You and I, Me and You by MaryJanice Davidson Page B

must have been holding his breath, too, because all of a sudden he gasped a little and then said, very fast, “Listen, I jumped at the chance to give you a ride because we-haven’t-really-had-any-more-time-alone-since-you-were-in-the-hospital.”
    â€œOkay.” I put every shred of neutrality I could into that one word. I didn’t want it to be a question: okay? Or bitchy: o- kay ! Just … neutral.
    â€œAnd I wasn’t really your doctor, so it’s not a question of ethics, but I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
    â€œYou didn’t,” I lied. It was not his fault I was a quarter of a century old and had an adolescent crush.
    He took another breath. “I respect that you’re with a baker but I just— I thought what you did for Luanne, getting shot for her … I thought that was incredible. Unbelievably brave. Unbelievably brave. And then to come find me when you were still hurt and bleeding and tell me the whole background, all those murders of all those boys…” He shook his head, and went back to looking at the street. “It was incredible.” And then, in a softer tone, “I think you’re incredible.”
    I leaned toward him. He again (yay!) pulled his gaze from the street and looked at me, and his dark gaze filled the car, the world, my world. My lips parted and

 
    chapter twenty-three
    â€œTake a left at the corner.”
    Gallo jerked back. “What? Oh. Sure.” The car swerved and then he got it under control. Poor idiot. Poor Cadence.
    Poor me.
    (Cadence, I’m sorry. I will not let you ruin what you have with your baker because I have a silly infatuation.)
    Cadence’s “adolescent infatuation” … such a thing had never happened to us before, but I suspected she was feeling my infatuation with Dr. Gallo. Too much had happened to us too quickly, and the shadow of serial murder had fallen over the entire sordid affair. No one was thinking clearly. I could not expect Cadence to understand, or have the presence of mind to
    (Kiss him.)
    maintain her self-control.
    â€œI hope this was not terribly out of your way.”
    â€œWhat? Oh. No, it was no trouble.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œWhy was it no trouble?”
    â€œOh. Uh.” Dr. Gallo seemed to be mentally flailing, as it were. For a fact he was confused, but that was all right. So was I, so was Cadence. Likely the only one who was not was Adrienne, and she was psychotic. “Because I live in Golden Valley.”
    â€œGolden Valley is all the way across the Metro Area from Eagan,” I observed. “That is the polar opposite of ‘no trouble.’ Right at the corner.”
    Rattled, he obeyed. He kept glancing me with his periphery vision. “Sag—”
    â€œRight at this corner as well.”
    â€œOkay. Why did you?”
    Let me out of this car. I have to get out of this car. “Why did I what, Dr. Gallo?”
    â€œOh, it’s Dr. Gallo now?” he muttered. Then: “Why did you find me not twelve hours after being admitted for a gunshot wound to tell me things I know damn well you could have gotten fired for telling me. I know why you passed out,” he added, back to muttering to himself. “That’d be the gunshot wound . The rest is a puzzle.”
    â€œThird house on the right.” Because you deserved to know. Because your nephew’s death wasn’t your fault. Because evil is never truly punished, but occasionally can be stopped. Because I think about you all the time. Because I am a fool and you are, too.
    He smelled like clean laundry and an underlying scent, faint but definable, like wood smoke. Perhaps his apartment had a fireplace. Perhaps I would like to fuck him in front of his (alleged) fireplace.
    I have to get out of this car.
    â€œHere it is.”
    â€œSag?”
    â€œThank you for the ride.”
    â€œIt’s all right if you