Startled, we both turned.
“Sorry,” Laurel said with a shy grin. “I knocked. I thought...well, Dr. Dixon called, and she’s in the garage. Reid, can you please give her access?”
Letting go of my waist, he nodded as he walked to his office down the hallway. I had only seen the room I refer to as their command center or lair once and it wasn’t for long. My husband’s office in our apartment was nothing like that. This one was warm, even more than Sparrow’s in the penthouse. Reid’s love of books was evident as soon as you entered. Two walls were nothing but built-in bookcases filled to the brim. New books were piled here and there. He’d allowed me to add rugs with color and some artwork, but the rest was all him. His desk was often covered in papers and notes. In the corner was an old chair that was in need of replacement, yet he wouldn’t part with it. That was my husband and his space. He wouldn’t part with what he loved and what mattered.
As I watched him walk away, I hoped that included me.
Laurel reached for my arm. “Did you get any rest?”
Taking a deep breath, I turned. “I don’t think much. I soaked for a while in a warm bath.”
“That’s good.” Her smile turned more serious. “Just because Dr. Dixon has this information, it doesn’t mean you have to see or hear it.”
“I do.”
“No, Lorna. There is no timetable you’re required to maintain.”
I peered toward the hallway to be sure Reid was still out of earshot. “I can’t explain what it’s like not to know things. I can’t even tell myself what did or didn’t happen. I just don’t know, and not knowing is making me question other things I either don’t know or have forgotten. It’s a spiral and I’m spinning out of control.”
She shook her head. “You feel that you are.”
I blinked away tears. “Yes.”
“That alone is a sign you’re still in control.” When I didn’t respond, she went on, “A repeated question in psychology is very simple. Who needs the most help—the person who asks for it or the one who doesn’t? You see, the person who asks receives counseling or therapy. The one who doesn’t ask, who doesn’t recognize that there is something amiss, is the one who could need it the most.”
“I know that I need control over something. I have no answers.” I rubbed my cool hands together. “The answer I get may not be what I want to hear, but I’ll have it. I might not remember an assault or how I responded or reacted, but I’ll know it happened. That may sound odd...”
Reid’s footsteps came from the hallway.
Laurel squeezed my arm. “I want you to know that you don’t sound odd. You sound strong. I don’t know how I would be if I were in your shoes. I can only hope I would be as formidable as you.” She grinned as Reid came closer. “And I would say by the empirical evidence before me, if there was a him, you gave him hell.”
Reid placed his arm protectively around my waist. “She’s a world champion in my eyes.”
A new knock came to our door.
“That would be Renita,” Reid said.
Laurel smiled. “I don’t know the results. I wanted you to know that.” She looked at Reid. “We took your instructions seriously.” Her gaze came back to me. “I’m going upstairs to help Madeline and Araneae with dinner. If you don’t feel like coming up to eat, text me. We’ll bring dinner down to you two.”
I nodded as across the room, Reid opened the door.
Renita Dixon had been a friend of the Sparrows since before I met Reid. As a matter of fact, she was at the ball where Reid and I met. I can’t remember if she was a fake date for Sparrow or Patrick. Either way, it was clear from that first meeting, she was a trusted soul. Not long after that ball, she finished her degree, earning the title of doctor. Next came her residency in cardiology.
“Lorna,” she said with a bright smile.
I returned her grin. Today she wasn’t dressed in her scrubs giving away her medical profession. She was simply a beautiful and knowledgeable woman wearing makeup that I didn’t usually see upon her dark complexion and a lovely light-pink pantsuit.
Renita offered me her hand.
As we greeted one another, I said, “You know, I was just thinking that you have an overqualified résumé for delivering lab results.”
Her smile widened as her cheeks rose. “How are you?”
“I’m in therapy or whatever it is Laurel does.”
“That’s good. Is it helping?”
“No, not really.”
Reid wandered about in close proximity, doing as I asked and not leaving me as Renita and I chatted, creating, despite the circumstances, a sense of both familiarity and calm.
In a way I couldn’t describe, just having my husband near as well as Dr. Dixon, the bearer of the answer I sought, beside me brought me a bit of comfort. I wasn’t going to learn what had happened from a stranger but from a friend. Truly, in the Sparrow world, the woman now seated in my home was one of my first female confidants.
Dr. Dixon lifted a large magenta purse from the coffee table where she’d placed it upon sitting.
“It’s in there?” I asked.
Renita nodded. “I’m so glad you contacted me when you did. Robert and I have reservations for the symphony and with your location, this timing worked well.”
Robert was her husband. While I didn’t know him well, he’d been at Reid’s and my wedding. And through the years, we’d crossed paths.
“I’m so sorry to have upset your schedule.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m happy to see you again. The last time you were a bit under the weather.”
“Unconscious,” I offered.
Renita nodded. “Reid.” She craned her neck from side to side.
“I’m here,” he said, calling from the kitchen.
“Lorna, I’m assuming you want Reid here with you?”
I nodded.
“Go sit by your wife.”
The bossiness in her tone brought a grin to my lips.
Our eyes met as my husband came around the breakfast bar and dining room before taking a seat at my side. As he sat, the sofa dipped to his weight. Yet instead of emanating comfort, I sensed his unease—the tenseness of his muscles and the way he was perched upon the edge of the cushions, barely sitting.
“She doesn’t bite.” Renita smiled as she turned to me. “Or do you?”
I looked over at Reid and shook my head. “Not on purpose.”
Scooting closer to me and onto the cushion, he reached for my hand. As we connected, our fingers intertwined and his muscles eased.
“That’s more like it,” the doctor praised.
There were few people in the world who would order around any of the Sparrow men. While she probably wouldn’t take the same tone with Sparrow, in the here and now, her taking charge was what was needed.
Settling against my husband, I took consolation in the warmth radiating from his side as we both waited expectantly for the information the doctor had in her possession.
My grip of my husband’s hand tightened as she pulled an envelope from her purse.
“Have you read it?” I asked.
She extended her hand and the envelope toward us. “I have.”