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Something sprang to life inside him, something he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“You’re a good person, Harriet Knight.”
“I think what you meant to say was that I’m a badass, kick-ass serious piece of work.”
He couldn’t help it. He laughed. Out loud. Here in the stark hospital corridor, where the air seemed to be filled with nothing but tension. “If you’re going to say those words, you need to have an expression that matches it.”
“At least I didn’t stammer. Lucky for me, badass isn’t a word I stammer over. I think it might spoil the effect. Can you imagine? B-b-badass doesn’t sound right, does it?”
He was still smiling when she covered his hand with hers.
“They told me you were hurt too. Are you in a lot of pain?”
He’d barely thought about his arm. At some point someone had checked it and dressed it. “It’s a scratch, that’s all. I was trying to stop him getting to Susan. I still can’t quite work out how he did.”
“And because he did, you’re blaming yourself.”
“It was my fault.” He ran his hand over his face. “I should have anticipated it. Should have stopped it.”
“How? Are you a mind reader? Bad things happen, Ethan. It’s life.”
He knew about life. He saw it every day, just as he dealt with the consequences of the bad things.
He wondered why she was still here, in this soulless place that no one would ever visit through choice.
She was as out of place as a gerbera daisy in a garbage heap.
“You should go home.”
“Do you want me to go? Because of course if you want me to, then I’ll go. But I thought you might like company.”
It was true that he’d barely noticed the thirty minutes that had elapsed since her arrival.
He opened his mouth to tell her she should go, but discovered he really didn’t want her to.
Something about her quiet presence made it not quite so difficult to handle.
“If you could stay,” he said, “that would be good. But it’s going to be a long night.”
She crossed her legs and settled into the chair. “I’m not going anywhere.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ETHAN WAS RIGHT about one thing. It was a long night.
“This is the first time I’ve been in a hospital waiting for news.” He leaned his head back against the wall.
Harriet knew he was exhausted. She also knew there was no point in telling him to leave. The same inner drive that had made him agree to take his sister’s dog, wouldn’t allow him to leave his injured colleague.
The sandwiches she’d made were gone. So was the coffee. She wished now that she’d brought a second flask.
She delved into her bag and handed him a carefully wrapped packet.
“What’s this? Don’t tell me you brought dessert?”
“In a way. They’re my specialty. Chocolate chip cookies. Eat them quickly. Men have been known to fight over them.”
“Yeah? Give me an example.”
