“Trust me.” It still made him a little weak in the knees to think what might’ve happened if she hadn’t trusted him.
She nodded emphatically. “Well, it’s my turn.Youneed to trustme. You just need to give me a little time to talk to Ted. You need to trust that I know what I’m talking about when I tell you that he’s going to be happy for me. For us. He is. But I can’t have that conversation while he’s stoned out of his mindorif there’s a crowd of guards and staff-members hovering around him. I can’t.”
“I just keep thinking, what if you didn’t?” Thomas said slowly. “Talk to him. Just yet. I know you don’t believe me, Tash, but he loves you.”
“Yes. He does. I do know that. We’re very close friends.”
“I... don’t think that’s what Ted thinks.”
She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Welp, you’re wrong. Guess you’ll have to trust me.” But then she faltered. “Unless this is where your doubts and regrets kick in?”
“No,” he said, absolutely. “But...”
“Oh, good,” she said. “There’s abut.”
Thomas struggled to explain. “Tash, I’m having doubtsforyou.”
“What doesthatmean?”
“It means...” He cleared his throat. God, his stomach hurt. But he made himself say it. “I think Ishouldgive you some time. And some space, too.”
“Space?”
“Look, I know you see things differently than I do, but what I see is a man—a prince—who is crazy in love with you. And I don’t want you to throw away a life like that—like this...” he gestured around them, but at what? The expensive clothes she was wearing? That was no big thing. He had money saved, he could buy her whatever she needed and wanted. This hospital corridor they were standing in? Nah, as a SEAL,hewas more likely to bring a unwanted hospital stay into her life than the prince was in the future. The essence of Andrea that still echoed in the hallway? Yeah, maybe that’s what he was talking about. The staff, the guards, the title, the fairy-tale happily-ever-after.
The incredible pain in the ass that came with a too-public life.
Somehow it didn’t seem as if she’d be missing all that much. And yet...
She was silent, eyebrows raised, just waiting for him to finish.
“I just want to make sure you’ve thought this through,” he told her. “So, yeah. Space. I, uh, was thinking I should drive back to San Diego tonight, with Rio and Dave.”
She took a step back from him. “Oh, my God. You’re serious.”
“Flights are still impossible and you said yourself that you need time to talk to Ted—”
“I said that, yes,” she said. “But time as in a few hours. Another day at the most.”
“And I think you’ll need longer than that,” he said.
“Well, you’re wrong,” Tasha told him. “You’re doubling down on your incredible wrongness and—oh, shit, you’re in a hospital.” She rubbed her forehead as if she had a sudden, severe headache. “Of course you’re freaked out and everything feels wrong. But please, please,pleaseThomas,trust me.”
* * *
Tasha could feel her eyes welling with tears as she stood there, a polite three feet away from this man she loved with all of her heart, unable to throw herself into his arms and beg him not to be stupid.
“Yeah, I’m freaked out,” he said quietly. “Yeah, I hate hospitals, but... Tash, I really think it’s a good idea. Not just for you, but for me, too. I’ll go with Rio and Dave. That way we’ll get back to Coronado as quickly as we can. I think it’s best if we leave tonight.”
“Please just wait until tomorrow,” she said. “Andrea got us all rooms at a hotel that’s just down the street—”
“The admiral needs us in California.”
“Bullshit,” she said. “It can wait twelve hours. You haven’t slept in days.”
“I can sleep in the car.”
“God, you really want to go, don’t you?” she asked, turning her head so that the guards couldn’t see that her tears were about to escape.
