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Only this time I didn’t sit on the couch waiting for her to stir. I made a phone call that would change the trajectory of my life.

“Hello?”

“Alastair? It’s Melissa Jefferson. I am sorry to call you so late, but I have a busy day tomorrow and wanted to talk to you about your offer.”

The silence on the phone was deafening as I feared he had changed his mind.

“You want to form a partnership?” he asked. His voice inflection said he was cautiously optimistic. It made sense. He had approached me dozens of times, and I always turned him down.

Dr. Alastair Carrion was a child psychologist as well. He was a decade older than me, and if I was being honest, I believed he thought if we partnered together, we would eventually fall into a relationship and marry. He had hinted at it numerous times.

And while he was a handsome man, he wasn’t my type. What could I say? Studies have shown women gravitate to men like their father. Only I was raised by my brother, so of course my type was the one thing I never wanted to allow into my life again. And Travis fit that bill to a tee.

“No,” I said, and I imagined confusion had him furrowing his brow. “I want you to buy me out.”

“I don’t understand, Melissa.”

“I have had some family issues arise and it looks as though I will be moving out of Oklahoma. You had expressed interest so I thought you might want to buy me out.”

“Well, I had hoped we would be working together,” he confessed. “I think we could be a powerful couple in the mental health world.”

The strength it took not to release the heavy sigh sitting on my chest should qualify me for sainthood.

“I understand, Alastair, but it just isn’t possible. Are you interested?”

The other end of the phone was so silent I had to pull it away and confirm we were still connected, before he finally responded.

“I am.”

“Great, I will call my lawyer tomorrow and have her start the paperwork. Many of my patients are currently with other doctors. Something that was unavoidable, I’m afraid. But I will contact them all and explain the change. As with any practice buy out, they will have the option of returning to you or staying with the doctor they are currently seeing.”

“Are you sure about this, Melissa?”

Gazing down at the video monitor, I watched as Dani began to stir.

“I have never been more sure of anything in my life.”

Chapter Fifteen

Ghost

January 18, 2025, Diamond Creek, Nebraska.

“Gunner.”

“Yea, Prez?” Gunner looked up at King like a kid who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“You wanna contribute?”

“Huh?”

We all looked at Gunner. It wasn’t like him to be lost in his head during church. Gunner was the one brother any of us could count on to have his head in the game.

“What the fuck is up with you lately?”

“What do you mean?”

Shaking my head, I groaned. We all fucking saw it. Gunner was distracted. The man had his head up in the fucking clouds lately. It wasn’t his normal SOP.