“Wait a minute!” Grace gasped. “You can’t get away with that earlier comment.”
“What comment?” It was typical that Sage had already moved on. With the mind of a genius, she was always moving forward, not backward.
“If a man came into your home and bathed, changed, and fed you, I think Spence might well have to shoot him.”
“Who in the hell is planning on coming to my house and touching my wife?”
Dr. Spence Whitman sent a thunderous scowl toward the two women, and they turned and smiled at him. His expression didn’t change.
“No one is doing that for me except you, love,” Sage said, walking over and kissing him on the cheek. His scowl lessened, if only a little. “Your little brother Cam was doing that for Grace last night,” she added before sending a wicked smile Grace’s way.
Grace wanted to shoot Sage when Spence glanced in her direction, his scowl completely gone. “Well, I’ll have to pat my brother on the back. He always has been in love with you,” Spence said with a wink.
“I am so not having this conversation with you, Spence. I was trying to talk to my best friend,” Grace told him pointedly. She was praying he’d go away and not tell Cam that she’d been at the hospital talking about him.
“Sure, sure. I’ll leave you gals to chat just as soon as my coffee is done,” Spence said, kissing his wife one more time before giving his attention to the espresso maker.
“Back to the kissing. After putting out that much effort, you didn’t even give him a little cheek action?” Sage asked.
Grace let out a slight growl when Spence turned her way again, and she shot a murderous look at Sage, who just smiled happily in return.
“We’ll talk more when we’re alone,” Grace said through gritted teeth.
“You know that she’ll tell me everything when you’re gone, right?” Spence said as he added half-and-half to his coffee and leaned against the counter as if he were planning on staying awhile.
“She wouldn’t do that, because it breaks the best-friend code of honor,” Grace told him. “If she were to break that, we’d be left with no choice but to ensure you came to a speedy death, followed by an unmarked grave so that she could never break the code again by talking to you.”
Spence laughed before stepping over and kissing Grace’s cheek once again. “Always a pleasure to see you. Let’s do dinner tomorrow night. I’ll grill steaks, and you bring your famous oriental chicken salad.” He didn’t leave the room before giving Sage one more scorching kiss, and then finally the two friends were alone.
“How in the world were you so lucky as to find and marry that man?” Grace sighed.
“Hey! Hands off. I chose Spence, you chose Cam. We were supposed to both be married by now so that we’d be sisters,” Sage reminded her.
“You chose the better brother,” Grace grumbled.
“I did do well,” Sage said. “But so did you. If you would get over your silly pride and jump that man, you’d feel so much better. He’s in love with you, and you’re in love with him. You know that in the end it will all work out, so why not skip the melodrama and just get to the I dos?”
“Who are you and what have you done with Sage Whitman? Marriage has morphed you into some other human being—certainly not my shy BFF,” Grace snapped, exasperated.
“She was a bore. Spence makes me come alive—actually makes me come over and over and over again. And when you feel as good as I do, you want everyone you love to feel the same way,” Sage told her, a bit smugly.
Grace rolled her eyes. “Oh, my gosh! It’s been so long since I’ve been around people in love, I forgot how nauseating it is,” she grumbled. “And Cam and I are certainly not in love with each other. That died ten years ago.”
“True love never dies. It may dim, and it may drift to the far reaches of your mind if you allow it to, but all it takes is a spark, a scent, a memory, and in a flash, you’re back at the moment your heart fluttered for the first time. You and Cam are meant to be, so no matter how much you fight it, the result will be you in a beautiful wedding gown, and me picking out my own maid—no, matron—of honor dress. I so don’t trust you with that task,” Sage said, and just then her beeper went off.
“I wouldn’t trust me, either, after the awful dress I had to wear to your wedding,” Grace growled. “Not that I’m going to be getting married, especially to Camden Whitman.”
“Denial, denial. And that dress was from Paris and absolutely fabulous.”
“I’ll let you think so,” Grace said. “Where are we going now?” Sage was once again on the move.
“To the ER.”
Grace trailed behind her friend toward the emergency room, knowing their time was about up.
When a child came in on a stretcher, blood pouring down his hand and his parents sobbing as they were led in right behind him, Grace decided that this scene was just too much for her. Especially after the loss she herself had suffered so many years ago.
“I’ll call you later. I’m going behind the doors now.”
Grace backed away as Sage’s favorite nurse, Mo, ran by holding up a Broselow tape, ready to assist in the trauma. “I hope you got some coffee into your friend, Grace, because we’re going to need her brain working at full capacity.”
“I did, Mo. Good luck,” Grace called back before turning to leave.
Before the door shut behind them, Grace watched this superstar team begin work on the small child.