He needed to let her know she wasn’t alone in this. “I still have nightmares about the night I got shot. I’ve been doing this job for a long time. I worked as a police officer in New Orleans for years and managed to not get myself shot, but last year I took a bullet right here in Papillon. It was funny because at the time I powered through. I mean it. I barely felt that sucker. I did my job and took down the criminals and everyone talked about what a badass I am. I don’t believe they would think the same about me if they knew how often I wake up in a cold sweat.”

Her eyes wouldn’t quite meet his. “I do understand that. And you’re wrong. They would still think you’re a badass.”

He let the words sit for a moment. If they were going to have any shot at being even friends, they had to get this out of the way. “You don’t like me knowing what happened to you. I’m sorry. I was curious. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy.”

Her eyes glanced away. “It made you think differently of me.”

“Why would you say that?”

She shook her head. “No reason. I’m sorry. I’m tired.”

When she started to stand, he reached out and put his hand on hers. “Lila, I ran over here as fast as I could. I damn near broke my legs trying to get to you. Finding out you survived a man killing your friend and himself in front of you didn’t make me less interested. It made me think about the fact that maybe you don’t need the additional pressure of having a man sniffing around you.”

She stood there for a moment, not taking her hand from his but also not twisting it around so she could hold it. “That’s not what my sister thinks. She thinks I need a man or I’m going to lose my business.”

She sank back down and eased her hand out of his, but her eyes had come back up. It was obvious she wasn’t talking about what she needed to talk about. Or maybe she simply didn’t want to talk to him about it. The upside? She wasn’t kicking him out, and at least she was talking to him about something.

“They’ll settle down. I know today was hard, and Doc didn’t make it easy. I’m going to talk to him about that. He needs to get out and talk to people, make them comfortable with you.” If he could get the man off that boat of his. “They’ll get to know you and things will be normal in no time at all.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“So we’re talking a couple of weeks? Because I’m on the razor’s edge financially according to those books.”