An Informal Introduction (Informal Romance Book 3)

by Heather Gray

  Her brow wrinkled, whether with suspicion or disbelief he couldn’t tell. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course. Sit down, put your feet up, or do whatever you normally do at the end of a long day.”

  Lily frowned at him. “I normally cook.”

  Caleb shooed her out of the kitchen before he started digging through her refrigerator and looking for something to throw together. He was an intelligent single man who’d cooked for himself for years before moving back in with his mother. Somehow it didn’t sound quite as impressive when he added that last part.

  Thirty minutes later, he found Lily fast asleep on the couch, the grey television remote loosely cradled in her hand. He squatted down beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. “Dinner’s ready, sleepyhead. Come on over to the table.”

  She stirred but didn’t wake.

  Unable to resist, Caleb leaned in and kissed her forehead, her cheek, and the side of her neck that was exposed to him.

  Lily started to stretch, and he angled back to admire the sight of her sleepy movements when the remote fell from her loose grasp. It bounced off his shoe and somehow managed to crash into the bottom of her glass-topped coffee table.

  She jolted awake and sat up, almost bumping her head on his chin. “What was that?”

  He stood and offered her a hand up. “The remote. I was trying to wake you for dinner, and you dropped it.”

  “Hm. I was having the strangest dream.” Lily bypassed the dining table, went to the kitchen sink, and washed her hands.

  A nurse on the clock and off. The thought brought a smile to his face.

  Once she sat at the table, they bowed their heads, and Caleb prayed. “Thank you, Lord, that Lily made it home safely. Please be with Jefferson Taylor and the agents protecting him. Keep the media away from the hospital personnel. Be with everyone in that ICU tonight, Lord. So many people are hurting in one way or another. Use the staff, the volunteers, and the visitors to lift the spirits of those in need and remind people of Your love. Amen.”

  “Amen.”

  Lily took a couple bites before smiling. “This is delicious. You liked the sound of stir fry?”

  He assented. “You mentioned it, so I figured you had everything. I sliced some vegetables, cut up some chicken, and voila!”

  He finished his meal first. “Are you okay with me spending the night? I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  She set her fork down and gazed droopy-lidded across the table at him. “I’m too drained to care. If I weren’t so tired, I might say something about how I’d rather be asked than told, though.”

  She broke eye contact and picked up her fork again. The loss of her gaze might just have saved his sanity. A man could drown in those eyes. Some men — like him — might even want to.

  “Point taken. Would you prefer Agent Whitehall’s presence?”

  She swallowed before answering. “I’d prefer not to need anybody here at all.”

  He rearranged his silverware for the umpteenth time as she finished off the last of her zucchini. “I was waiting for you tonight so we could talk.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “Can it wait for a couple days? Until this whole thing blows over?”

  Before Caleb could answer, Lily swung her hand through the air between them, aiming at nothing and everything. “Never mind. I want to say something, and you need to listen.”

  He nodded.

  “I’m fine with spontaneity and last-minute decisions when we’re talking about what’s for dinner, but when it comes to big life stuff, I move at a more deliberate pace. You’re the complete opposite, and it’s exhilarating and electrifying, but it’s also terrifying.”

  Caleb started to say something, but she cut him off with another hand-slash. “You don’t live your life in slow motion. I get that. When you decided to move from Texas to Virginia, you made the decision one day and moved the next, right?”

  He waited. Any answer he gave would only serve to add miles of height to the molehill she was turning into a mountain.

  “Well? Did you?”

  “I had to give my notice at work, so it was more like two weeks.”

  “But you gave your notice the day after you decided?”

  Heat climbed his neck, and he couldn’t even say why he was embarrassed. “The day of, actually.”

  A look of triumph passed over her face. Then she started chewing on her bottom lip as she frowned. The triumph told Caleb she had a competitive streak. The frown told him she still didn’t know what to do with him.

  He sat back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. “Different isn’t the same as bad.”

