“So… You, uh, want the job?”

“Yes.”

No hesitation. “I’ll e-mail you some of the info and the address. See you tomorrow at nine?”

“It’s a da—plan.” Cora bit her lip. “This was, actually, really nice.”

“It was.” She widened her eyes. “Do not tell Tia that!”

“No, never. She’d be insufferable.”

They shared a knowing smile, and Frazer tore herself from her seat. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow.”

A thought occurred to Frazer, something that struck her as important, considering who Cora was, considering the roots of the programme. Considering who Frazer was. “Cora?”

The look Cora gave her seemed filled with hope. It made Frazer pause. Licking her lips, she pushed on, ignoring what that meant.

“I don’t really want someone who works for me. If you come back on board, are you interested in doing it as partners? Equal say, just as with the hospital programme?”

For a moment, Cora stared at her, brow furrowed. Slowly, she smiled. “Yes, I am.”

“Great.” Something was expanding in Frazer’s chest, leaving her a little breathless. “Okay.”

Because who knew the programme better, really?

Then Frazer was walking backwards, and soon she was going to make an idiot out of herself by running into something. Wrenching her eyes off Cora, she turned and walked out.

The smile didn’t leave her face even as she pulled a fine out from under her windscreen wiper. The overinflated cost barely made a dent in her cloud nine.

Damn Tia.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

“So clearly, working at the clinic is going well?”

Cora nodded at Doctor Massey. “It really is.” And it wasn’t a lie. “I feel like I’ve been there since it opened.”

“Didn’t you say two weeks ago it was going to be part-time?”

Cora smiled for no reason she could really think of. “The hours were supposed to be part-time, but with the mentoring and hours put in training new mentors, I’m bordering on full-time anyway.”

Never mind all the hours she sat across from Frazer, heads bent over spreadsheets and documents spread between them, almost meeting in the middle, heat bouncing between them. They could spend hours brainstorming like that. Disappointment, low in Cora’s belly, always tugged when those evenings came to an end. Frazer always walked away after saying goodnight, a look in her eye Cora didn’t know how to read.

“It’s just so amazing in there. They’ve set it up to be so welcoming. Tia is perfect for the front desk, and they’ve covered a couple of walls with posters and pamphlets. It’s so gratifying to see people being welcomed into a space with zero judgement.”

Doctor Massey was nodding, so Cora just kept going.