Her Forever Hero (Unexpected Heroes #3)(15)

“Grace, I want to help you. You have to tell me everything or I can’t.”

“Really, Cam? Would you like to just open up to me? Do you want to tell me every mistake you’ve made while you were away from this sleepy little Montana town?” she asked. But before he had a chance to answer, she answered for him. “No. No, you wouldn’t.”

“If I needed to tell you something so you could help me, I would. As a matter of fact, you would be one of the first people I’d run to,” he said.

Her eyes snapped to his. Did he really mean that?

“But we aren’t friends,” she said, almost begging him to agree with her.

“I want to be so much more than friends, Grace.”

The heat in his eyes told her that he wasn’t trying to fool her. Another shudder raced through Grace as she fought to keep herself from leaning against him. She’d done her damnedest to convince herself she was over this man, but Grace had a strong feeling that their story wasn’t quite finished yet.





“Please tell me you just leaned into him and gave him a nice, big, sloppy kiss,” Sage said as she zipped down the hospital corridor.

“Sage! I did not kiss him. You know how big a mistake that would be,” Grace told her best friend.

“Because once or twice in the last few months was warning enough, and let’s not forget the night of my wedding, where a little more than kissing happened . . .”

“I cannot believe you just said that!” Grace snapped.

“Now who’s the prude? If a man came into my home while I was sick, then bathed me, tucked me into bed, and fed me, I’d do a hell of a lot more than kissing,” Sage told her as she pushed open a door and rushed inside.

“Why are you always moving as if you’re preparing for a marathon?” Grace grumbled, finding that she was slightly out of breath.

“Because I could be called to the ER at any time, and if I don’t get some caffeine inside me, and very quickly, I might accidentally slip a catheter into the wrong hole.” Sage was already brewing a fresh mocha while speaking. “Do you want one?”

Grace chuckled before replying. “Do you even need to ask?”

“You’re lucky I’m asking. It’s been the day from hell already and I still have half my shift left,” Sage said with a sigh, and grabbed her cup.

“Wait a minute!” Grace gasped. “You can’t get away with that earlier comment.”

“What comment?” It was typical that Sage had already moved on. With the mind of a genius, she was always moving forward, not backward.

“If a man came into your home and bathed, changed, and fed you, I think Spence might well have to shoot him.”

“Who in the hell is planning on coming to my house and touching my wife?”

Dr. Spence Whitman sent a thunderous scowl toward the two women, and they turned and smiled at him. His expression didn’t change.

“No one is doing that for me except you, love,” Sage said, walking over and kissing him on the cheek. His scowl lessened, if only a little. “Your little brother Cam was doing that for Grace last night,” she added before sending a wicked smile Grace’s way.

Grace wanted to shoot Sage when Spence glanced in her direction, his scowl completely gone. “Well, I’ll have to pat my brother on the back. He always has been in love with you,” Spence said with a wink.

“I am so not having this conversation with you, Spence. I was trying to talk to my best friend,” Grace told him pointedly. She was praying he’d go away and not tell Cam that she’d been at the hospital talking about him.

“Sure, sure. I’ll leave you gals to chat just as soon as my coffee is done,” Spence said, kissing his wife one more time before giving his attention to the espresso maker.

“Back to the kissing. After putting out that much effort, you didn’t even give him a little cheek action?” Sage asked.

Grace let out a slight growl when Spence turned her way again, and she shot a murderous look at Sage, who just smiled happily in return.

“We’ll talk more when we’re alone,” Grace said through gritted teeth.

“You know that she’ll tell me everything when you’re gone, right?” Spence said as he added half-and-half to his coffee and leaned against the counter as if he were planning on staying awhile.

“She wouldn’t do that, because it breaks the best-friend code of honor,” Grace told him. “If she were to break that, we’d be left with no choice but to ensure you came to a speedy death, followed by an unmarked grave so that she could never break the code again by talking to you.”

Spence laughed before stepping over and kissing Grace’s cheek once again. “Always a pleasure to see you. Let’s do dinner tomorrow night. I’ll grill steaks, and you bring your famous oriental chicken salad.” He didn’t leave the room before giving Sage one more scorching kiss, and then finally the two friends were alone.

“How in the world were you so lucky as to find and marry that man?” Grace sighed.

“Hey! Hands off. I chose Spence, you chose Cam. We were supposed to both be married by now so that we’d be sisters,” Sage reminded her.

“You chose the better brother,” Grace grumbled.

“I did do well,” Sage said. “But so did you. If you would get over your silly pride and jump that man, you’d feel so much better. He’s in love with you, and you’re in love with him. You know that in the end it will all work out, so why not skip the melodrama and just get to the I dos?”