Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

C AL FROWNED WHEN he checked his phone and saw that he didn't have any new messages from Charlotte.

Frowned and silently cursed.

Silently because he was at the kitchen table at his family's ranch, and with his Grammy Effie and Maybell at the stove, he didn't want to get any scoldings about having a potty mouth. However, he clearly didn't mute all of his reaction because Maybell looked over at him and grunted.

"You got a lot of reasons to be sighing, Cal," she said. "Want me to guess which one caused you to make that sound?"

He settled for shaking his head. No guessing desired, though Maybell and his family had no doubt observed his conversation the day before with Charlotte when they'd been by the corral fence and his family had been peeking out the windows at them. If those family members had been looking closely enough, they might have seen some of the color drain from her face. Might have noticed she'd abruptly ended their conversation and had headed back to her car.

Cal had gone after her, of course. Maybell and his family would have seen that as well and wondered what the heck was going on. If any of them had lip-reading skills he didn't know about, they would have noticed that he'd been cursing Noah, not only for making him the messenger but also for making him tell Charlotte the reason for the breakup.

Of course, Charlotte had brushed it off, saying it was a shock but that she was okay. She wasn't. No way. Here, all these years she'd wanted marriage and kids, and Noah—the supposed love of her life—had insisted he didn't want those things, only to then turn around and get them with another woman.

In the past eighteen hours or so since that bombshell, Cal had texted Charlotte to check on her. Six times and counting. She'd responded to the first five, assuring him she was fine. Short, clipped responses that were friendly enough if not soul-baring, but she'd yet to respond to his sixth. Maybe because she was tired of finding ways to repeat herself. Maybe because she was at this very moment sobbing her heart out and unable to see her phone screen. That made Cal want to throttle his old pal Noah.

"Another sigh," his grandmother remarked. "Is the fake engagement not going the way you planned?"

Actually, that was going just fine, as far as he knew. People who didn't know the truth were shocked and had been texting him. People who did know were texting and assuring him they'd keep his secret for this good cause. So far, Becker hadn't learned that it was a pretense, because Cal was certain that if he had, some of those texters and assurers would have let him know.

"Oh," Maybell muttered. "It's the one-month anniversary of what happened to Harper."

Cal certainly hadn't forgotten about that. Couldn't. And, yeah, that was definitely hammering down his mood. It'd hammer even more once he had some time to himself to let the pain and memories wash over him. But time to himself wasn't possible this morning.

"I'm going out to see Becker today," Cal explained, finishing up the breakfast that Effie and Maybell had insisted he eat.

Pancakes and homemade maple sausage. It was delicious, of course. Everything they cooked was. But he'd hoped to get out of the house before anyone else in his family came down—

Too late.

Egan came in through the back door just as Blue made his entrance from the back stairs that led up to some of the bedroom suites. Since Egan was wearing his flight suit, that meant he was likely headed to the base where he was a squadron commander. Blue was in ranch clothes, which meant he would probably be going to the barns or pastures since he was working with the horses these days.

Both of his brothers instantly speared him with their gaze, and he could see the questions in their eyes. Cal decided to provide the answers to those questions. Some of them anyway.

"Yes, I'm still getting out of the military," Cal verified. "Becker hasn't yet agreed to sell his place to Charlotte. And Charlotte claims she's okay about Noah breaking up with her." He withheld the part about Elise, figuring that was Charlotte's bombshell to drop.

Or Noah's.

Considering that Elise was pregnant, Noah would need to drop that one soon, if for no other reason than to let his dad know he was about to become a grandfather.

"I've texted Remi," Cal went on, "so she also knows about the fake engagement in case someone messages her."

Though, his sister's reaction had been a little odd. Remi had simply responded with a winky face. Cal wasn't sure if that meant Remi doubted the fake part or if she was amused by it all. Or if the quick response was all she'd had time to manage.

Egan and Blue continued to stare at him. Clearly, they planned on spending some time trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

"You're sure about the decision to get out of the Air Force?" Egan asked while he poured himself a cup of coffee. He did that while still managing to maintain the eye contact.

Cal would have assured him that the answer was still yes , but another family member walked in: Audrey. She, too, was in uniform, and those silver stars were awfully shiny on the epaulets that sported her rank. No way to miss those.

