Jesus, I’m a piece of shit.
Her brow is furrowed and I reach over to rub it gently. “It’s nothing I can’t afford.”
It’s not a lie.
I’m earning the big bucks now that I’ve been promoted to the boss’s crew. Dropping twenty grand eats into my savings but I’ll recoup it soon enough.
“Well, I can’t pay you back right now.” She looks so earnest that I could kiss her. “But I will. I swear.”
“I didn’t ask you to.” I smile down at her and take in her exhaustion. “Let’s get you home.”
“Why are you being so kind to me?” She swallows. “For all you know, I'm a horrible person. My friend's husband might be right about me. I did drag my BFF down here when she has two kids at home; one’s even a newborn. She probably had to call Doug and Robert to watch them. God, I didn’t even think of that—”
I tug her off to the side before we reach the front entrance and place my thumb on her chin. “Hospitals don’t allow patients to be released without a friend or family member escorting them. What were you supposed to do? You didn’t know I was waiting,” I point out. “And they wouldn’t let me in because I’m not your next of kin.”
She bites her lip. “I should have called someone else.”
“Someone else who’d yell at you?” I shrug wearily, unable to deny that I’m starting to feel the exhaustion of a long-ass day loaded with worry and stress.
Guilt and shame for yet another fuckup have been haunting my every step since the nurses wheeled her into the ER and refused to give me any updates. They took my fucking money, though.
Assholes.
I’d been so scared that she’d die—and not because Aidan Jr. would have killed me for the mistake, either.
“They don’t all yell at me,” is her meek response.
“I was crossing the street when I saw that other waitress screaming at you. Then that biker guy did, and now this other asswipe just talked to you like crap too.”
“You’re sweet, but I might have deserved it.” She sighs.
I shake my head. “You deserve to be treated with kindness.”
Her eyes go big and round as if that’s a revelation. “Why did you say you were my boyfriend?”
I shoot her a cocky smile as I tug her into moving. I’m not sure why Poet and Charlie haven’t passed us yet, but I don’t feel like getting into it with them again.
“What do you know about visualization?” I ask.
Her shocked laughter lights me up.
I am so fucked.
“Visualization? Are you an actor or something?”
She has no idea.
“Something like that.” I wink at her.
“So you visualize something and, what, it manifests?”
I tighten my arm around her waist. “From where I’m standing, it works.”
She blushes and says shyly, “Thank you for coming to my rescue back there, Cade.”
I lead us toward the front entrance. “You’re welcome, Belle.”
She tenses a little. “No one calls me Belle.”