“Yes,” the Russian said, looking up from his lap, a somber expression turning his angular features dark. “Together does not always mean happy ever after.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“Well, this is the sexiest thing I’ve ever worn.”

Twenty-four hours later, Alexis emerged from the bathroom in her hospital room and twirled for Noah. Her flimsy gown snapped in the front and hung on her like an old pillowcase.

He smiled from his seat by the window. “Everything you wear is sexy.”

“It’s the socks that really make the outfit.” The hospital had given her some no-slip socks with rubber grooves along the bottom.

Noah stood and walked toward her, all sexy and slow. Her body started to tingle as he dropped a kiss on her upturned lips. “You sure you don’t need me to stay here with you tonight?”

“I have to pee in a jug all night.”

“I can handle it.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, rising on tiptoe to kiss him again. “Go back to the hotel room and get some decent sleep.”

He’d been there all day, waiting and working in between her various tests. She’d had a chest X-ray, an echocardiogram, a radiology test, and a variety of cancer screenings. Now she had to spend the night for urine samples and a sleep study.

A discreet cough from the door brought them apart. Alexis turned around as Jasmine walked in. “Am I interrupting?”

“No,” Alexis said, but her cheeks were hot. “Noah, this is Jasmine Singh, the transplant coordinator.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Jasmine said, extending her hand. “Sorry I missed you this morning when you arrived.”

“Noah Logan,” he said, accepting the handshake.

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m heading home now but can be paged if you need me.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” Alexis said. “Mostly I’ll be sleeping.”

Jasmine gestured behind her toward the door. “You have a visitor waiting. I thought I should check with you first before letting her in, given the unusual nature of your relationship.”

That could only mean one person, and they hadn’t seen each other or spoken since the horrible scene at the Vanderpools’ house.

Noah’s hand settled on her back and rubbed a soothing circle. She looked up at him. “It’s up to you,” he said quietly.

“Would it be best if I told her to come back another time?” Jasmine asked.

Her throat suddenly dry, Alexis shook her head. “No, it’s fine. Send her in.”

She would have to see the family at some point if she was cleared for the surgery. Might as well get it over with now.

Jasmine walked out, and a moment later, Candi’s soft footsteps approached from behind the half curtain that separated the entrance from the rest of the room. She stopped short when she saw Noah and glanced nervously between the two of them. “Hi, um . . . Am I interrupting?”

Noah looked down at Alexis, his expression deceptively blank. “I can stay.”

“It’s okay,” Alexis said, lifting her face for a kiss. “I’ll call you later.”

“I—I’m sorry,” Candi stammered. “I should have called, but I wasn’t sure if you’d want to see me, and I just really wanted to see you. But I can come back or—”

“Candi, it’s fine. Noah was heading back to the hotel soon anyway, right?” She met his gaze and silently encouraged him to agree. He nodded, reluctantly.

He pressed his lips lightly to hers and squeezed her elbow. “Call me if you need anything.”

With a polite nod at Candi, he walked out.

Candi swallowed hard. “He really didn’t have to go.”

Alexis scooted up onto her bed and motioned toward the chair that Noah had vacated. “Do you want to sit down?”

Candi’s gait was stiff and awkward as she crossed the small room and lowered to the chair. She perched on the edge of the cushion the same way as that first day in Alexis’s office. She clutched a black backpack to her lap.

Her swallow was audible. “I’m sorry again about what happened at the house. I should have told them before you got there. I just didn’t know how, and, God, Cayden was such a jerk. He’s not normally like that. I swear.”

“I guess there’s no normal way to respond when you find out without warning that your father had another child out in the world.”

“I know I should have told them you were coming, but I was just so mad at Dad. He was being so stubborn, to not even consider you as a donor?” She suddenly stopped, a stricken look on her face. “I mean, not that you’re just a donor to him. To me.”

Alexis took mercy on her and offered a soothing smile. “I know what you meant, Candi. You don’t have to keep apologizing.”

“But I keep sticking my foot in my mouth.”

“No, you don’t. You’re nervous. I’m nervous.”

Candi’s relief was its own presence in the room—calming and quiet. “I, um, I brought something, some stuff to show you.”

