Dana’s perpetual smile seemed to droop as she looked over at Beau. I think she’d already come to the same conclusion I had.

“. . . don’t know,” she finally said when she glanced my way again. “. . . hope so.”

Me too, I thought.

When we finished arranging the extra trays of appetizers and brought them out into the living room, Dr. Watson took this as his cue to call everyone to attention, a fresh glass of wine in hand—clearly about to give some sort of toast.

I slid into a spot next to Nina, which also gave me the perfect opportunity to lipread whatever Dr. Watson was going to say. I threw all my focus into it, and it was only because Dr. Watson seemed to be a grand public speaker that I was able to make out the gist of what he was saying. I wasn’t able to split my attention between lipreading and watching Beau for his reaction, but I certainly didn’t miss the look on Beau’s face when Dr. Watson said that Beau was going to do his father proud by following his footsteps and going into medicine.

I did everything I could not to do a double take at this.

Beau going into medicine? No way.

I mean, Beau was so personable he’d probably make a great pediatric surgeon like his dad, but that didn’t seem like the right path for him. I’d always imagined Beau going to college to do anything and everything he could with books.

But Beau was forcing a smile while people applauded him, and thirty seconds later he excused himself, signing, RESTROOM, when I caught his eye.

Nina pulled me into conversation then, so I didn’t have the opportunity to do much else besides wonder what on Earth was going on with Beau.

Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

Slipping away from the party when Beau didn’t reappear after ten minutes was simple after I signed to Nina that I was going to the restroom. It was a little strange no one else seemed to be wondering where Beau was, but I was more than happy to go look for him.

There wasn’t much else on the first floor of the house besides what looked like Dr. Watson’s study, a guest bedroom, and a bathroom, and Beau was in none of those places. I felt marginally creepy tiptoeing my way upstairs, but the desire to locate Beau and make sure he was okay won out.

Upstairs there were more bedrooms and bathrooms, decorated in the same style as the rest of the house, and one of these rooms had to belong to Beau. Rather than go around calling out his name, I took a chance on the closest bedroom to the stairs and peeked inside.