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“Are you?” Lanie tilted her head. “You broke up with the man you planned to marry.” She sniffed. “I wasn’t engaged to James, and I still struggled after we broke up.”
Tears pricked behind Rose’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She didn’t want to cry, not with Lanie there. She wanted to wait until she was alone, when she could have a full-on wallow fest. Thank goodness she’d had the forethought to stock up on ice cream. The best comfort for a broken heart was a pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
But Lanie’s probing eyes wreaked havoc on her resolve. Rose cleared her throat. “Okay, maybe I’m not fine at the moment.” Squaring her shoulders, she lifted her glass and downed the rest of her wine. “But I will be.” Her gaze fell on the wedding binder teetering on the edge of the coffee table. “Though while you’re here, maybe you can help me. I don’t want to bother Carissa, and I should get a start on calling the wedding vendors.”
When she moved to pick up the binder, Lanie put a hand on her arm. Rose shot her a questioning look, but Lanie shook her head.
“Not tonight.” Lanie stood and retrieved the bottle of wine before pouring them each another large glass. “Tonight, we wallow and let the dust settle.”
“But—”
“Trust me, Rose. You’ll thank me tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Steven opened his eyes the next morning, hoping it had all been a dream, but the incessant beeping of the heart monitor betrayed the truth. Not only was he back in the hospital, but he was also single. The ring he had searched for over several months, determined to find the perfect one, mocked him from his bedside table.
If he were honest, he could admit he should have seen that coming. And as if losing Rose wasn’t bad enough, his stupidity might have cost him his firm as well.
“Ah, good, you’re awake.” Dr. Myers popped his head into the room.
I wish I wasn’t. The thought came out of nowhere and caught him off guard. Thank goodness he had a filter. Otherwise, he would likely be put on some seventy-two-hour hold. And that was quite literally the last thing he needed.
“I wanted to talk to you about discharge.”
That got his attention. “Already? Aren’t you keeping me here for observation?”
“Oh, we are,” Dr. Myers said. “But I also told you I would discharge you home.”
“And you’re not planning on doing that anymore?” Steven read between the lines of what the doctor wasn’t saying.
Dr. Myers sighed. “If you really want to go home, we can certainly make that happen, assuming everything looks good.” For a moment, the good doctor appeared at war with himself, which only amped up Steven’s irritation.
“Just spit it out, Doc.”
“You won’t want to hear this, but you were making significant progress in the inpatient rehab facility.” His eyes narrowed as he leveled a stern gaze at Steven. “You should consider going back.”
The no was on the tip of Steven’s tongue when Rose’s face flashed before his eyes. A weight as heavy as an elephant settled on his chest. He would do anything to see her again, anything to convince her to give him another chance.
“You have a better chance of healing and getting back to your life if you spend a few more weeks working through an intensive therapy program,” Dr. Myers continued when Steven didn’t respond. “I’ve spoken with the medical team there, and—”
“Okay,” Steven whispered as he squeezed his eyes shut.
“They said they can get you Wi-Fi—Wait, did you say yes?”
Opening his eyes, Steven nodded. “I’ll do it.”
“Well… great!” Dr. Myers’s face broke into a broad smile. “That went better than I’d expected.” He turned as if to go then glanced over his shoulder. “And just so you know, the facility is making special accommodations to allow you to work from there. You’ll still need to focus most of your energy on getting better, but I don’t want you to stress about your business. Just… try to find a balance, all right?”
“I will,” Steven promised, and the conviction in his words took him by surprise.
True to his word, Dr. Myers kept Steven for observation for a few more days, and they were the most boring days of Steven’s life. Only his father and a few friends came to visit. He hadn’t expected Rose, though he couldn’t quite quash the small piece of hope in his heart. After all, she worked at the hospital, so it wouldn’t have been difficult for her to swing by.
But the visitor he missed even worse than Rose was Lanie. It wasn’t like his sister to avoid him, especially since she’d arrived right after he’d collapsed. He’d thought she would come by every day, but he hadn’t seen her since the breakup. To say he was hurt was an understatement. Doesn’t she understand that blood is thicker than water? Sure, she and Rose were friends, but he was in the hospital. Shouldn’t my needs take precedence?
Deep down, he could admit, at least to himself, that he understood why she hadn’t come. She must have been so angry with him for screwing up the best relationship he could have ever hoped to have. Maybe she was helping Rose cancel the wedding. His throat burned, but he swallowed the pain. Perhaps Lanie believed he deserved it.
“Are you ready to bust out of this place?” His dad entered the room with an uncharacteristic smile on his normally grumpy face.
