Time Out of Mind (Suncoast Society #43)(74)

He slowly shook his head, relieved and feeling a little silly. Of course Tilly wouldn’t reveal anything deep about him.

And it was snakes that terrified him, not spiders. Tilly damn well knew that.

They sat and chatted for over an hour, Tilly excusing herself to the bathroom right before they were to head downstairs to eat.

Pippa leaned in, a nervous smile in place. “Did I do all right? I hope you’re not cross with me.”

He reached out and patted her hand, one of the few physical gestures he allowed.

“Tilly and I are good friends who go back years. Yes, I appreciate this. I didn’t realize she’d been trying to get in contact with me. It’s fine. We need to talk privately about a mutual client at some point, which is why she was trying to find me. But we’re good friends first and foremost.”

Pippa puffed up a little, her smile broadening, obviously pleased with herself. “If you wanted to go out and spend time, eh, catching up, I’ll be all right. Or if you’d like, I can ring Tate and ask if I can spend the evening with him and his wife.”

Bless her little British heart, she was a sweetie. “I can trust you alone for an evening. The question is, can you trust yourself for an evening?”

She nodded. “I think so. It scares me in a good way. I want to be strong. I know I need to do this sooner rather than later if I want to stay sober. Especially if you’ll work on my back first. That always helps me feel better.”

Of course it did, because it basically put her into subspace. “Of course I’ll do that for you. So, let’s try it. I’ll keep my phone on me in case you need me, and if you do need me, I’ll return immediately.”

Her smile faltered. “But I wouldn’t want to ruin your evening.”

“If you need me, that’s my job. I want you to succeed. That’s why I do this. It’d ruin my evening if you needed me and didn’t call me.”

He had more faith in her than she did in herself, and he got it. If his parents had been like hers, he would have been terrified of slipping, too.

Hence why she’d reached out for help in the first place.





Downstairs in the restaurant, they were given a cozy corner booth, which afforded them plenty of privacy.

“So, Tilly,” Pippa said. “I know you can’t betray confidentiality, and I’d never ask you to do that. But do you do the same things Doyle does?”

Tilly glanced at him, but before he could step in, she smiled. “Well, I help run a production company, so I do a lot of things in addition to things like Doyle does. Plus, I’m a nurse, so my role differs slightly from his in certain cases. But we take a very similar approach with…that.”

With that last comment, her gaze met his and she winked.

He’d been taking a sip of water and nearly choked on it as he started laughing.

“Do you use the cups, too, then?”

Tilly’s smile barely faltered, and Doyle suspected Pippa didn’t even notice. “Eh, cups?”

“Cupping,” she clarified.

“Oh, sure. I’ve found fire cupping very effective.”

Pippa’s eyebrows arched, nearly making Doyle laugh again. “Fire cupping?”

He smiled. “I used a suction set on her,” Doyle clarified. “I didn’t want the safety issue of fire cupping.”

Tilly nodded. “Gotcha.”

Pippa turned to Doyle. “I don’t mind if you share things with her about me, as long as you trust her not to tell.”

“Oh, I trust her implicitly,” he said. “But since you’re here, why don’t you tell her?”

He sat back as Pippa revealed her health issues and addiction problems to Tilly. It fascinated him to watch his friend downshift into nurse mode as she listened to Pippa detail her struggles as much as it fascinated him seeing how much confidence Pippa had regained since he’d been working with her.

“Okay, stupid question,” Tilly said when Pippa finished, “but have you looked into an inversion table for her? You can get portable ones pretty cheap. It might help decompress pressure on the nerves in her back.”

He froze. “Um…no. I didn’t.”

Tilly already had her phone out and was looking something up on it. “The TENS unit you got for her. Is it a multi-mode kind that also does other modes, like EMS, microcurrent, and IF?”

“Um…no. I ordered a basic unit we could get batteries for while on location.”

She tsked but didn’t look up from her phone. “Sometimes, the multi-units are better. I’ll get these shipped to my office at the studio here and you can reimburse me. Okay? And we should look into seeing if there are any acupuncturists locally who do fire cupping. I mean, pressure cupping is great, but in a pinch you can talk someone through doing it to you. Fire cupping adds an extra dimension.”

“Thank you so much!” Pippa said, dabbing at her eyes. “You’re incredible.”

Doyle couldn’t help smirking. “She sure is.”





By the time Tilly left later that evening, Doyle felt doubt painfully gnawing at his gut. He had Clark’s number and was still trying to decide if he should call or not.

What if he’d been wrong?

What did that say about him that he hadn’t trusted Mevi enough to stay and wait to talk to him?