Page 16 of Save Me

Biting her tongue, she counted to three. “No thank you. I’m fine here.”

Eric nodded slowly. “Okay.”

He put his hands in his pockets and she waited for him to say he had to leave, but he just stood there fidgeting with something in his pocket.

“Well, thanks for checking in,” she said impatiently. “You can leave now.”

“I was in rehab.”

“What?”

One hand came out of his pocket, gesturing aimlessly at nothing. “I left so abruptly I didn’t have time to explain.” He swallowed and averted his gaze. “Wow. I imagined this conversation over and over, but it’s harder than I thought.” He looked back up to meet her eyes. “You’re surprised. I guess you didn’t suspect?”

Andie belatedly realized her mouth was open. She’d been around a lot of drug users in her youth, but Eric hadn’t rung any of those warning bells. And she prided herself on being able to spot a user from a mile away.

“What were you on?”

Eric shook his head. “It was poker actually…although I was starting to drink pretty heavily there at the end, after I started losing. When I left I had lost almost everything—even my mom’s house.” He coughed. “I supposed I should be grateful she didn’t live to see that. She still thought I was a successful surgeon when she died.”

Andie remembered he’d told her he’d moved back to Vegas to take care of his sick mother. The woman had passed before she met her, though, and Eric hadn’t liked speaking about her after she was gone. She tried to think of something to say, but Eric was intent on getting his explanation out.

“I had pretty much hit rock-bottom that night I did the emergency tracheotomy. You heard about it right? I had just been fired, lost the last of my cash and my car. I came to Lynx to drown my sorrows. I was hoping to see you, but to this day I’m glad you weren’t there. I don’t remember much of what I did, but it’s my rock bottom. Not remembering still freaks me out. I’m just grateful I pulled it off and didn’t kill the kid choking. I attracted your boss’ attention with that stunt. The next day he offered me a job, one contingent on going to rehab and moving out of Vegas permanently. Except for leaving you, it was an easy choice. Or at least I thought it was at the time. I didn’t realize how much I would miss you.”

Shit! I don’t have to forgive him.

“You could have told me all of this years ago,” she pointed out.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose. It was a familiar gesture. He’d done it a lot those last few weeks before he left.

“I was ashamed of myself. I mean, I lost my mother’s house. I still can’t believe I did that. But you’re right. You deserved an explanation—a better one than I just got a job offer I couldn’t turn down. Although, in my defense, back then I still believed Calen was Irish mob. I was scared of him so I may have rushed to rehab.”

“And they didn’t have phones?”

“Not for the first month. Part of the rules.”

Damn it, was she allowed to be mad after hearing his explanation? The first call from him had been around a month and a half after he left.

You can be whatever the hell you want. She didn’t owe him anything.

“Thank you for explaining, but all of this isn’t really relevant. I admit I’ve hit a rough patch, but I’m confident the cops or Mike will clear me. As for our former relationship, there’s not much to say. We used to hook up. Now we don’t. We’ve both moved on.”

“I haven’t.”

There was a charged moment when her heart did a little loop-de-loop.

“There hasn’t been anyone since you and I ended things,” Eric continued. “I know you have someone in your life or did very recently, but I didn’t want anyone else. I was focused on getting better and more recently on building my business. I’m running my own concierge medical service now. We work exclusively for McLachlan properties, but we’re going to branch out soon. I’m hiring more staff as we speak.”

Andie felt like she was encased in ice while her mind raced, trying to decide what to feel. Was he hinting that he wanted to get back together or was he trying to recruit her for a fucking job?

My dream job, she reminded herself.

Wait, he doesn’t even know you decided to become a physician’s assistant. She’d gotten her acceptance letter for the UNLV program right after he left.

“So…you’ve been busy,” she said lamely.

“I missed you,” he said softly. “I still do.”

Fuckety fuck fuck.

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