Now that he and Petula had agreed to forge ahead with their relationship, Julian was champing at the bit. He couldn’t wait to have a place where they could be together without prying ears or eyes, and they could explore the “L” word they’d danced around.
Wanting to get things rolling right away, he needed to call Tabitha. She’d rally the troops, contact his mother, and between all of them, they’d purchase everything that was needed. All he had to do was drop off his keys and his credit card to one of the ladies tomorrow after the paper-signing, and he wouldn’t have to think about it again.
He could glue himself to Petula for however long it took to convince her she shouldn’t hunker down in her own house for very long.
The doctors had already told Petula she needed to take a few days off; make sure she had no worrying, lingering symptoms from her dip in the frigid waters. But they didn’t expect anything to pop up, and she’d been cleared to return to work on Friday, barring anything unforeseen.
It was too soon.
He and Statler were on the same page about that. They were already planning that one or the other of them would call her boss on Thursday and demand she be given the extra day before the weekend to fully recover.
If Julian was the one calling, and got the chance, he wanted to talk to this supervisor who didn’t seem to get along with Petula. He thought that was pretty strange, since his girl…
Wow. Julian liked the sound of that, even if it were only in his head.
His girl.
It felt good. It felt right. And Julian was going to do everything in his power to prove he was worthy of her sticking around.
A nurse poked her head through the door and spoke directly to Petula. “The doctor will be in shortly. He has one more patient to see before he gives you a final exam and signs the discharge papers.”
Having been badgered numerous times over the past hour as to when Petula would be sprung, the nurse would probably be damned glad when they finally cleared out.
“Thank you,” Petula remembered to say, just before the door closed.
She looked at Julian and Statler. “You guys are real pains in the asses. You know that?” She said it affectionately, but there was an underlying note of truth to her assertion.
Yeah.Neither he nor Statler had been long on patience this morning. Probably because they hadn’t gotten much sleep.
“Well,thispain in the ass is going to go warm up the truck,” Statler said, standing and stretching. “I might get us some coffees, too, while I’m out.”
“Sounds good,” Julian replied. “Espresso mocha-latté, with?—”
“—cinnamon and brown sugar sprinkles,” Statler finished for him.
Julian laughed. It was a definite positive, that Petula’s brother already had his order down pat.
“Tea, for me,” Petula requested. “But if you see anything sugary that looks good, I’ll have one of whatever that is, too. I seem to be ravenous.”
“Which is normal,” Julian told her.
He’d done a lot of reading up on hypothermia while sitting in that damned uncomfortable chair.
“Apparently, your body consumed massive amounts of calories attempting to right your metabolism, so your energy stores are depleted and still trying to make up for lost time,” he schooled.
Petula grinned at him, then gave Statler a thumbs up. “Then make it two,” she informed him sassily.
“You got it.” Stat headed toward the door.
“I’ll get dressed while you’re gone.” Petula swung her bare legs out of bed. She’d been itching to get out of her hospital gown, and it looked like she wasn’t wasting an opportunity to do just that.
Since she’d probably relish some privacy, Julian decided to follow Statler out of the room, and make his phone call to Tabbi in the hallway.
“I’m going to touch base with my office,” he told Petula. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”
She rolled her eyes. “Like what? For you to undo the ties on this johnny?”
He chuckled. “Okay. You got me. There’s nothing much I can do here. Give me a shout when it’s safe to come back in.” Julian winked for Petula alone, and was pleased to see her normal blush return.