Like Egan and Blue, she zoomed in on Cal with her steely gaze. "I have to leave in a couple of minutes," Audrey said, "but I want you to do me a favor." She aimed that comment at Cal, and he figured he already knew what the favor was. "I want you to wait until the end of your thirty days of leave to put in your separation papers."

Bingo. Cal had known this was coming, but before he could tell Audrey that thirty days weren't going to make a difference, she rolled right over him in true general fashion. "Yes, I know you said you're certain, and if that's true, then waiting thirty days won't matter."

"I'm getting out," Cal stated.

Audrey shrugged. "Then waiting thirty days won't matter," she repeated right back. She added a huff to that, but then her expression softened. "Please," she added. "Do it as a favor to me. At the end of the thirty days, if you still want to get out, then I'll expedite the paperwork for you."

Until she added that last part, Cal had been about to do more affirming, but separation paperwork could take time. That time would no doubt be lessened considerably with a general's backing. Even if, in this case, the general wasn't in favor of it. Still, he didn't think Audrey would renege on something like that.

"All right," Cal finally said. "Thirty days. Twenty-nine," he amended when he remembered he'd already burned a day of that leave.

One huge eventful day where he'd become fake engaged, delivered news to crush Charlotte and sunk even deeper into a depression about Harper. Yeah, he didn't want to repeat the past twenty-four hours.

Audrey nodded, not expressing a whole lot of relief at his concession. She also didn't move. She volleyed glances at every person in the room.

"Since you're no doubt wondering, Derek and I haven't reconciled," Audrey said.

Cal had figured that was the case. If there had been a mending of the fences, then his dad would likely be back on his way to DC with Audrey.

"I'm not giving up on my marriage," Audrey went on, "but I have to get back to work. I'm going to try to make it back here in six weeks or so."

No one in the room seemed surprised by that. Despite Audrey's previously infrequent visits to the ranch, the woman did seem to be trying hard to stay married to a man who was clearly still pissed off, and hurt, by what she'd done. Cal loved his father, but Derek could be a total hard-ass in certain situations. This was one of them. In his mind, Audrey had cost him his son by not telling him she'd had his child.

Audrey dragged in a long breath, glanced out the window. "I'm sure if any of you had heard from Rowan Cullen, you would have told me."

Maybell, Effie, Blue, Egan and Cal all made sounds of agreement. None of them had to question who Rowan was, either. He was the son that Audrey had given up for adoption.

"Other than the one phone call to me seven months ago, there's been no contact," Blue assured her.

It was old news. Because there were so many questions about this mystery half brother, Blue had been questioned and requestioned about that call. Apparently, it'd been a short conversation, and Rowan had indicated he was heading out on some kind of deployment and might get back in touch.

Might.

Judging from how little they knew about Rowan, he had been as shocked as the rest of them—minus Audrey, of course—about the circumstances of his conception. Cal figured his father knew a whole lot more about Rowan. No way would Derek have not put a PI on this to do at least a background check on his son, but Derek wasn't sharing anything, and no one was pressing.

"I did add my phone number to the genealogy site that Rowan used to get his DNA results," Cal volunteered. "Blue's is already there, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to have two numbers posted. Maybe it'd convince Rowan we're interested in talking to him."

Though Cal wasn't sure that talking was the right thing. It could open up a big-assed can of worms for all of them. Especially Rowan, since he apparently hadn't known he was adopted until he'd seen the DNA results. But Cal hadn't left his number for Rowan but in fact for their father. It was gnawing away at Derek that he had a son out there he'd never met.

"Rowan's military, right?" Maybell asked, not directing the question at anyone in particular.

It was Audrey who finally broke the silence and made a sound of agreement. Of course, she would have checked that once she had Rowan's adopted surname. No way would she have been able to resist.

"Rowan's an STO, an Air Force Special Tactics Officer," Audrey provided a heartbeat later.

Egan, Blue and Cal all made sounds, too, to indicate they were impressed. It was an elite special ops field similar to Remi's, but the STOs had a more direct combat role.

A dangerous one.

"I don't know where he is right now," Audrey went on. "It's classified. I could find out, but I don't want to dig too deep into him. It'd send up red flags, and while he's obviously aware that Derek is his bio-father because of his DNA match to Blue, he probably doesn't know I'm his...that I gave birth to him."

