I nodded. “I know. See you around.”

I walked out of the nursery and past the kitchen. Tom was still sitting at the table. This time he had a laptop open in front of him. Evidently he’d decided to do his work from home.

I walked briskly past the entry to the kitchen, not saying a word.

“Joe?”

Shit. Now I had to talk to him. I poked my head in the kitchen. “Yeah?”

“Leaving so soon?”

Yeah, I have a ranch to run. Why did people seem to forget that? Steel money didn’t grow on trees. Well, it did, and also in pastures and vineyards. But a hell of a lot of work went into it too.

“Yeah. Lots of work at the ranch.”

“Understood. It was good to see you. Stop by more often. Evelyn and I miss seeing you around here.”

I turned and lifted my foot to walk toward the front door, when something made me hesitate.

“Tom?”

“Yeah?”

“Could I bother you for another cup of coffee?”

“Sure, no problem. Help yourself. Sit on down here with me. We can talk.”

Talk.

And I had just the person to talk about.

Chapter Eighteen

Melanie

My five o’clock session rescheduled earlier in the afternoon, so after my four o’clock, I was left with an hour to kill before Oliver met me at the office.

I didn’t have long to wait, though, because I had a visitor. Rodney Cates. At least he hadn’t barged in on a session this time. Randi had left for the day, so he knocked on the open door to my office.

“Dr. Cates?” I cleared my throat, my nerves jumping. “What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to let you know that Erica seems to be doing a little bit better.”

A heavy sigh of relief left me before I could stop it. “Thank you. You don’t know how glad I am to hear you say that.”

“I don’t know how glad you are? I lost my daughter, and then I almost lost my wife. And you think I don’t know how glad you are that my wife is doing better?”

I hadn’t meant to hit a nerve. He was right. My remark had been selfish and unfeeling. This man was hurting, so I resolved to deal with him as I would with anyone else who was hurting. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I am absolutely sure you’re glad that your wife is doing better.”

“May I come in?”

I couldn’t very well say no, no matter how much I wanted to. “Of course.” I was sitting at my desk, but I stood and walked over to my session area and sat down in my chair. I gestured to the couch and the other recliner. “Please, have a seat.”

He plopped down on the couch and turned to face me. Yet he said nothing.

“What can I help you with, Dr. Cates?”

“There’s something I wanted to ask you. About Gina.”

I wasn’t about to reveal anything from my session notes, but I didn’t need to tell him that. “Of course. What do you want to know?”

“Did Gina say anything to you about falling in love?”

My throat thickened. She hadn’t, at least not until the letter I got after she died.

So I shook my head. “Not during our sessions, no.” Technically, that wasn’t a lie. “Is there a reason why you’re asking me this?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “One of her friends told Erica and me that Gina had been in love.”

“I see.”

“Wouldn’t this be something she would discuss with her therapist?”

I fidgeted with my hands in my lap. “Not necessarily.”

“This friend of hers, Marie, swears that she told her she was in love. Why would someone who was in love want to kill herself?”

“Dr. Cates, I wish I could help you. But honestly, there was nothing in my sessions that indicated Gina was suicidal.”

“Marie said Gina knew the person she was in love with would never love her back.”

“Like I said, it wasn’t anything we discussed.”

Dr. Cates stood and paced around my small session area. “I don’t understand it. If she was in love and upset that her love might be unrequited, why wouldn’t she discuss that with you?”

Because I was the one she was in love with. But I couldn’t say that. I hadn’t yet dealt with the fallout from Gina’s feelings myself.

“Who wouldn’t have wanted Gina? She was brilliant and beautiful.”

“And she was also very troubled, obviously,” I said.

Dr. Cates’s face twisted into…not rage, exactly, but not anything good. Clearly those words had not been the right ones.

“How did you not see this? What kind of a therapist are you?”

How did you not see that her uncle—your brother-in-law—was abusing your daughter all those years? I desperately wanted to say the words, but that would only make things worse. I stood. “Dr. Cates, I think it would be best if you left now.”

“No. You tell me.” He inched toward me.

Chills ran up my neck.

“How could you not have seen this happening? How could you not know she was in love?”

My blood ran cold. He was between me and the door. Randi was gone. It was after five o’clock, so unless a security guard was walking down the hallway, no one would hear me if I screamed.

I didn’t think Dr. Cates would actually hurt me, but I knew enough to see that he wasn’t completely in his right mind.

I gritted my teeth. “Dr. Cates, I will tell you one more time. You need to leave. Now.”

He took one more step toward me. “Not until I get some answers.”

“I don’t have any answers.”

“If you don’t have them, who does? You’re the only one. You’ve got to have answers. Where’s your goddamned file?”

My file was locked up, thank God. After the other day when the letter from Gina had slipped out, I realized how stupid I had been leaving it on my desk. How was I supposed to move on if that file stared at me from my desk like a vulture? It was safely locked in my file cabinet at home with my other files of patients who were no longer active.

I wasn’t an attorney, but I knew better than to give my files to this man anyway. After Gina died, I had spoken with an attorney and with another therapist who was a respected colleague, both of whom went through my files. They both concluded that I had not committed any malpractice and that there had been no reason to believe Gina Cates was suicidal.