Page 141 of A Matter of Time

“Those are yours to keep, all right?”

“Sam,” I said breathlessly, “are you sure you wanna⁠—”

“I’m sure. I’ll see ya later, kitten.”

“Sam, you gotta stop with the⁠—”

But he cut me off when he hung up. I went to my nightstand and picked up the keys. The key chain was obviously new, and I had to smile at the rhinestone-encrusted J. That had to be thrown out right away. How gay did he think I was?

It was a silent auction to benefit the pediatric unit at the hospital. Originally my boss had been contacted to be one of the bachelors silently auctioned off, but he’d declined and said he would provide free services instead. The hospital had been smart and accepted. A house designed by Dane Harcourt was worth its weight in gold as a symbol of status and luxury. If you had a Harcourt house, you had arrived.

As I walked up to the window in the emergency room, I saw Nick Sullivan leaning on the desk on the other side of the glass. When he turned to look out toward the lobby where I was standing, I was going to duck down and wait until he went away, but I was a grown-up and raised my hand and waved. He came through the sliding glass doors seconds later.

“Hey.” He smiled wide. “What’re you doing here at the crack of dawn? Have you even been to bed yet?”

“Ha-ha.” I smirked at him, yawning.

He stepped in close to me and took hold of the lapel of my peacoat. “I’m sorry for everything I said the last time we spoke. I was a jerk and⁠—”

“I deserved it for how I treated you.”

“No,” he assured me. “You deserved to be ignored, as you did me. You didn’t deserve all the gross things I said, and I⁠—”

“It’s okay.”

He took a shuddering breath.

“Really.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” I smiled at him. “Let’s be friends again.”

“If I didn’t care so much, I wouldn’t have been such a jerk.”

“Then you must really care, ’cause you were a total dick.”

Ignoring my words, he put an arm around my neck and led me through the doors to the ER. “What’re you doing here, J?”

“I have an envelope for the lady in charge of the silent auction tonight.”

He gave me an odd look.

“Did you know there’s a huge charity event tonight, Doctor, to raise money for the children’s ward?”

“Yes, very funny. I know. I have to be there, after all.”

“So that’s why I’m here. I need to see the lady in charge.”

“Oh.” He let me go. “Phyllis Woodstone. Let me call her down here for you.”

“I can go to her office if you tell me where it is.”

“No, no.” He smiled at me. “I’ll call her. Wait here.”

So I stood there while he walked behind the desk to make a call.

“Jory, right?”