  “You’re right. Different doesn’t have to be bad. We also seem to be alike in some ways. I’d say we’re both used to taking charge, but that doesn’t always work in relationships, does it? There has to be give and take, and I’m not talking about orders.”

  Lily stopped for a breath, and Caleb probed for more. “Do you want me to back off?”

  She paled. “I need enough space to hear what God’s telling me. That’s all. I can’t hear Him when you’re close.”

  “Because I’m so different?”

  “Because my equilibrium gets wonky when you’re around! My emotions become so loud they drown out God. Being around you feels good, but I’m afraid if I make decisions based on what I’m feeling, I’ll end up making bad ones. I need to know I’m making the choice God wants for me.”

  “So we slow down and I give you space. No talk about weddings or what it would be like to be married or how many children we’ll have.”

  “No more kissing, either,” she interjected. “Definitely none of that.”

  Caleb stood and walked around the table, holding out a hand to help Lily up. “Come on. You need to go to bed.” He escorted her to her bedroom door. Her toes were crossing over the threshold when she spun back, raised on her tiptoes, and kissed him on his scruffy cheek.

  “I thought you said none of that.”

  She shrugged. “I can’t be held accountable for anything I say when I’m tired. I talk a lot of nonsense.”

  Her bedroom door closed, and he scratched his chin.

  Huh.

  Women were confusing.

  Caleb, who had slept all day, didn’t bother with a blanket or pillow for the couch. He palmed the remote and flipped through channels until he found a college game. Then he turned the volume up a couple of clicks before stepping over into the kitchen. He was as far away from Lily’s room as he could get in her apartment when he pulled out his phone and dialed.

  “Hello.” The voice on the other end was thick with sleep.

  “It’s Graham. Did you catch the news tonight?”

  Raynott squeaked. “Uh, maybe.”

  Right or wrong, the charges against the man had been dropped. The DA had decided not to prosecute. Caleb just hoped Ashton Raynott still felt guilty about scaring Lily.

  “Her face is plastered all over every television screen in the DC metro area because somebody leaked important and private information about an ICU nurse. I need to find and plug the leak. If you want to right the wrong you did before, tell me about your source so I can keep her and any of the other nurses involved safe.”

  Caleb listened to a mumbled and long-winded explanation.

  As soon as he got off the phone with Raynott, he called Whitehall. He wasn’t sure yet whether or not he liked the agent, but his gut said he should trust him. And his gut tended to be right.

  “Hello.” Not a trace of sleep in this voice. “What do you need, Graham? Want me to come spell you? I wouldn’t mind spending the night with Lily…”

  “I know how word about the nurses got out.”

  “Oh?” Whitehall’s phone demeanor went from lazy to crisp in a single syllable.

  “Lily was accosted in the parking garage not too long ago.”

  “I’m familiar with the situation.”

  “Assuming the reporters got her name the same way he did, look for a woman in her fifti
es who delivers linens to ICU.”

  “How did your guy find her?”

  Caleb recited what he’d been told. “He knew someone who knew someone who knew about a lady who worked at the hospital and had money trouble. Raynott’s willing to give an official statement if needed. He can detail it all out for you.”

  “Do you have a name?”

  “It’s like Lucy but longer — he couldn’t remember. Lucinda, Luciana, something like that. Linens. Intensive care. That much he was certain of. She should be pretty easy to pinpoint.”

  “Did your guy tell you why?”

  People sometimes did wrong things for right reasons. The noble reasons didn’t make the actions any less awful, though. “A family member was put in prison. She ended up with three small children. Finances got tight. Paperwork got lost somewhere along the way, and she’s not getting any state help. That’s the story she fed him, anyway. It needs to be checked out.”

  Whitehall whistled. “Trying guilt now, huh? I send her to prison, and the kids get indoctrinated into the system. Their family gets broken, and it becomes my fault instead of the woman’s who broke the law.”

