Page 57 of Drake Eternal

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Drake exhaled. “I didn’t want you to be afraid. I wanted you to just live your life while we were separated and then you could come here, and I’d know you were safe.”

“Did you doubt me?” I asked, my voice soft. “Did you think Carlton and I…” I let out a laugh at that because it was so comical. I would never have, for even a moment, considered it even if I had been unhappy.

“Is he not a catch?” Drake grinned at that and searched for an image of Carlton Page on the internet. He found many, of course, because Carlton was a billionaire’s son. “He looks normal enough.”

“He’s a total nerd. A nerd who wears the best clothes and drives the best most expensive cars and thinks because of it, he’s a cool dude.”

Drake laughed. “I know the type. I tried my best all my life not to be that guy. At least my father wasn’t like your typical rich billionaire. That was the last thing he wanted. He hated capitalism and that was why instead of buying huge yachts and properties around the world, he created a foundation to help the poor and care for the sick.”

“He was a real humanitarian,” I said, thinking of the photo of Liam with his arm entwined with my father while they were in combat gear. I had a copy on my cell and called it up, then handed the cell to Drake.

“Dear old Dad. He was a humanitarian,” Drake said with a sigh. “I can’t wait to take Liam to see his grave. I only wish you could have known him,” he said and kissed me. “That Liam could have met him. He’d still be alive if he wasn’t so damn heroic. If he had just sent money like the rest of the moneyed class, he would be in New York City tinkering with his old cars and lamenting the fall of the Soviet Union.”

I smiled at that. “He did so much good with the business he started. All those surgical implements. And with the foundation. His legacy will live on. Which is more than most of us can say.”

He nodded and pulled me closer, kissing me, the photo of Liam on my cell in his hand.

We stayed like that for a moment, and then, he sighed.

“So now that we have all our confessions out of the way, what do you say to a nice warm bubble bath?”

I glanced up in his eyes and saw the warmth in them.

He knew that a bubble bath was the way to my heart. “I’m such a cheap date.”

“You are,” he said and kissed me, his arms pulling me down on top of him.

The way he was kissing me made me realize that the bubble bath would have to wait…

CHAPTER 20

The following two weeks went by like a blur.

While Kate and Sophie spent their time at the hotel enjoying the weather and the swimming pool, Michael and I were able to get the hospital and the city caught up with neurosurgeries, coordinating with the other units to manage the caseload. The two new surgeons arrived and were getting used to the hospital’s routine when I realized it was time to say goodbye.

“They’ve got things in order,” I said to Michael at the end of a long day while the two of us sat in his office. “I think we can safely go back to our lives, don’t you?”

Michael nodded and reached under his desk, pulling out a bottle of very high-quality whiskey.

“I do,” he said and grabbed two glasses from the file cabinet. “I had this waiting for just this moment. Here,” he said and poured me a shot. “Let’s toast to our success. It’s been an incredibly busy month, but we did it.”

“We did. Here’s to us,” I said and grabbed my glass and held it up.

We both drank down the whiskey, and Michael sighed with satisfaction when he was finished his.

“Well, now what? You and Kate going to Ethiopia?”

I nodded and placed my empty glass on the desk in front of me. “Yes. We’re meeting up with Liam’s mom and stepfather and will visit my father’s grave. Then, Kate and Sophie and I will go back home and spend as much time at the beach house as we can. The rest of the summer, if possible. I don’t go back until September, so we want to make the most of it.”

“Well, I envy you. I have to go back to Southampton and get back into the swing of things. We’re so busy, so I was lucky to be able to get time off for this. Now, I have to return and get things back in order there.”

“No rest for the wicked, I guess…”

Michael laughed at that. “I guess.”

He poured us another shot of whiskey and placed the bottle down firmly on the table. “This is the last one, I promise. Here’s to Liam. May his example of selfless humanitarianism be a light in the darkness.”

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