Declan:

Lana runs out of the clinic.

Both Blake and I are frozen in place for an instant, then we rush after her, but before we can catch up with her, she jumps into her car and guns out of there.

Damn it. Blake and I had walked to the Clinic of Love. Blake’s car is parked at the Nanny Goat. “We need to go after her,” Blake says urgently. “She has us mixed up with Swanson and Rhodes.”

I frown in puzzlement. “But how?”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone in town knows about the Clinic of Love,” I say slowly. “But Lana isn’t from Goat. How did she find out about Swanson and Rhodes?”

“Maybe she overheard something at Goat Morning?” Blake asks, but he looks perplexed as well.

“That’s not how she knows,” a third voice interjects. Rhonda. She bites her lower lip and doesn’t meet our eyes. “Ted wouldn’t listen when I told him to give Lettie Herman her money back and walk away from that mess,” she says. “So I gave them a little nudge.”

I stare at the office assistant. “What did you do, Rhonda?” I ask, my voice dangerous.

“I called a newspaper in Portland,” she mutters sullenly. “A small weekly paper called The Torch. I thought that if Ted and George found out that a reporter was onto them, they’d clean their act up.”

Blake’s hands clench into fists. “Instead, they panicked and left,” he says, his voice hard. “Leaving Declan and me to clean up the mess.”

“You think Lana’s a journalist?” It makes sense. For an author, Lana seemed to spend very little time writing. At the county fair, she’d looked confused when I gave her the stuffed cat and told her she could call it Smokey. She could never explain exactly how the cat in her books solved crime.

But if Lana was in Goat to write about the Clinic of Love, being an author was a great cover story.

Blake looks bleak. “She thinks it’s us,” he says. “She’s spent ten days in our company, but she still jumped to the worst possible conclusion.”

There’s a sinking feeling in my stomach. “I know.” Does Lana really think so little of us? We haven’t talked about what we do for a living, but does she really think we’re capable of cheating on her in such a sleazy fashion?

She’s nowhere to be seen, and walking toward us is a group of Elvira Grantham’s friends. “Blake,” one of them calls out. “I’m so glad there’s finally a real clinic in town.”

Elvira’s sent us patients.

So I do what I’ve always done. I put aside my feelings and emotions, and I get to work.

* * *

Blake:

I know all about the risks of drowning my sorrows in drink, but if there was ever a day for it, it’s today.

After we were done at the clinic, we searched for Lana all over town. She wasn’t in her room. She wasn’t at Goat Morning. We even went to Aunt Elvira’s house.

Lana was nowhere to be seen.

So Declan and I are at the Randy Goat. Beer might not solve my problems, but it sure as hell helps me forget.

“The two of you look like the world’s about to come to an end,” Nick O’Sullivan says, frowning at Declan and me. “I thought you’d be celebrating the new clinic. What’s the matter?”

“Long story,” I say bitterly. “Don’t want to talk about it. Keep the drinks coming, Nick. We’ll start with two shots of vodka and two pints of beer.”

He’s obviously curious, but he’s smart enough not to probe. “Coming right up.”

I’m on my second pint of beer when Lana enters the bar. She looks around the dimly lit interior, and her eyes land on the two of us.

She walks over to our table. “Can I sit down?” she asks, biting her lower lip.

I lift my shoulders in a shrug. “It’s a free country.”

She pulls a chair out and sits down across from me. “I owe you an apology,” she says directly. “I jumped to conclusions and assumed you were the doctors who ran the Clinic of Love.”

“Are you a journalist?” Declan asks her bluntly.

“Yes,” she admits. “My boss received an anonymous tip about the two doctors that offered ‘special services’ to their female patients. He thought it was a great story and sent me to investigate.”

I look at Lana. Her expression is tentative, and her eyes are red, as if she’s been crying. I harden my heart. “We’re not the doctors you’re looking for.”

“I know.” She flushes. “I spent the last hour Googling you.”

Declan looks at her. “Did you really need to Google us to know that?”

“No,” she whispers. “I was wrong.” She takes a deep breath. “I’m an investigative journalist,” she says quietly. “I don’t see the best of humanity. It’s made me cynical. But that’s not the only reason I jumped to conclusions.”

“It wasn’t?”

“No.” She hesitates, and then she straightens her shoulders. “I really like the two of you,” she says. “It was supposed to be a vacation fling, but I caught feelings, and I got scared.”

The weight that seems to press down on my heart lifts. “You caught feelings?” A smile spreads across my face. “What kind of feelings, Lana?”

Her cheeks turn pink. “Feelings I haven’t really had before,” she says, looking at her lap. “Feelings I don’t know what to do with.” She swallows. “Feelings for both of you.”

“Lana, look at me.” Declan’s voice is even.

She looks up.

“I turned down the job I’d applied to. Blake’s not going anywhere either. We’re staying in Goat, and we’re taking over the clinic.”

“You are?”

I nod. “I bounced around from city to city,” I tell her quietly. “I never wanted to settle down. And then I met a woman. One that made me want more.”

Her eyes fill with wonder. “You did?”

“We both did.” Declan places his hand over hers. “Our plan was to get the clinic up and running before we asked you to stay.”

“Of course, that’s when we thought you were an author and could work from anywhere,” I say ruefully.

A smile breaks out on her face. “Ask me to stay,” she says, her voice low and sweet.

I hold her other hand. “We’re crazy about you, Lana. Will you move to Goat and be in a relationship with us?”

“I’m crazy about you too,” she says. “And yes, I would love to move to Goat and be in a relationship with both of you.”

My heart feels like it might burst.

Declan clears his throat. “It’s almost eleven,” he says. “Nick’s going to throw us out any minute now.” A slow smile breaks out on his face as he surveys Lana. “And there was something we were going to do tonight.”

The threesome.

“You’re absolutely right,” Lana says, a wide grin on her face. “The last two items on my list. Let’s go.”