“And so you shall,” said Harrison as if his word was the final word.
Jayda wasn’t accustomed to somebody else taking charge of her decisions like that, but in a way it was comforting too. Because it made sense. What if they missed something and they send her home? She lived alone. If something happened, she might not be able to call 911. Although she didn’t know if sheliked Harrison telling her what she was going to do as if that was his place, especially after she found out he was late for his big-time date, she wasn’t going to argue with what was obviously the better way.
Not that the doctor asked her opinion anyway. He moved on as if what Harrison Bainbridge said was what was going to be for no better reason than the fact that he was Harrison Bainbridge. “We’ll move her to a suite so that she will be far more comfortable, sir,” the doctor began saying.
But Jayda cut him off. “No you won’t either.” That was where she drew the line. “I’ve been in this room for hours. Nurses have come and gone. Techs and aides have come and gone. The police came and took my statement in this room. It has a door and not a curtain like the other rooms in this emergency area. I’m used to it now. I don’t wanna start over in some other room. And especially not in some isolated suite somewhere where I can be forgotten. I’m fine right here. In the middle of everything. And then in the morning, if y’all observe that I’m still alive, I’m going home.”
Although the doctor seemed to find her reasoning flawed and ridiculous, Harrison understood it. She hated hospitals. If she stayed near the emergency room, where there was always activity, then she wouldn’t be alone. Or, as she said, forgotten. “She’ll stay right here,” he said to the doctor.
And something else happened with Harrison after listening to Jayda. He made up his mind.
But the doctor found it strange that a Bainbridge would be going along with her nonsense, or would even have anything to do with somebody like her, but who was he to judge? They were going to accommodate whatever Mr. Bainbridge wanted until he left their hospital. The Bainbridge name was almost as well-known in New York as the Rockefeller name and everyone associated with that name had a national reputation for makingserious trouble for anybody they had subpar interactions with. The employees of that emergency room liked where they were also. They didn’t want to try out a new job prematurely.
“Yes sir,” the doctor said, answered a few more questions, and then gladly left the room.
Harrison looked at Vincent. “Put a detail on the door,” he ordered.
Although Vincent was inwardly shocked by what that meant, he did as he was told. “Yes sir,” he said and left the room too.
But Jayda was concerned. “You think I need security?” she asked him.
“Probably not,” Harrison said. “But it’s standard practice whenever I stay somewhere overnight.”
Harrison was still reeling from the close call he experienced three weeks ago, as he was convinced it was no accident although they could find nothing on the getaway car (it was stolen), and could never see the driver on any of the CCTV footage his security team viewed. But they were still searching.
But Jayda didn’t know anything about that incident. But it was what he said, not the reasoning behind it, that caught her attention anyway. “What do you mean when you stay overnight?”
He looked at her. He could see the hopefulness in her beautiful eyes. “If it’s alright with you.”
She was stunned. It was the last thing she expected to hear. “You mean you’re staying in this hospital with me tonight?”
He nodded. “That’s what I’m saying, yes.”
She searched his eyes. She so wanted it to be true, but in her life it usually wasn’t. “Why?” she felt a need to ask him.
But his answer was typical Harrison. It wasn’t about to reveal too much. “Why not?” he responded.
It wasn’t the affirmation she wanted to hear, but she was beginning to realize that it was about as good as it was going to get with this guy. And besides, she hated hospitals so much that it would have been nightmarish if she had to stay there alone. She was pleased. “Thanks,” she said.
Harrison loved that she didn’t want more from him in that moment. It was as if his actions, to her, spoke louder than words. And when it came to his true feelings, especially those deep, still odd feelings he harbored for her, he was not a man of many words anyway.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
But later that night, after he removed his suit coat and tie, and his shoes, and laid in bed beside her, it still astounded Jayda. This man,this billionaire, was actually lying in this hospital bed with her as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
And in an odd way, it was. Yes, there was security outside her door to protect him, which made it all the more surreal to Jayda, but that same sense of home she felt around him at his penthouse she felt in that hospital too. Which made her realize that it wasn’t the location that was making her feel that way. It was the man. It was Harrison. Unlike any man she’d ever been with, it was him.
Harrison felt deeply about Jayda, too, as he laid in bed beside her. He couldn’t believe he was doing this. In all the years he’d been with different women that had been hospitalized or otherwise infirmed, he never once had any interest whatsoever in so much as visiting them in the hospital let alone spending the night in that same institution with them. It was unheard of to him.
But it was natural for him when it came to Jayda. This woman did something to him that no other woman had come close to doing. She made him feel alive again. And needed. She gave him a sense of purpose.
But it wasn’t without risks. Because she also made him feel burdened down. When she was relaying what happened to her in that alley, he thought he was going to die where he sat. It anguished him. And these were early days. How in the worldwas he going to be able to handle it if he were to fall madly in love with her and something awful happened to her? It would utterly destroy him.
But not being with her might do the trick too.
That was the dilemma he found himself struggling through. That was why he decided to stop worrying about it and just be in the moment with her. Which he knew she would appreciate. And in that moment, it was all about her as far as Harrison was concerned.
They were turned face to face. “I have a question,” she said to him.
