“Mr. Greene? Are you all right?” Kim asked then.
“Daddy, maybe we should tell them,” Daisy said, tugging at his sleeve, and the nurses exchanged a glance.
“Tell us what?”
“It’s nothing,” Ethan said quickly. The last thing he needed was these two busybodies involved. Though they seemed to know quite a lot about Knowles’s personal life.
“Wedding dresses…isn’t that nice,” he said, trying to gather his wits about him. He looked at Daisy, then turned again to the nurses, at a complete loss as to what to say or do next. Vanessa was waiting for them, so he couldn’t very well hang around here all day. “Tell you what. When Mr. Knowles’s girlfriend gets here, can you give her my number and ask her to call me? I’d really like to speak with her. And of course, I’ll want to follow up with Mr. Knowles, see how his recovery goes.”
“No problem.”
Ethan duly wrote his details on the piece of paper Kim handed to him. “Well, thanks again for your help—both of you,” he continued awkwardly.
“Pleasure,” Kim replied, and Molly grinned. “I’ll be sure to pass on the message, and it was nice to meet you. You too, Daisy.”
“Yeah, thanks for helping,” his daughter replied with a smile.
With that, they were off to catch a cab.
On the journey back to the hotel, Ethan continued to mull over the situation.
All this talk of the other couple’s engagement worried him. There was no way his ring could have had any hand or part in that, was there? Not when the guy hadn’t been able to open his eyes, let alone muster up the strength for a proposal.
And the girlfriend couldn’t possibly have known what was in his shopping, unless they’d planned to get engaged on Christmas Eve? In which case, his ring really couldn’t be involved in any of it, he reassured himself.
“Dad, are you okay?” Daisy asked again, and he made a conscious effort to try and set aside his worries so as not to concern her further. Still, given the importance—to say nothing of the expense—it was downright impossible.
“I’m fine, buttercup. Just thinking about our flight home. I wonder if we should maybe stay on a little longer, just in case this takes more time than we thought to sort out.”
Her expression brightened. “We could do that?”
“Sure.” He couldn’t realistically leave the city without doing so, and while an extended stay would cost extra, it would hardly be grievous, considering. “Would that be okay with you? A day or two more wouldn’t kill us, and as long as we get the ring back and are home in time for New Year…”
“Yay! Can we go to the M&M’s store again? We didn’t really get to see much of it last time.”
“Of course, whatever you like,” Ethan replied absently.
He wondered what Vanessa would think or how he would explain this sudden decision to take more time in the Big Apple. “Let’s have a nice afternoon with Vanessa for the moment. I’ll wait for this girlfriend’s call, but I might have to come up with some other…erm…reason to slip away again. Do you follow me?”
Daisy nodded. “Of course. We still can’t let Vanessa know anything’s going on or tell her what happened with the ring. It’ll ruin the surprise.”
“Good girl,” he said, putting up his hand for a high five while at the same time feeling desperately guilty for having his eight-year-old collude in such trickery. She raised her hand and smacked his palm.
“But put some gloves on, Dad. Your hands are freezing.”
***
“Well, well, well, don’t you have gorgeous hunks just crawling out of the woodwork?” Kim announced when, not two minutes after Ethan had left the hospital, Rachel returned.
“What?”
“Well, you’ve got one in the room down the hall, and now a McDreamy look-alike just left you his number. I’d call him too if I were you.”
“What are you talking about?” Rachel said, bewildered.
The nurse laughed out loud. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Seriously, you won’t believe this, but the guy who helped Gary after the accident came here today with his little girl. He’s the one who waited with him until the ambulance got there.”
“Really?” Rachel had heard about this Good Samaritan and was doubly impressed that he’d followed up and inquired after Gary’s health. “I wonder how he found us?”
