Crossing the Line. Lori Wilde

was the last one to arrive. Vanessa and Julie were already sitting at a casual picnic style table in the back overlooking the Colorado River. Catamarans glided majestically through the water, the setting sun cast golden lights over the sails. It was early, the crowd was still light. The band wouldn’t start playing for another hour.

      Vanessa and Julie weren’t watching the boats. Instead, they were engrossed in a game of “Sex or Dinner” and they hadn’t seen her come in.

      “Jerry Seinfeld,” Julie said to Vanessa with a toss of her ash-blond hair.

      Julie was one of those petite women who men seemed to instantly gravitate toward and want to take care of. Even dressed in the pink scrubs of the newborn nursery where she worked as a registered nurse, Julie looked incredibly feminine. She had a certain romantic naiveté about her that didn’t jive with the earthy, nononsense personality shared by the majority of nurses. If Julie weren’t so darned sweet, Elle would have been jealous of her.

      “Strictly dinner,” Vanessa answered. “Jerry’s funny, but sexy he’s not. How about Colin Ferrell.”

      “Seriously, you have to ask?” Julie blushed.

      “I gotcha, chica.” Vanessa flashed a sly smile. “Sex all the way with that delicious Irishman.”

      “Sex sounds fabulous,” Julie said, “but you know I’d be too shy to see it through. Good thing Colin is just the stuff of my midnight fantasies.”

      “What about that cowboy sitting over there on the bar stool underneath the Coors sign?” Vanessa nodded at a lean-muscled, good-looking man in a Stetson at the end of the bar. “Sex or dinner?”

      “Hmm,” Julie said. “This game makes me nervous when it leaves the realm of celebrity fantasies.”

      “Please, you’ve been working at Confidential Rejuvenations long enough to know that celebrities are no different than the rest of us. They just think they are. I mean come on, Mark managed to snag Cassandra Roberts.”

      “But Mark is rich and good-looking and a doctor.”

      “So sex or dinner with Mark?”

      Julie shuddered. “Neither. Besides the fact he’s Elle’s ex, there’s something about him that’s just…”

      “Hi, guys,” Elle said, rushing to let her friends knowshe was standing there before they kept talking about Mark. She plunked down beside Julie and hooked her purse over the back of her chair. “I had to restock the crash cart before I leftwork.We had a code at the end of the shift.Ateenager.”

      “Oh gosh, it’s especially awful when it’s a kid. Survivor?” Julie asked, nibbling her bottom lip.

      Elle nodded and smiled triumphantly. It was always a good day when they saved a life. “We got her back.”

      “That’s great news,” Vanessa said.

      Because of patient confidentiality, Elle couldn’t discuss the case with her friends, although she longed to tell them what had happened and get their opinion on the odd turn of events. The daughter of a high-ranking local political official had collapsed at her private high school. The school had called an ambulance and they’d rushed her to the E.D., but by the time she rolled through the doors, she wasn’t breathing. A few seconds later, the girl had gone into full-blown cardiac arrest and they had to call a code.

      One of the girl’s friends, who’d been escorted to the hospital by the police, had confessed that she’d taken a pill they’d bought the weekend before from some guy they’d met at a rave. The lab had drawn blood samples from the victim, but they’d been unable to detect any drugs in her system, so they’d sent the samples out for more rigorous testing at a specialized lab.

      According to the victim’s friend, the pill was supposed to make you feel sexy and floaty and in love with everyone. It was a lot like Ecstasy, she’d said, only sexier.

      “We ordered a pitcher of raspberry beer and chicken nachos for appetizers,” Vanessa said.

      “Sounds great.” Elle slipped out of her cardigan. “Because of the code, I missed lunch. I’m starving.”

      “So,” Vanessa asked her. “How’s your week been so far?”

      Elle started to tell them about Dante, but what was there to tell? She was attracted to another man for the first time since her divorce. Big deal. It couldn’t go anywhere. “Nothing unusual.”

      “That’s not what I heard.” Julie reached for the pitcher the waitress set on the table along with three frosted mugs and began pouring up the beer. She tilted the glass to keep too much foam from forming.

      “What did you hear?” Vanessa leaned forward.

      “I heard Elle went into the woods alone on Monday and she came out with a baby and a man.” Julie grinned impishly and slid a mug of beer in front of Elle.

      “What?” Vanessa jerked her gaze from Julie to Elle, her dark Latina eyes flashing with interest.

      “It was a baby deer.” Quickly, Elle explained how she’d come to find the fawn.

      “What did you do with it?”

      “Charlotte came and got it,” she said. “The vet she works for has an animal sanctuary. They say the fawn’s going to be fine.”

      “Except that he’s an orphan,” Vanessa said gloomily. She’d had a difficult childhood and had the tendency to look on the dark side of life.

      Elle studied her two friends who were so different, not only in looks but temperament, as well. Julie was the timid, tenderhearted romantic who saw the world through rose-colored glasses. Vanessa was the bold, sharp-witted cynic with a fiery temper.

      And her?

      Well, Elle was the center. Neither sweet nor tart. Neither too timid nor too daring. Tepid. Average. Nothing special. Elle supposed that was one reason they were all such good friends. They balanced each other out.

      “So what about the guy?” Vanessa asked.

      “What guy?” Elle evaded, even though she wasn’t really sure why she didn’t want to talk about Dante. Usually, she told Julie and Vanessa everything.

      “The guy from the forest.”Vanessa took a sip of her beer and eyed Elle over the rim of her mug with an assessing stare.