“He did.” Lenny conceded with a nod, but her voice was too matter-of-fact for her to be sympathetic. “And if it means he loses you, I’m sure he’ll go to the grave regretting it, especially since this will be his last assignment.”
Cami’s irritation doused as she absorbed these words. “What do you mean, his last assignment?”
“He’s going back to med school. He told me before you got here. I like to think watching me get mowed down like grass gave him an epiphany.”
Cami wasn’t sure which part of this stunned her most—that Des was pulling the trigger on med school so soon, or that he and Lenny were apparently close enough that they talked about their career aspirations. “He’s going to stay on as a silent partner in the company, but let his business partner handle the day-to-day.”
“He didn’t tell me,” she exhaled.
”Well, he does think you hate him.”
Cami’s throat squeezed as she remembered the expression on his face when she’d seen him in the hall. How resigned and heartbroken he’d looked. “I miss him.”
“Then forgive him!” Lenny looked about to throw her hands in the air, but seemed to think better of jerking around the IV tubes. “For Pete’s sake, you’re both making this far too complicated. He lied. He’s sorry. It’s not the end of the world,dear. You both seem so determined to be unhappy. It’s honestly mind-blowing.”
For several long moments, Cami was quiet, and Lenny settled back against the pillow supporting her neck. As much as Cami loathed to give her that much credit, Lenny was right. Des had apologized, and done his best to explain himself while Cami spit accusations at him. He hadn’t tried to defend his actions as justified. And he’d been hurt too; his reluctance to let anyone get close to him was just as valid as hers, just as understandable. If she couldn’t forgive him for this one mistake, how could she say she’d even tried to let him in?
“I need to go,” she said finally.
“Yes, I believe you do.” Lenny sounded a bit too self-satisfied for someone who’d just been run over.
“Will you be okay here alone? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’ll be fine. Go, please.” Lenny waved a dismissive hand through the stale hospital air. “Your angst is stressing me out.”
Cami shoved the ginger ale she’d been clutching onto the nightstand next to the hospital bed and headed to the door, doing her best not to move too quickly so it didn’t seem like she was trying to escape.
“And don’t come back without my goddamn dog!”
26
Des had already been outside that day, so he didn’t know why he was surprised that it was still so warm and sunny when he stepped out of the hospital. The bright, glaring sun of Southern California seemed at odds with the goings-on of an emergency room. All the rushing, blood, chaos, and uncertainty that came with having your hands inside someone. It had always seemed to Des like the sky should, at the very least, give his patients the courtesy of being cloudy. Why should so many people be sunbathing while others were being strapped to gurneys?
Lenny was okay, though, which was a cause for celebration. So he’d let the sky stay happy and blue, even though his insides roiled like a thunderstorm.
He’d known Cami would come when Tristan called. Even though she and Lenny were on the outs, she would never abandon someone on their sickbed. She’d proven that time and again before she’d ever come to California. He hadn’t been there to witness it, but he knew without having to that Cami would have poured everything she had into taking care of her grandmother. She’d tried to downplay it, but no one who workedthree jobs to support the disabled elderly was giving it any less than their all.
No doubt she would do the same for Lenny. Hell, they’d probably already patched things up. Lenny had lied to her, sure, but a secret grandmother was a hell of a lot more palatable on the fib front than a secret plot to swindle her out of house and home.
He’d given them some privacy. He should just head back inside now and make his goodbyes. He had enough to take care of for the foreseeable future to hopefully keep Cami off his mind. Or, at least, not in the forefront of it.
He pushed off the raised brick garden he’d been leaning against and started toward the covered entrance of the hospital. The automatic doors hissed open, and he glanced up from the grated flooring just in time to catch a flash of blonde before the collision.
She hadn’t been moving fast enough to knock the wind out of him, but Cami’s sudden appearance still left him breathless.
She whirled around, hand flying to her mouth as she gasped. “I’m so sor?—”
“My fault,” he said, though it wasn’t. “I wasn’t paying attention.”
She was quiet for a moment, her gaze flickering over his face like she was studying him. It made him curiously itchy. “I was walking backwards,” she said finally. “I was just asking an orderly a question. Definitely my fault.”
His lips tightened, but he stayed silent, unsure how to respond. She was probably leaving now, back to the bus station or wherever she’d been when Tristan had called her. This was likely the last time he’d ever see her.
The thought struck him, and his chest burned with the need to commit her to memory. The softly floral scent of her. The honey blonde gleam of her hair under the fluorescent hospitallighting. The way she carried herself; there was a more relaxed slant to her shoulders compared to when he’d seen her that morning, or even on her way into Lenny’s room. Maybe theyhadmade up.
“Coming through!” a middle-aged bald man snapped at them as he passed Des on the left, hurrying into the hospital proper.
“Shit. We shouldn’t be standing here,” Des murmured, and he reflexively cupped Cami’s elbow and steered her to the side of the entry. “I guess you’re on your way out.” His stomach clenched. “I shouldn’t keep you.”