  Caleb glanced toward Lily’s door. She was a soft touch. Something like this would matter to her. “Just check out what she said before you act. Find out if she’s a decent person who screwed up or if she’s…”

  “Yeah. But if she leaked information about someone under Secret Service protection… She messed with the wrong agency this time, and the consequences will bear that out. I’ll do some digging into her situation first, but I’m not making promises.”

  “Keep me apprised?”

  “Sure. Now go get some sleep. Or eat some popcorn. Do something besides yakking my ear off all night.”

  Caleb disconnected the call and removed his hat long enough to run a hand through his hair. If he wasn’t careful, Whitehall would be buying them BFF bracelets to wear.

  A fifty-year-old black and white movie was keeping Caleb company when Lily’s alarm shook the entire apartment the next morning. He glanced outside. The sun was still a long way from making an appearance. No wonder she needed such a loud alarm. It couldn’t be easy to force yourself out of bed that early on a daily basis.

  When she came out of her bedroom, he greeted her with a cup of hot coffee and an egg and bagel sandwich. “I wasn’t sure what you liked in the morning, but I figured this would be good for you.”

  She took it with a smile. “Agent Whitehall is waiting in the lobby. He’ll drive me back to the hospital.”

  Caleb’s chest burned with an emotion he’d not experienced until recently. Jealousy. “I can take you.”

  Lily shook her head. “He has to sneak me in through some secret passage. It’s all very clandestine.”

  With a curt nod, he angled away from her to look out the window.

  “Come on,” she murmured. “I want to talk to you on the way down.”

  Caleb snatched up his keys from where he’d set them the evening before and followed her out the door, tension in the clenched muscles of his jaw.

  They strolled toward the elevator, and Lily looped her hand through his arm. “I’m more alert this morning, and I think I can do a better job of explaining myself. Are you willing to listen?”

  “I’m always interested in what you have to say.” Caleb pushed his tension away and took a deep breath.

  She grinned. “There’s that Graham charm again.” The elevator doors slid closed behind them. “I’ve been an independent person a long time. You have a strong personality, and you’re used to getting your own way. I think a part of me is afraid of being swallowed up by that. I want the same things you want here, but I find myself rebelling and pushing back rather than walking alongside you.”

  “You figured all that out while you slept?”

  She gave his arm a semi-hug. “Sometimes sleep is the only time I’m still enough to listen to God.”

  “So this is about you finding a way to be yourself, no matter who I am or what I do.”

  A crisp nod was her answer.

  “Good. I happen to like you the way you are, and I wouldn’t want you to change anything simply because I somehow convinced you that you had no choice. I can be pushy. Ma says I bully people for their own good. There might be some truth in that.” He tugged her arm free of his, laced his fingers with hers, and brought her hand to his mouth for a kiss. “If this is going to last, then you need to be able to go toe-to-toe with me and still come out okay.”

  A smile curved the delicate corner of her mouth. “What would we go toe-to-toe over?”

  “The color of curtains, of course.” He winked at her.

  Caleb had no more than bid Lily and Agent Whitehall farewell when his phone rang. He recognized the number. “What can I do for you, Captain?”

  “You can get your tail down here right now. I’ve ordered all the kids back in.”

  “Did the lab find something?”

  He could imagine the impatience on her face as she huffed over the line. “No. I’m doing this to waste everybody’s time.”

  “Can you at least tell me what they found?” Caleb climbed into his truck and buckled in.

  “Gunpowder in the trunk. Trace amounts.”

  A lot of vehicles ended up with gunpowder in the trunk. People carried weapons there more times than made sense. Was it tied to all the break-ins, though? And if so, what did that mean? What were the would-be thieves after?

  “I can be there in thirty minutes in street clothes or an hour in uniform.”

  “As long as I’m not staring at you in your tighty whities, I don’t care what you wear. Just get down here. We’re going to split the kids up and press them.”

  Dead air told Caleb the captain had hung up. With a turn of his key, the engine roared to life, and he left Lily’s apartment building behind.

