He allowed himself to rest his cheek against her head, but resisted the urge to press a kiss to her hair.
That was one thing about Lynn. Once he’d held her in his arms and tasted her lips, it made not doing so all the more difficult.
The woman was addicting. After not seeing her for over a week, he was well aware of what life was like without her, and he didn’t like it. But he needed her to be honest with him before he could move forward in their relationship.
“Do you want my opinion about your sister?”
Lynn leaned back a bit so she could see his face. “Sure.”
“The hospital is a public place. And your sister, while under your parents’ care, is an adult. I say you go back to the waiting room, get the doctor to see if Perry wants to see you, and if she says yes, your parents will likely have no other choice.” When she didn’t speak right away, Nathan cleared his throat. “I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds. But that’s what I would do.”
“No, it’s a good idea. You’re right, my dad can’t make me leave here if I don’t want to.” She straightened and stepped away from Nathan. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He missed the feel of her leaning into his side. He supposed he should take his leave and give her some space, except it was the last thing he wanted to do.
Lynn surprised him when she asked, “So I suppose you probably have to get back to work, huh?”
“My schedule is clear for the day. And Mia is at Little Lambs until five. I could stick around for a while, if you want me to.”Please, Lynn.He wanted to help her, even if it meant just keeping her company while she waited to see her sister. And if he was honest with himself, he didn’t like the idea of Lynn’s parents being unkind to her.
“If you don’t mind, that would be great. Thank you.”
“Any time. Come on, let’s get back in there so you don’t miss an update.”
She flashed him a brilliant smile that left him with no doubts that staying with her today was the right thing.
~*~
Jeb slept in his car Sunday night in anticipation of seeing Bethany Monday morning. She’d taken the whole previous week off from work. Surely she couldn’t keep that up much longer. He’d been confident she was returning to her normal schedule.
It was a good thing he had been sleeping in his car across the street from her house or he wouldn’t have seen her leave in the very early hours of Monday morning.
Equally surprised and curious, he followed her through town to the hospital.
Concerned she might be there for herself, he’d kept his distance and was relieved to find she’d gone to the hospital for someone else. He overheard something about her sister. The couple that appeared to be her parents seemed less than thrilled to see her.
Since the cardiac wing’s waiting room was small and virtually empty, Jeb headed back downstairs to wait. She’d have to pass by him to get to her car.
When that guy she’d been seeing arrived at the hospital, to say Jeb was unhappy was very much an understatement. The guy hadn’t so much as been to the house since Jeb had Bethany exposed, so hopefully she’d kicked him to the curb where he belonged.
Any hope of that evaporated when the guy went back up to the cardiac wing with an orange juice and blueberry muffin.
Didn’t Bethany see how the guy didn’t care about her? Why couldn’t she understand that Jeb was there, no matter what? He loved her when she was at the top of the pop charts, and he loved her now, too.
He’d make her see that. But first, he had to get the idiot guy out of the picture.
One thing about waiting at a hospital—it gives a person plenty of time to come up with a plan.
ChapterFifteen
From the moment Lynn got back to the cardiac waiting room, her father ignored her. How someone could pretend another person wasn’t there so completely was beyond her. But her mother, even though she didn’t speak, gave Lynn an encouraging smile.
Above it all, though, was the reassurance she had with Nathan sitting to her right. He kept her busy with his tales of Mia. Lynn laughed so hard her stomach hurt when he told her about how Mia had filled the toilet with some of her dolls and then tried to flush them down.
Nathan turned and gave her a stern look. “You wouldn’t think it was so funny if you had to pull them out one-by-one and then hope you got them all.”
He was right, but that didn’t stop Lynn from laughing even harder. “I’m sorry. I hope she never does it again.”
“Me, too. The good news is I did snap a picture of her standing beside it, her dolls visible in the toilet, with a content look on her face. It’ll serve nicely as blackmail fodder when she gets older.”
