“Last Saturday, huh?” Helen laughed and tapped the side of her nose. “Don’t worry. Your secret’s safe with me.”

Lila held the handset between two fingers, dangling it as if it contained a curse. Which, for all she knew, it did. The only two people in the world who would feasibly call her at a client’s house were spinning plates in the next room. In fact, they were also the only two people in the world who knew she was here right now. So, who—?

“Hello?” she asked, holding the phone tentatively to her ear.

“Oh, hey, Lil. I thought I might find you there.”

“Patrick?”

“I hope you don’t mind me calling like this,” he said. Without waiting to hear that she did, in fact, mind, he went on. “I know you always turn your cell phone off during client visits.”

It was true, and for a perfectly good reason—because it was highly unprofessional to take personal calls while in someone else’s home. Then again, it was just as unprofessional for her sister to be throwing tea plates all over a client’s living room. And for her to be harboring highly suspect feelings for a man she barely knew. Every ethical and personal boundary she’d ever put up was crumbling to pieces around her.

“I’d rather you didn’t, but there’s not much I can do about it now, can I? What do you want?”

“To apologize. You didn’t let me finish at the restaurant.”

That almost caused her to drop the phone. Drawing a deep breath, Lila gripped the handset more tightly and did her best to look calm. Helen’s attention was focused on the dishes, but she kept sneaking sideways glances at her.

“Okay, Dr. Yarmouth,” she said in hopes that the other woman would hear the word doctor and realize this was no social call. “You may proceed.”

Patrick chuckled. “Gee, thanks. Only you could turn an apology into a funeral.”

Well, obviously. Turning perfectly ordinary situations into gloom and doom was exactly what he’d accused her of before. If Patrick’s idea of an apology was to call her up at a client’s house and remind her, however, she had no intention of lingering long enough to hear it. “Could we move this along, please? Puppies don’t train themselves.”

“Did I hear you say ‘Dr. Yarmouth’?” Ford’s voice sounded from directly behind her, causing her to jump.

If she’d been paying attention, she’d have noticed that Helen had given up on dish duty to make way for Ford’s approach. In the ordinary way of things, she would have been paying attention, since focusing on details was the way she liked to work. But her ex-boyfriend calling her at a client’s house while she wore a yellow sundress in the middle of winter was hardly ordinary.