Luckily for Kayla—and her jerk boss—my upcoming schedule would actually allow for this ridiculous potential plan. My shift would be changing soon due to doctor vacations, which would give me more leniency than ever for the next twenty days. I was still expected to be at work, of course, but I had been told that it would be more studying and attending lectures while my specific training doctors were away.

“Joseph never attends all the events. I talked to him already and found out which ones he wants to go to and which ones he thinks you should be with him at. For whatever reason, you wouldn’t be required to attend them all. Here’s the list,” she said, pulling out a single sheet of paper from her file folder and pushing it across the table toward me.

I grabbed the printed calendar and started scanning the dates. It actually didn’t look too overwhelming, to be honest. There were a lot of days with nothing in them. Just empty squares.

“What do you think?”

Glancing up at her, I answered, “It actually looks doable.”

“Right?” She sounded so surprised. “I thought the same thing.”

“I need to see him again,” I started to explain. “I can’t do this without making sure I can at least look at him without wanting to sew his mouth shut. His mom will never believe it otherwise. She’ll see the venom in my eyes.”

“I know.” She shook her head before groaning. “I can’t believe you still hate him after all this time.”

I blew out a breath. “It’s not like he ever apologized or anything. And he was a complete jerk to me that night.”

“So you keep saying.”

“Anyway ...” I brushed off where she was trying to steer the conversation.

I knew that Kayla wanted to know exactly what had happened between Joseph and me, but I didn’t want to tell her. She would make excuses for his behavior, like reminding me that he had been drunk and wasn’t normally such an ass.

But he had been so rude. Insensitive. And unkind. Even if he was hammered, that was no reason to say the things he had to me.

“You said his mom would be a hard sell. What’s she like?”

Kayla whistled before leaning back against the chair. “She’s smart. Observant. Is aware of far more than she lets on. You can’t let your guard down around her. Even if you don’t see her, she will be watching.”

“Damn, Kayla,” I groaned, second-guessing my decision after hearing all of that.

“Don’t get cold feet now.”

“I’m just not that good of a liar, and you know it.”

She whipped up a hand and held out one finger. “That’s not true. You lie to people all the time in your line of work.”

“Hey,” I argued.

“I just meant that you mislead. Give people a little hope when there might not be any. Tell them you did all you could when maybe you didn’t. Or maybe there wasn’t anything that could be done. You make people feel what you need them to in order to be okay with whatever happened to their loved one.”