“What kind of stuff?”

Candi reached into her bag and withdrew a black photo album before setting the bag on the floor. “Family photos and stuff.” A sheepish expression turned her cheeks pink. “I—I sort of made this for you. To keep.”

Alexis’s chest tightened. “Thank you. That was very kind.”

Candi flipped open the cover. “It has pictures of, like, the whole family. I thought you might want to, you know, get to know everyone.”

Alexis wasn’t actually ready for anything like that, but she didn’t want to hurt Candi’s feelings. She’d obviously put a lot of time into the project. So instead, Alexis smiled and patted the edge of the mattress next to her. “Show me.”

“So, I sort of organized it chronologically,” Candi said, sliding up on the bed. “This is our grandparents.”

Alexis studied the first photo, a black-and-white picture of a beaming couple standing in front of a church altar.

“They got married in 1960. Dad was born exactly eight months later, which was sort of a scandal, I guess, because they tried to tell everyone he was premature but . . .” Candi shrugged. “The truth is that Grandma was probably knocked up on her wedding day.”

Alexis lifted an eyebrow. “Unplanned pregnancies do happen.”

Candi blinked. “Right.”

“You mentioned an aunt and uncle. Does Elliott have siblings?”

Candi nodded and turned the page. “A brother and a sister. They both still live in California.”

Alexis looked down at another photo of three children in an unmistakable sepia-toned filter of 1960s color film.

“That’s Dad,” Candi said, pointing at the oldest child. “And that’s Uncle Jack, and this is Aunt Caroline.” Candi paused and then looked up at Alexis. “You kind of look like her.”

Alexis didn’t see it. She’d been told all her life that she looked like her mother, and she was struggling to accept that anyone else’s DNA could have shaped her features.

“We have six cousins too,” Candi said, turning to another page. “Aunt Caroline had four kids, and Uncle Jack had two. They’re all pretty cool, but our cousin Jimmy is sort of messed up.”

“In what way?”

“He dropped out of high school and got mixed up in drugs and stuff.”

“That’s too bad.”

“He’s in rehab right now, though.”

“And the others?”

Candi beamed. Every tiny encouragement on Alexis’s part seemed to cement in the young woman’s mind that they were about to become BFFs. Alexis almost felt guilty. She was just being polite, but Candi seemed to take her interest as evidence of a blossoming relationship.

And maybe if Alexis was willing to be honest with herself, she’d admit that it was.

“So, our cousin Stephanie just got married last summer, and she works for some bank doing financial stuff. I’m not really sure what it is. That’s her brother.” Candi pointed at another picture. “He goes to UCLA. I think he’s majoring in business. Something boring like that. And our cousin Nicole graduated a couple of years ago from UC Santa Barbara and does, like, environmental stuff. She works for the forestry service or something.”

Alexis listened as Candi prattled on. She felt like an intruder, hearing family stories she had no business knowing. This was a family. She was part of this bloodline but knew none of them. She was the crooked branch on the family tree.

Alexis cleared her throat. “Are your, our, grandparents still alive?” The words tripped over themselves.

“Grandma is. She lives in a nursing home, though. She has Alzheimer’s.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Grandpa died ten years ago. He had a heart attack.”

It took a full half hour to get through all the pictures, and by the time they were done, Alexis felt like she’d just sat through a PowerPoint presentation on her own personal ancestry.

“So, there you go. Now you know everyone.” Candi handed the photo album to Alexis.

Alexis smiled as she accepted the heavy leather-bound album on her lap. The silence stretched out just long enough to get awkward.

Alexis finally cleared her throat. “So, Caroline and Jack . . . They aren’t a match for Elliott?”

Candi shook her head. “They got tested, but neither of them matched. And Grandma can’t donate because she has Alzheimer’s. She can’t consent.”

“So it’s really just me, huh?”

“I’m sorry,” Candi said in a rush. “I didn’t tell you that to make you feel bad.”

Alexis rose from the bed and set the photo album on the table there. “Don’t be sorry. I asked. You answered.”

“I know, but I feel like I keep saying stupid stuff around you.”