His pause had given Ella time to notice him, he observed, as he finally stepped forward. And then stopped. The look of pain on her face was unmistakable.
She was sitting not far from the door. And she wasn’t alone.
* * *
ELLA DIALED BRETT’S phone the second she was in her car.
She owed him nothing.
But that didn’t mean she wanted to hurt him.
“Brett?” Why she said his name when his voice mail picked up, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if cell phone voice mail blasted out into the room and gave the listener a chance to pick up. “This is Ella.”
N
o kidding. Her hands were shaking as she sat there. Jason drove past, waving goodbye, and she waved back. Wondering if he was curious who she was on the phone with so soon after they’d parted ways.
“Listen,” she said, rubbing her head with the hand that had waved. “I... Just call me, please. I mean it, Brett. Don’t make me chase you down.”
She clicked the phone off.
Wondering why she’d ever thought Brett Ackerman was worth all the trouble he brought her.
And when, less than a minute later, her phone rang and she recognized his number, she knew.
Just knowing that he’d called when she asked him to gave her a modicum of peace.
“Why didn’t you come say hello?” she asked, getting straight to the point.
“I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“We were in public, Brett. That opens up the expectation of possible interruption.”
Were they really having this inane conversation? They’d spent such an incredible night together, she could hardly believe it wasn’t a dream, followed by two weeks of complete silence and now they were arguing about expectations surrounding privacy in a public establishment?
“So, what did you want?” she asked.
“I was just stopping in for a drink after golf.”
In the bistro so close to the hospital that it had become the unofficial after-work gathering place for hospital personnel? When Brett lived across town?
“So why not have the drink?” She knew why she was pushing him.
Because he wouldn’t have come inside if he hadn’t meant to see her. She knew him. Brett was deliberate about everything he did. If he hadn’t wanted to see her, he’d have checked the parking lot to make sure her car wasn’t there.
“I wanted to ask—casually, without putting you on the spot—how Chloe’s doing. I have no intention of pressuring you to give up confidences, Ella, and don’t want you to think, because we... Anyway, I just wondered if there’s been any change on your end.”
“Chloe’s doing well. She started daily sessions with Sara the Monday we got back.”
She started her car, but didn’t pull out of the parking lot. Her phone wasn’t charged enough to waste the battery on wireless or Bluetooth. Dusk had set, leaving a gloom over the mostly full lot.
Saturday night. There were lots of people out on the town. Going on dates.
She and Jason were going to see a movie Sunday afternoon. Because she wasn’t ready to go to bed with him.
But she liked him, and she’d told him so tonight.
Then she’d seen Brett.