshine.”

“Fine.” She gave him a big smile as she cocked a hip, going for a sexy pose.

He snapped several, but the first one—tongue out and eyes crossed—was his favorite. It was just her.

“Here you go, breakfast of champs.” She handed him a toasted Pop-Tart.

“Not sure about this.” He took a bite. “Kind of like eating cardboard, but edible.” He wasn’t going to go out and stock up on the things.

“So, why were you so determined to be a doctor?”

“I was with my mom in the grocery store, and a man in front of us suddenly grabbed at his chest and fell down. My mother yelled for someone to come help. I remember thinking that I wanted her to do something, but she just stood there, not knowing what to do. A woman ran up to him and said she was a doctor, and she started mashing on his chest. I know now that she was doing CPR.”

“How old were you?”

“Eight. When the EMTs got there, they took over, and one of them told the doctor woman that she’d kept him alive. I couldn’t stop thinking about that doctor saving the man’s life, like she was a hero, you know? I decided if that ever happened again, I didn’t want to feel helpless, so I started going to the library and getting medical books. The more I read and studied, the more I fell in love with medicine. And that’s why I wanted to be a doctor.”