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So her bad attitude around her like a protective cloak, Lara shrugged

“Like I saidgoodbye”

Feeling ancient, every step filled with pain, she walked around him and out the doors

It was like getting dumped twice

12

LARA LOOKED UP frohed

“Seriously?” she asked, too exhausted to even sound angry

“Looks like,” Phillip said as he slid into the booth opposite her He was in civilian clothes, which probably accounted for why she’d been able to eat in peace for as long as she had

“How’d you findtechnique?” Lara leaned back in the cracked vinyl booth, laying one hand on her laptop “Did Castillo install a GPS somewhere?”

“Nah I just hit all the McDonald’s in walking distance until I found you”

Lara couldn’t stop her sh her misery

“Old habits,” she said with a shrug

As a vegetarian and a dancer, she’d lived on health food most of her life So she’d always headed for junk food when she was upset Phillip had found her at one when she’d run away at thirteen, at another after a disastrous country club dance when her date had du out

Lara was pretty sure the only ti that resembled personal conversations were that one Christmas and at McDonald’s

Sighing, she slid a fry-covered tray to the

“Why are you here? Did Castillo guilt you or so?”

A fry halfway to his ave her a look that was part confusion, part amusement

“What do I have to feel guilty about?”

“Nothing” She swiped a fry through the ketchup pool before pointing it at him “Which is my point But why else would you be here?”

“Castillo said I owed you soh the fact bothered him

“Oh,” she said, glancing down at the tray again