Alex swallowed hard, his hand slipping around her waist, pulling her closer. “Right.”
“I need you to believe that,” she said, her voice firm but gentle. “Because I’m not going anywhere. We’re going to get through this. Together.”
He nodded, holding her tighter. “Together.”
She tilted her neck back to glance up at him. “Well, that’s an improvement. Earlier you were certain I only loved you because of the drugs.”
“Yeah, well, Doc gave me a good talking to.” Alex raised his eyes to the ceiling as Ava’s eyebrows shot toward her hairline.
“Really? Doc gave you a good talking to?” She chuckled. “Wow, when was this?”
“While we were waiting for you to wake up after I stabbed you.”
She laughed harder. “You didn’t stab me, Ace. You injected me with a sedative in case I went berserk.”
“Yeah, well, I hated doing it. And Doc basically told me I was being a big wimp and stressing you out with all my stress over not being good enough for you.”
Ava tilted her head, wrinkling her nose. “Alex…you are more than good enough. That’s nonsense talk.”
“I know. Doc told me the same thing. I just…Ava, I’m blown away that we’re actually together.”
She giggled at him. “Alex, we’ve basically been inseparable since college. Why are you so stunned?”
“We haven’t beentogethertogether,” Alex answered. “And we weren’t super close the last few years.”
Ava pressed her lips together. “I know. And I regret that, babe, I do. But I’m trying to make up for it right now. If we could ever get The Board to leave us alone, we could really make up for it.”
“I know. I still need to take you to your surprise.”
She grinned up at him. “Oh, that’s right. You’ve been trying to take me to Paris since this whole thing started, and we never made it.”
“No,” he said with a chuckle as he rubbed her back, “not Paris.”
“Right, it was…” She narrowed her eyes. “Italy?”
“Avs, I’m still not telling you.”
“Aw, that’s so unfair, Alex,” she whined. “Totally unfair! We keep having to put it off because of The Board. You should at least tell me where it is because of the delay.”
He shook his head. “Uh-uh. You’re not wheedling it out ofme with that pout and that excuse. When we solve this problem with The Board, then we’ll go.”
“All the more reason for us to get going to Vermont, then. We need to put a stop to this PharmaTech deadly flu trial before they ruin the world.”
Alex kissed her cheek before he grabbed his bag from the floor. “Right. It’ll be your reward for saving the world from the bad guys.”
“I can’t wait.”
Alex froze, his hand on a dark hoodie. “Wait, it’s totally not enough for saving the world. I may have to do something else.”
“I’m going to clobber you if you keep doubting yourself,” she said as she poked at his sides.
“Okay, okay. But don’t be surprised if there isn’t a two-part trip after all of this.”
“After all of this, I’ll go anywhere with you, babe, including just hanging out on the couch and playing games. We are way behind on our gaming sessions.”
“You are way behind me, too. You spent all that time dating Chris and not gaming.”
“I know. I really have a lot to make up for. I am going to have to game twenty-four seven when this ends just to catch up.”