Her voice didn't exactly crack on that last part, but it was close. She had avoided saying mother . Even bio-mother. Maybe she was doing that to try to maintain some emotional distance. If so, it wasn't working, because Audrey's face was wracked with everything she had to be feeling.

"I have to go," Audrey abruptly added, and she headed out the door, moving fast. But not fast enough. Cal still spotted her eyes watering.

He considered going after her, to try to offer her whatever comfort he could give, but Cal also knew that would be a mistake. Audrey almost certainly wouldn't want to cry on his shoulder. In fact, she wouldn't want him or anyone else to see her cry, period. Egan, Blue, Maybell and Effie must have felt the same way because they stayed put as well, though Effie did shake her head and sigh.

Cal stood, went to his grandmother and gave her a hug. With the firestorm of emotions going on between Audrey and his father, it was sometimes easy to forget that Effie was no doubt also hurting, since Rowan was her grandson, too.

"I'll be fine," Effie assured him, patting his arm when she eased back from the hug. She met his gaze. "Will you be?"

"Yes," Cal said, though he had no idea if that was true.

Still, he didn't want his grandmother or anyone else worrying about him. Not when they already had so much on their plates.

"I need to go into town and see Charlotte," Cal told them. "Then I'll drive out to Becker's. Wish me luck. If I can convince him to sell the place to Charlotte, then we can drop the pretense of the engagement."

He frowned at the mention of that and thought of the comment Becker had made after Charlotte had made her announcement to him. "Anyone got a ring I can use for the fake engagement?" he asked. "You know, just to make it look more real to Becker."

"I've got that one I won at the county fair when I was twelve," Blue offered. "I'm sure it's in my room somewhere."

Cal rolled his eyes. He recalled the ring. Gaudy brass with a nickel-sized red stone that was probably plastic.

"You could just buy her one and then return it," Egan suggested.

"I've got some pretty charms that fit on the stems of wineglasses," Maybell contributed. "That might work."

"This will work better," Effie said, tugging out the gold necklace from beneath her shirt. A necklace that held her engagement and wedding rings.

"No," Cal was quick to say. "Those are the real deal."

"Yes, they are," Effie confirmed, unclasping the necklace. "Your grandfather gave them to me sixty-four years ago when I was just eighteen." She took out the engagement ring and held it out for Cal. "This belonged to his mother, so I'm guessing it's at least a hundred years old."

It wasn't a flashy piece. A simple round diamond set in etched gold. Cal supposed the style was art deco.

"I can't use that," he insisted.

Effie took his hand and pressed it into his palm. "Yes, you can," she insisted right back. "If Becker's not a total idiot, he'll see it's a family ring, and that will help convince him that the engagement is the real deal. Once Charlotte buys the ranch, you can give it back to me."

Until she'd added that last part, Cal was about to refuse again. But he and Charlotte just might need some more fodder, and the ring did indeed scream family heirloom .

Sighing, Cal took the ring and brushed a kiss on his grandmother's cheek. "I'll keep it safe," he assured her, "and will return it as soon as it's done the job."

He squeezed the ring onto his pinkie finger, kissed his grandmother again and started out, only to have Maybell thrust a plastic container into his hands.

"A dozen lemon shortbread cookies," Maybell explained. "Guaranteed to soften up the worst of grouches."

Since Cal had eaten plenty of Maybell's cookies over the years, he knew that was usually true. The lemon shortbreads were especially tasty. But Becker was a couple of rungs above being a plain old grouch, so even these might not perform any mood miracles.

"Thanks," he told Maybell, figuring if Becker didn't want them, then he and Charlotte could have them.

He kissed Maybell's cheek as well, repeated his thanks and headed out to his rental truck, where he tucked the cookies beneath his seat. Audrey's own rental was nowhere in sight so she obviously hadn't lingered once she'd made her exit. Cal made a mental note to email her later in the week to check on her. He made another mental note to check on his father, even though Blue was already doing that.

Of course, his family was no doubt making some mental notes to check on him, too. They were all clearly worried, and Cal would have liked to assure them that the worry wasn't warranted, but other than lip service, he couldn't do that. Because he definitely didn't feel as if he was operating on solid ground right now. He definitely wasn't in any mental shape to climb back into the cockpit and at the moment didn't even have the desire to.

Would that change in twenty-nine days and a handful of hours?

