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brow. I pretended my knees weren’t about to buckle and sauntered casually forward.
    “Have a good day Mrs. Weber and remember to give him the medicine as directed.”
    “Yes, I will,” she said, ushering Daniel out the door.
    “Well, hello,” I said, greeting him beside Carra’s desk and clasping my hands in front of me. “What brings you here? You’re not ill, I hope.”
    “Not at all,” he said with a tilted smile. The man probably rarely smiled, and so it seemed his mouth was having trouble forming a proper one. “I had hoped to speak with you if I could. Perhaps over lunch?”
    Carra knocked over a cylinder, spilling pens across her desk, a few falling off the edge onto the carpet. “I’m sorry,” she said, flustered.
    “It’s all right, Carra,” I said before turning back to him. “Sure, I was about to break for lunch anyway. Let me get my bag in the back.”
    I walked down the hall past the examination rooms into my office. Carra was on my heels the instant I stepped through the door. “Do you know who that is?” she asked in a yelling whisper, her eyes alight with glee.
    “Yes,” I said, pulling open the filing cabinet where I kept my purse. “That’s Demetrius Cade. Jessen’s brother.”
    She laughed hysterically. “That is Demetrius Cade . Most eligible and delicious and wealthy and beautiful bachelor in all of Gladium.”
    “Good Lord, Carra. He doesn’t have all those titles, does he?”
    She shook her head in disbelief. “You have no idea. I’ve never seen him in person. Only in the social event columns. But wow , he’s even lovelier up close. And he smells like heaven .”
    “Please don’t faint and hit your head. I’m too tired to do a healing to stitch you up.” I shouldered my bag and walked into the hall.
    Carra scooted along behind me. “I can’t believe you’re going on a lunch date with him,” she yell-whispered again.
    I spun and stopped. “It is not a date. Just lunch. You heard him. He wants to talk to me about something. Most probably the parliament hearing or a family issue.”
    Carra propped a hand on her hip and smirked. “If he just wanted to speak with you, he could do it right here in the clinic. No. Conversation plus food plus two attractive single adults equals a date.”
    Carra was doing nothing for my nerves. Her date-labeling this casual lunch amped my anxiety to red alert. I smoothed my skirt and my hair hurriedly.
    “You look great,” she said with a grin. “And I want all the details tomorrow.”
    “Okay,” I said back in the same girlish whispering, feeling ridiculous. “I’ll give you all the details if you don’t swoon over him and embarrass the both of us.”
    She giggled. “I won’t. It’s just that…it’s Demetrius Cade .”
    “Yes, we’ve established that.” I lifted my chin and marched out into the lobby as calm as I could. “Ready?”
    “Ready.” He held the door open for me. “It was nice meeting you, Carra,” he added with a smile.
    “It was nice, too,” she said, giggling neurotically. “For me to meet you, I mean. Also.”
    I gave her a look and hurried out the door. “So, where to?” I asked once out on the street.
    “Wherever you like,” he said. “Sicero’s is not far from here.”
    Sicero’s was an elegant, posh, and crazy expensive restaurant I’d never stepped foot in.
    “Hmm, why don’t we go a bit more casual if you don’t mind? The bistro on the corner is quite good.”
    “The bistro it is then.”
    We walked along Sable Street in silence. I glanced over and caught him staring. “Mr. Cade, you’re examining me. And it’s a little unnerving.”
    More like a lot.
    “Sorry. I guess I was just expecting different attire for a healer.”
    I glanced down at my v-cut sapphire blouse and A-line black skirt that swished just above my knees. “I suppose you expected a white cloak and comfy, ugly shoes.”
    “Perhaps I did.”
    He opened the door for me when we stepped up to the bistro. I took