Page 94 of Angel In Armani

“Room Two Oh One. Go down the end of the hall and turn left.”

“Thanks.”

She would check in on Sam, she decided. Her fight was with Lucas, not with him.

But as she rounded the turn in the hall as directed, she saw Maggie coming in the other direction. Both of them stopped. Then Maggie smiled and moved forward.

“Sara, what are you doing here?”

“My dad’s down the hall,” she said. “So I thought I’d see if Sam was still here.”

“He is,” Maggie said. “But they’ve just taken him off for some scan or other. I’ve been trying to keep his parents company. They flew in from Missouri and they don’t know anyone in New York.”

“They must be worried. How’s his shoulder?”

“Lucas—” Maggie broke off. “Sorry.”

“You can say his name,” Sara said. “I’ll survive.”

Maggie pursed her lips. “Let’s go get some coffee and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Maggie didn’t take no for an answer. Sara found herself across the street in a Starbucks with a Frappuccino in one hand and a blueberry scone in the other before she had time even to try to argue.

“You were going to tell me about Sam’s shoulder?” Sara said when they were seated at a table.

“I will,” Maggie said. “If you tell me what’s going on with you and Lucas. He’s been miserable for the last five days. What happened?”

“We broke up.”

“That much I gathered. Can I ask why?”

Sara started crumbling her scone. “It wasn’t going to work out.”

“Because he pushed your dad’s surgery?” Maggie sounded disbelieving.

“No, that’s not it. I mean, I was mad about that on the day but I understand why he did it.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that it’s always going to be like that. Lucas is a surgeon. He owns a baseball team. He’s always going to have something. It’s too complicated. He needs someone who’s used to his kind of world.”

“His kind of world?”

“Your kind of world,” Sara said. “I’m not rich, Maggie. I don’t know how to do fund-raisers and press and disapproving mothers.”

“Ah. Flavia. Quite frankly, Flavia Angelo’s a bitch,” Maggie said, shaking her dark hair back from her face. “Luckily, Lucas seems to be well aware of that fact, and he doesn’t let her get away with pulling her shit with him. But I take it she pulled some of it with you?”

“I met her at the ball,” Sara admitted. “We didn’t hit it off.”

“Sweetie, the number of people that do hit it off with Flavia Angelo can probably be counted on one hand. I don’t know how on earth she snagged Sandro. He’s much nicer. If you get him away from his wife.”

“I didn’t meet him,” Sara admitted. “Flavia was enough. She made it perfectly clear I’m not good enough for Lucas.”

“And you agree with her? Don’t be an idiot.”

“I don’t want a cold war with his family.”

“It’s doable,” Maggie said. “My dad’s partner, Veronica, doesn’t care much for me, but we coexist. It’s not like we have to live together. And you wouldn’t have to live with Lucas’s family. He doesn’t see them much. I see Veronica quite a bit but she knows I’m not going anywhere and she knows that if push came to shove, if she ever really tried to get between me and my dad, then she’d lose.”

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