Cal knew it wouldn't. That love of flying was gone. Just gone. The problem was the love of everything else but his family was, too. He was sliding deeper and deeper into that dark hole and didn't know how to come out of it.

With that dismal thought, he drove away from the ranch and into town to Charlotte's law office. This time, he parked out front, but he still moved with some evasion since Cal didn't especially want to talk to anyone about his homecoming, Harper or his engagement. He hurried into the office, the bell announcing his entrance the moment he opened it.

And he immediately saw that Charlotte wasn't alone.

Her mother, Izzie, was there and so was Noah's father, Taggert. They turned toward him, and it seemed to Cal that they were all holding their breath, waiting for him to do exactly what he didn't know. In fact, not knowing what to do applied to Cal, too, since he wasn't sure how much Taggert and Izzie knew.

About Noah's breakup with Charlotte.

About the reason for the breakup.

About the fake engagement.

So it seemed like a good time for Cal just to stand there and wait out the silence rather than blab something he'd regret. He didn't have to wait long. Taggert stepped toward him, extending his hand for Cal to shake.

"Welcome home," Taggert said in the deep baritone voice that had always reminded Cal of Darth Vader.

Taggert, however, was nothing like the often-intimidating, iconic character. He was more a silver-haired John Wayne in his well-worn brown leather vest, cowboy boots, Stetson and good ol' boy demeanor. Even though Taggert and his family came from money—and plenty of it—the man didn't wear or drive his wealth.

"Thanks," Cal said, but didn't add anything. He was still waiting to see what had already been said.

"Yes, welcome home," Izzie echoed, coming closer and hugging Cal.

As usual, she smelled of Chanel No. 5 perfume, a scent he would always associate with Charlotte's mom. Unlike Taggert, there was plenty of flash. Izzie was the current mayor of Emerald Creek and was wearing a powerhouse red sleeveless dress that showed off her toned arms and body. She looked as if she'd stepped off the pages of an AARP ad.

"They know the engagement is fake," Charlotte spoke up. She stepped closer, too, moving ahead of Taggert and Izzie, and Cal saw the nerves in every bit of her expression. "They understand why we're doing it," she added in a mutter.

"Though we don't approve," Izzie was quick to say. "Taggert and I want her to have a heart-to-heart with Noah as soon as possible so they can work out their differences."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, but Izzie and Taggert didn't see it since her back was to them. "I was just explaining that there aren't any differences to work out. Noah took the chicken-poop path of sending you to do his dirty work of breaking up with me."

So, Charlotte had clearly moved on from the shock of Noah's news to the anger stage. Good. Cal was on the same page as her. He was plenty pissed at his old friend for this whole mess.

Izzie rolled her eyes, too. "Noah probably just wants Charlotte to have the opportunity to move on and have children. Her biological clock is certainly ticking away for that."

More eye rolling from Charlotte. A huff, too, that let Cal know this particular discussion with her mom hadn't been going especially well. Taggert wasn't huffing or making faces, but it was obvious that he, too, was displeased with what his son had done and was uncomfortable with this discussion.

"Noah still loves you," Izzie insisted, moving so that she could see Charlotte's face. "Tell her, Cal. Noah loves her."

Cal was certain he was showing plenty of nerves, too. He certainly couldn't make that assertion, not without going into other details that Charlotte had clearly withheld from them.

"If Noah loved me, he wouldn't have sent Cal to break up with me," Charlotte grumbled.

Izzie was quick to shake her head, and she took hold of Charlotte's shoulders. "On the contrary. This proves how much he loves you. Noah wants to give you the freedom to get married and have children." She added an annoying ticktock sound for her biological clock. "I'm sure he's crushed, and I'm equally sure that if you tell him you want to reconcile he'll jump at the chance. Because I know you, Charlotte, and I know you love him, too."

Charlotte didn't respond, not with words anyway, but Cal could practically see cartoon steam coming out of her ears. "I haven't had sex with Noah in over two years," she finally snarled. "Does that sound like I'm in love with him? Does it?" She'd gotten louder with each word.

Then the silence came. The blush fired across her cheeks. And Charlotte grimaced, probably because she hadn't wanted to share that TMI detail with any of them. But it gave Cal a WTF moment. Noah had certainly been home during the past couple of years, probably two or three times, and he hadn't had sex with the woman he considered his girlfriend? It was a sort of sexual ghosting, and Cal had to wonder whose idea that'd been—Charlotte's or Noah's?

