Headlines (Prime Time #3) - Ella Frank Page 0,24

interruption once you fall asleep? Any dreams? Nightmares?”

“No. For the last week, I’ve slept all night. No interruptions.” Unless Sean counted.

“Good.” She smiled at me, and when I returned it, her eyes narrowed. “That’s not good?”

I frowned. “Of course it’s good. Why wouldn’t it be?”

She crossed her legs and placed her pen down in the center of the binder. “You know one of the downsides about being a public figure, Alexander?”

“Off the top of my head? Lack of anonymity, privacy, the occasional stalker…” When she didn’t respond, I turned to look back out the window. “But I’m guessing none of those are the answer you were looking for.”

“One of the downsides is that I know a genuine smile when I see one. What you just gave me was forced. You’ve been struggling to get a good night’s sleep for weeks now, been having the most horrific nightmares about Sean dying in your arms, and now that they’re over, instead of jumping up and down with joy, you look like someone ran over your puppy.”

I rubbed a hand over my face. “I don’t own a puppy.”

“Maybe you should. They’re good for the soul.”

I nodded but said nothing. Instead, I concentrated on the children again. A couple of them had broken off and were playing catch with one another, while another sat by himself under the tree playing with his baseball cards.

“Alexander?”

“Huh?” I turned my attention back to Dr. Lewis.

“I said maybe you should get a puppy.”

“I’m living at someone else’s house. I doubt he’d appreciate me bringing home a dog.”

Dr. Lewis picked her pen back up and jotted something down. “Why haven’t you moved back into your place yet?”

“You know why.”

“Because it reminds you of Kyle, of where this all started. But it’s not really where it started, is it? You first met him at the news station, and yet you’re back there working now. Aren’t you?”

I swallowed, trying to see where she was leading me. Trying to see what trap she was laying for me to step into.

“Yes, but that’s different. In my house he was snooping around taking selfies. He was in my private space, my bedroom, my bed. I don’t want to go back there.”

“Ever?”

I blinked at her and thought that over. “Yet.”

Again, she nodded and wrote something down.

“What did you just write?”

“Exactly what you said.”

Somehow, I doubted that.

“And what about the situation with Bailey? Have you spoken to him? Seen him?”

“No.” My answer was short and succinct, and as soon as it was out of my mouth, I knew Dr. Lewis wasn’t buying it.

“Really?”

“Yes. I haven’t spoken to, or seen, him.” That wasn’t a lie.

“Then what has changed?”

“Excuse me?”

She shut the binder and shifted in her chair, recrossing her long legs in the opposite direction. “I asked you what has changed.”

“Nothing. I told you I haven’t seen him or spoken to him.”

“Yes, but something else has happened. For weeks you’ve been trying to sleep, and now you can, which should make you more amiable, not distracted and curt. You’re happy to be living with Sean, and nothing there has changed. Then you say the situation with the best friend is the same, yet your mood drastically declined when I asked you about him. So, why don’t you tell me what’s changed with your friend?”

I rubbed at my forehead and shoved to my feet. “He reached out to Sean today and wants to talk.”

“I see.” She paused long enough that I looked over my shoulder at her. “Does that upset you?”

“No, I want them to talk.”

“But you also want him to talk to you.”

I turned back to the window. “Of course, but that’s not up to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m the one who messed things up.”

“Are you? According to what you told me, Sean did too, right? Yet Bailey wants to talk to him.”

“Well, they’re brothers, blood. It makes sense that they’ll work things out. I want them to.”

“And if that happens, where does that leave you?”

My eyes strayed back to the boy with his baseball cards, and I quickly turned my back on the scene, the image hitting too close to home.

My eyes flicked to the clock, and I’d never been more grateful to see that my time was up.

“I have to get going.” I picked up my briefcase from where I’d placed it by my chair.

Dr. Lewis looked at her watch and nodded. She got to her feet and crossed the room to her desk. “A word of advice, Alexander.”

“Yes?”

“Be honest with yourself. That’s the only way