" Where’s the baby?”
“I just fed and changed him,” Haven said.
Hardy lifted Luke’s carrier and gave it to Jack, who took it with his free hand.
“Thank you.” I gave Haven a woeful glance as she handed me the diaper bag. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For falling asleep like that.”
Haven smiled and reached out to hug me. “There’s nothing to be sorry about. What’s a little narcolepsy among friends?”
Her body was slim and strong, one small hand patting my back. The gesture surprised me in its naturalness and ease.
I returned the embrace awkwardly. Haven said over my shoulder, “I like this one, Jack.”
Jack didn’t answer, only nudged me out into the hallway.
I trudged forward, nearly blind with exhaustion, staggering with it.
It took extreme focus to keep one foot in front of the other. “I don’t know why I’m so tired tonight,” I said. “It’s all caught up with me, I guess.”
I felt Jack’s hand descend to the center of my back, guiding me forward. I decided to talk to keep myself awake. “You know, chronic sleep deper . . . dep . . .”
“Deprivation?”
“Yes.” I shook my head to clear it. “It gives you memory problems and raises your blood pressure. And it results in occupational hazards. It’s lucky I can’t get hurt doing my job. Unless I fall forward and hit my head on the keyboard. If you ever see QWERTY imprinted on my forehead, you’ll know what happened.”
“Here we go,” Jack said, loading me onto the elevator.
I squinted at the row of buttons and reached for one.
“No,” he said patiently, “that’s the nine, Ella. Press the upside-down one.”
“They’re all upside-down,” I told him, but I managed to find the 6.
Propping myself up in the corner, I wrapped my arms around my midriff. “Why did Haven tell you ‘I like this one’?”
“Why shouldn’t she like you?”
“It’s just . . . if she says it to you, it implies . . .”— I tried to wrap my foggy brain around the idea—“. . . something.”
A quiet laugh escaped him. “Don’t try thinking just now, Ella. Save it for later.”
That sounded like a good idea. “Okay. "
― Lisa Kleypas , Smooth Talking Stranger (Travises, #3)
