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“Not just yet. We’ll let you sit for a while then come back and check up on you. At that time, if you’re doing fine, we’ll consider letting you go.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Phoebe said.

Dr. Bradshaw nodded. “Get some rest,” he said, leaving the way he’d come.

Quentin pulled his shirt up and glanced down at his bruised abdomen.

“Oh my God,” Phoebe said, bracing from the darkness of it.

“It’s not that bad,” Quentin said. “It’s just a small bruise; you worry too much. I’ll be good.”

Phoebe wasn’t so sure.

“Thank you for coming to check on me,” he said.

“You don’t have to thank me for that. I never want anything to happen to you.”

They stared at one another.

“Why have you been avoiding me?”

Phoebe sat slowly, dropping her weight in the chair she’d previously occupied.

“Because I’ve been busy.”

“Too busy to accept a phone call from me?”

“Was it an emergency?”

Quentin considered her for a long time before Phoebe couldn’t take any more of his heated gaze.

“What?” she said.

“What do you want from me, Phoebe?”

Phoebe dropped her mouth open to speak, but nothing came out. She considered his question while he waited for an honest answer.

“Nothing,” she said finally.

“Now that’s not fair,” he said.

“What isn’t?”

“Telling lies right to my face.”

Phoebe sighed.

“I may not be able to give you what you want,” he said.

Phoebe rose from her seat. She didn’t want to hear this same rhetoric.

“But, I’m willing to try.”

She turned to him. “What?”

This time Quentin let out a heavy sigh. “I’m not perfect, Phoebe Alexandria Rose, not like you. My flaws run deeper than you know, and I’m not sure being with me is what you need, but that doesn’t mean I’m not willing to try it out, if you’re willing to risk it.”

He pulled his lips between his teeth.

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