ground and had no trouble voicing her opinions during their many conversations. He’d have thought she would have gone toe-to-toe with him if she felt strongly enough about something.
Like finding out her father had hired Gavin to be her personal secret security team.
Yeah. She’d feel very strongly about that one.
When Gavin focused back on the conversation, Sarah was saying, “You’ll find out if she’s okay and if she needs help.”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll be sneaky if you have to, because you’re apparently really good at that when you choose to be.”
He rolled his eyes. “If it will put your mind at rest.”
“Good. It will help.” A pause. “Thank you.”
“Welcome.” He turned to Gavin. “She’s stubborn.”
Gavin wondered why the man had even bothered to put up a protest. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? From what I can tell, it’s the strongest gene on your DNA strand, so I can see it being a sibling trait.”
Sarah gave a light snort of laughter while Caden’s lips quirked. “That’s probably true,” he said. “Dustin was the same way.”
They fell silent while they battled their grief all over again, and Gavin looked away to give them the shared moment.
Caden cleared his throat and stood, pulled his phone from his pocket, and waved it at Sarah. “If it’s got you this worked up, let me see who else I can talk to that might know more than the last person. Shouldn’t take me too long. And then I’m going to order pizza. Gavin, you can stay and join us if you like.”
“Uh, sure. Thanks.” Well, that was one way to keep an eye on Sarah without too much trouble. And besides, he was hungry.
Once Caden left the room, Gavin turned to Sarah—who’d slumped against the back of the couch. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Tired of answering that question, but . . . yeah.”
“Right. Sorry.”
She grimaced. “I’m also in a cranky mood, but I shouldn’t take that out on you.”
“I can handle it.”
Silence fell between them. “I don’t remember his funeral,” she finally said softly.
“You were there.”
“Barely.”
“You insisted. Threatened to walk if that’s what you had to do.” It had been the day she was released from the hospital with her fever finally under control but apparently back on some heavy-duty painkillers someone had snuck into her IV. She was livid when she finally came to. Gavin recalled the tongue-lashing she’d given Caden when she realized what had happened, and Caden promised to take her home immediately. He’d promised she’d be given no more drugs unless she okayed them.
“I have a picture of the graveside playing in my mind. You rolled me in the wheelchair,” she murmured.
Her gaze was distant, her vision turned inward with her effort to remember. “Uh, yeah. You insisted on that too. You told Caden you knew his driving skills and felt safer if I was the one behind the wheel—so to speak.”
“I remember that.” She closed her eyes. And just like that, fell asleep.
CHAPTER
EIGHT
She really had to quit waking up with no memory of having fallen asleep. Sarah frowned and mentally scrolled back to the last thing she remembered. Zonking out while talking to Gavin. Great. Why was it always Gavin who was the one to pick up the pieces?
Between passing out twice—and having Gavin save her from what could have been serious injury should she have hit the floor with her head—and falling asleep when she least expected it, she was going to have to start chugging some caffeine or something.
With a sigh, she sat up. If she remembered correctly, she’d also been waiting for Caden to find out about the woman in the room next to hers—Brianne. And wondering how Dustin could have committed suicide. So many questions begging for answers.
She climbed out of bed again with the whole déjà vu thing happening, noticing that she was still in her yoga pants and a long T-shirt. Her stomach rumbled and she took note that she was starving.
And in need of a shower.
Twenty minutes later, with some effort but not as much pain as she’d feared, Sarah made her way to the kitchen where she found Caden and Gavin once again deep in conversation. They stopped talking the moment they saw her.
“Haven’t we done this once today?” she asked.
Caden lifted a brow. “What? Have a conversation while you sleep your life away?”
“Something like that.”
“No. That was yesterday.”
“What?” Sarah was horrified. “I’ve lost another day?” No wonder she was so hungry. She’d missed the pizza. And breakfast.