"Sex isn't the most important thing in a relationship," Izzie went on, and while Cal wasn't sure who was the most uncomfortable with this discussion, he thought it might be a three-way tie with Charlotte, Taggert and him. "Love is. And Noah loves you. Doesn't he, Taggert? Noah loves—"

"Noah knocked up another woman, and he's planning on marrying her," Charlotte blurted.

That stopped all other conversation, and Izzie's mouth froze just before the word you . Izzie stared at her daughter and then looked at Cal, clearly asking for some kind of clarification.

Cal settled for a nod.

"What?" Taggert demanded.

Cal gave him a nod, too. Charlotte went with actual words.

"Noah's girlfriend is pregnant," Charlotte repeated. She ended that with a heavy sigh. Obviously, the fit of temper had come and gone, and now she just looked spent.

Cal knew how she felt.

"That can't be true," Izzie muttered. She repeated a couple of variations of that, adding some headshakes to it. "Who is she?" she demanded, shifting her attention to Cal.

"I've never met her," Cal said. "But it's true about her being pregnant." He didn't add that Noah had been happy about that, because that would be like adding salt to Charlotte's wound.

Well, maybe.

Two years since she'd had sex with Noah? Cal had to go with another WTF on that. How the hell had Noah managed to keep his hands off her that long?

And that mentally stopped him in his tracks.

No way should he be thinking that. Heck, no way should he be linking Charlotte and sex, even when it was in a WTF context.

"You're still planning on driving out to see Becker?" Charlotte asked, obviously giving the conversation a big shift in topic. Well, not that there was actually anyone talking at the moment.

The news had stunned Izzie and Taggert to silence, and Cal wasn't volunteering anything more on the walking-on-eggshells revelation. Taggert would no doubt need time to come to terms with his impending grandfatherhood. Izzie would need equal time to wrap her mind around the big-assed life bubble that'd just been burst. No double wedding for Noah, Charlotte, Taggert and her.

"Yeah," Cal verified. "I'm going to see Becker. I just stopped by here first..." He wasn't sure how to finish that, but he'd come to check on her.

Charlotte took his unfinished sentence and ran with it. "To see if I wanted to go with you. Well, I do. Mercy, do I," she muttered in an "I've got to get the hell out of here now" tone.

"I'll call you later," Charlotte said, dropping a quick kiss on her mother's cheek. As she grabbed her purse from her desk, she looked at Taggert. "I'm sorry for dumping the news on you like that."

Charlotte added, "Please lock up when you leave," and headed out with Cal. Fast. She hooked her arm through his to get him moving and then practically jumped into his truck. She immediately let out a long breath that she'd clearly been holding.

"Drive, please," she said.

Cal complied, in part because he wanted to get away from Izzie and Taggert, too, to give them time to process what they'd just learned. But he also wanted to do whatever he could to try to soothe Charlotte. Driving away might help. Then again, maybe helping wasn't possible at the moment. She no doubt still had plenty of processing to do, too.

It was about a fifteen-minute drive to Becker's place, and Charlotte didn't say anything for the first eight minutes. "I'm sorry you ended up being part of that conversation."

Since her focus was straight out the windshield, Cal voiced a shrug instead of doing an actual one. "It's okay."

"No, it's not," she grumbled. "And trust me, I hadn't planned on telling my mom and Taggert this way about Noah's pregnant girlfriend. I shouldn't have snarled that out in anger."

"The anger's plenty justified," Cal assured her.

She glanced at him, maybe to see if he meant it. He did. Man, did he. "You deserve to rage on, to be so thoroughly pissed off that you yell at the top of your lungs. Or do voodoo curses for Noah's dick to fall off."

Her glance turned to a full stare, and then she laughed. "Mind reader. Because I did think of voodoo curses and dicks falling off." She stopped, and the smile faded. "Probably not something you want to hear about your best friend."

Actually, he agreed with her sentiment about the voodoo stuff, though he truly didn't want to discuss Noah's dick. And for reasons he didn't want to explore, he didn't want to think about Noah having once been Charlotte's lover.

But not for two years.

Yeah, that reminder wasn't going away anytime soon.

