Page 99 of Dr. Off Limits

I lifted the suitcase out of the boot of Jacob’s car and it landed with a slam on his driveway. I glanced at my left hand, just to check my ring. I’d only been wearing it for twenty-four hours and I was scared stiff the enormous stone would fall out of its setting or the entire thing would just slip off.

But there it was, glistening in the London sunshine, firmly fixed to my left ring finger.

“Sutton?” a woman called from across the road. “Is that you?”

I looked up to see Gilly coming toward me, a salacious grin spread wide across her face. Somehow news about Jacob and me hadn’t spread through the hospital as fast as I thought it would. Maybe people didn’t care as much as I had expected them to. Gerry and Wanda certainly hadn’t. Or maybe Gilly just hadn’t found out yet. I should have closed the gates to the drive. We were going back to my place for the rest of my stuff as soon as we unloaded, so it hadn’t seemed worth it. I sighed at the inevitable conversation we would now be forced to have.

“You can’t tell me you’re dropping off another book for Jacob?” She glanced down at my suitcase.

“Nope,” I said, hauling the suitcase upright.

“Hi, Gilly,” Jacob said, coming back from the house to collect some more stuff. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, just passing,” she said.

“Do you live around here?” Jacob asked.

Gilly blushed and shook her head. “No, just like to take a walk on the Heath in the mornings sometimes.”

Jacob and I exchanged a glance. She’d either been hoping to catch me here again or she’d been hoping to run into Jacob for her own reasons.

“Let me take that,” Jacob said, taking the suitcase from me. “You don’t want to catch your ring.”

I shook my head. I wasn’t sure who liked the ring more—me or Jacob. Dexter, a friend of Tristan’s, was a jeweler, and we’d got to go to his Knightsbridge store after hours to pick it out. The place was like a diamond cave—the most expensive jewelry I’d ever laid eyes on everywhere I looked.

I’d spotted my ring as soon as they set the tray on the counter. It was a large, round, brilliant diamond.

It was the first one Jacob pulled out and slipped on my finger, and we didn’t bother with any others. It was just perfect. When something was meant to be, you didn’t walk away from it. We’d learned our lesson.

Gilly glanced at my hand, which had no doubt been part of Jacob’s intention when he mentioned my ring.

“You’re engaged?” she asked, glancing between me and Jacob.

“Yes,” I said and I held up my hand, my palm facing inward. I wiggled my fingers, letting the stone catch the sunlight.

I figured I didn’t owe Gilly a bigger explanation than that.

“To Jacob?” she asked as if I’d been unclear.

“Yes,” I said as I peered into the back of the car.

“But you said that you were dropping off books. Does this mean you’re going to resign? You can’t blame me if I go and tell Wanda. You told me yourself. There’s no way you should be working in the same—”

“Excuse me, I’m going to take this inside.” I didn’t need to listen to Gilly’s response to my relationship. It really was nothing to do with her. She could tell who she liked. I didn’t care. I pulled out my framed degree certificate, an umbrella, and the lamp I’d bought from Ikea because the one in my rented flat smelled of fish whenever I turned it on. I closed the boot of the car and headed inside, leaving an open-mouthed Gilly on the pavement.

All I cared about was getting to spend the rest of the day, all night, and every night after that with my soon-to-be husband.

As I got to the top of the steps to the front door, a beep of a horn nearly made me drop everything.

“What the hell—is that Zach?” Jacob asked. “What’s he doing driving a van?”

Gilly had disappeared, luckily and now Jacob was going to get a nicer surprise.

I couldn’t stop the grin spreading across my face. “He’s helping me with something.” I’d been added to the Cove family WhatsApp group and had been instantly treated like a sister by all the Cove brothers. It was a new experience for me having all these people invested in my life, wanting the best for me. I loved it.

“Helping you? Zach is far too perfect to drive a van. It’s not his vibe at all.”

Apparently, Zach never put a foot wrong and was ribbed mercilessly for it. “He’s so perfect, he agreed to drive a van for me,” I said.

---