Page 84 of I Am Salvation

After the call ends, Mark smiles at me. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

Mark narrows his eyes at me. “So…your boyfriend, huh?”

Mark is looking at me.

Really looking at me.

And for the first time, I realize how handsome he is.

He’s blond and blue-eyed, like my cousin Henry. Not quite as tall, but with a light-brown stubble and full pink lips.

One of the good guys. A paramedic. In a uniform.

So much different from Dragon.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Too bad.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” He shrugs. “I wouldn’t mind taking you out sometime.”

I furrow my brow at him. “Do you always hit on your patients?”

“I never hit on my patients. I’m not hitting on you.” He looks down at his clipboard. “I’m just stating a fact.”

I give him a weak smile. “If things were different, I think I would enjoy that.”

“But things aren’t different,” he says.

“No,” I say. “They’re not.”

Because I’ve already acknowledged—internally, at least—that I love Dragon Locke.

Can he ever love me back?

I don’t know. Having met his mother and knowing a little bit about his past, I’m guessing he probably thinks he can’t love.

But I believe that anyone can love.

Anyone at all.

Once we get to the hospital, Mark and Sarah take me into the ER. “Twenty-six-year-old female, laceration on her left hand, possible fracture or sprain of the right ankle.”

They get me into a bay, and a nurse enters. “Name?”

“Diana Steel.”

“Do you have insurance, Diana?”

“I do.”

“Good. I’ll get someone from admissions to come talk to you after we get you triaged.”

I simply nod as the nurse takes my vitals.

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