“Levi Anthony Cutler, we’re perfectly qualified to help you and care for you even if you’re smarter than the rest of us put together!”
“Hey,” Tess complained, then shrugged. “Okay, maybe. But probably the concussion killed some of his brain cells, right? It might’ve knocked his high IQ down a few points and evened the playing field.”
“You’ll stay,” his mom said to him.
Resistance was futile. “For as long as medically advised,” he said—as much as he was willing to concede.
His mom beamed from ear to ear. “I’ll cook, you’ll eat. And . . . we’re going to get to meet Jane!”
Welp, he’d walked right into that one. Which actually put his so-called high IQ in question. “I’ll still need to work,” he reminded her.
“You’re your own CEO. You can work from anywhere.”
That might be true, but unlike everyone else who shared his last name, he needed his own space to function. A quiet space, and order.
And possibly a lobotomy.
Daisy came in, took one look at Levi, and shook her head. “Everyone out,” she said. “My patient needs quiet.”
Levi nearly asked her to marry him on the spot. When the room was blessedly empty, he gave her a look of gratitude. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. They won’t go far.”
Didn’t he know it. He ran his thumb over Jane’s locket. She’d want it back, he knew that much. Pretend girlfriend or not, he was going to have to find her. And why that gave him his first real smile of the day, he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
Chapter 6
Charlotte walked through the hospital, realizing that even after ten straight hours of being on her feet, she was feeling good. Even cheerful. Weird as it might be to anyone not in the field, she loved her life here. Loved everything about what she did. Helping people. Healing people.
It distracted her from her own life.
As for why she needed that distraction in the first place—well, she wasn’t one to dwell, so she didn’t go there.
Realizing her stomach was grumbling and that she hadn’t eaten in far too long, she headed toward the staff room. Surely it was someone’s birthday and there would be goodies.
She loved goodies.
As she entered, the large room went silent. Interesting. They weren’t a silent bunch. They were highly educated know-it-alls with a social immaturity that came from being in college for half of their lives. She narrowed her eyes. “What?”
It was dinnertime, so the room was fuller than normal. There were staff on the two couches, at the two tables, standing in the small kitchenette area.
All looking at her.
“Did I miss a call?” she asked.
“You won the pool.” This from Mateo. His voice was its usual husky tone, the one that tended to give her goose bumps. Goose bumps she pretended meant he grated on her nerves.
A big fat lie. “Which pool?”
Valid question. Important too. There were at any given time ten to twenty different pools going on at the hospital. Yes, the staff members were swamped and run ragged almost every minute of the day. But in those rare seconds they could socialize, it was almost always about their ongoing wagers.
Could Lonny make it through his shift without one of his four-year-old twins calling 911 to talk to their “daddy.”
Could Rae keep herself from pranking anyone.
Could Mateo manage to not get hit on by a patient or patient’s family member.