She nodded eagerly. “Yes, that’s something I can give you. It’s part of me and—”
“Hi, everything settled?” Joe came into the room. “Yes, I can see that it is.” He smiled at Cara. “We’ll get everything finalized before Eve leaves here today. But there are a few things I have to go over with Eve first. Would you run out to the hall, where Margaret is waiting?”
Cara didn’t move. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
But there was something wrong, Eve realized. Cara’s instincts were right. She recognized the tension in the way Joe was carrying himself. “Whatever it is, it has nothing to do with you, Cara.”
Cara slowly got to her feet. “If it’s me, I’ll make it right, Eve.”
“It’s not you,” Joe said shortly. “I promise.”
Cara gave him another troubled look as she left the hospital room.
“She has good instincts. You’re not easy to read,” Eve said. “I’m glad that it wasn’t about her. It would have been difficult explaining a sudden change of heart. Do you know, I’m starting to look forward to having Cara staying with us.” She shook her head. “Bonnie was talking about a change in my life. This may be what she meant.”
“Not necessarily.”
Eve went still. She couldn’t miss that jerky roughness in his tone. “What are you talking about? What is wrong?”
“Not wrong. Strange. Bizarre.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what else.”
“Stop playing around with words. Talk to me.”
“I don’t know how to say it.”
“Just tell me.”
“The hospital has the results from all the tests. The doctor stopped me in the hall to go over them.”
“The results? Joe, I know you’ve been ramrodding everything connected to my treatment since you brought me to this hospital, but that’s going a little too far. Why go over them with you and not with me?” She tried to smile. “Some terrible disease popped up that he thought you should break to me?”
“God, I’m not doing this right. No terrible disease. You’re very healthy and ready to go home. He just didn’t want you to leave the hospital without knowing.”
“Joe, what are you trying to tell me?”
“In my completely clumsy and inadequate fashion”—He reached out and took her hand.—“I’m trying to tell you that you’re going to have a child, Eve.”
READ ON FOR A BONUS SCENE FROM JOE QUINN’S POINT OF VIEW!
LAKE COTTAGE
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
“You have a FedEx package,” Joe Quinn said as Eve came into the cottage. “It’s on your worktable. It came from somewhere in California.”
She nodded. “Yeah, Sonderville. Sheriff Nalchek called me last night and asked me to bump his reconstruction to the top of my list.” She made a face. “I almost told him to forget it. I’m swamped right now, and I don’t need any more pressure.”
Something was wrong, Joe realized instantly. Eve never complained about pressure, even to him. She just did her job and kept on moving to the next poor kid whose skull ended up on her worktable. But if something was wrong, she wouldn’t want him probing. Keep it light, and let her tell him when she was ready.
“You’re always swamped.” Joe smiled teasingly. “You thrive on it. And it’s natural that you’re in demand. Everyone wants the world-famous forensic sculptor, Eve Duncan, to solve their problems.”
“Bullshit.” She went to the kitchen counter and reached for the coffee carafe. “There’s usually no urgency about putting a face on a skull that’s been buried for years anyway. It has to be done, but there’s no reason that I can’t do it an orderly fashion. Every one of those children is important.”