Page 46 of A Billionaire Gentleman

“All right.” He scribbled something down and handed the paper to Sofi. “I’ll send you home with an EpiPen, but you’ll need to follow up with a regular physician soon to put together the best plan for you. Give that to him or her.”

“Thank you.”

“I’m going to recommend that you take it easy the rest of today and make sure you have someone close by. I don’t foresee any complications, but it never hurts to be careful.” He wrote something on her chart. “Do you have any questions?”

“No.” She folded the paper he’d given her. “Thank you.”

“I’ll send someone in with your discharge paperwork then.”

After a minute of uncomfortable silence, Sofi said, “I’m sorry I ruined your day off.”

“You didn’t.” I reached out and took her hand. When she kept staring at her lap, I tightened my fingers around hers. “Look at me.”

Slowly, she turned her face toward me, and I saw her struggling to hold back tears. Immediately, I stood and wrapped my arms around her. I kissed the top of her head and felt her relax against me.

“I’m the one who should be sorry. I didn’t even think to ask–”

“It wouldn’t have mattered if you had.” Her voice was muffled as she pressed her face to my chest. “I didn’t know. It’s not like I’ve ever had truffles before.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” I promised. “What do you think about going to the symphony tomorrow?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have anything to wear.”

With a sudden glimpse of clarity, her comment about never having truffles before sounded a lot less like ‘I never wanted to try them’ and more like ‘I’d never be in a place where they’d been served.’ And now I saw her reluctance to order for herself in a different light too. I also saw her not asking about the menu from a different light. It had never occurred to me that she might have considered her inability to read the names of the dishes to be something of which she should be ashamed. Was I really that clueless?

“I’ll take you shopping.” I hesitated, and then added, “Unless that’s stepping over a line. I mean, I don’t care what you wear. Honestly, I don’t really care about what we do either. I just want to spend time with you, and I want you to feel comfortable while we’re doing that.”

“Do I have to decide now?”

“Of course not. We don’t have to make plans at all. We can just do whatever it is you feel like doing, whenever you feel like doing it, however you feel like doing it.”

It took me until she pulled back far enough for me to see her face to realize my unintentional innuendo. Fortunately, she appeared to be amused rather than offended.

“Is that so?”

The curtain moved, and a young man in scrubs held out a clipboard with paperwork on it. In his other hand, he held a white paper bag, and he extended that to me.

A few signatures later, I was opening my passenger side door for Sofi. It was barely past noon, and our day out was done. I didn’t mind, though. If I was going to be honest, the idea of spending the day curled up on the couch, watching TV while Sofi dozed next to me was quite appealing. The outside world could wait.

Twenty-Seven

Sofi

I hadn’t sleptthat long or deep since before Mead and I had met, but I was grateful for the drug-induced slumber that gave me the chance to finally get some actual rest. Waking up Saturday morning with a clear head was exactly what I needed to get refocused on why I was really here.

Going out with Deklin was part of the plan.

Starting to feel like this was real was definitelynotpart of the plan.

Deklin had mentioned something yesterday about him taking me shopping or something like that, but pretty much everything after the restaurant was a blur due to the whole not-being-able-to-breathe thing. I wasn’t even sure if he’d stayed here at Jude’s or if he’d gone home, but since I didn’t plan to lounge around in my pajamas no matter where he was, I dressed after showering.

I didn’t have fancy clothes, but everything was neat and clean. That was plenty good enough for me to go to breakfast, whoever might already be there.

Still, I couldn’t stop my heart from its unsteady thump when I walked into the kitchen and found him sitting at the table across from Jude and Cynthia. His smile was warm as he stood up and pulled out the chair next to him.

“Coffee?”

“I can get it,” I said.

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