“Thanks for staying last night,” he said softly, pulling her into a hug that was too long and friendly for a woman he’d just met.
When Danielle had left the room, I glared at him. “Was that necessary?”
“Was what necessary?” he asked, fishing a bagel out of his bag and tossing it to me.
“Hitting on my nurse.”
“She’s notyournurse,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Shejust happened to be the one to take care of you when you got here. And I wasn’t hitting on her.”
“What do you call that hug then?”
“A thank-you. She finished her shift hours ago and stayed the rest of the night when she didn’t have to just because I didn’t want to be alone.”
“So… what? You two sat around gossiping all night while you watched me sleep?”
Miles chuckled. “Something like that.”
“And you have no interest in getting in her pants?”
“Well, I never said that. Sheishot.”
I growled, and Miles burst out laughing.
“You should see your face right now.”
“Miles.”
“Relax. I asked her to breakfast, not if she wanted to have my babies.”
Nothing about that statement wasrelaxing. Normally I didn’t worry about what Miles did on his personal time, but this was different. Danielle Towler was off-limits. We’d all be better off if we could just forget this entire encounter ever happened.
I could forget how her hand had felt in mine, how she’d looked when she smiled at my brother.
Maybe.
Okay, forgetting was probably too much to hope for, but I could push the thoughts far away and not act on them. That should be easy enough. I didn’t even do relationships. Not anymore.
FOUR
Danielle
Two Years Later
“You arethe worst best friend in the world, you know that?” I said into the phone as I started the walk from the hospital to the train station.
“I am not,” Miles protested. “I am literally inviting you to a party. How does that make me a bad friend?”
“Because we both know you’re going to ditch me as soon as we get there to go do I don’t want to know what with Jessica.”
“You still owe me for all the times you ditched me for my brother.”
There was an awkward beat of silence as his words hung between us.
“I’m sorry—I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s fine. I’m over it.”
“Don’t lie to me, Dani. It’s insulting to my intelligence.”
