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“No such luck. I’m done in five minutes. You’ll be with Nick.” He snorted. “Maybe now that you’re working again, he’ll stop being Old Nick.”
“You mean . . .”
“Nick the Prick. Touchy as all hell.” He cocked a sly smile my way. “Guess he missed you, too.”
I kept my face composed despite the doubt that pulled at my stomach. Did Nick miss me? I sure as hell missed him. Or was he still freaked out that the girl he liked had turned out to be a brain-eating monster? One who’d rotted away before his very eyes.
He’d texted me only once, not long after I woke up.
Allen said you’ll be off work for a week. Derrel and I are covering half your shifts. You owe me. I have your masks. Hope you’re feeling better.
Painfully neutral, but less ominous than silence. I’d read that text at least fifty times, trying to find some nugget of reassurance that what I felt for him might still be reciprocated.
“Speak of the devil,” Derrel murmured as Nick entered the morgue. Derrel placed a hand on my shoulder and gave it an encouraging squeeze.
Nick stopped dead. “Angel,” he said, voice weirdly hoarse. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I thought you weren’t scheduled until tomorrow.”
Under any other circumstances, I’d have teased him with, “What, aren’t you glad to see me?” But there was too much chance it might be true, and I couldn’t handle knowing that right now. “Jerry broke a tooth,” I said instead. “Allen asked me to cover.”
A strained smile tugged at his mouth but didn’t quite win over the uncertainty in his eyes. “That’s . . . cool. I mean, not for Jerry. But, um, yeah. It’s good to have you here.” He lurched forward as if prodded and gave me a stiff hug. A shudder passed through him, and he pulled away.
Revulsion? Or relief?
“You’re okay now?” He gestured awkwardly toward me then seemed to think better of it and dropped his hand to his side.
Holy crap, this sucked.
“I need to go,” Derrel said. “Y’all play nice.” To my surprise Derrel smashed me into a second hug and murmured into my ear, “Whatever’s going on between you two, it’ll all work out.”
I nodded against his chest, but a hard knot filled my throat. No way would he be so encouraging if he knew about the whole incognito zombie thing.
He released me, grabbed his satchel, and headed out the back door, leaving me and Nick to stare at each other.
Three painful seconds later, the door reopened and Derrel poked his head in. “Allen’s back with a body. And Ben just pulled in.”
“I’ll go help them,” Nick blurted and sprint-walked out.
The instant the door closed, I let myself have a super-quick whisper-quiet third-grade-level flouncing why-me tantrum, complete with not-third-grade cursing. The tactic worked to improve my mood a teensy bit—enough that I was able to give Detective Ben Roth a genuine smile when he stepped in.
It helped that he was my favorite detective. Over six feet tall and burly, he could be plenty intimidating when he needed to be. But he’d always been friendly and chill with me.
“Hey, Angel.” He returned my smile. “Weird. You don’t look dead. Why’d you miss all that work if you weren’t dead? Slacker.”
“Har har,” I said with a grin. If he only knew. “You know perfectly well I work harder than anyone else here. And damn, dude. You’re looking pretty good. Have you lost weight?” The spare tire around his waist had shrunk considerably.
“Thirty pounds!” His smile widened. “I want to look good for the wedding.”
I let out a squeal. “You’re engaged?!”
Ben lifted his left hand to show a slim gold band on the third finger. “Sure am. Neil proposed to me this past weekend.” He wisely didn’t resist as I seized his hand and did a proper scrutiny and oooh pretty! over the inset of four dark red gems. “Total surprise,” he continued. “He told me we were going to a movie, but instead he took me to Romero’s Steak House. I was clueless, even though the place was about as romantic as you can get. He had a table reserved by the water with candlelight and everything. Didn’t click until he did the one knee thing.” He chuckled. “My detective skills must’ve taken a vacation.”
“I’m so happy for you,” I gushed, relinquishing his hand. “Y’all are going to be the most gorgeous couple ever.”
“Well, you can see for yourself June twentieth,” he said. “Invitations should be going out next week.”
The back door opened before I could start happy-weeping. Allen held it while Nick pushed in a gurney bearing a black body bag.
“Take him straight to the cutting room,” Allen told Nick. “I’ll get him logged in.”
