Dammit. I think I screwed up. Standing, I head for the door.
“Are you leaving?” she asks, a hint of disappointment in her voice.
“I am, but I’ll be back. I forgot something.”
6
WILDLY TALENTED
BRIDGET
After getting the okay from Mindy, I call up and ask Hannah to bring Ash down to the pediatric floor. I’m standing in front of the elevators waiting for him when it dings and the doors slowly open.
He wears a skeptical but humored expression as he steps out. “Are you exiling me?”
“Where’s Hannah?”
“She got a call as we were about to leave. I told her I could find it on my own.” He looks up and around. “Where am I?”
“Welcome to the pediatric floor.”
I’m not sure what I expected his reaction to be, but when he smiles, my stomach does a flip. “We’re going to hang with kids?”
“Just one. The others are sleeping.”
“Right.” He nods and falls into step beside me as I lead him back down the hall toward Liza’s room. “I don’t have any merch or anything with me, but if I make a couple calls—”
I stop abruptly in the middle of the hall and look him square in the face. “This isn’t about what you can do for her, it’s about what she can do for you.”
“I’m intrigued,” he says, aiming that arrogant and flirty grin at me as I walk backward a few steps. I can feel my smile widen in response to his. I’m glad he’s on board. I think this will be good for Ash and Liza.
As I always do, I knock on Liza’s door as I enter.
“What’d you forget?” she asks, staring ahead at her TV show. She’s still sitting on the bed, legs crossed. The book of Sudoku rests in her lap.
When I don’t immediately answer, she glances over and goes very still.
I take another step and look back at Ash hovering in the doorway. “Liza, this is Ash. Is it okay if he hangs out in here with me for a few minutes?”
She still doesn’t speak. I’m worried I might have broken her brain.
Ash walks farther into the room. His good looks mixed with his friendly and flirty demeanor make my good sense want to take a permanent vacation. At the game last month, I thought it was all for show, but now I’m starting to think it’s just him.
“Hey,” he says. “What are you watching?”
Snapping out of it, Liza rushes to pause the show. “It’s this anime series a friend recommended. Wow. It’s really you.”
The way she looks at him, equal parts awe and shock, has me covering my mouth to hide a smile.
“Nice to meet you, Liza.” He nods toward her Sudoku. “I love those. I play a lot on road trips. That and Royal Match.”
“Bridget brought it for me because she knows how bored I get in this place.”
He looks over his shoulder at me with an expression I can’t quite decipher.
Bringing him here was my idea, but now that we’re all crammed into this room together, I feel even more aware of him. His VIP room is twice as big, and at least upstairs, I had a getaway.
“That’s cool. How do you two know each other?” he asks her.
“She was my nurse the first time I was here. Diabetic,” Liza says. “Bridget’s the best. Bummer that she’s on another floor now. But good for you, I guess.”
I was anything but the best on my first day. I was scared and unsure, but I tried not to let Liza see any of that.
“Yes, great news for me.” Ash smirks at me and I’m certain my face is turning red.
I clear my throat. “Ash was bored with us upstairs, and you’re the most entertaining patient in the hospital so I thought you should meet.”
“What she means is I’m a giant pain in the ass and making her life difficult. She’s pawning me off on you,” Ash says.
“Do you want to do one?” Liza offers him her book.
He takes it with a grateful smile.
“Sit,” I command, pointing toward the chair in the room.
He does and I grab an extra pillow to put behind his shoulder. Liza has fully come out of her earlier shock. For the next five minutes, we all watch the end of the current episode and Ash works on a Sudoku puzzle. I have no idea what is happening, partly because I find myself continually watching Ash instead of the screen. Best-case scenario I thought Liza would chat his ear off long enough for him to get his mind off everything, but he looks like he’s enjoying being here.
When it’s over, Liza fills him in on the earlier plot points of the show and then starts peppering him with questions about his injury.