“I’d be happy to remind you exactly how well we know each other since you clearly need a refresher.” I leaned toward her butfroze when she tossed up a hand.
“Do. Not. Touch. Me. Luc.”
I sat back in my chair with a satisfied smile. “Funny. You don’t know me, yet you use my name. Weird, that.”
“Oh, my god, you’re impossible.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. Tenacious. Stubborn. Asshole. Take your pick.”
Hannah shook her head in frustration and turned back to her paperwork. “I told you that I wanted to do this by myself.I assume you’re the reason that Dimitri took that long detour on the drive here?”
“Yes. Unlike some people, Dimitri listens to me.”
“I said I wanted to do this on my own.”
“And yet here I sit. Strange, no? Almost like I get a voice in this relationship, too.”
“I don’t want you here. Just go back to your fancy suite and your bodyguards and your drama. I’m fine. Or I will be fine. Whatever.Just go.”
I nodded slowly as I watched Hannah bend over her paperwork once more. “So you’ll be fine here all by yourself?”
“That’s what I said. Go. I’m fine.”
“I couldn’t help but notice when you first got here that no one was with you. Where’s your overprotective parents? Your annoying brother? All those friends of yours we always bump into? For someone who has such a huge network of caring,devoted people in her life, it’s odd to see you here alone. Why are you here all by yourself?”
“I didn’t want to worry them needlessly, okay? It took years to get them off my back, after my accident. My family is the definition of overprotective. I didn’t want to go through all that again—put them through all that again—if I didn’t need to. After this appointment and I have some answers, I’lltell them.”
“And you think they’ll be okay with that?”
“They’ll have to be, because that’s the way it is.” Hannah stood up to return her paperwork.
The woman a few seats down smiled tremulously at me, then ducked her head, embarrassed that she’d been caught eavesdropping. I didn’t care. It wasn’t like we’d exactly been quiet with our argument. And judging by the way the older woman across theway glared daggers at me, we definitely hadn’t been quiet.
Not that I gave a shit.
After a few words with the receptionist, Hannah returned to the seat beside me but didn’t say a word. I smiled to myself as I stretched an arm over the back of her chair. I might not have won the war—yet—but I’d certainly won the first battle.
Hannah sank into the chair, resting her head against my arm on thechair back. She closed her eyes as she breathed deeply. I wanted to say something—tell her it would be okay, that I wouldn’t leave—but I was too afraid of upsetting the tenuous balance we’d struck.
It was a long, tense five-minute wait. I had a hard time exuding a calm demeanor. My knee wanted to bounce. I wanted to shift and find a more comfortable position in my hard-ass chair, but I had tobe Hannah’s rock. She was nervous enough; I didn’t want to add to her anxiety.
Finally a door opened and a woman in scrubs stood with a manila envelope. “Hannah?”
Hannah bounced up with unnatural eagerness. She took a step toward the woman, and I stood. Hannah turned to me and put a hand up. “You are not going in there.”
“But—”
“No. It’s my appointment. I don’t want you in the room.”
“Okay.I’ll wait out here.” I raised my palms and shrugged. “But if you change your mind, I’ll be right here. And just so you know, there will be no sneaking out a side door after your appointment. We will discusseverythingafter you see your doctor.”
Hannah rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything as she joined the woman in scrubs. The door closed softly behind them and I returned to my seat next toNicolas. I sighed as I settled in for a long wait.
Minutes passed by slowly. I spent most of them fidgeting in my chair, fiddling with my phone, and angrily finger-combing my hair. I thought through everything I’d said to her. Should I have explained more about what my brother’s death did to me? Why it made me the person I am now? More than anything I wanted to be inside that room with her, notout here avoiding eye contact with people and hoping that the borrowed baseball cap kept me from being recognized.
It felt like ages, but probably only five minutes later the same scrubs-clad woman stood in the doorway. “Luke? Is there a Luke waiting for Hannah?”
I bounded to my feet and raced across the waiting room. “Is she okay? What’s wrong?”
