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“Davis says your reputation precedes you all the way up to Urban Health.”
Debbie’s eyebrows jumped, deepening the creases. “Is that good?” she echoed Jenna’s question from the car.
“Yep. You’re doing great in the ICU, and we appreciate you.” If I laid on the charm any thicker, it would obscure visibility in the convention center ballroom.
“Oh. Good.” Debbie gave a nervous laugh. She made an excuse about meeting someone else and dragged Jenna away.
Disappointingly, Debbie was not the evil empress of document domination. I’d have to tell Cassidy.
I tried to focus on introducing Ellie and not searching for Cassidy. As I warned Ellie, the “gala” was not the kind of gathering she must have been expecting, but she seemed as happy to meet hospital executives as she would have been to circulate with Everett’s milieu.
“Wow,” she said as we pulled away from the crowd to find our table, “youreallywork at the hospital?”
“I’m not sure you’d call it ‘working,’ but they did give me an office.”
The office humor flew right past her. “Oh, so it’s like a charitable thing? You’re with their foundation?”
“Um, no.” I didn’t think Ellie would be all that interested in my actual job—my parents and their friends had never let conversations stray into that territory.
Dr. Okafor caught my arm, and I made introductions. Dr. Okafor smiled at Ellie and then held up the night’s program—pointing at my name under the donor list. “This is very generous of you. You didn’t have to donate.”
“Of course, but you did say the hospital was fundraising.”
Dr. Okafor bit her lip. “Did you—did you buy a table because I invited you?”
“Yes?”
She cringed. “Oh, I’m so sorry—I was offering you tickets. For free.”
“Oh.” I waved her concern away. “It’s fine. It’s not that much.”
Dr. Okafor’s eyes went wide, and I could tell I’d misstepped. So much for being treated the same despite my wealth. But this was totally my fault.
I was spared having to find another topic when Ellie spotted someone she knew. “Oh! You know Jake Quincy, don’t you?”
Before I had a chance to tell her that I didn’t know any Quincys, she’d dragged me over to Jake, who was already grinning broadly. He was one of the few people here in a tux aside from me, but any member of my family or their friends would have immediately pegged him as new money. I couldn’t list any reasons why, but something about his suit or the way he carried himself, as affable and friendly as that was, straight-up shouted he’d made his wealth in the dot-com boom or on social media—or one of those pyramid schemes that preyed on stay-at-home moms.
“Hardcastle?” Jake beamed at me as soon as Ellie finished the introduction. “TheHardcastles?”
I shrugged. We had money, not the rights to the surname.
Jake gave me a friendly punch in the shoulder. “I know your brother!”
Oh. Great. “Probably better than I do,” I joked back. Not joking. The dude had wanted nothing to do with me for nearly two decades, but maybe he’d spent that time getting tight with Jake.
“Oh, how fun!” Ellie clasped her hands in delight. “Davis just moved to Philly from California.”
“Well, you’ll have to let me know if you need any help getting adjusted to East Coast life.” Jake slipped a business card into my hand, and I realized I’d never had a business card. I’d have to find out if that was something I was supposed to do.
“We’re at table eighteen,” Jake continued. “You?”
“Same.” I tried to silently check in with Ellie—how much had she explained to the people she’d invited? She didn’t catch my look, too busy craning her neck to glimpse the other people we’d be sitting with.
She gasped with delight. “Tiffany made it!”
Ellie hurried over to the table, leaving me to catch up. I excused myself from Jake and started after her, but slowed down when I saw where my path would take me: to exactly the person I’d hoped to see. Next to the last person I wanted to see seated by her.
At the table in front of me sat a woman in a long mauve dress, off the rack but with a pretty beaded accent. Her dark hair was styled in a slick, simple chignon, with her bangs framing her face. And she was leaning toward the man next to her in a decently well tailored suit, peering at his phone.
