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She responded a minute later.
Lily: It went okay. Got the same response I got from yesterday’s appointment.
Lily: That’s three in a row that all said the same thing. So even if I go to the guy on Friday, it’s not like he’s going to be a tiebreaker.
Damn. He hated this for her. He knew how much she was hoping for someone to give her another option other than surgery, but it seemed like that definitely wasn’t going to happen. He knew she had access to the best doctors, so if three of them were in agreement, he’d have to say that this probably needed to happen.
Noah: I’m sorry. I know that wasn’t the news you were hoping for.
Lily: It really wasn’t.
Noah: Want to meet somewhere for lunch?
Lily: I wish I could, but I just arrived at a place I needed to stop at.
It was crazy to be so disappointed, but he was.
Noah: Not a problem. Can I call you later?
Lily: Hang on a sec…
He put his phone down and stood to stretch, contemplating if he wanted to order lunch in or go somewhere. If she had been available to meet him, he would have loved to get out, but now he felt like staying in.
There was a knock on his office door and when he looked up, there she was.
“What in the world…?” he said with a laugh.
She held up a large cooler bag as she stepped in and shut the door. “Is this too risqué? Should I keep it open?”
Chuckling, he walked over and kissed her soundly. Sometime around five this morning, they decided that they weren’t ready to put any parameters on what they were doing, but they knew that could change the moment William got home. Which reminded him…
“Leave the door.” Taking the bag from her hand, he placed it on his desk. “Any word from your grandfather?”
Rolling her eyes, she collapsed into the chair in front of his desk. “Get this—Uncle Robert called to see how my appointment went. When I asked him why he was calling instead of my grandfather, he claimed he walked out of a meeting because he was frustrated with how long things were taking and my grandfather asked him to call me.” Another eye roll. “I mean…that sounds suspicious, right?”
“I hate to say it, but…yes.” Opening the bag, he looked over at her. “What did you bring?”
Lily got to her feet and helped him. “Oh, since we didn’t really get to finish our burgers last night, I went and bought them for us. The bag was just to make sure they stayed hot until I got here.” Then she looked around. “I figured we could grab drinks from here somewhere.”
“I’ll go grab a couple of bottles of water from the breakroom. I’ll be right back.” And then, just because he could, he kissed her before leaving the room.
And yeah, he left the door open.
When he came back, he left it only slightly ajar because he had a feeling people would talk if he was having a closed-door lunch with the boss’s daughter. If Lily thought anything of him leaving it like that, she didn’t say anything. She had everything set up for them, and it felt like a little picnic.
“Thanks for doing this. I was really just getting ready to order something when you knocked on my door.”
“I didn’t want to go home,” she admitted. “I was so disappointed by everything this doctor said to me today and I knew I needed to just be around someone for a little while.”
“Well then, I’m honored that you chose to be around me.” Picking up his burger, he took a bite and hummed with appreciation. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why not call one of your friends? I know we never really decided on anything where we’re concerned, but…”
She took a bite of her burger and held up her finger to give her a minute. “I’ve been living away from home for a long time,” she began. “And the other night when I went out with them, it was the first time in years that I’d done that. All I wanted was a girls’ night, something like a nice dinner and maybe going dancing, but I wanted it to just be us.” She shook her head. “But they all had an agenda and wanted to meet up with the guys and then tried to set me up with that Axl guy.”
“It’s a ridiculous name…”
