Maybe I did hit my head, and now I’m just super horny.
Nah. It’s only when I see Foxx.
It’s like I can’t wait for everyone else to go away and leave us alone, but what was that about me staying in the ward?
“I… I don’t have insurance!” I suddenly call out, forgetting my injuries and bolting upright in a panic.
Seriously, I have no insurance. None.
And they said they already did a scan and want me to stay for how long?
How much is this gonna cost?
Nope. I can’t do it. I won’t.
I can’t afford to be run over.
I suddenly feel sick, and not just because of my accident. My financial life flashes before my eyes this time, and the balance at the end of the sheet reads ‘screwed.’
“Easy, easy,” Foxx says soothingly. His hand on my shoulder, making me feel tiny against him.
His single touch makes me swoon for reasons that you wouldn’t need to be a doctor to figure out.
“Dr. Brannon is right,” he says begrudgingly. “The ER isn’t my department, and I’m not your doctor,” he affirms.
Something makes his expression shift again, making him smile wider.
“I’m not your doctor…,” he repeats to himself as if he’s just been given the keys to the city.
“But I am your friend, aren’t I?” he asks, giving me the hunk equivalent of puppy dog eyes that see me melting back into the pillows.
“Even though I just met you the other day,” he adds thoughtfully.
Great.
Freaking friend-zoned, and we’ve been alone what? Two minutes so far?
I knew it was too good to be true. Still, look at yourself compared to him, Mandy.
Not as if you’re exactly a catch for a man like Foxx De Silva, is it?
His hand over mine makes me jump a little, and I get another of his intense looks that tells me more than words.
“I was gonna swing by after work today and ask… To see… if maybe you and me… could have a coffee together sometime,” he finally manages to spit out.
Okay, now I feel my jaw drop.
Friend zoned or not. It’s the closest thing to a date proposal I think I’m ever going to hear in this life.
“Deal. I’d like that,” I blurt out, taking a chance but curling my fingers around just one of his as he growls low again with satisfaction.
He squeezes my hand in his once it’s swallowed by his huge fingers.
Fingers and hands, I know, have helped so many people, but right now, I feel like the luckiest girl on earth to be with him like this.
“And don’t worry about insurance,” he says with a serious tone. “You don’t have to worry about anything ever again,” he adds.
His words make me shiver for a second, making me feel like this is what being saved feels like.
This is my knight in shining armor.
My just friends, kind of good Sir Knight?
Something in his eyes and in his touch and the bigger than usual bulge at the front of his scrubs is telling me I might not be the only one feeling something between us.
“I’d like that,” I hear myself whisper in a husky tone, my voice rasping from a dry throat.
Handing me some water, Foxx reminds me, as if he wants me to remember it, “You don’t have to worry about anything, ever.”
CHAPTER SIX
Foxx
I manage to keep some level of composure once I reach the ER.
All my training and years on the job showing, I guess, keeping my head level in a crisis.
Not much has ever rattled me in real life. Maybe that’s why I became a doctor.
I can handle shit when it gets tossed my way.
But god dammit, when it’s Mandy on a gurney? It takes some doing to keep my shit together.
I should never have left her. I should’ve told her how I felt long before this happened.
If only I’d gone back to the coffee shop sooner, turned around, and just marched back in there. I would have told her to wait for me once she finished for the day.
Things would have turned out way different, but it looks like she’s okay. And it’s no help to her now if she sees me riddled with guilt. I need to be strong for her as much as she needs it right now.
Even looking over her chart before I see her, I can rest easy that she’s not badly hurt.
But what the hell happened? Could I have stopped this from happening?
“Struck by a vehicle, some minor contusions, suspected concussion, and a rolled ankle.” The attending ER doctor fills me in as I rush to see Mandy.
Every fiber of my being just wants to scoop her up and take her home once I see her laid out on the hospital gurney.
Her perfect little body fills me with protective instincts.
The need for her is still the same, but I need her safe. I need her healthy and happy.