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flower shop and cooking…”
    â€œI can’t leave you alone all day, and I’d have to if I worked full-time,” Grace said in a subdued tone. She didn’t add that she’d have to pay someone to stay with her grandmother, also, and there was no way anybody who knew her would take the job.
    â€œGood excuse, isn’t it?” Mrs. Collier grumbled. She cried out, suddenly, clutching her chest. “Oh!”
    â€œWhere are her nitroglycerin tablets?” one of the medics asked quickly.
    Grace ran around the bed to the side table, and handed them to him.
    Mrs. Collier protested, but he got it under her tongue anyway.
    She shivered as it took effect, but the medic who was monitoring her vitals gave the other one a speaking glance.
    â€œWe’re going to have to transport her,” he told his colleague. “Can you come with her?” he asked Grace.
    â€œYes. Just…just let me get dressed. I won’t be a minute.”
    She went out without a backward glance, dashed into her room, threw on jeans and a sweatshirt and her old sneakers and rushed right back to her grandmother. She didn’t bother with makeup or even comb her hair. She wasn’t going to a social event, after all.
    Garon glanced at her. She wouldn’t win a beauty contest, but she was a fast dresser, he thought with admiration. Most women he knew took hours dressing and making up.
    â€œI’ll follow you in the Jag and bring you home,” he told her.
    She started to protest, but one of the attendants shook his head. “We’ll probably have to keep her overnight at least,” he said.
    â€œI won’t stay!” Mrs. Collier raged, but she was still gasping and clutching her chest.
    â€œShe’ll stay,” the older paramedic said with a deliberate smile. “Let’s load her up, Jake.”
    â€œYou bet.”
    Grace stood back beside Garon as they wheeled Mrs. Collier out, still muttering angrily.
    Garon didn’t say anything. He escorted Grace down to the Jag and helped her into the passenger seat.
    â€œYou’ll need your purse, won’t you?” he asked.
    She indicated the fanny pack around her waist. “I’ve got Granny’s cards to check her in,” she said dully. “She can’t die,” she added in a hollow tone. “She’s all I’ve got in the world.”
    Which wasn’t a hell of a lot, Garon was thinking. But he didn’t say it. He was resigned to losing most of the night’s sleep he’d been hoping for.

2
    I T WAS MIDNIGHT before they had Mrs. Collier through the battery of tests that had been ordered. It had been a heart attack, fairly severe. Dr. Jeb “Copper” Coltrain came out into the waiting room to talk to Grace after he’d seen the results of the tests.
    â€œShe’s bad, Grace,” Copper told her. “I’m sorry, but it can’t come as much of a surprise. I told you this would happen eventually.”
    â€œBut there are medicines, and they have these new surgical procedures that I saw on the news,” she argued.
    He started to put a hand on her shoulder but immediately drew it back before it could make contact. She’d stiffened, something Garon noted with idle curiosity.
    â€œMost of those procedures are experimental, Grace,” he said gently. “And the drugs still haven’t been approved by the FDA.”
    Grace bit her lower lip. She had a beautiful bow of a mouth with a natural pink tint, Garon noticed without wanting to, and a peaches and cream complexion that he’d rarely seen on a woman once she took her makeup off. Her hair was a soft, golden-blond. She had it in a ponytail, but when unfettered, it must reach halfway down her back, and it had just a faint wave. She had small, pert breasts and a small waistline. She was perfectly proportioned, in fact. Looking at her long legs and rounded hips in those tight jeans made him uncomfortable and