Page 103 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Surgeon

Nadine leaned close to my ear. “Honey, Dr. Chadwick is gay. He’s just not out yet. He trusts Jelly with his secret, and they’ve become great friends. But that’s it. They love each other, but they are notinlove with each other.”

I stood up and threw my arms around her.

“Oh! Paolo,” she said from somewhere deep in my chest area, “you might be crushing me a bit, and I’m afraid you’re going to have my face on the front of your shirt.”

I pushed her back away from me, keeping my hands on her shoulders. I did indeed have Nadine’s face on my shirt. I looked at the makeup stains. “Don’t worry. It looks better that way. I’m just sorry I crushed you. But thank you. Thank you so much for telling me that. Nadine, do I have any hope of getting her back?”

“That depends. Do you know how to grovel?”

“I can grovel.” I had never groveled for a woman. Ever. But Jelly was… everything. And I had to get her back.

“Then I’d be prepared to do a good bit of that. You know, Jelly hasn’t had a lot of people in her corner in her life. She thought you were one of those people, and then you let her down. It’s going to take some time for her to be able to forgive that.”

“I know. And thanks again, Nadine.”

“Okay, honey. Now, I’ve really got to pee andgo fix my face.”

“Noted.” I tried to hide my smile. Nadine was nothing if not straight forward.

If I’d heard nothing else from that whole conversation, I’d heard one thing: I had hope.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Jelly

The next couple of months flew by. I did my best to not be around Paolo at work. Every now and then, I had to be. There were times we worked the same surgery. There were times we were in the cafeteria at the same time. There were times a co-worker had a birthday party.

Then we had to be in the same orbit. It was easier if it was purely professional. It was easy for me to compartmentalize and perform a surgery or discuss a patient without letting any thoughts of what we’d been to each other sneak in. But the other times? That was harder.

It was always awkward when we were in a social situation. It seemed our eyes found each other like they were magnets constantly during those times. I’d usually hurry to leave as soon as I possibly could without being rude or making a scene of some kind.

Sometimes he tried to leave as soon as I did and walk out with me. I didn’t let that happen. Even if things turned weird. One time I’d already told everyone goodbye, realized he was trying to leave with me, and yelled out, “Did I say ‘bye? What I really meant was let’s cut that cake, am I right?”

Everyone had stopped and gaped at me. But Cleo seemed to sense my need and had my back. “Yeah, girl! Get the cake cutter and let’s get this party started.”

“You know it!” I danced over to her and did the robot while I cut the cake and started passing pieces out.

Was it mortifying? Hell, yes. I’ll never get the looks on myco-workers’ faces out of my mind. But at least I hadn’t had to walk down the hall alone with Paolo.

He got the picture pretty quickly. It wasn’t long before he backed off. If we were in the same place socially, he gave me my space and I gave him his. We almost never had to acknowledge each other’s existence. And that was how I wanted it to be.

Finally, it was the weekend of graduation. I was going to walk in the ceremony. Carmen, Nadine, and Nia had talked me into it. Daisy and Jack were even flying to town for it, which was super nice considering they’d come just a couple of weeks ago to see me get awards at the hospital gala. I’d had to get tickets for all the Cinnamon House girls, and I readied myself for comments about how hot my friends all were.

Well, that and why the mayor and his wife, plus half the Salazar family, were in attendance.

I figured we’d go out to eat somewhere afterwards, or that Carmen would let us use Sugar for a party area until it opened for the evening.

But that’s not what happened.

Daisy, Jack, Reynolds, Nadine, Nia, and I rode in Reynolds’ fancy town car with Byron driving. “Where are we going?” I asked.

“We thought we’d stop off back at your place,” Nia said easily. “Nobody’s really seen it yet except me, Carmen, and Nadine.”

“Oh, cool.” I mentally went through my house in my head trying to remember if I’d left everything pristine when I’d hurried to graduation this morning. I thought I had.

When we pulled up, I noticed there were cars parked all up and down the street. “Jeez. One of my neighbors must be having a party or something.”

Bryon pulled in the driveway, and we all poured out.