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Instead of telling her that, I suggested, “You could let me have a taste of that cinnamon-sugar cookie.”

Alana cocked a brow, lifted it, and let me take a bite. As I chewed and glanced out the window again, Evangeline was gone. And when it didn’t matter to me either way, I knew I was officially over her.

ELEVEN

Alana

“Thank you, Doctor.”

With a nod and a wave at my doctor and his office staff, a card for my next appointment in my opposite hand, I opened the door and stepped out into the waiting room.

My eyes instantly locked on Ty as he stood and assessed me. Seeing him take me in like that, my heart skipped a beat.

The last couple of weeks of my life had been such a whirlwind, and through all the chaos of it, meeting Ty was easily the best part. There was something about him that made doing this so much easier.

And it wasn’t about him acting as my bodyguard, so I wouldn’t have to worry about my safety that did it. While that certainly helped, it was only a small part of it for me. There was something else that set him apart from so many of the other people in my life. The only problem was that I couldn’t pinpoint if it was one specific thing or multiple things that had me feeling such an immense appreciation for him.

Was it that he’d agreed to help me dig into this story? Was it the way he allowed me to take the lead on it? Was it that he never questioned my methods or the path I wanted to take while working on the biggest story of my whole career?

Perhaps it had nothing to do with any of that.

Maybe it was that he’d refused to accept money to help me. Maybe it was the way he occasionally teased me. It could have been the way my body reacted from the simplest touch of his fingertips on my skin. Or, it might have been the way he stood from his seat and looked at me like he was gauging whether I was okay the second I walked back into the waiting room following my doctor’s appointment. An appointment he insisted he wanted to bring me to simply so he could spend some extra time with me.

Once he’d gotten whatever confirmation he’d needed from his visual inspection of me, Ty moved toward me and asked, “Everything all good?”

My shoulders fell, such disappointment moving through me. “I wish.”

Concern immediately littered his features, and he seemed to place his hand on my lower back instinctively. “Are you okay to walk?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Keeping his hand where it was, Ty jerked his head toward the exit. “Come on. Let’s get you to the car.”

Without another word, Ty led me out of the office, to the elevator, and out of the building.

Only after we were back in his car did he turn fully toward me and press for more information. “Is something wrong with your foot? Is it not healing properly? Did the doctor take your stitches out?”

My heart squeezed at the concern he showed for me. I’d dated a couple of men over the years, but none of them were likeTy. None of them cared or made me feel all warm inside the way he did.

“He did take the stitches out,” I confirmed.

“Was it painful?”

“It wasn’t terrible.”

Some relief seemed to sweep through him, but there was still an edge of worry. “I feel like the doctor gave you some bad news.”

“Yeah, he did,” I confirmed. “Apparently, I need to take it easy for the next few days, because although my doctor expected to see some swelling, what he saw was more than he would like. He’d asked me if I’d been keeping it elevated and allowing it to heal, and I had no choice but to admit I’d been doing a lot of walking. I explained that I hadn’t realized I needed to take it easy when I had the walking boot, believing I could just go about my business like normal. All of that to say, I’m not cleared to return to work yet, because he wants to see some improvement with the pain and swelling before granting me that permission.”

“So, you’ve been overdoing it?”

“I guess so. It’s probably the same reason I wound up missing breakfast at home yesterday morning, too. Apparently, my body took over and decided it needed the extra sleep in order to be able to repair and recover, and since I haven’t been giving it that throughout the day, it left me no choice. Maybe I’ll only be able to make one or two visits each day while working on this story until I get a little further along in my healing.”

Ty frowned. “Have you been working and visiting all of these spots the last few days while experiencing pain in your foot?”

I feigned innocence. “I thought some pain was to be expected.”

His eyes roamed over my face, studying me. “Why do I get the feeling you’re minimizing the amount of discomfort you’ve been feeling?”

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