“You’re not letting me come up?”
She shook her head. “It really has been a long day.”
“This isn’t working for me, Emily.”
She blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you going on dates with other men and then sending me home. I’m supposed to be the man in your life.”
He was right. He was supposed to be the man in her life. Only, she wasn’t sur
e she wanted him to be. Surely she deserved better than just the status quo.
“I think you need to reconsider or we need to consider taking a time-out from our relationship.”
What? “If I don’t invite you upstairs, we’re through?”
He didn’t answer, just stared at her with an expectant look on his face that was answer enough.
Well, at least he was making this decision easy.
“You’re right. We do need a time-out from our relationship.”
Surprise flittered across his face. He’d thought his ultimatum would result in an invitation into her bed?
“If you’ve set your sights on that doctor, Emily, you’re wasting your time. You’re throwing away a good thing for a man who’s never going to take someone like you seriously.”
“Someone like me?” He made it sound as if she weren’t good enough for Lucas, as if she were lucky Richard found her appealing.
He shrugged. “You’re not in his league.”
Ouch.
Emily’s lips curled into a forced smile. “Thanks for an enlightening evening and for making what could have been a difficult moment into an easy one. Goodbye, Richard.”
* * *
Emily was assigned to Cassie and to Jenny the following day. Cassie had continued to decline, but Jenny was holding her own. It would probably be a couple of days before the four-year-old regained consciousness, which was probably a good thing. Perhaps some of her injuries would have subsided a little.
“Her vitals remained good during the night.”
She turned to the man entering the room. The man she’d lain in bed and thought about way too much the night before. Shouldn’t she have been thinking about the man she’d just ended things with instead?
“Yes, she’s stable.”
“That’s good news.” He examined the unconscious little girl, then turned to Emily. “Give me more good news.”
“Pardon?”
“Tell me you didn’t make plans for tonight.”
Emily sighed. “I’m not going to go to dinner with you, Lucas. There’s no point.”
“Is there a point to you going to dinner with the pharmacist?”
“Richard has nothing to do with why I won’t go to dinner with you,” she answered honestly. “I’m no longer seeing him.”
Lucas’s gaze shot to hers and he studied her so long that she found her feet wanting to shuffle beneath the weight of his stare. Instead, she found the strength to step away from him.