Cupping the back of her head, he pressed his lips to her ear. “I have a degree in psychiatry.”
“That makes sense.” She smirked.
“Luke? Is that you?”
He turned toward the woman’s voice as Jessica stepped to the side to see past him.
“Jones!” Jessica chased her disobedient dog after Luke dropped his leash. He just … let go of it. “Dammit, Jones, come back.” Thankfully, another dog captured his attention allowing her to grab the leash. After giving the other dog’s owner an apologetic smile, she tugged Jones toward Luke and the tall blonde in a black, short-skirt business suit, with a good mile of legs and stupidly high heels, who happened to be embracing him.
“Excuse me, sir, I think you lost your dog.” Jessica grinned with bared teeth as the blonde pulled away and adjusted her messy bun of hair while giving Jessica a coy smile.
Luke grimaced, taking the leash in one hand and Jessica’s hand in his other. “My apologies. Jessica this is Dr. Eva Lorenzo. Eva this is my girlfriend, Jessica Day.”
His girlfriend. With a quick look up at him and the hint of a smile, she forgave him for the dog-chasing incident.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Eva extended her hand and Jessica released Luke’s to accept it.
“You too. Are you in town for the medical conference at the Moscone Center?”
“How did you know about that?” Luke asked.
“While I waited for my mom at Samovar, the waiter said they’d been pretty busy because of it.”
“Yes, I am in town for it.” Eva said to Jessica while looking at Luke.
An awkward silence followed.
“Did you go to medical school together?”
“We did.” The grip Luke had on her hand tightened with his answer.
The conversation, if it could really be considered that, felt strained and odd.
“Eva was Fran’s roommate in college.”
Another awkward silence while the two much taller people stared at each other.
“Well, that makes sense. I don’t know who Fran is, but—”
“She was my fiancée.”
Eva nodded, casting her eyes downward for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t such a relief that she caught Jones so fast. Missing the most uncomfortable conversation ever would not have been a bad thing.
“I can take Jones and head home if you two need a few minutes alone to talk behind my back or reminisce about your engagement with Fran.”
Eva’s eyes widened as her lips parted. Not so much as a flinch came from Luke. He knew Jessica’s inappropriate humor and he’d perfected ignoring it.
“It was good to see you, Eva.” Luke gave into Jones’s incessant tugging and pulled Jessica with them.
“I’ll give Francesca your best.”
Luke kept walking, failing to acknowledge Eva’s parting comment.
“I’m sorry.”
Jessica’s legs sped to a jogging pace to keep up with Luke’s long strides. “Why are you sorry?”
“I’ve not told you anything about Fran, including her name. I put you in an uncomfortable situation back there and I should not have.”
“Luke, I’m fine. It’s not like I didn’t know you were engaged. I just don’t understand the weird looks you two were sharing.”
“While you were chasing Jones she told me something and I had trouble processing it.”
“Can I ask what she told you?”
Luke stopped so abruptly Jones’s momentum jerked his arm, causing him to flinch. “You can ask me anything. You know that, right?”
That was a good question. Jessica couldn’t say for sure why she’d never pressed Luke for information about his ex-fiancée. Had she been so self-absorbed with her own past that she didn’t think Luke might have needed to discuss his?
“I think so.” She nodded, narrowing her eyes a bit.
They continued toward his condo.
“Fran is on the heart transplant list,” Luke said in a Dr. Jones matter-of-fact way.
“Why?”
“She has congenital heart disease. I think she had two, maybe three surgeries as a child. For years she was fine.”
“So what happened?”
He shrugged. “Eva didn’t go into detail other than to say Fran needed a transplant because the medications are no longer working. Sometimes there can be scar tissue from childhood surgeries that can cause problems later in life.”
“Where does she live now?”
“Scottsdale with her parents.”
“Maybe you should go see her. Do you want to go see her?”
They stepped into the elevator. “Why would you ask me that?”
“Because you said I could ask you anything.”
Easing his head back against the elevator wall, he closed his eyes on a heavy sigh. “I don’t know.”
Jones looked up, cocking his head.
“Why did you get Jones for me?”
Luke’s brow furrowed then he opened his eyes.
“I thought you’d like him.”
Jones shifted his head tilt to the opposite side. Jessica puckered her lips and blew him a kiss. “Don’t worry, Jonesy, I love you.”
The elevator door opened. Jessica and Jones followed Luke into the condo.
“So you, who thrives on order and cleanliness, just thought, ‘Hey, I think I’ll get Jessica a puppy,’ for no particular reason?”
“Why are you asking me this a month later?” He grabbed a Heineken from the refrigerator.
Luke drinking before noon gave her an uneasy feeling. “It’s crossed my mind quite a bit, especially since you call him ‘mutt’ and I think he’s given you a few gray hairs.”
“Maybe I wanted you to stop calling me Jones.”
She hopped up on the counter. “I don’t buy that.”
A long pull of beer bought him time to reply. “Dogs can be therapeutic.”
“Jones is part of my therapy?”
“Yes.”
“How so?”
“You’ve referred to yourself as a monster. Jones brings out your nurturing side. Monsters don’t nurture.”
“So it was a test to see if I’m truly a monster?”
Luke shook his head. “Yes,” he answered, thick with sarcasm.
“Tell me about Francesca.”
Chuckling, he set his beer onto the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re asking a lot of random questions today.”
“I’m not. They’re all about you. I’m just trying to figure out how you tick. It’s my turn to ‘study’ you. That’s not random. Besides, ‘Tell me about Francesca,’ is not a question.”
“What do you want to know?”
“My God, Dr. Jones … you’d make a terrible patient.”
Talking about Francesca evidently required a second beer. Jessica frowned while he retrieved another one from the refrigerator.
“I saved Fran from a burning building.”
The pads of her fingers drummed her lower lip, eyes wide. She laughed but it came out as a cough. “You’re joking.”
“It was my sophomore year of undergrad while I was still a volunteer firefighter. She lived with three other girls in a rundown apartment building. There had been a party in the apartment below them. Someone fell asleep or passed out before putting out their cigarette. Her friends were all out of the building by the time we arrived, but Fran went back for her fish.” He shook his head. “A fucking gold fish in a bowl of water.”