Unlucky 13

Chapter 109

My arms were full of flowers when I burst into Cindy’s room at UCSF Medical Center.

Cindy shouted out, “Thank God the flowers have arrived.”

I looked around. There were flowers everywhere, lining the window sill and on the various dinky tables, with some potted things on the floor.

“Who died?” I asked.

Cindy laughed. “Not me.”

She was in the bed that was cranked up to sitting position, wearing a little pink robe. Right beside her in the bed, wearing oversize denims and a navy-blue SFDA sweatshirt, was Yuki Castellano Brady.

“Hey—hey,” I said.

And, yep, Claire Washburn, MD, was hovering over the two of my girls with a plastic cup of neon-green Jell-O and a spoon.

They all looked very merry.

“You think this is lime Jell-O, don’t you?” said Claire. “Well, you’d be wrong. This is my own brew. Made with Margarita mix.”

I laughed. “That explains everything.”

Since all the vases and vaselike objects were in use, I went to the bathroom, took the lid off the toilet tank and dropped the flowers in, stems down.

When I returned, Yuki said, “There’s a no-crying rule. Okay, Linds?”

I nodded. I was too choked up to speak, really.

Cindy was fine. Yuki was fine.

I went around the room and kissed each of my friends and they kissed me. There were hugs, too, long ones, no one wanting to let go. Speaking for myself, I was thinking how life could end without warning and how freakin’ wonderful it was to have moments like this.

When we were exhausted from the hugging, I pulled over a chair for myself and sat down hard, next to the bed.

I said, “I want what you’re having.”

There were peals of laughter, one distinctive peal coming from Yuki.

She said, “Was that me laughing? I haven’t done that in a while.”

She was a little drunk, but that was appropriate. She had told me and Joe most of the horrific story, including that she’d shivved the bad guy.

“You told everyone?” I asked her.

“Yep. The Women’s Murder Club kicked ass this week.”

“I’ve got Ms. Mackie’s three-eyed corpse in my cooler,” said Claire. “So I’ll drink to that.”

Claire raised her cup of Jell-O, and just then there was a knock on the doorjamb.

The unsung hero of the hour, the man who’d taught Cindy to shoot, was standing there. I said, “Well, I’ve gotta go now, Cindy. I hear my baby calling me.”

Claire added, “I’ve got a baby, too, and I’m driving Yuki home. I need to get a look at Brady.”

There was a little rustle as we gathered our things. More kisses for Cindy and then we each said hi, as we edged past my good-looking, good-doing partner, who was standing in the doorway.

I hoped to God Cindy was well enough to handle this.