  “No. Doctor’s orders.” Lily stood, hands on her hips, and stared down a man who might well become the next president of the United States. “It’s not happening.”

  “My request is perfectly reasonable.”

  “Allowing reporters into our ICU is as far away from reasonable as you can be. You might as well ask Agent Whitehall here to wear a pink tutu and perform pirouettes up and down the hallway.”

  The agent in question choked on the drink of water he’d just taken.

  Jefferson David Taylor, still hooked up to an IV and with a blood pressure cuff in place, crossed his arms and lifted an eyebrow. “Word about the assassination attempt is out. If I don’t make a public statement in some way, shape, or form, my opponents will have a field day with this. I’ll be painted as on my deathbed, and my voters will jump ship and paddle to the next healthy candidate they can find.”

  “You give the American people too little credit.”

  “I understand your position, Lily. You’re concerned about the privacy of the other ICU patients, right?”

  She eyed him warily. “This is more than a concern. It’s the law. We have a legal obligation to protect their privacy.”

  “Make sure the curtains over all their doors are closed.”

  “We have a wall-sized chart out at the desk with patient names on it. I can’t close a curtain over that.” Lily’s foot tapped soundlessly on the composite vinyl flooring.

  “Might I suggest…” Agent Whitehall sauntered over to the door and stole a look out into the bustling ICU. “We pick two reporters from opposing networks. One of my tech guys can stand in as cameraman. We’ll use our own equipment, too. Let’s say we allow a twenty-minute window. Secret Service clears the floor, and we set Taylor up in the waiting room so no one need enter the unit.”

  Lily started to object, but Whitehall raised his hand to stall her. “His nurse will be on hand. You can even throw a doctor into the mix if you want. Let the reporters ask a couple questions. Secret Service escorts the reporters out, my tech guy gives a flash drive with the interview to each of them plus one to the campaign folks so they can run with it, too.”

&nb
sp; Mr. Taylor stared at his hands for a moment in what Lily referred to as his thinking pose. When he looked up, his eyes held determination. “I like it. They may wonder if my health is the reason I’m not giving them free rein, but if you say it’s a Secret Service directive, they’ll be less inclined to claim I’m on my deathbed. That’ll leave enough room for doubt that it might hold the vultures off from picking my political bones for a bit.”

  Lily sighed her defeat. “Let me check with the doctor. If he says yes, he’ll take it to the hospital admin.” She pivoted toward the door only to find Dr. Matsui standing right inside the threshold.

  The doctor nodded to them. “It’s a workable plan, and administration ordered our compliance when Taylor was first admitted. We’re to support any wish to make a media appearance as long as it doesn’t cast the hospital in a negative light.” Dr. Matsui took charge and issued orders. “Tell your men to put it into play, Agent Whitehall. Lily, prep him. I want this over and done within the hour, or we call the whole thing off. The stress of drawing it out won’t be good for the patient.” The doctor stared hard at the man in the hospital bed. “My medical license is on the line if you’re in front of the camera and this thing goes sideways. If you start to feel poorly, tell Lily immediately. Are we clear?”

  Mr. Taylor nodded his understanding. “I’ll drum my fingers on the wheelchair arm if something’s wrong. That will be my signal.”

  Cloak and dagger was not Lily’s forte. She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Let’s get this over with.”

  Agent Whitehall began making calls to set everything into motion while Lily brought her patient a toothbrush and helped him into the attached bathroom. His ability to groom himself for the camera would be hampered by a hospital gown and the wheelchair he’d be forced to sit in, but they’d do what they could.

  “In closing, I want the American people to know that I will not bow to intimidation, no matter how blatant it is. Those who are threatened by my fight to restore integrity to our political system and the White House have no power over me. I answer to a higher authority. I answer to the people of this great nation, the United States of America. My campaign is still in full force, and I hope to see each one of you at the polls. God bless you, and God bless America.”