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This woman is smooth.
“Um, no, that’s okay.” I diverted my gaze to my feet. “He’s not really in her life.” I chewed on my bottom lip at Linley’s silence, hanging over my head like a cloud. I finally looked up at her, seeing a sympathetic look.
“She has his eyes.”
My throat went tight, and the fact that this woman—who hadn’t even been in the town that long—knew that Iris was Gunner’s made it even more evident that it was only a matter of time beforehewould see that, too.
“It’s okay,” she continued, her voice soft as she sat on the edge of the hospital bed. “I’m not telling anyone.”
“Thank you,” I swallowed the lump growing in my throat. “I’m just not ready to tell him yet. I don’t know how it’ll go over—or if our relationship will even continue.”
She nodded, and inwardly I wondered just how hard she was judging me for my decision. “Well, I’m not going to tell you anything when it comes to that, because if you had met me a couple of years ago, I would’ve told you that someone would be absolutely crazy for dating an outlaw biker, much less being engaged to one.”
I forced a smile, feeling some weird pang of jealousy for some reason. “Yeah, I wouldn’t have ever thought that I would be coming back to this town, but here I am.”
She laughed. “If you ever wanna grab dinner or something, just let me know.” Linley handed me a card with a phone number. “And I think Iris will feel better soon. It’s just a bad bug.”
“Yeah, thanks,” I muttered as she stood to her feet, leaving me there to wait on my mom and daughter. My eyes followed her out of the door, and much to my surprise, they landed on a familiar face. I locked gazes with none other than Robbie Johnston, the guy from high school I had to turn down a loan for days before.
Awkward.
“Hallie?” Robbie managed to mutter as my eyes went wide. He was bleeding from his nose. However, it appeared it had dried, caking around the bottom of his nose. His white T-shirt was stained, and all I could do was nod as he stepped into the hospital room.
“I haven’t heard anything about the loan,” I said quickly, wondering what the hell was taking my mom and Iris so long.
He chuckled, shaking his head. “I wasn’t going to ask you about it. I was just gonna ask if you were okay.”
“Oh,” I let out a sigh as he peered into the doorway, relieved that he wasn’t out to badger me about a loan that I couldn’t secure. In truth, there was a chance that it had been approved, but there was no way to know when I hadn’t been at work. “I’m fine. I’m just here with my daughter. We thought she might have had appendicitis, but thankfully, it was just a bad stomach virus.”
“Ah, that’s good to hear.” Robbie gave me a lopsided smile.
“You don’t look so fortunate yourself,” I took in a better view of his nose, which was definitely broken. It was swelling, but it was the funny crook in the center that gave it away.
“Nah, got myself into a tiff earlier.”
“Oh? I guess that comes with the badge, doesn’t it?” I asked, just as my mom and Iris made an appearance behind him, both of them slinking past.
“Oh my, Robbie,” Mom gasped as she saw his face. “What on earth happened to you?”
“Pissed off the wrong guy, I guess,” he chuckled, shrugging before glancing back at me. “But I’ll let all of you get back to it. I probably ought to go hunt down—”
“What’re you doing in here?” Linley’s voice was sharp as she stepped in behind Iris and Mom. “You shouldn’t be in here with a patient.”
“Whoa, easy there, doc,” Robbie laughed, putting his hands up in surrender. “I was just stopping in to see Hallie. I saw her sitting there and wanted to make sure she was okay. We’re old friends.”
Something like that.
I pushed away the old memories, forcing a smile. “We went to high school together.”
“I see.” Linley raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry for butting in then. I thought there might be a problem.”
Before I could ask why she would assume that, Robbie spoke up. “Dated for a month in high school, actually. But yeah, you probably ought to get busy setting this nose straight, doc.” With that, he slipped from the room, giving us a nod before disappearing down the hallway.
“Well, that was weird,” Mom laughed, tipping her head back. “I had no idea he would even remember that little brief dating thing that happened between the two of you when you were what, maybe fifteen?”
My face went red, feeling both Linley and Iris’s eyes on me. “I didn’t really even think that it counted, considering I was just a kid.”
“I’d say so,” Linley said, handing me the release paperwork. “If anything changes with Iris, just give us a call or come back. She’ll be fine with some fluids and rest.”
