Page 94 of Doc Showmance
Arms locked around me.
I tensed up.
“It’s me. Come on. Let’s get out of here. Let the sheriff deal with all this,” Ian said.
In a daze, he maneuvered me out the back door of the hospital to the bench in the dog walking area, the one place cameras couldn’t clearly see. We sat next to each other on the uncomfortable bench in silence.
He had his elbows on his knees and cradled his face. “I burped during the interview.”
“All that, and you’re worried about a damned burp?” A snort laugh escaped. “It was an epic burp.”
“I thought we ditched theToday Show, which is a major faux pas, but they followed. You know they aired the whole thing live.”
“It was planned. Fucking planned. I’ll bet they’ll forget to buy us lunch.”
“Pretty sure we gave theToday Showand Marianna the greatest TV of their lives. Wouldn’t be surprised if we get an Emmy for all this.” He sat up with a sigh. “I don’t understand how all this plays into Marianna’s plan for us to break up.”
“I don’t think she expected you to jump into the thick of it. Me? Yes. I’m sure we’ll have a required meeting first thing tomorrow for them to strategize or present their new wild plan.”
“This sucks.” He sighed. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. It’s been a lot.”
He wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me into him. “You’ve sure got a tight group ready to go to war for you.”
“That’s what family does.”
“I like it. You deserve that. You need it. Do you want to have kids?”
“Whoa. That’s way out of left field. Where did that come from?” I leaned away from him.
“You’d make a good mom.”
“Now you want to accelerate our fake relationship from dating to parenthood?”
“Hell no. But I’d be a willing participant on the journey to make it happen.” He grinned. “Just thinking you’d be fierce while parenting a kid.”
“I think a lot about fostering, especially taking in a tough-to-handle kid.”
“I can respect that. Why don’t you?”
“I work like a hundred hours a week. I’ve got three less than responsible siblings, one of whom lets her naked one-night stands wander through my house at odd hours. My other brother is a chronic gambler who’s barely back in group therapy. Thinking child services wouldn’t see those things as a positive living space.” I cocked my head and stared at him. “What about you? You want kids?”
“Not now. Maybe someday. I’m not sweeping the option from the table.”
“Maybe I can claim a personal day and go home to get some sleep.” I covered my face. “Shit. I can’t. I’ve got Winnie to sort out and protect from Kovac.”
“Are you good enough to go back to work and give them more good TV?”
I nodded. “That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”
36
Amber
I’d texted Ian multiple times tonight to ask to meet or to talk by phone. No reply.
Was he ignoring me? Was this him breaking up with me? He seemed fine after that whole fiasco.