"I don't approve of what Noah did," Cal stated. "Especially the part about him not telling you in person about Elise and the baby. For the record, I tried to talk him into doing that, but he said the baby would be born by the time he got back from the deployment, and he wanted to be able to focus on that."

Which made Noah seem like an asshole and a happy prospective father. Both of which had to eat away at Charlotte.

"Even if you're not in love with Noah, this all stinks," Cal added.

"It doesn't stink for Elise," she countered. "Or for Noah. He'll have a baby that he apparently wants." Charlotte stopped, swallowed hard. "He just didn't want the baby with me."

Cal silently cursed. Verbally did, too, and he would have launched into an attempt at some of the TLC that Noah himself had suggested. But Charlotte waved him off.

"I'm not in love with Noah," she spelled out. "And I'm sure once I get over the shock of what's happened, I can even be happy for him, his wife and baby. Eventually," she tacked on. "Okay, maybe not actually happy for him, but after a year or two, I might not want to call Noah every curse word in a sailor's vocabulary."

Yeah, that urge might fade. Might. But this had all been a hard blow to Charlotte, and she wasn't getting over it anytime soon.

"For now, Port in a Storm is my baby," she added a moment later, "and I want to put my mental energy there, not with Noah."

That didn't sound like lip service, which pleased Cal. He didn't expect Charlotte to just jump right into moving on, not when she'd spent most of her adult life and teenage years as Noah's girl. But this seemed like a positive step.

Just as Charlotte was taking that positive step, Becker's ranch came into view. Of course, ranch was a relative term, kind of like calling a potholed footpath a highway . Still, there was a house, a barn and even some fences. And weeds. Lots of them in the pastures, around the house, and some even sprouting on the roof of the barn. Mother Nature was trying to claim the place for herself.

He spotted Becker's rusty truck, a good sign that the man was home. Then again, the man usually was. Now he only hoped that Becker didn't order them off his land and slam the door in their faces.

Cal parked and was about to get out when the sunlight caught the diamond in the ring on his pinkie and flashed a rainbow prism around the cab of his truck.

"I nearly forgot," Cal said, tugging off the ring. "It's Grammy Effie's. It's a prop for the pretense." He held it out for Charlotte.

But she shook her head. "I can't wear that. It's real. It's an important piece of family jewelry."

"That's what I said, too, but my grandmother insisted. She said that Becker would be more likely to believe the engagement if he noticed the ring." Cal figured the noticing would be a long shot, but still it wouldn't hurt.

Charlotte finally sighed, then nodded and took the ring. Apparently, his grandmother had larger hands than Charlotte because it was too big for her ring finger. She slipped it on her middle finger instead, and when she looked at it, there was a whole lot of worry and caution on her face. Cal wondered what that caution was about, but before he could ask, his phone rang, and he saw San Antonio Rehabilitation Center pop up on the screen on his dash.

And his stomach instantly tightened.

He took the call on Speaker and waited. He didn't have to wait long before he heard a woman's voice.

"Lieutenant Colonel Donnelly?" she asked.

"Yes," Cal verified once he cleared his throat.

"I'm Dr. Meredith Kentrell," the woman explained. "I'm Harper's therapist."

"Yes," he repeated, though he had already guessed the caller had some kind of connection with Harper since that's where she was receiving treatment. "How can I help you?"

"I think it's more of a matter of how you can help Harper," the doctor quickly countered.

"How?" he managed, fully aware that Charlotte was studying him, and that this round of worry and concern was for him.

"Well, I was hoping you'd come to my office so we can discuss that," Dr. Kentrell answered. "Or I could come out to Emerald Creek to see you. Either way, if you're willing, I think it will speed up Harper's recovery if you'd consider visiting her."

"Visiting her?" Cal repeated. "Did Harper say that's what she wants?"

"No. I'm still working on that, but I believe it would be extremely beneficial for her to see you. After you and I have talked, that is. You'd need to understand what you might be walking into if you did agree."

Cal didn't answer. Couldn't. And the doctor must have taken his silence as a cue to continue.

"I was hoping you and I could talk tomorrow, around three or so. Do you think you could do that?" Dr. Kentrell asked.

Everything inside him was shouting a very loud no . But that wasn't what came out of his mouth. "Yes," he told the doctor. "I'll see you. And Harper," he added, praying it wasn't yet another mistake.