“It’s bad enough the nurses brought a Christmas tree to his private room. Now you want me to celebrate New Year’s with him. When is he leaving? He could probably fly home soon. Most people go home the same day or the next.”
“He’s not most people. And as for his friend, he’s really not an ordinary guy—”
She shut up at my side-eye.
Genie pulled up Daniel’s chart on the laptop in front of her. “Let me see. Since he’s the only patient of yours that you seem to have no interest in checking on while they’re here in rehab.”
“It will be close to two weeks at New Year’s. He should be cleared to go. He could’ve gone a week ago. There haven’t been any new concerns, right?”
“One minute, you’re Team He Should Stay, and the next, Team He Could Have Gone. Which is it? Why don’t you go see?” Genie smirked; she was a small dog with a big bone.
“I should fire you.”
She had the nerve to bat her eyelashes at me while she said, “You would never.”
Truth was, I’d been wanting to see Daniel but had forbidden myself. It was unlike my professional self not to follow up, and my personal side was hanging on by a thread—over a guy I knew almost two decades ago. Sure, I’d dated and temporarily fallen for a few other men, but there was something about the few but memorable stolen moments I’d shared with Daniel.
Blowing a long breath out, I said, “Fine, I’ll go check on him. Maybe I’ll even sign off on an early discharge.”
“You can’t do that. His PT team will go ballistic. You can’t override them.”
“Regina, please. Like I said, any other patient would have been home for a week or more already, bugging a family member to help them with their exercises and shuttle them to therapy. Campbell shouldn’t even be here except for his Hollywood friends.”
“Okay, go see him.”
“You won. I’m going. But I’m not bringing the New Year’s celebration to him. I’m hoping he skedaddles back to Los Angeles and this is the last we see of Daniel Campbell. Got it?”
I said it matter-of-factly, but the problem was, somewhere deep inside, I didn’t believe it.
“Good afternoon, Daniel,” I said, entering his room without knocking. I knew from the schedule that he was done with both occupational and physical therapies for the day.
“You haven’t seen me since I came up to this floor, and now we’re on a first-name basis?”
“How are you feeling, Mr. Campbell? There, is that better?”
He sat up taller, adjusting the pillow behind him. He wore some sort of golf label warm-up suit with a navy stripe across the breastbone that set off his eyes, but I didn’t say that aloud.
“I didn’t mind Daniel. Danny is fine too. It’s been a while, but for you, I’d make an exception.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I refocused. The tiniest flirt from this man had me off-center.
“How are you, Birdie?” Naturally, said man took advantage of the moment to flirt.
“I’m not the one recuperating. Speaking of, I looked at your chart and you’ve reached all your necessary milestones. There’s no reason to keep charging your Hollywood bestie thousands of dollars a day so you can stay here. Time for you to go home.”
“But tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. I don’t want to fly home and welcome midnight alone.”
“Stop whining. I’m sure the same nurses, or whoever brought you a tree, would be willing to celebrate with you.”
“I dinnae…”
In my mind, I thought about what the heck he meant…and I realized his accent was coming out despite him being in the US for decades.
“I don’t know,” he repeated, sliding to the side of the bed and standing. He walked toward me. “I don’t want to celebrate with them.”
“Well, they may be all you have. Or you could go home. I’m sure there’s some posh catering service you can call, order yourself a shrimp cocktail and whatever else you want.” As I rambled, I noted Daniel was so close to me now that I could feel his breath on my cheek as he exhaled.
“How about this? You tell the PT peeps to send me on my way. You’ve made it clear you’re not my doctor. And then I can ask you to have dinner with me, on New Year’s Eve?” He ran hisindex finger down my forearm. “Something quiet, easy. So we can reconnect, talk, get to know one another as grown-ups.”
