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Well. Past Olivia sounded drunk. But she did have good taste in candy. “I’m quite all right now. Please get out before my germs destroy us both.”

“You sound like there’s a pillow lodged in your throat, and you look like—”

I opened one eye. “Careful there.”

Lachlan gave a muffled cough. “You look like a supermodel who stars in every man’s fantasy.”

“Much better.” I flopped to my side, letting my cheek rest against the cool pillowcase. “Do I star in your fantasy, Lachlan?” Sick me could ask that. Healthy me would not even recall it.

A beat of silence preceded Lachlan’s deep sigh. “Maybe.”

I smiled at the very idea. “Maybe I think of you too.” My eyes fluttered open when I heard Lachlan loudly call my name from the doorway. “What?” Where was I? Had I fallen back to sleep?

“I asked you if you’d eaten.” He leaned against the frame, a man who knew how to fill a space and all my thoughts.

“Not since this morning.” My sisters had brought me food daily and left it at my door, but I couldn’t recall accomplishing lunch. “I don’t know.”

“Have you actually taken your temp?” he asked.

“Parts of me are warm.”

“Olivia…”

“Fine. I have a fever. But it’s gone down to 101.”

I heard a subdued curse, then, “Why didn’t you call me sooner?”

“I had my sisters.”

“But you didn’t have your husband.”

My wheezy heart swelled a bit at that. “I did miss you.”

“Now Iknowyou’re ill.”

“It surprised me too.” I ripped another Kleenex from the box and liberally dabbed at my uncooperative nose. How could something so stopped up be so drippy? “I missed talking to you. I missed our morning meetups in the kitchen over coffee, and I missed our nightly dinners. Sylvie cooked for me, but it wasn’t the same.”

The silence stretched so long, I thought Lachlan had either walked away or I’d fallen back to sleep. But when I opened my eyes, there he was. Still hovering in the doorway, staring at me as if I’d said something sweet. Had I? I couldn’t recall.

“I’ll make you some soup,” Lachlan finally said. “Will you be okay?”

“Yes, Lachlan.” I blew my hair out of my face. “I’ve survived without you for days.”

“But you shouldn’t have.” Then Lachlan Hayes, the man whose last name I carried, gave me a gentle smile. “Call me if you need anything.”

I didn’t know if a symptom of this plague was finding your fake husband utterly endearing and adorable, but that was a whole different type of fever I needed to bringwaydown. “I’m just gonna rest my eyes.”

“Sweet dreams, wife.” Lachlan shut the door with a click, and I heard his voice one more time. “Olivia?”

I tugged the covers to my chin, feeling measurably better now that Lachlan was home. “Yes?”

“I missed you too.”

ChapterThirty

OLIVIA

The next dayI woke up and decided I would live after all.