Page 55 of Shadowing You

He was a coward. It was that simple.

“Ethan.”

He turned to where Mei Lin was holding the phone up with a dumpling place displayed on the screen. “This one is close. The reviews are good.”

“Great.”

She dropped the phone but didn’t dial, just looked at him.

“What?”

“You are very far away.”

“I’m right here, sweetheart.”

“You know what I mean.”

He was scrambling for an excuse when the phone rang in her hand. It was Michael.

Mei Lin tapped the screen and set it on the coffee table.

“You there?” Michael asked.

“Yup.” Ethan rounded the sofa and sat beside her.

“I think I’ve got it. Tell me what you think.” He cleared his throat as if he were about to recite a speech. “Mei Lin, you’ll go in as a postal worker. I’m working on getting you a uniform and a scooter. You can drive a scooter, can’t you?”

“I grew up in a village in China. What do you think?”

Ethan smiled at his wife’s sarcasm, delivered with a smile. Considering there were more mopeds and motorcycles than cars, the answer seemed pretty obvious.

“Just making sure,” Michael said. “I’m not sure where you should go in, but⁠—”

“I know where to go. Nobody will pay any attention to me, especially with the helmet. You will get it?”

“If it’s part of the uniform, the guy should get it. If not, you’ll have to buy one that looks similar enough.”

“Okay,” she said. “That will work.”

“Who’s your guy?” Ethan asked.

“Gavin got the name, a contact he found through a contact. He didn’t tell me the details.”

Ethan hadn’t heard from his father in a couple of days. He’d sort of figured Gavin had handed the Ethan-problem over to Michael and washed his hands of it. “You trust this…contact?”

“Your dad’s willing to trust him with your life. That’s good enough for me.”

It was a knee-jerk reaction, the instinct to argue, to tell his cousin that his always-absent father didn’t care that much. But Gavin seemed to be trying hard to prove the opposite. Showing up at the airport. Before that, refusing to deny who Ethan was when Delaney and her sisters had caught them having lunch. Helping to keep Ethan and Mei Lin safe.

“Ethan,” Michael said, “you’re the distraction.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll walk in the front door, looking like a man who expects to be received. You’ll introduce yourself—I’ll get you papers that look good enough, should they ask. You’re a doctor from America, there to see Dr. Tsui Fu.”

“Is he still there?” Mei Lin leaned toward the phone. “He’s got to be in his seventies.”

“He’s the hospital administrator now,” Michael said, “and he wrote a paper about early diagnosis of some…cancer, I guess. Ethan, say you’re there to talk to him about his research. I can send you a copy of the paper if you want.”