Phyllis covered her mouth with a shaking hand and nodded. “Your mother would be so proud of you. I hope you know that.”

He squeezed her hand. “Just get better.” He gestured to Dustin and Aidan, and they carried her out of the bedroom, navigating down the tight, cramped hallway.

Zach looked around Phyllis’s room with an unreadable expression. Then, with a sigh, he grabbed the unhappy cat and tucked her into the crook of his arm. Turning to leave, he found Brooke watching him.

As it had since the beginning, their odd connection caused a spark to pinball off her insides, from one erotic zone to another, and all the ones in between—but this wasn’t about their crazy physical attraction. Standing there, looking at him, she suddenly knew. It didn’t matter that she’d told herself she wouldn’t get her heart involved.

It already was.

“You okay?” she whispered.

“Yeah. It’s just that she—” Shutting his mouth, he shook his head. Brooke moved closer and put her hand on his arm.

Something went between them at the touch. Not the usual heat but something much, much more.

Yeah, her heart was involved. Big-time.

PHYLLIS RESISTED getting into the ambulance. She wanted to stay home, she wanted her cat, she wanted everyone to get the hell away from her. She even tried a diversion technique.

“There was a man in my yard,” she claimed suddenly as they loaded her inside the rig. “Did you see him? He was holding something.”

“Phyllis,” Dustin said gently. “You’re going to the hospital. If not for me and Brooke, then for yourself.”

“I recognize his face, I just can’t quite place him…”

“It’s going to be okay.” Brooke sat with her and held her hand. “You’re going to be okay. We’re just going to the hospital so your doctor can check on you—”

Phyllis shook her head, her eyes cloudy as she struggled to get up. “You people are idiots.”

Brooke sighed. “You promised Zach you’d do this, remember?”

The old lady closed her eyes. “Zachie.”

“Yes. He gave you his word that he’d take care of Cecile. And you gave him yours that you’d go get checked out.”

Phyllis’s mouth tightened, but she stopped fighting at least. Zach’s name had calmed her down.

Brooke had a feeling Zach had that control over every woman in his life, whether he realized it or not.

“There really was a man in my yard with a blowtorch, or something like one,” Phyllis grumbled, sounding more like her old self.

In the back of the unit as she was, Brooke couldn’t see out. She met Dustin’s eyes in the rearview mirror and he shook his head. He didn’t see a man.

Brooke squeezed Phyllis’s hand.