Chapter 7: The Peacemaker

Hallie left my apartment ten minutes after Brynn did.

"I have to take a call," she said, and picked up her bag without finishing her coffee.

"Is it family?"

"Nothing real until Sunday." She smiled, but it was thin. "I'll find you tonight."

She kissed me at the door, hard and quick.

I stood in the hallway after she left, thinking about what she had said on the couch.

Stay with me after Sunday.

I turned it over all through Thursday morning.

I treated a runner's torn hamstring at nine and a retired welder's shoulder at ten.

Both times I was a half-second behind my own hands.

At eleven the front desk buzzed me.

"Miles, there's a man here to see you. He says he's a friend."

I came down the hall and found Trent in the waiting room.

He was leaning on the reception desk with a cardboard tray and two coffees.

He gave me his wide, easy smile.

"Birthday boy," he said. "Got a minute?"

I had a patient at eleven thirty and a long list of things I wanted to say to him.

I took him into the empty consultation room and shut the door.

"One minute," I said.

"That's all I need." He set a coffee in front of me and sat on the exam table. "Look, man. I'm not here to fight."

"Good."

"Brynn is a wreck. She hasn't eaten since Sunday. Lindy's been staying with her, and I feel like this whole thing got out of hand."

"I didn't touch anything."

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