A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,115

Quincy’s. The man sat in the same chair, legs outstretched across the same floor, arm draped over the same bed, only this time his eyes were set ablaze by the two women he watched through the glass door.

“Oh, crap,” Sun said.

Hailey spun around and gasped.

Quincy stood, checked on Cruz with a quick glance, then walked out of the main ICU area and toward them.

Sun searched her brain frantically for a logical explanation. No one knew she and Hailey were friends, and since Hailey was basically undercover, no one could know. It would be too dangerous for her. However, if she were to tell anyone, it would be the man walking toward them now. The one with the quizzical brow that framed a look of absolute astonishment.

Sun rolled her eyes. They were getting sloppy. First Auri. Now Quincy. The entire sting was crashing down around her.

Having found no explanation, her brain went into fight-or-flight mode. She turned to Hailey and railed, “And don’t let me tell you again,” she said, glaring at the blonde beside her. “You—you degenerate. You get out of here and don’t come back. I don’t want to ever—”

“Sun,” Hailey said, pointing at the other blonde, the one standing so close Sun could feel the heat radiating off him.

She turned to him. “Quincy, thank goodness. I want you to arrest this …this—”

“Degenerate?” he offered. “Yes. For trespassing.”

“Degenerately?”

“Exactly.” She poked Hailey on the shoulder. That’d show her.

“Sunshine,” Hailey said, knowing when to give up the game long before Sun’s brain did.

Sun slammed her lids shut, drew in a deep breath, then squared her shoulders. “Okay, this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Like you two are meeting in secret?”

Her jaw came loose from its hinges. She put it back, then said, “Well, of course that’s what it looks like to the untrained eye.”

“My eye is very trained.”

And then, with the briefest, most ephemeral of flashes, something swept across his face. If Sun had blinked, she would have missed it. The glance. As though his pupils could not resist. The intake of breath. As though his lungs could not stop it. The softening of his features. As though his heart could not suppress its reaction.

Sun stood stunned for an eternity before she gaped at him.

“Hailey Ravinder?” she screeched, only really quietly because they were in a hospital. She stepped closer and spoke through clenched teeth. “That’s who you’ve been pining over for months?”

“What?” He snorted. “No.”

“Pining?” Hailey asked.

“After all this time, after everything we’ve been through, you think you can hide this from me?”

“Look who’s talking.” He gestured toward the two of them. “You two act like you’re plotting to take over the world.”

“We were discussing a town-wide rummage sale, for your information.” Now her brain kicks in.

“Pining?” Hailey asked again, her gaze raking over Quincy like the break room was a desert and he was a sparkling oasis complete with lounge chairs and frou-frou drinks. The kind with tiny umbrellas, only there was nothing—and she would know—tiny about her chief deputy.

He cast his gaze down. “Pining is a strong word.”

“For me?” She stepped closer.

He kicked at the floor with his boot.

Sun looked between the two, more than a little horrified. Not because they weren’t perfect for each other. They kind of were. But because she didn’t see it before.

When an electrifyingly romantic instrumental swept through the ICU over the loudspeakers—or in Sun’s mind, either way—she decided to make her exit.

She walked to Auri’s room in disbelief. Everyone was finding true love but her. Of course, she thought this as she rounded the corner and her gaze landed on the only man she’d ever really wanted. He sat with his back to her, holding Auri’s hand.

“How is she?” her mother said, walking in behind her.

Levi turned and his gaze locked with Sun’s as though he knew what she’d been thinking. Either that or her guilty conscience was projecting again. It did that.

“She’s good, Mom. She hasn’t woken up yet, but—”

“Mom?” Auri’s tiny voice wafted to her.

Sun ran around the bed and took her other hand, carefully since that was the one with the IV.

Her bottom lip quivered. “Mom,” she said, a soft sob escaping her.

Maybe it was a sign of the last couple of days or her guilty conscience projecting again, but Sun knew exactly what her daughter was thinking. “He’s okay, Auri.”

The look Auri gave her dissolved every bone in her body.

“He fought him off, sweetheart. Cruz was admitted with wounds, but he survived the surgery and is in ICU right