He attempted a smile. “I can grow my hair back.”

She huffed a chuckle, shaking her head. “Diesel.”

“Dani,” he replied, levity gone. “Tell me about him so we can put it behind us.”

Her eyes shot to his. “Put it behind us? I told you that it’s my fault he’s dead and you say that we’ll put it behind us?”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “Talk. Where did you meet him?”

She glared at him. “In the ER. I was a resident. He’d ripped up his knee when he fell off his Harley. He was accompanied by a cop.”

“Because?”

“He was under arrest,” she snapped. “For forging a prescription.”

He didn’t react at all. “Why?”

She blinked at him. “Why what?”

“You wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone who was hurting people. Why did Adrian forge a prescription?”

Her shoulders slumped. “You’re not going to see me as anything other than nice, are you?”

“Probably not. Tell me, Dani. If this has kept us apart for eighteen months when we’ve both wanted each other, then I deserve to know.”

“You’re right.” He was. So she’d make herself tell this story that she’d never told another soul. “He was a recovering addict. Like Stone. Only he didn’t have a lot of money like the O’Bannions. He’d gotten help from a church-run rehab program in St. Louis. He volunteered there for years afterward. Up until he died.”

“So he was a nice guy, too?” Diesel asked wryly.

She shot him a pointed stare. “Yes. He was. He was always helping at the church, building things. He made blocks for the kids to play with, because the church didn’t have the money for toys. One of the kids in the shelter run by the church got sick. Really sick. She needed medicine, but her mom didn’t have insurance or the money to pay for the drugs. The pharmacist had turned her away. Adrian did have insurance. So he forged a prescription for the medicine, with his name as the patient. It wasn’t a narcotic, which let him plead down to a misdemeanor. He took the deal and served six months.”

Diesel studied her face. “You took the kid her medicine, didn’t you?”

Stunned, she nodded. “I did. How did you know?”

“Because I’ve watched you for months. I know you better than you think I do. You could have lost your residency had you been caught,” he observed.

“It was worth it.”

He smiled. “See? Nice.”

She rolled her eyes. “Adrian came by after he got out of jail. The nuns had told him what I did and he came to thank me. One thing led to another and . . .” She shrugged. “I was a goner.”

“Why didn’t you tell your family about him?”