Anastase wasn’t sure he had heard his friend correctly. “You want me to—what?”
“Being in love with her,” Kazeyuki gritted out. “I need you to train me how to fake it.”
“Kazeyuki—”
“I’m not finished.”
Because right now, all he could see was the past repeating itself, and he could not—
“I need your help in making sure that she believes me for the rest of her life.”
He couldn’t let another girl die.
“It’s the only way I can think of keeping her safe.”
And especially not Katherine.
“She doesn't deserve to know that I—"
Anastase noticed how Kazeyuki’s fists had clenched against his sides as he struggled to regain his composure, and that was when it hit him.
“She's a good person—”
All this time, he had missed seeing it.
“I need to make things right,” Kazeyuki said tightly, “andkeepit that way.”
“And you will,” Anastase heard himself say. “I’ll teach what you need to know.”
Kazeyuki listened grimly as Anastase outlined his six-point checklist, and once done, he repeated it back word for word like he was back to his med school days, and this was simply another list he needed to memorize.
“Is that it?”
"Yes.”
"And you’re sure she'll believe I'm in love with her?"
"I'm sure."
And that was because the list Anastase had given his friend wasn't about pretending. It was a list to make Kazeyuki realize he had feelings for her all along.
Chapter Six
IT'S SO LIKE DR. COLLINGTONto want to marry you without ever kissing you yet!
The nurses have been teasing me nonstop about it, and the few who have been married for years have even given me the most outrageous dare: why not kiss him first?
I mean, that's, like...
My gaze finds him easily in the crowd, the way it always does, the way it's been finding him in every room for two years. He's standing with Dr. Mironescu and Dr. Manolis near the windows, the three of them towering over the other doctors like legends made real, and the sight of them together would make any girl's heart stop, but mine only has eyes for one.
It still feels like a dream, thinking that the man I love doesn't just love me back, but he wants to—
"Attention. Code Orange. All available medical personnel, report to the emergency department immediately."
Everyone freezes. Myself included, because this hospital has become my second home for the past two years, and I know what a Code Orange means.
"We have a mass casualty event incoming. Six-vehicle pile-up on the Trans-Canada Highway near the Cassiar interchange. An oil tanker lost its brakes on the downhill grade, struck a tourist bus carrying forty-three passengers, and the resulting explosion involved three private vehicles and a cab.First responders report at least thirty casualties, with more expected. Stanhope Vancouver is the nearest Level 1 trauma center. All surgical teams, report to your stations. ER triage protocol is now in effect."
