“My side is bleeding.”
“Come inside and I’ll look at it.” He opened the car door, and when she stumbled, he took her arm in his. Minutes later she was sitting on an exam table, her shirt pulled up, and he had removed her bandage.
“It’s okay,” he said. “This dampness isn’t blood and you’re healing well. It looks like the gauze got wet. Did you take a shower or get in a tub this morning?”
“I . . .” Gemma began and found herself fighting tears.
“Did something happen?” Tris asked. “Gemma?” He took a step back. “I’m going to call Colin.”
“No!” she half shouted.
Tris paused. “Okay. No Colin. How about some whiskey?”
Gemma managed to give him a half smile. “Thanks, but no.”
When she started to get off the table, he helped her, and he didn’t let go of her hand. Tris led her to the big chair and had her sit down. He moved a chair to across from her. “Now tell me what’s made you so angry at our illustrious sheriff.”
“I . . .” She hesitated, but there was something earnest in Tris’s beautiful face that made her confide in him. It took her only minutes to tell him everything. She told about her days spent with Colin, and how much she liked him. “He showed me the house he’d bought before anyone else knew about it. When he left to fight a fire, he called me from there. I was beginning to think there was something between us, but then he called me Jean. And everyone talks of them like they’re about to get married but Colin never mentions her—except to say she’s going to help him buy furniture.” She put her hands over her face. “I don’t know what’s going on. And now this!”
She told him of her very brief sex with Colin.
To her consternation, Tristan grinned. “Good!” he said.
“Good?” She could feel anger rising in her. “You don’t understand! Mrs. Frazier dismissed one of the job applicants because she slept with Lanny. If she hears what I did, she’ll fire me and I’ve just begun the work, and—”
“I’ve known Alea Frazier all my life, and Lanny too, for that matter. Colin told me his mother hired you because you were interested in the research. Besides, if she let everyone Lanny had slept with make her decisions for her, half of the county would be eliminated.” He took his cell out of his pocket. “I’ll call Rachel and she’ll get Colin out of your place, then you and I can go out to breakfast.”
“I’ve already eaten.”
“Then you can have some decadent, sugary thing. Or better yet, something chocolate.”
Even the thought made her feel better. “You’re a good girlfriend,” she said, then was shocked. “I didn’t mean—”
Tris put up his hand. “It’s okay. My last woman friend said I was a ‘latent homosexual’ because I didn’t want to marry her.”
&
nbsp; “Saved her pride.”
“Didn’t do much for mine,” he said, then spoke into the phone. “Rachel? Hope I didn’t wake you, but Gemma and I need your help.” He went into the waiting room to finish the call.
Twenty minutes later Gemma was sitting in Ellie’s grocery at a table across from Tristan. The store wasn’t open yet, so Tris had led her through the back. Around them was a bustle of employees as they replenished goods and produce. Ellie had been too busy to attend to them, but it seemed that Tris being there so early was a regular occurrence, and he knew where to get what.
On a plate in front of Gemma was a pastry that had chocolate in and around it, and there was a mug of some thick goo that was nearly pure chocolate. After four big bites and two gulps, she felt a great deal better. “You’re a good doctor,” she murmured, her mouth full.
“I learned about chocolate and women in my first year of med school. It’s never failed me.”
He was eating an egg burrito that she had an idea Ellie made just for him. Gemma couldn’t help noticing that every female worker who walked by made sure Tris saw her. Gemma had received many up-and-down looks as though to ask what about her made her rate. “I don’t think it takes chocolate to make you successful with women.”
With a self-effacing look, Tris glanced down at his plate. “So tell me, Gemma, what kind of birth control are you using?”
She stopped chewing, paused, then started again and swallowed. “I, uh, ran out.”
“And haven’t bought more,” Tris said.
Gemma started eating again. “The whole episode was too quick to produce anything.”
“Spoken like a teenager,” Tris said.