Page 5 of Falling for the Knockout

Aurora

Aurora got all the way home before she realized that she had both her and Tony’s cell phones in her bag. Their phones were similar, and she must have grabbed his thinking that it was hers. The question was, should she just hold onto it until she saw him again the next morning, or should she go over to his place to give it back to him? After everything that happened between them that morning at the bakery, she kind of wanted to go to his place. Maybe he could fill in some blanks for her because he had surely left enough of them.

She heard one of the phones ringing in her bag while she was trying to decide what to do. Aurora pulled Tony’s out and saw an unknown number on the screen. Maybe it was Tony using someone’s phone to call his own to find it. She was sure that she was breaking a million HR rules by answering her boss’s phone, but then again, the bakery had no HR. She answered the call and put it on speaker.

“Hello,” a woman said on the other end of the call. Aurora’s heart sank at the idea of Tony having women calling him. Maybe shehad just imagined the fact that he said that he liked her. Maybe he was just being polite to her after her outburst.

“Hello,” Aurora said.

“I’m trying to find Anthony Vitale, Jr.,” the woman said.

“Oh, um, this is his phone but he’s not here right now. May I take a message?” Aurora asked. If the woman said that she was calling Tony for a hookup, she was just going to hang up the phone, because she couldn’t give him a message about a booty call.

“Yes, please,” the woman said, “can you let him know that we have his grandfather down at County General Hospital, and he needs a ride home? It’s not safe for him to drive himself right now.”

“Is everything okay with Elio?” she asked. He might be Tony’s grandfather, but he was a surrogate grandfather to her as well. She loved that old man and if anything happened to him, she wanted to help.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that,” the nurse insisted, “HIPPA laws and everything like that.”

“Of course,” Aurora said, “I understand.” She didn’t though. She knew that Tony wouldn’t get the message without his cell phone, and she’d have to run all the way back down to the bakery to find his address in his employee folder if Elio even wrote it down. That would only waste time, and she worried that Elio might not have time. The only thing that she could think of doing was to go to the hospital herself and help Elio. Then, he could tell her where Tony lived so she could drop both Elio and Tony’s cell phone off to him.

“I’ll give Tony the message as soon as I see him,” she promised, ending the call. That was partially true. When she showed up at his house with his grandfather, she’d let him know that the nurse had called his phone.

Happy with her plan, Aurora stuffed his phone back into her bag and grabbed her car keys. She really needed to change her outfit, but that would only waste more time, and the hospital was thirty minutes away. She’d just have to deal with people staring at her for wearing about five pounds of flour on her shirt. None of that mattered now. All she could think about was getting to Elio.

She asked at the front desk what room Elio was in, and they asked her if she was family. Aurora pasted on her best smile and nodded her head. “I’m his granddaughter,” she lied. The nurse looked her over and Aurora felt as though she was holding her breath.

“Aurora,” a man said from behind her. She’d know that deep, sexy growl anywhere. She had heard it in her dreams every night when Tony would call her name.

She turned to find Tony standing behind her and from the smirk on his face, he had heard the lie that she had just told the nurse. The question was, would he play along or turn her in?

“Tony,” she breathed.

“Are you two together?” the nurse asked.

“No,” Aurora said.

“Yes,” Tony countered. He put his arm around Aurora’s waist and smiled back at the nurse. “My wife and I both came to see my grandfather together. I think she just said no because we arrived in separate cars, so we’re technically not here together, but yes, we’re together.” Tony’s verbal diarrhea was going to blow both of them getting into the room to see Elio.

“He’s right,” she agreed, “I just misunderstood your question.”

“I don’t have time for this, and I certainly don’t get paid enough money for this nonsense,” the nurse grumbled as she made them each a badge. “Put these on and go up to the third floor. They can direct you from there.” Aurora nodded her thanks and started for the elevator, Tony hot on her heels.

“Wait up,” he whispered as they both stepped onto the elevator. “Why are you in such a hurry?”

She watched the doors close and let out the breath that she had been holding. “I didn’t want to give the nurse a chance to change her mind. I lied and I didn’t want to stand around waiting for her to realize it.”

“Yeah, I picked up on your little lie, but I don’t think that Elio will mind,” Tony insisted.

“You can’t tell him that I lied about him being my grandfather, Tony,” she almost shouted. “He’ll fire me.”

“I can assure you that my grandfather won’t fire you, Aurora,” he said. “He adores you.”

“Wait, he does?” Aurora asked. “How can you be sure?” She wasn’t very good at reading people and hearing Tony first say that he “More than liked her” and now telling her that Elio adored her, was really throwing her off.

“He does, and I’m sure that he’s not going to mind the fact that you showed up here to see him. Um, how did you know that he was here?” Tony asked.

“Oh, yeah,” she said, digging through her bag. “I picked up your phone by mistake at the bakery, and when an anonymous number called it, I assumed that you were calling your phone to try to find it—so I answered it.”

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