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Eli’s head shot up, his blue eyes alarmingly bright. He grabbed the pen and set it on a stack of papers on the desk.

“Thanks for your help.” Eli grinned. “I think Trudy really likes you. I just need to finish up this paperwork for the crematorium, and then I’m going to call it a day, so if you want to clock out and go see your sister or something, feel free.” He raised his brows. “I’ll still pay you for the day, of course.”

Beth took a couple of steps into the room, her brow furrowed. “What is this?” she asked, waggling her index finger at him.

He furrowed his brow right back. “Um…paperwork?”

“No…” She paused, trying to choose her words carefully and also wondering why she wasn’t simply clocking out and escaping the situation altogether. “I mean this.” She pointed at him again. “The Mr. Chipper, I-didn’t-just-say-goodbye-to-my-first-ever-patient thing. I saw you in there, Eli. I know you’re not okay. Trudy knows you’re not okay.”

His smile remained, but a muscle twitched in his jaw.

Eli leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “You haven’t spoken to me in a week, and now you think you have me all figured out, huh?”

His words stung, but she held her ground. “That’s not you talking,” she told him. “It’s your grief, so I’m not going to play your game.” Her pulse quickened. Because she was playing just by engaging. Why? He’d already given her an out. Why wasn’t she running while she had the chance?

He straightened, his smile faltering now. “I think I remember saying you’re dismissed for the day, Ms. Spence.”

She shook her head and instead took a few steps closer.

“What are you doing?” He sprang up from his chair.

Beth countered by rounding the desk so she was right in front of him.

“Delaney’s working at the shelter today. Nolan’s with her grandma. And since I’m not allowed near Midnight without you as a chaperone, I have no one else to hang with and nowhere else to be.” She shrugged. “So I’m not leaving you alone. You can dismiss me and Ms. Spence me all you want, but I’m not falling for it, Dr. Murphy.”

Eli tried to back up, but his chair was already against the wall.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, and she could hear his resolve begin to crumble.

A single tear leaked from the far corner of his eye, and on instinct she reached for him, her palm landing on his cheek and her thumb wiping it away.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

She waited for him to jerk away, but instead he exhaled a shaky breath.

“Don’t go,” he whispered, and he suddenly looked so much younger than his thirty-six years.

“I won’t,” she whispered back, her thumb now tracing a soft line across his cheek. She kept telling herself that Trudy’s belief in love at first sight only applied to animals. But then, for no reason she could explain, she stood up on her toes—walking cast and all—and pressed her lips to his.

Chapter 8

Eli froze. What the hell was he thinking?

Don’t go?

He’d all but asked her to do what she just did, but what the actual—

“Oh my god!” Beth blurted, interrupting his train of thought. She took a quick step back, fingertips pressed against her own lips. “I’m sorry! That was so not professional. I don’t know what got into me.”

For the few seconds her lips touched his, his brain closed the door on everything else.

Fury and Midnight.

Trudy and Frederick.

Tess.

I’m not supposed to forget about her, though, he thought.