Husband Stay (Husband #2) Read Free Page B

did a
double-take. The nurse had to be fifty. Probably a grandma. “I didn’t see his
smile...” I faltered. Did that mean he was awake now? I had seen his
chest. “He was a patron in the club where I work. So I feel...a sense of
responsibility for him. Have his family been notified that he’s here?”
    If I was in
hospital with a dodgy heart, I’d want my parents at my bedside, stat!
    She shook her
head. “He’s all alone. You want to check in on him?”
    “Oh, no.” It was
my turn to shake my head. “I don’t know him.” I looked around for an excuse.
“I’m waiting for the results of X-rays. If I don’t hear my name called—”
    “I’ll find you.”
She looked as if she was calling me on a dare. But the last thing I wanted was
to talk to the man. I was tired. It was nearly 4am. I wanted my wrist fixed and
I wanted to go home. Damn my stupid marshmallow heart for getting me into
trouble—yet again. But she just raised an eyebrow. “Five minutes,” she said.
“Might cheer him up.”
    I frowned at her,
but it was like frowning at a rock wall. She absolutely wasn’t moved. And my
conscience was saying, You prayed for the man . Would it hurt you to
look in on him?
    I was over my
angst about the shoes. Perhaps I could consider it an act of goodwill and tell
Bertie I’d done it on his behalf. It might make me look more reliable, more
like a staff member he could count on to perform her duties.
    “Alright.” I
hadn’t meant to sound so begrudging, but both her eyebrows rose and I felt
obliged to add, “I’m sorry. I’ll be nice to him.”
    “He nearly died.”
She pinned me with a glare, then she nodded at the corridor and set off ahead
of me.
    I padded after her
in my bare feet and black sheath dress, feeling stupid all over again when
people gave me puzzled glances. Did they think I was some party girl who’d lost
her footwear while roaming around drunk? At least my hand was now in a tidy sling
against my chest, so I added straight shoulders and a raised chin, hoping I
could get this ordeal over with quickly and get home.
    I’d worry about
how to get my car back from the club tomorrow. I clearly couldn’t drive with
one arm out of action. Which meant I’d need to beg my cousin for a lift to the
train station on Monday. The last thing I needed was to lose my new part-time job
at the deli...
    Oh.
    How could I
prepare food when I had only one working arm?
    I hadn’t thought of
that, and the bottom dropped out of my stomach at the same moment as the nurse
stopped and turned to me.
    “In there,” she
said and nodded at a door.
    I struggled to put
my own concerns aside for the moment, but my smile only lasted until I realized
she clearly wasn’t coming in with me. I shook my head. “You want me to just...go
in?”
    What if he was
asleep or—
    “Yep.” She turned
on her heel and marched back the way we’d come, leaving me staring at the door,
wondering what might be happening on the other side. What if he was using the
bedpan, or a doctor was in there examining him. Any number of embarrassing
things could be happening—things I didn’t want to intrude on.
    But surely the
nurse would have thought of that. And, really, could I walk away when she’d
made him sound so lonely? In the end it was my marshmallow heart that did the
deciding, and I knocked tentatively.
    Unfortunately, there
was no answer, so I tensed my shoulders in anticipation, turned the doorknob
and eased the door open, sliding my head inside to scope out the room, ready
for a quick exit if necessary.
    But nothing was
happening. He was alone in the room, lying on the bed with his eyes closed, his
big tanned chest dotted with tiny white monitors and their cords. Was he asleep?
    I hovered in the
doorway, not sure what to do. I couldn’t simply walk into a stranger’s room
when he wasn’t even awake. Weren’t there laws about privacy? I was frowning at
him, thinking I should just ease back out of the room and try and retrace